Bridesmaid Lotto (17 page)

The girls behind Emma all giggled and whooped it up as if they’d never been on vacation before. I thought it was odd since they were all from old money and must vacation half the year.

“You’d think they’d never gone on a stagette before,” I said to Jennifer.

She nodded. “Maybe Emma’s the first one in their little gaggle to get married.”

Bobbi Lynne and Rebecca were handing their bags to the staff that was loading the large private jet.

“We’d better get going,” I said. “We don’t want to miss the flight.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jennifer said, still rolling her eyes at the pack of socialites that were already boarding, leaving their luggage just sitting there. “I guess they’re not worried that their luggage could be forgotten.”

“I on the other hand want to make damn sure that I see my luggage get on that plane,” I said. “If I were to lose those suitcases, half the clothes I own would be gone.”

She nodded. “Me too.”

Making sure our suitcases were safely aboard, Jennifer and I climbed on last.

“Oh great,” Jennifer whispered. “We’re stuck with Bobbi Lynne.”

There were exactly two seats left. Bobbi Lynne gave us her toothy smile as we sat down beside her.

“Hi girls,” she said excitedly. “I’ve never been on a private jet before.”

“Ditto,” Jennifer said.

“Oh gosh. This is all just so excitin’,” Bobbi Lynne went on. “This plane, these leather seats, all the glamorous ladies! It’s all too much.” Her smile was getting wider and wider and I got a mental image of her mouth opening so wide that she’d eventually engulf the whole plane.

I tried to suppress the giggle that accompanied the image but couldn’t.

“What’s so funny?” Bobbi Lynne asked, staring at me blankly.

“Oh nothing, nothing,” I said waving my hand. “I’m just so excited too.”

Bobbi Lynne smiled and nodded and turned her head back towards the window.

“Oh my family back home is not going to believe all this when I tell them,” she continued to drone.

Jennifer gave me a look that said she might kill the girl. I handed her a set of headphones that were sitting on the small table between our cushy bucket seats, which she accepted and mouthed a dramatic ‘thank you.’

I immediately found my own pair and quickly put them in. Bobbi Lynne never skipped a beat, her mouth moving at lightning speed.

I began switching stations on the radio. It sounded like some sort of satellite feed. There was one channel that was all soothing sounds, rainforests, the ocean, and other calming noises. Soon I was fast asleep.

# # #

Jake and I were floating in his boat on the lake at his cabin. He’d turned the engine off so we could enjoy our peaceful surroundings. As I lay on his chest, I closed my eyes, enjoying the silence.

Soon the peaceful silence turned into a much more passionate rendezvous. It began innocently enough with a few strategically placed kisses on Jake’s part. I returned the favor, nuzzling his neck and pressing my body against him.

It wasn’t long before there was a flurry of clothes flying.

I woke up to the sound of what seemed like a thousand girls giggling. I opened my eyes slowly, and found about fifty perfectly made up eyes with long cow like eyelashes staring at me. Jennifer was poking me in the shoulder.

I looked around. “What?” I said. “Was I drooling or something?”

“Um no,” Jennifer said. “You were talking in your sleep.”

Oh God.

The girls burst into fits of laughter.

I put my hand up to my forehead, shielding my face from the onlookers. Thankfully, a few minutes later, the girls seemed to tire of my humiliating moment.

“What did I say?” I asked Jennifer in a whisper.

“Well, let’s just say we could all tell you were dreaming about sex.”

“Oh God.”

“With Jake.”

“Oh God!”

“Yes, there was some of that phrase in there,” she said with a smirk.

“Well, welcome to the real me,” I said. “Meet McMaster the Disaster.”

“Oh come on,” she said and took a sip of her drink. “We’ve all been there.”

“Not like this. I am constantly embarrassing myself, exactly like that.”

“Oh who cares,” she said. “I’d bet you a million dollars that at least half those girls have had the exact same sort of dream about Jake.”

“I know I have,” Bobbi Lynne piped in.

Crap. I’d forgotten about her.

“Really?” I said, not really sure whether I should be upset that so many women were dreaming about Jake, or relieved that maybe it wasn’t as embarrassing as I’d first thought.

“Sure,” Jennifer said. “Everyone knows that he’s the reason we all entered this thing to begin with. And Emma’s friends are all totally jealous of you anyway. I heard that a couple of them have been trying to get Emma to set them up with Jake for years.”

“Really?” I said. “Maybe I should be keeping a closer eye on my back.”

“Eh, don’t lose too much sleep over it, no pun intended.”

I didn’t have much more time to stress over it. Apparently, I’d missed the start of our descent in my dream filled slumber and it seemed like all of a sudden we were landing. I took a quick peek out the window and saw nothing but paradise for miles.

The sun bounced off the ocean, like tiny dancing diamonds.

Jennifer and I were first off the plane followed by many, many snickers at my expense.

“Aren’t they all mature,” Jennifer said, but I was pretty sure my face already looked like I had forgotten my sunscreen and sat on the beach for a day.

Our luggage was first off since we’d been the last in. We quickly picked up our things and headed to the waiting vehicle. Apparently, Emma had spared no expense; there were three stretch limos waiting to take us to our resort.

“Great,” Jennifer said as Bobbi Lynne bounded up to us with her luggage.

“I’ll share a limo with y’all,” she said. She looked like she had to pee, jumping around like she was. “Oh gosh, I’m just so excited.”

“Yeah, you said that,” Jennifer said.

The driver began to load our luggage into the car. A few more girls joined us before we drove away. Thankfully, Rebecca wasn’t one of them.

“I wonder where Rebecca’s at?” Bobbi Lynne said a few minutes later.

