Rachel Dyken - The Wager

Her dress wouldn’t allow for her to sneak in her cell phone, so she was officially the lame girl staring at the table at a party she was supposed to be hosting with Jake.

Jace leaned in to her left. “You want me to refill your wine?”

Anything to get rid of him and his condescending attitude. “Sure, thanks.” She handed the glass over and stared as Jake continued to flirt and talk with a few mutual friends Char hadn’t seen in a while. These were the rest of the bridesmaids. Technically, it was Char’s job to go make introductions and be the bigger person but she kind of wanted to wallow.

“Char!” Jake called from across the room, waving her over. Trying not to scowl, she got up from the couch and felt her face heat as the girls eyed her up and down. Sizing up the competition perfectly.

When she was close enough Jake wrapped his arm around her, holding her hostage. “This is Char. I think a few of you guys went to high school together.”

“Really?” Char asked, not recognizing any of the faces.

“Yeah.” Jake squeezed her shoulder. “Really? Don’t you remember, Britney?”

“Ugh.”

A tall blond girl with a wide set mouth and brown eyes held out her hand. “It’s nice to see you again.” Mental note: Britney was nice and had a really kind smile.

“And Lillian.” Jake pointed to an Asian woman with blue streaks in her hair. Char had never seen her before in her life, but shook her hand anyway.

“I know you remember me.” The next girl said with a touch of venom in her voice. She was about as tall as Char, but curvy in a Kardashian sort of way. “Amy—”

“Stevens.” Char choked out. Clearly God was finished punishing Jake and had now moved on to her. Great. What were the odds? The same girl they’d gone to junior high camp with? And why the hell did Kacey have her in her bridal party? Seriously? To be fair, Kacey had never known why Char hated Amy. Char had been too embarrassed over her obsession with Jake to tell her. As far as she knew, Amy had kept in touch with Kacey. Technically, it was Char’s fault the girl was here; she’d been so focused on work that when Kacey had sent her all the details on bridesmaids Char had all but ignored her and just agreed to whatever. Ugh, now she regretted not thoroughly reading those e-mails. How had she missed Amy’s name?

“Great to see you again, Char.” Amy’s smile didn’t reach her eyes, and after a few awkward moments she touched Jake lightly on the arm. “So tell me about life. I’d love to catch up; it’s been ages.” And just like that Char was pushed out of the way. Jake looked back at her and gave her a pathetically kind smile, which just made everything worse.

If he was a jerk at least she could be angry with him.

But when he was nice or when she felt like he was pitying her? It sucked—hard.

“Here’s your wine.” Jace came up alongside her. “Hello, plastic surgery.” He shook his head and stared at Amy and Jake.

Char growled low in her throat and took the wine from Jace’s hand.

“You okay?” he asked.

Char let out a breath and faced him. Why couldn’t she like him? Maybe if she closed her eyes she could believe he was Jake, and not Jace she was kissing or touching.

Would every man fail in comparison to Jake? Would she forever live her life comparing them to him in the first place?

“Attention, everyone! Please take your seats!” The lady from the store moved to the middle of the room and slowly began removing different gadgets from boxes and setting them out on a black velvet tablecloth.

Char was no prude, but even she was shocked. Helpless, she looked to Jake but he was still engrossed in conversation. Her eyes darted around the room. Kacey was laughing, Travis was looking longingly at Kacey, and Grandma was…

Oh great. Grandma was dragging Petunia down the hall for the show.

It was going to be a fight of epic proportions.

Char cringed when the lights went off.

The table glowed.

Hell.

“Now.” The lady clapped her hands. “I’m Lola. I’ll be your pleasure consultant for the evening.” Jace choked beside her. She slapped his back and he wheezed out a “thank you”.

“To make this party more intimate, I’ve set up different tables and products in the spare bedrooms. I’ve also brought some wonderful lingerie from our romance line. Perfect for the bride!”

“Here, here!” Travis shouted.

The room filled with nervous laughter.

“Now…” Lola started at the far end of the table.

A half hour into the presentation Char was thankful the lights were turned down. Her face was probably as red as a tomato.

After the final product was displayed, Jace whispered next to her. “Does it make me less of a man to admit I didn’t know half of what she was saying?”

“No, that makes you normal,” Char said.

“Good, because I started getting worried about a quarter of the way through.”

