Maid of Dishonour

‘You knew?’ Marnie interrupted Cassie before she could get into full feminist lecture mode.

‘Yes. She told me the morning after it happened.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Marnie cried, the emotional outburst in sharp contrast to Cassie’s calm, unblinking stare.

‘Why would I tell you? It was between Carter and Gina.’

‘Because Carter’s my brother and his fiancée is my best friend? Because I’m going to be her maid of honour. Because this is a disaster.’ Marnie collapsed back into her seat. ‘I can’t tell Missy. She’ll be devastated. The wedding’s in a week’s time. And Missy’s devoted herself to planning it for over a year.’

‘Don’t worry, he’s not cancelling anything,’ Gina supplied. ‘He went back to her, didn’t he?’ She inspected her nails, battling the clutching pain in her chest as she maintained the charade that it didn’t matter, that she didn’t care. ‘I don’t know why you’re getting so worked up, Marnie. It was nice while it lasted but I didn’t want to keep him.’

‘I can’t believe I respected you. I liked you. I thought you were cool. When all you really are is a lying tramp who has no heart and no scruples.’

‘You got it in one, Scarlett.’ Gina stood up, taking the opened bottle from Cassie. ‘I’m the tart with no heart.’ A phrase she’d heard so many times from her father—and had always believed until a week ago, when her heart had put in a surprise appearance.

She inclined her head towards the now dark athletic track, the buff male bodies they’d had so much fun admiring together over the months now gone for good. ‘Looks like the show’s over for tonight, so that’s my cue to leave.’ She sloshed a final slug of Reese’s priceless champagne into her glass and toasted them all. ‘It’s been a ball, but I’m off. I’ve got an early start in the morning for the flight back to London.’

‘Wait a minute, what about our road trip?’ Cassie asked, her eyes as round with concern as Reese’s now. ‘We’re booking it tomorrow, remember?’

‘I’ll take a rain check on that.’ She nodded towards Marnie, who was staring at her as if she had snakes instead of hair sprouting out of her head. ‘Right at the minute, I’m thinking I’d rather not spend three weeks in a car with Scarlett staring daggers at me.’

She strode back through the house, Marnie’s harsh words and Reese’s concerned buzzing fading as she concentrated on keeping her back ramrod straight and the self-pitying urge to cry on lockdown.

Cassie caught up with her on the stairs. ‘Gina, I don’t get it. You can still come on the road trip. Marnie will get over it. What her brother did with you really isn’t any of her concern.’

But just as she finished saying it the high, angry shout of ‘whore’ echoed through the house, making them both stiffen.

Gina pressed her hand to Cassie’s cheek. And wondered how her friend could be so scary smart and yet so clueless about the most basic of relationship dynamics?

‘We’ll see. I’ll speak to you tomorrow. See how me and Marnie feel then.’

But she already knew, Marnie wasn’t going to forget it. Gina had made absolutely sure of that. Once again, she’d burned her bridges. Pushed the people away who mattered so she wouldn’t have to let them mean that much. She already regretted her outburst. The cruel, outrageous, provocative things she’d said. But it was too late to take them back now. And it was probably better that way.

She wasn’t any good at friendships. And the three of them needed to know that.

Cassie nodded. ‘All right. I’m really going to miss you, you know.’

I’ll miss you too. And Reese and even Marnie.

But instead of admitting that much, Gina simply nodded and walked away.

* * *

She called a cab the next morning before anyone was up. Happy with the deliberately flippant parting note she’d spent several hours before dawn composing.

Sorry for screwing up our last night together so royally, Awesomes. But I think we all knew, me and my insatiable appetite for man candy were bound to mess things up at some point. I hope you can forgive me.

G x

ONE

New York City, August, the present.

Something’s come up. U & M will have to pick fabulous venue for Cassie’s do without me. C u tomorrow at Amber’s Bridal. 11 a.m. Don’t B late. R xxxx

‘Reese Michael, I am going to murder you.’ Gina Carrington glared at the text that had popped up on her smartphone.

This was a set-up, pure and simple.

Now her old college roomie was in the throes of second-chance nirvana with her sexy ex- and soon-to-be-new-husband Mason, Reese was so full of the joys of spring—and Gina suspected really spectacular sex—that she was starting to make Pollyanna look like a killjoy.