“If we’re lucky, maybe she got stuck in the bathroom on the plane,” Jennifer said.

Bobbi Lynne tilted her head looking confused.

“I’m sure she’s just in one of the other cars,” I said, elbowing Jennifer.

If she kept this up, everyone would start to hate us. But I still needed her to help keep me sane, especially since there wasn’t even any chance of seeing Jake at this particular wedding event.

The hotel was a paradise inside paradise. The lobby felt like being inside a waterfall with three of the four walls covered in cascading water. It was magnificent. The only problem was that I was starting to have to go to the bathroom, and the rushing water really wasn’t helping me hold it in.

“Do we have to wait for the rest of the cars before we check in?” I asked.

If I didn’t get to a bathroom soon, I’d be doing the pee dance that I thought Bobbi Lynne looked so silly doing just a few minutes before.

“Why? You want to go take a little nap?” one of Emma’s friends asked.

This of course caused the rest of the girls in her group to start the giggling all over again.

I sighed.

“Please follow me,” one of the bellmen said and motioned with his hand. “Each of you will be staying with one of the other girls.”

My mouth dropped open and I looked at Jennifer. She was already asking what I was thinking.

“Do we get to pick who we’re with?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I was told to show you to your room, so I had just assumed you two were together.” He started looking worried.

“No, no, that’s fine. That’s great,” I said.

I didn’t want to get stuck with one of those rich snobby girls, or God forbid, Bobbi Lynne or Rebecca.

The bellman opened our room door and I nearly pushed him over to get into the bathroom.

“What is it about flying that makes you have to pee so badly?” I wondered out loud as I came out of the bathroom.

Jennifer had picked out one of the twin beds and was already beginning to unpack. “Knowing you’re trapped?” she said.

“Probably.” I heaved my biggest suitcase onto my bed. “So, I wonder what we’re supposed to do now,” I said.

“Well, we can peruse the itinerary,” she said.

“I didn’t get an itinerary.”

“Oh yes. Yes you sure did,” she said waving a piece of paper in the air.

“Really?”

“Oh yes. The bellman gave it to me.”

I chuckled. “At least we won’t have to wonder what to do.”

“Oh no we wont. Believe me, there is no spare time, although I guess the planned activities aren’t particularly strenuous. First up, pool lounging while we all get over our jet lag.”

“Jet lag? Is it even possible to get jet lagged on a flight that short?” I wondered.

“According to the rich and famous, I guess.”

“Well,” I swung one of my swimsuits around my finger. “This weekend, we
are
the rich and famous.”

“Except that we’re not rich. Or famous.”

“Aw, c’mon. Don’t ruin my fun.” I snapped her with my swimsuit, wet towel style.

“Okay,” she said. “I will not ruin the fun for you.”

“You know,” I said. “You could try to have a little fun of your own.”

“What? I’m having fun,” she said.

“Uh huh. Then get your swimsuit on. And hurry, we gotta scope out the best lounge chairs.”

“Oooh, yeah. And cabana boys.”

# # #

Poolside was even more spectacular than the rest of the hotel. The pool stretched toward the ocean making it look as though they blended into one giant body of water. But the real appeal came in the form, as Jennifer had predicted, of the cabana boys.

“Interesting that they’re all men,” Jennifer said.

“I bet Emma made sure of it,” I said. “I wouldn’t doubt it if she hand-picked each one of them herself.”

“Well, I’m not complaining,” Jennifer said, smiling and accepting a tropical drink from one of the many dark skinned, hard bodied waiters.

“Hmm. Me either,” I said. “Me either.”

We found two chairs that, to some, may have not looked like the best location since they faced opposite the ocean, but as Jennifer pointed out, they faced the cabana square on. We’d be able to ogle all we wanted beneath our Audrey Hepburn sunglasses.

And that we did. Hours passed while we lay in the sun. A bunch of the other girls were running around and splashing each other in the pool. One of them untied Bobbi Lynne’s top, which came flying off when she flipped over while tanning. Of course the girls had pre-alerted the cabana boys so they’d all be ready for an eyeful, which they definitely got with a flailing Bobbi Lynne screaming at the top of her lungs. It was really quite priceless.

Sadly, it all had to come to an end sometime.

“Well, I guess we’d better start getting ready for the formal supper,” Jennifer said, consulting the itinerary.

I sighed. “I suppose I have had enough sun for one day.”

I went to stand, but quickly found that sipping tropical cocktails all day, while lying in the sun wreaks havoc on a person. I lunged for the back of my lounge chair, just before I went down like a wet noodle.

“Whoa, hey there girl,” Jennifer said, stabbing herself with her straw while reaching for me.

Girls all around the pool stopped to stare at the spectacle. The all too familiar giggles started up again.

“What are you looking at?” Jennifer slurred at the girls.

“Shhh. Don’t make it worse. Let’s just get to our room and get cleaned up,” I whispered pulling myself to my feet and helping her up off her chair.

We stumbled our way back to our room arguing over what the room number actually was. On the third try, we found the door that the card key actually worked in.

“Ugh,” Jennifer said as she flung herself onto the bed. “I just want to go to sleep for about fifteen hours.”

“I know. Me too. But you know as well as I do that we have to go. All those girls out there have it in for us. I’m sure they all wanted to be, or at least thought they’d be, Bridesmaids for Emma.”

“Screw ‘em,” Jennifer said.

“Come on. You said yourself that this is a really good opportunity. Besides, what if this is the night that Emma decides to have strippers or something. You wouldn’t want to miss out on that now, would you?”

The thought of naked men was apparently just the thing to kick her into gear. “You’re right. We have an obligation to Emma.”