Page 9 of Bossy Bride: Emma and Jesse

“Me either,” Natalie says.

“OK. So that means we have a lot of work to do right now.” I turn to the laptop on the conference table and bring up the list. “Who will it be?”

Everyone scans the list. And then the room becomes thoughtful.

“I think the lion’s share should go to the Children’s Hospital,” Mila says.

“Agreed,” we all chant in response.

“And then I’d like a big chunk to go to the inner-city arts and music program,” Natalie says.

“And don’t forget the new science and technology charter school,” Hannah adds.

I take notes as we divvy up our annual bonuses. We have seventy-three candidates on our giving list this year. All of them needy. All of them deserving. And it will take time to make sure they all get their share of the money.

The Boston brothers are matching our charitable gifts this year. So there’s actually almost fifty million dollars to divvy up tonight and that’s gonna take a while.

For a moment I worry that Jesse will be bored as he waits out in the lobby with all our partners and guests. But I can see him through the glass walls of the conference room.

He and his brothers and their dates are lounging on the leather couches in front of the giant tree. Hannah’s Darrel is out there talking to Diego and Natalie’s boyfriends.

Every once in a while, one of them glances at us.

But they just nod and smile.

Do your thing, those smiles say.

Because they know that this meeting is the real meaning of the season.

CHAPTER THREE - JESSE

“Did I ever tell you about that little girl in the hazmat suit?”

Joey and Huck are laughing about something. Megan and Brooke have their heads together scheming about who knows what. And Wald is leaning into me, asking where I got my tie, when this comes out of Johnny’s mouth.

“What?” we all say, stopping all our conversations mid-sentence.

He’s drunk. Hell, everyone but me is drunk.

“The girl in the suit,” Johnny insists. “The one I left in the middle of the ocean.”

“What?” This time we all laugh out the word.

“Oh. My. God. What?” Johnny says, as he looks at Megan. We all look at Megan. She’s making one of those slicing motions across her throat, which is the dead giveaway that Johnny is about to tell a true story.

I glance at Joey and find him looking back at me with raised eyebrows. That look says, What’s he talking about?

I have no clue what Johnny’s going on about. But I can’t wait to hear it. And he doesn’t disappoint. Suddenly we’re all on a superyacht in the middle of the Caribbean with some dude named Logan and his crew of henchmen.

“Umm… OK. Maybe we should table this for another night, Johnny?” That’s Megan. Apparently, she was here for this little adventure.

“No, no, no.” Johnny laughs. “They gotta hear about the little girl. She was stealing biological samples from a secret lab on this island and…”

The whole thing derails from there. There’s a helicopter story, and Megan chained in a dungeon, and something about rats who live forever.

At first we’re all like, Holy shit. What the hell is he talking about?

But by the time he gets to the fountain-of-youth rats, we’ve all gone back to our respective conversations. He’s totally making this shit up.