Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 713(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“You have? I didn’t know Garrett spoke of me so often.” I waved my hand dismissively.
“Oh, forget him; we’re part of the same society; your name is legend.”
“You’re a PBK?”
“Yes, I am, Wellesley College, class of twenty-two.” As expected, that started a whole conversation, and other women were brought in to add their memories. I knew some of them would throw in some questions or mention something they thought I couldn’t possibly know, but within ten minutes, I had them eating out of my hand.
“Oh, Garrett, she’s a delight. You must bring her to…” Fill in the blanks; I heard it repeated time and time again. I knew the second Natalie entered the room but didn’t bother turning around to look; I knew it was just what she wanted.
I didn’t rush over to Garrett’s side either, though he made a beeline for mine, and we just continued talking since we were the guests of honor. That was the first volley.
The second came right behind it when my new father-in-law got everyone’s attention and introduced us to the room, making sure to call me his new daughter, which I didn’t even have to coach him to do.
“Introduce me.”
“Behave!”
“Okay, then I will.”
“Come along, you terror of a woman.” I hid my laughter behind my champagne flute as we started walking. “On second thought, she should come to me.”
I switched gears and headed over to Sabrina, who was talking to a somewhat younger crowd. There were easily about fifty people here, most of them Garrett’s friends and acquaintances that he’d known since childhood. The rest were mostly business associates of his and his Dad’s.
I spent about five minutes talking to the younger ones, who were all fascinated by my accent for some reason; then they moved on to how Garrett and I met; they all wanted to know if the interview was accurate, to which I assured them that it was.
Now, when I’m ignoring someone, I am genuinely ignoring them. I don’t keep tabs on where they are or who they are talking to. I find that when I do that, the other party goes out of their way to make themselves seen and Natalie was no different. Only, she wasn’t very good at hiding her pique.
She finally made her way over to where I was standing and I didn’t acknowledge her as I was in the middle of answering a question from one of the other women. “Oh, Alyssa, this is Natalie.” I turned to look at her at Sabrina’s introduction with a pleasant smile on my face.
“Oh, hi, are you thee Natalie?” She got flustered way too easily.
“Um, thee Natalie?”
“Yes, Garrett’s ex? Where is your husband? Is he not with you tonight?” I looked behind her as if expecting him.
“No, he’s not, he’s away on business.”
“Aw, that’s too bad, I was looking forward to meeting him. Garrett speaks very highly of the two of you and your son. You have a little boy, don’t you? He must be adorable because you’re absolutely gorgeous.”
I could feel the looks being passed between the other women, and just then, Garrett arrived by my side, putting the icing on the cake when he wrapped his arm around me. “I see you’ve met Natalie.”
“Yes, you told me she was gorgeous, but you didn’t tell me she was movie star gorgeous.” I playfully smacked his chest, then went back to talking to the other women, dragging him into the conversation along with me. See here bitch, you are not the main character!
I knew she’d tried convincing these people that I was a hick who had no social graces and wouldn’t fit in with them. Now, when they think of this night, they’d remember how wrong she was, and if they had any shame, they’d call her out on her shit.
I knocked down every last one of her stereotypes without trying. And when they all learned where I went to school and my degrees, they were even more impressed. The way some of them were looking back and forth at each other, I half expected one of them to call her out right then and there.
By the time we sat down to dinner, she was fuming. I don’t know who she knocked off to take their seat, but she was seated right across from Garrett and me. Now, usually, they separate couples at these things, but since we were the honorees, it was changed up a little bit.
I was engaging, I was charming, I was beautiful. I didn’t engage with her any more or any less than I did with everyone else just so she’d know that she was no different from everyone else here as far as I was concerned.
If anything, she should’ve been mad at Garrett because he was very attentive to yours truly. Not that he isn’t always, but I can imagine what it looked like to her. He kept his hand on my thigh beneath the table, but it was easy to tell from the angle.