Up & Out - Ariella Papa [126]
Ben moans. I turn around to face him and kiss him on the lips. He smiles and slowly, pleased with my decision, I start to wake him up.
I get my first check from Don and use it to pay off more than the bare minimum of my credit card. I won’t miss the automated voice at Unemployment. I want to go to Nobu Next Door with my jackpot, but instead I take Ben to Other Foods, an amazing organic restaurant where I can get fish and he can get weird grain things that look funny and taste delicious.
I also get a haircut. It’s not as young-urban-professional-looking as the one I got when I was promoted to executive producer, but it’s shorter with a few layers and I had some red highlights put in that complement my glasses.
Kathy calls me in a panic every day for the entire week before the wedding. Each conversation ends with some kind of demand and a reminder that this has to be a special day.
She wants us all to meet in Westchester at 6:00 a.m to get our hair done in her salon. This isn’t a gift, this is another eighty bucks. The majority of my current credit card bill is due to wedding-related costs. I tell her I won’t be able to make it that early. I’ll do my own hair. I’ll be there in time for the pictures at two.
If I hadn’t just spent sixty dollars (which was considered a steal) on dress alterations so that the dress is like a second skin, I would think I was out of the wedding.
“What are you doing about your hair?” I hear Kathy gasping. This stress cannot be good for her.
“Kathy, I just got it cut, it’s too short to put up. It’s going to look really cool.”
“Oh, my God. I think I’m getting an ulcer. Your wedding hair is giving me an ulcer.”
“Okay,” I say. I am trying to adapt a new policy with my friends. “Take a Tums and I’ll see you on Saturday at two.”
“Jesus, what a dress,” Ben says from my bed. I’m actually wearing it. “I’ve seen your breasts and they aren’t that big.”
I look down and hike up the neckline a little. It doesn’t help much. I stare at myself in the full-length mirror. My stomach is definitely flatter than when we first tried the dresses on. Love may make you fat, but Ben being a vegetarian and my constant running has helped make me more toned.
My red glasses sort of match the red dress. The thin red jacket Dina picked out is trimmed in a white cotton faux fur. I can’t believe she would pick this out for a wedding in late September. I think Dina’s pregnancy made her delusional.
“Why are you smirking? You look pretty. Your date is going to be very impressed.” I smile at him. He hasn’t put a shirt on. I wish I wasn’t already dressed. It’s twelve-thirty and I better get going if I don’t want to get chastised.
There is a knock at my door. I open it a crack. It’s Tommy. I still don’t exactly feel comfortable when the two men are in the apartment but Nancy’s here, too, in Tommy’s room. He smiles when he looks my dress up and down.
“Not a word,” I say. “I mean it.”
“This beats Lauryn’s,” he says. I was Lauryn’s maid of honor eons ago.
“It’s also about ten tempuras cheaper.”
“Nice,” he says. “Are you ready to go?”
“I’m just waiting for my date,” I say.
“Well, your date is here.” I open my door a little wider and Lauryn, my date, is standing there with the same dress and the same smirk. Her eyes are sparkling as she rubs the white cotton muff that Kathy paid for. I can’t wait to get mine.
“Did somebody say Santa’s little helper?”
Epilogue
Landslide
We’re over at Kathy’s new house in Connecticut watching her wedding video for the third time. The last time I fell asleep. It’s just the four of us—Kathy, Beth, Lauryn and me. Ron is working late. We are all drinking wine except Kathy. Kathy hasn’t said why she isn’t having any, but when she leaves the room Lauryn, Beth and I whisper “pregnant” to one another.
We’ve been talking about alternating these girls’ nights since the wedding, but so far this is the first one. Lauryn is back for winter break, so it all worked.
My big news for the night is that I’ve decided to