Hotel Vendome

“Our mothers. Mine wasn’t such a sweetheart either. I told her about it. And she talked about hers. Different look and lifestyle, but same kind of people. Narcissists. Women who should never have had kids.” Hugues agreed. He had been making up for it ever since, and he was sure her other two children would turn out to be disasters, or on drugs like their father. “It was nice talking to her. She’s a really sweet kid. She’s helping me with the wedding,” Natalie said gratefully. “She was wonderful to me.” Tears sprang to her eyes as she said it. It was a huge relief. The past six months of being the object of Heloise’s hatred had been hard. She had gone back to her therapist about it.

“I’m glad she came around,” Hugues said, looking relieved too, and then he leaned over and kissed his bride. “You look gorgeous, by the way. What are you doing now?” he asked as he took off his jacket.

“Nothing. Why? I was going to have a nap before tonight. And I’m having a massage at five.”

“Perfect. My three o’clock just canceled. I have a haircut at six. And I need a nap too.” He looked at her mischievously, and she grinned. And they rushed into the bedroom like children. The Do Not Disturb was already on the door. Their clothes were off within seconds, and he slid into bed with her and they made love like two wild happy kids. And she loved knowing that in one more day she would be his forever.

Chapter 19

THE REHEARSAL DINNER went off without a hitch, and Natalie looked lovely. She wore a short ice-blue-satin strapless dress with the diamond earrings Hugues had given her as a wedding present, which looked spectacular with her ring, and her mother’s string of pearls.

Heloise found a simple black cocktail dress in her closet and was sorry now that she hadn’t gone shopping, but it was Natalie’s night anyway, not hers. And she liked Natalie’s brother and wife, who was hobbling around in a cast with her broken ankle, and she liked both their boys. The younger was seventeen and just finishing high school and going to Princeton in the fall, and the older, Brad, was at Columbia Law School, twenty-five years old, and a strikingly handsome young man. They were seated at separate tables so they didn’t get much opportunity to talk, but Heloise remembered that he was seated at her table the following day at the wedding, and he had looked somewhat intrigued by her.

Both Natalie’s brother and Hugues made speeches, and her sister-in-law read a clever poem she had written about the bride and groom that came to the conclusion that they were the perfect couple, and instead of hating it as Heloise would have before, knowing what she did about her now, and her lonely childhood, she was touched and thought the poem was sweet and funny. And it was obvious that Natalie enjoyed it. She was loving every minute of all the festivities around the wedding, and afterward she went upstairs to sleep in the separate room where her wedding gown was, because she didn’t want to see Hugues from the rehearsal dinner till the wedding. He kissed her outside the suite, and then went upstairs to his own apartment, and Heloise went with him.

“Nervous, Papa?” she asked him as they walked into the apartment together. Normally, she would have liked it, but for the first time, it felt strange not to have Natalie around, and she almost missed her, after their exchange that afternoon.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he admitted. “It’s a big step for anyone, even an old man like me.” He had never in a million years expected to marry again, and now he was.

“You’re not an old man, Papa.” He looked young and handsome to her.

“Will you be my best man tomorrow?” he asked her, and she nodded. He really wanted her to be, and he was grateful that she was warming up to Natalie at last.

“Of course.” She still hadn’t figured out what to wear, but she had remembered a dress that she had worn to a New Year’s Eve party three years before. It was short and kind of a pale dusty gold. It looked serious and dressy, wasn’t too low cut, and it had a short bolero jacket that she could wear during the ceremony, and the dress underneath was strapless, which would be sexier when the dancing got going. She was planning to pull it out later and try it on.

They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Hugues decided to go to bed, and Heloise wandered around the apartment. She didn’t feel as though she belonged here anymore, not because Natalie had displaced her but she seemed to have outgrown it. She was thinking about moving downstairs to her own place when they were on their honeymoon, and it would be nicer for them too. She didn’t need to prove her point or defend her turf anymore. She was beginning to think that there was room for all three of them in her world. Natalie hadn’t stolen anything from her, she had come to join them, and there was a place for her.