Laughing, Char patted him on the arm, just as Jake’s eyes fell on her hand from across the room. He shook his head, lips in a firm line, and made his way down the hall.

“Any questions?” Lola asked. The lights went up.

Grandma was swaying in the middle of the room with her wine. The fight had gone out of Petunia. Either that or she was dead. Jury was still out. Her eyes were closed and she was leaning back on the couch with her mouth open.

“You killed her.” Char pointed to Petunia.

“I drugged her.” Grandma did a little twirl. “She wouldn’t stop complaining about the party, so I crushed a Benadryl into her juice.”

“Grandma!” Char scolded. “That’s dangerous!’

Grandma took a long sip of her wine. “I dated a pharmacist once.”

“Doesn’t make you a pharmacist.”

“Ah, details.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Char decided not to fight that battle.

“Are you okay, dear?” Grandma’s eyebrows furrowed with concern.

“Headache.” Heartache; same thing.

“I’ve got aspirin just down the hall in my room. Go grab one, they’re on my nightstand next to the Benadryl. Just be sure to take the white pill and not the pink pill. The pink pill will have you three sheets to the wind after all that wine.”

Nodding, Char walked off down the hall to grab some aspirin. Grandma’s room was on the bottom floor because she hated climbing stairs. Kacey had said that just this last year Grandma had wanted to move upstairs because she’d watched the movie Up and thought it would be fun to have one of those chairs that attaches to stairs like a ride.

She was vetoed.

With a sigh, she pushed open the door and found Jake and Amy in an embrace. Amy’s arms were wrapped tightly around his neck and she was wearing nothing but cheap lingerie from the party.

Jake pushed her away, and then saw Char.

“Do you mind?” Amy spat in Char’s direction. “We’re kind of busy here.”

“Char, wait!” Jake called, but she was already running, in platform heels no less, down the hall and out the door. 

“Damn it, Amy!” Jake yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you? I said I wasn’t interested.”

“You looked interested.” Her eyebrow arched as she tried to get close to him again.

Jake lifted his hands to stop her. “Seriously, not interested. Not now, not ever.”

“Guys like you…”

“Guys like me, what?” Jake sneered. “Finish what you were going to say.”

She licked her lips and crossed her arms. “They don’t say no.”

Jake nodded. “You’re right.”

Amy’s smile was vicious as she approached.

“I must not be that guy anymore.” He stormed out of the room in search of Char.

An hour later, he still hadn’t located her to apologize. The only damn reason he’d been in that room in the first place was because Amy had had so much to drink that he didn’t want her to ruin the party by going crazy—he’d seen her pop a few pills before her last glass of wine.

Muffling another curse, Jake made his way upstairs to get some of the oil off and to change into clothes that didn’t make him look like a poorly paid prostitute. Funny, how just a few months ago he would have been totally okay with looking like this. Now he just felt dirty, used, gross.

He’d grabbed a wet cloth and started wiping off the oil when a phone started ringing. He looked over at the nightstand. It was Char’s phone, and the screen told him the call was from her job.

She’d been ignoring her phone the whole weekend so he figured he’d just ignore it, too.

But ten minutes later, after two more missed calls, he lost his patience.

“Hello?” he snapped the minute it rang for the third time.

“Who the hell is this?” a man yelled.

“Jake Titus. Why? Who’s this?”

“Mike Cromwell. I’m your little girlfriend’s boss.”

Jake didn’t have the strength to say that they were anything but dating, and that Char was probably planning on killing him in his sleep tonight. “What can I do for you, Mike?”

“You can tell Char that she has exactly six hours to get a story to me or she’s fired.”

“A story?” Jake repeated. “Any story?”

“No, you idiot.” Mike cursed into the phone. “The wedding. She’s supposed to be covering the wedding.”

“But—”

The phone went dead.

Stunned, Jake sat on the bed, still holding the phone in his hand. So it was all about a story? She was being nice to him to get to him?

Like every other girl in the world.

Char wanted something from him, but now he wondered if the something she wanted wasn’t what he was willing to give. His body? Something snapped inside. Maybe she’d pushed him past his breaking point, but he was pissed. No, he was more than pissed. How could she do this to him? After everything he’d said to her? All they’d shared? To her, all he was worth was a flashy smile and a story. But to him? She was the world.