You Don't Own Me(107)

‘I wish I had been your girl-friend then,’ she says softly, and presses her face into my chest.

I don’t tell her that was the point in my life when I got into the business of grass. Selling grass to the gazelles.





TWENTY-FOUR




Layla

I wake up early in my bed at my mother’s house. The house is quiet. I pull Graystone from his shelf and bury my face against his fur. Today is the day I promised BJ and Dom I will break the news to Jake. And today is also the day I break my great secret to BJ. With a heavy sigh, I get out of bed and open my bedroom door.

‘Is that you, Layla?’ my mother calls from the kitchen.

‘Morning,’ I yell back from the top of the stairs.

‘Brush your teeth and come down for breakfast. Your ride will be here in an hour.’

Even the thought of breakfast makes me feel sick. ‘I don’t want breakfast, Ma.’

I hear her footsteps come from the kitchen. Her face appears at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Are you sick? Why don’t you want breakfast?’

‘I just don’t feel like it, Ma. I think I’m nervous about today.’

My mother frowns. ‘Nervous about today? Why? You’ve been bridesmaid loads of time. Besides, it’s your cousin Ella.’

‘Yeah, you’re right,’ I concede.

‘Hurry up then. I’m making you pancakes.’

I get ready and go downstairs. My mother puts a plate with two warm buttery pancakes in front of me. I spread Nutella on one and eat it slowly. It settles like a heavy stone in my stomach. The car arrives and I am borne away to my cousin’s house. Fortunately, her house is in such a flurry of hectic activity that I quickly forget my worries and morph into the role of bridesmaid. The flower girls make me laugh. They’ve overdosed on spray tan and they all look as if they have been thoroughly shaken inside a Doritos bag.

Soon it is time for Ella to get into her wedding dress. It is a monster meringue affair, weighing a staggering 90 pounds. There are 520 Swarovski crystals on the bodice and more than 100 rings to puff the skirt out to over eight feet in diameter. Someone fits the veil on her head and she turns to us with shining eyes.

‘You look like a fairy tale princess,’ I tell her. She really does.

‘I feel like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White all rolled into one,’ she says with a catch in her voice.

At that moment I feel a faint sensation of unease. Will I ever be such a happy bride? And then it is time to pick up her 20-foot long train. It takes us more than an hour to stuff her and her dress into the white limo.

Somehow we make it to the church on time.

It is not until later at the church that I spot BJ. He’s standing at the back wearing a white shirt, a dove grey jacket, and black trousers. He doesn’t smile and neither do I, but my breath catches. I quickly look away from his seductively dangerous eyes.

Sweet Jesus. I’m in love with the guy.

The wedding goes without a hitch. Of course, I don’t catch the bridal bouquet even though Ella deliberately aims it in my direction. A woman I don’t know lunges in front of me and catches it. She seems so excited, I can’t even be annoyed with her.

Afterwards, when we are taking photographs, I manage to catch Jake.

‘Where’s Lily?’ I ask him.

He tells me that she is observing the Chinese confinement tradition that doesn’t allow her to leave the house for a whole month.

‘Really?’

‘Yes, really. She has to be on a special bland diet of soups and rice. And there is whole list of forbidden foods: raw fruit, vegetables, coffee, seafood, or anything cold.’

‘Oh my God!’

‘You think that’s bad,’ Jake says. ‘Poor thing is not even allowed to bathe. All that’s allowed is wipe-downs twice a week using washcloths steeped in smelly herbal medicine.’

‘Well, she’s made of sterner stuff than me then,’ I say.

With a sigh Jake tells me that her grandmother, a woman that he describes as “formidable,” is staying at the house overseeing to the torture. After the possessive kiss I saw Jake give Lily, I can only imagine how happy he will be once the 31 days are up.

‘Can I speak to you later tonight at Ma’s?’ I ask casually.

‘Is anything wrong?’

‘Not really.’

He frowns. ‘Do you want to talk about it now?’

‘No, no, it can definitely wait.’

The reception is held in a large banquet room at the same venue. There are speeches and toasts. BJ is only a table away, but Jake is at the same table as me, so I dare not even look at him. Then the couple stands up to have their first dance. I turn my head towards the door and freeze.

Lupo is standing there.