The something that had come up was Reese’s cock-eyed optimism, and leaving her and Marnie to have this meeting without her was her unsubtle way of getting them to kiss and make up properly after that fun-filled night a decade ago when they’d hurled words such as ‘Tramp’ and ‘Whore’ and ‘Virgin’ at each other before busting up the Awesome Foursome.

Gina’s fingers hovered over the keypad of her phone as she cursed her own stupidity.

She should have seen this coming, as soon as Reese had suggested that the three of them organise a surprise wedding party for Cassie and Tuck, the hot jock she was scheduled to marry at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau on the Friday before Labor Day.

But the truth was, Gina hadn’t given it a second thought. Reese was classy, committed to her friends and a champion organiser—the original Park Avenue Princess—it had made total sense that she would come up with an idea like this.

In typical Cassie fashion, their super-geek friend had agreed to marry Tuck and then left the arrangements up to him. No fanfare, no fuss, no debauched fun or inappropriate frolics had been either planned or discussed. So after speaking to Tuck, Reese had decreed the three of them should handle that part of the programme without telling Cassie. Because Cassie would go into a geek-induced coma if they made too much fuss, they had opted to celebrate in understated style—inviting the minimalist guest list that would be witnessing the wedding at City Hall to a great meal at a great restaurant right after the event.

Hence the decision to meet at this ungodly hour of the morning in Gina’s favourite diner near Grand Central Station and debate possible venues, before booking one.

But Reese being Reese had seen a way to turn what should have been a polite and straightforward affair, with her as the official gooseberry, into a peace-keeping mission of UN proportions.

Gina and Marnie had remained civil to each other, meeting again for the first time a little over a month ago, during the fiasco that was Reese’s Wedding-That-Wasn’t to Dylan Brookes—the original Mr Too Perfect. That should have been enough, Gina thought resentfully. They had spoken to each other, they had even joked with each other in a strained way. No insults had been hurled, no punches thrown, no eyes gouged out, which in Gina’s mind was a result. But clearly, that hadn’t been good enough for Reese, who was now a fully loved-up member of the sweetness-and-light club. Reese wanted all the dirty laundry properly aired and then washed clean—so the four of them could go back to being the carefree college roomies who’d hit it off instantly at Hillbrook College.

But to Gina’s way of thinking, that simply wasn’t ever going to happen. You couldn’t go back and undo the mistakes you made. You simply had to learn to live with them. And she didn’t think that Marnie would ever forgive her. Because she hadn’t yet forgiven herself.

Not only that, but kissing and making up with Marnie would involve talking about a man Gina had promised herself she wouldn’t even think about again, because she’d thought about him far too often in the intervening years. Namely, Marnie’s big brother, Carter Price. The man she’d had one wild night with just weeks before his wedding day. A wild night the consequences of which had not only nearly destroyed her but, from what Reese had told her, had managed to screw up his life rather comprehensively too.

Gina’s newly manicured nails tapped out a tattoo on the side of her smartphone as she glanced at the ornate clock on the diner’s far wall—and the urge to quickly text Marnie and make her excuses increased. She still had ten minutes to do a runner before Marnie arrived—because for the first time in recordable history she was actually early.

Sighing, she locked her phone and slung it back in her bag. Ten years ago she would have gone with the urge—and run out on Marnie and the unpleasant conversation that loomed large in her foreseeable future. Because when she was nineteen, doing whatever took her fancy and then running away from the fallout had been her speciality. She smoothed damp palms over the vintage dress she’d picked up in a thrift store in Brooklyn a week ago. How inconvenient that she wasn’t that reckless, irresponsible tart any more.

‘Can I get you something, miss?’

Gina pasted a smile on her face at the helpful enquiry from the college kid who was waiting tables.

‘Something hot and strong would be good,’ she said, checking him out from force of habit.

His fresh face flushed a dull red. ‘Umm... What did you have in mind, miss?’

‘Coffee,’ she said, taking pity on him as the flush went from pink to vermillion. ‘And this morning I’m going to need it neat.’

He nodded. ‘Coming right up.’

She watched him stroll off and smiled.