Not that she looked much better despite her more sober and less vomit-worthy morning. She had cringed when she saw herself in the bathroom mirror that morning.
At lunch, she allowed herself to drift in and out of the conversations around her, imagining Aaron in a variety of scenarios, each one as unrealistic as the one before. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but it had been far too long since she was with a man. And since she was picturing no ordinary man, it should have come as no surprise that her body was unrelenting in its yearning.
“So, tonight’s plan,” began Marilyn, quieting the others. “Jeremiah and his friend will be meeting us for dinner at eight-thirty. The limo should be here around eleven, which means plenty of time to eat and drink and gamble. The driver has the details for the clubs we’ll hit tonight. Is everyone good with that? Cindy, are you going to survive another night?”
Cindy nodded and attempted a smile. “I should be over my hangover enough by then. If not, I’ll just drown it in more alcohol.”
This tactic was met with approval by the other women at the table.
Jessica couldn’t say she was looking forward to another evening of all this—she was still reeling from the previous night—but she smiled at Cindy and pretended she was excited. She was going to try to have fun with the girls regardless of her natural inclinations. She’d promised herself, for Cindy’s sake, to give it a shot.
If nothing else, she could at least sit back and picture Aaron, sweaty from his run, standing close to her and pulling off the T-shirt to expose the muscled stomach and sculpted chest she knew were beneath his clothing. She could smell him again, that heavy scent of his skin. She was happy with her decision to stop fighting the inevitable and let herself enjoy the fantasy, as long as she reminded herself that it wasn’t real and never would be.
As the group finished eating and Jessica paid her portion of the astronomical bill—how could a Caesar salad be so expensive?—she squeezed around and between the rest of the group until she was walking next to Cindy. Her friend seemed a little better after the meal, but still had an unhealthy tint to her cheeks. Jessica wrapped her arm around Cindy’s shoulders.
“You doing okay?” she asked.
Cindy shrugged and rubbed her face with her hands as they stepped into the elevator to take them to their floor. “I haven’t thrown up my soup yet, so that’s a good sign. Why did I drink so much?”
Jessica squeezed Cindy’s shoulders. “Because you’re getting married in two weeks and you’re in Vegas. You’ll rally tonight. And if you don’t want to go out, you don’t have to. It’s your party, you know.”
“Don’t try to get out of having fun, Jess.”
Jessica looked at her friend with wide, innocent eyes as they left the elevator and began walking toward Cindy’s room. “I’m not trying to get out of anything. I’m just looking out for your health.”
Cindy raised one eyebrow and stared at Jessica. It was clear she didn’t buy it. Jessica chuckled. “Okay, okay. We’ll have fun tonight. I’ll rally, too. I’m just not used to staying up so late.”
Cindy stopped in the middle of the hallway and grasped Jessica to her so hard, it almost made Jessica want to cry, though she was unsure why. Her friend said, “I’m glad you came. I know it’s not your thing, but thanks for doing it anyways.”
Jessica hugged her back. “I’m happy for you, Cindy. Really.”
She meant it, too. Sure, it felt a little crappy to watch her roommate’s blissful fairy tale when her own romantic track record fell far short of stellar—and trying to find another apartment in New York City had so far been a complete and utter failure—but Cindy was a good person and deserved to be with a guy who loved her.
They broke apart, and Jessica felt better than she had the entire trip. Cindy fumbled through her bag for the key card to her room. “I’m going to take a nap. You should do the same. See you back here in a few hours?”
Jessica nodded. She suddenly felt completely wiped. Perhaps she’d actually be able to sleep a little before she was due back for dinner preparations.
She went back to her room and managed to crash for a couple of hours before getting some work done. Now that she wasn’t fighting her mind’s insistence on imagining Aaron, it seemed to free up enough mental space to let her behave like a normal human being, which was definitely an improvement. If she could keep pace with her editing workload, she might just be able to turn her temporary job into something serious, and with how expensive it was going to be to rent her own place, if she ever found one, she’d definitely need the money.
