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NATALIE
Why isn’t he answering my calls? I have a sneaky suspicion that I’ve been blocked, but that can’t be true. We’ve always been friends, even after we broke up. There was never a time when I couldn’t reach him when I wanted to.
My son was crying in the other room, but I didn’t care. Let the nanny take care of him. He’s one of the biggest mistakes of my life. The first was when I gave Garrett an ultimatum to marry me or else. I didn’t expect him to say okay, bye. And even when I tried to play it off like a joke he’d still called it off.
I should’ve known it would happen. Garrett never liked ultimatums, but we’d been together for so long that I thought for sure he’d want to marry me. Why else would he have stayed? Now, everyone thinks I was just a placeholder.
I didn’t even want to marry Kevin, but he was the first guy to ask me out that wouldn’t make me lose face. I rushed into marriage because I wanted people to think that it was me who had fallen out of love with Garrett and moved on. It was the only thing left to do.
Garrett never said anything, even when our friend circle made those distinctions. He never denied anything, never even discussed it, as far as I can tell. Back then, I thought it was because he’d regretted his decision; at least, I tried convincing myself of that even when I knew it to be false.
I wish I could go back in time and erase it all. I wish I could have my old life back. We were happy together once; there were no complaints, except from my side, because I desperately wanted to marry him.
But now it’s too late. He’d moved on. But what hurts most of all is the fact that his family seems to have accepted this girl without question. I was like a daughter to them, and though they’d showered me with gifts when we were together, they never gave me anything as personal and intimate as a family heirloom.
Now, my ex-sister-in-law was gushing about her and showing off pictures of her and Garrett on their honeymoon, wearing their family jewels. I know what they are because I had seen some of them once a long time ago.
I used to imagine myself being the one to inherit them. My friends were all envious of me, even though they came from well-to-do families as well because none of them came close to Garrett’s family’s wealth.
Now, it was all wasted. He’d gone and married someone beneath us. A nobody that none of us had ever heard of. And yet his family seemed so pleased with her. I hate them, I hate her, and I hate my fucking life. I have to get him back somehow.
I know him better than she ever will. I know all his likes and dislikes. Our friends will prefer me, I’m sure of it. I just have to get them on my side. I wiped my face for the third time and picked up my phone.
“What’s this now?” I opened the notification and almost threw my phone across the room. He’d taken her shopping. He hates to shop. I’d asked more than once. I watched their body language and the way he was looking at her with his arm around her in public.
With me, he was always careful not to be photographed. “Look at her stupid face.” I felt like there was something heavy pressing in on my chest, and it was hard to breathe. “Smile now, you bitch. I’ll be sure to wipe that stupid look off your face.”
I put the phone away and went to lie down. I have to think. “Shut that fucking brat up.” Oh, it’s the nanny’s day off. Whatever, he’ll stop when he gets tired.
ALYSSA
“I’m rich. I’m fucking rich. Not upper-middle-class rich, but fuck stupid wealthy out the ass rich.”
“Yes, you are.”
“How did this happen?” We were standing in front of the Hermes store on Faubourg Saint Honore, and it hit me.
I’ve shopped in high-end stores before; granted, I never paid over one hundred thousand dollars for a purse before and never planned to. I’ve been given immaculate treatment in said stores over the years, but what I just experienced is nowhere near the same.
I think if I had asked one of those women in there to wipe my nose, she would’ve done it with a gilded tissue. I didn’t even see the inside of the store. Who knew there was a whole other private room separate from the store?
I was placed in that room with curtains blocking me off from what I thought were other rich bitches, but no, there was no one else there but us. No one else was allowed. Those curtains were to give Garrett and me privacy.
Forget a glass of mid-range champagne; we were offered a whole damn bottle of some three-hundred-year shit that I’d never heard of. And then the bags. They didn’t bring out the regular leather bags, which I always thought you had to order and were always on an extremely long waiting list.
They brought all the exotic leather bags, all of which were above one-hundred-thousand dollars, and I almost swallowed my damn esophagus. Apparently, Garrett had called his Mom, who had called the store ahead of time.
Those bags had been held there for her and her daughter’s perusal, and she’d given me first dibs. By the time we left there, I didn’t want even one, but my husband bought three. I’ll have to have a talk with him about finances and throwing away money. Though those bags are kickass.
I was done shopping, or at least I wanted to be done, but he had other ideas. Tiffanys, Cartier, and the list goes on. Meanwhile, Paris still smells like ass and three-hundred-year-old piss.
It reminded me of the senior year trip that I almost didn’t get to go on because Mitzie pitched a fit. Because she didn’t do as well and had to take summer classes, I guess she thought I shouldn’t get to go either. But there were two things wrong with that.
One, I was eighteen, so Dad had no more say in my life, and two, my Mom could more than afford it. In the end, he had paid for it after a visit from my brothers, which I now suspect was probably just for show. They had to pretend to strong-arm him in front of her and her mother in order to give in without having to hear their shit.
“Oh, this just pisses me off.”
“What’s that love?” We were in the back of the car heading to dinner after marathon shopping. “I was just thinking about my senior trip,” I told him about it, as well as some other delightful stories from my past.