At six, Jessica closed her laptop and made her way across the hall to Cindy’s room. Although their dinner reservations were still two hours away and at a restaurant just downstairs, she’d been told to come over early to “get ready.” She tried not to dread whatever that meant. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to survive another of Cindy’s chosen outfits.
The moment Jessica walked through the door, it became clear that the night before was only a small example of what these women wanted to do to her. Everyone turned as she came in, smiling in anticipation. A chair had been moved into the bathroom hallway, and every available surface was spread with more beauty products than she could count. Lip and eye pencils were lined up like surgeon’s tools.
Cindy, looking much better than she had before, pointed to the chair. “Sit. We’ve got a plan.”
There was nothing to do but sit.
As Alana and Destiny pounced on her, starting with her fingernails and her hair, the other women examined her like artists studying a blank canvas.
Marilyn said, “We have two hours. Hair will take a half hour, easy. An hour if we try to put it up.”
Alexis broke in. “We can try it up, but I really think it’s prettier down.”
“Well, let’s curl first and see how a couple of things look. We can always take it back down.”
The others agreed. Jessica stayed quiet in her seat, letting the experts talk. She assumed they didn’t mean a ponytail when they talking about putting it “up,” so they were already beyond her skills.
Amanda tilted Jessica’s chin so she was staring into the overhead light. Two thoughts went through Jessica’s head. First, she was impressed that she had learned most of their names. Second, she wondered at what point she had started to feel comfortable around these women. She wasn’t ecstatic about being a dress-up doll, but she liked the people surrounding her and was happy they were enjoying the weekend.
Amanda said, “We should get foundation and mascara done now, but wait for the rest until a half hour before we go so it won’t smudge.”
Now that they had a plan, the group broke into teams, some fussing with her hair, others working on their own preparations and still others having conversations while they waited for their turn at the mirror. It was a cacophony of noise and movement, and though Jessica didn’t feel like a part of it, she knew she wasn’t exactly an outsider any longer, either.
“Who wants drinks?” Alexis called from the makeshift bar that had originally been a desk.
“All three of us,” Alana called back, and Amanda began pouring some concoction.
Jessica was now a part of “us” in their minds. She settled back in the chair, the knots in her back loosening.
When Alexis brought their drinks, Destiny handed Jessica hers. “Be careful with your nails. They’re still wet.”
As Jessica sipped her rum and Coke—which would better be described as rum with a splash of soda on top—Destiny started on her right hand. “Thanks for letting us do this, Jessica. It’s like going to sleepovers in high school again.”
Jessica set her barely touched drink on the floor and laughed. “I should be the one thanking you guys for making me look presentable.”
Destiny snorted. “You know you don’t need any of this to look gorgeous. You’re one of the lucky ones.”
Jessica had nothing to say to that. Gorgeous? Acceptable, sure. Maybe pretty. Not gorgeous.
After an hour, the beautification kicked up a notch, from leisurely drink sipping and nail polishing into full-on transformation mode. Jessica felt as if she were on some makeover TV show.
Alana had put Jessica’s hair up multiple ways before declaring, “Jessica, your hair is just too beautiful to hide. We have to keep it down,” and undoing all her work.
While Alana fussed with her hair, adding more curl here and there, Anna and Lindsey gave her smoky eyes, Amanda put dark lipstick on her full lips and who knew what else was added to her face.
Finally they had her squeeze into a black dress so low-cut that she knew exactly what would happen if she moved too quickly at any point during the evening, and God help her if she fell. It certainly would offer little resistance if she was doing any bouncing around at all. At least it was a full two inches longer than the one the previous night. She counted her blessings there.
A few minutes before eight, the women declared themselves finished. “You look fantastic!” Cindy said, and Jessica thought her friend might cry with happiness.
The other ladies nodded in agreement.
Jessica looked in the full-length mirror and studied her reflection, impressed with what she saw. Shocked, really.