I sucked in my breath. “What?”
“I was there, at the coffee shop last Saturday morning. I came in after you were already there and sat in the booth right behind you, but you were so preoccupied with your story that you didn’t even notice me. I do find it odd that you’d have sex with someone you’re not even really dating.”
“You were at Plum & Honey? Sitting behind me?”
She nodded, her eyes dancing. “I heard you say all kinds of interesting things.”
I closed my eyes as the breath left my body, realizing too late it was a dead giveaway that everything she’d heard was true. “You’re crazy.”
“I have notes, in case your memory is faulty. I didn’t want to forget a single word, so I wrote down what I was hearing.” She picked up her phone from the bar and read, “‘Things aren’t like that with us. This isn’t a real relationship or a real engagement. It’s something I made up, remember?’” She looked up at me. “Does that ring a bell?”
I couldn’t find words to answer.
“Oh, there’s also this. ‘I know it might look real on the outside, but that’s just because we’re having a good time. It’s one hundred percent fake. We are not together.’” She set her phone down and picked up her wine glass. “I also heard the part about the safe word and the bloody nose—so good! I mean, really, this story has everything, humor, sex, deception . . .” She sipped her wine. “I was thoroughly entertained.”
My pulse was racing. “Mimi, I have to go to work. I don’t know what your problem is, but—”
She laughed. “I don’t have a problem, Felicity. You do.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m going to make sure this story gets out, and then what will your perfect family think? It’s obvious to me only one sister knows you’re scamming everyone.”
“We’re not scamming anyone,” I snapped. “This is none of your business.”
“Oh really? Because I was chatting with your mom at her coffee shop before I left on Saturday, and it was obvious she doesn’t know you’re a liar. She was just so happy.”
“Leave my family out of this,” I said through my teeth.
“And Hutton’s family too. I happened to run into his mother at her shop last week, and she was simply beside herself about your upcoming nuptials. She couldn’t say enough sweet things about you.” She picked up her wine for a sip.
I was seething. Nostrils flaring. I wanted to strangle her with her perfect blowout.
“I was also thinking,” she said, swirling what was left of her wine, “how terrible it would be for Hutton if this got out. I know he’s testifying this week down in D.C. The last thing he’d want people saying about him is that he’s crooked and shady.”
It was like a punch in the stomach. I could handle people talking shit about me, but I would not tolerate anyone implying Hutton was dishonest. If this story broke, it would cause his anxiety to skyrocket. He would imagine people calling him a con artist. Whispering behind their hands. Looking at him strangely. He’d probably suffer panic attacks, maybe even be unable to answer questions.
And it would be my fault. Not only for telling people we were engaged in the first place, but for talking about it being fake in a public place.
“Why are you doing this, Mimi?” I shook my head. “I don’t get it.”
She sat up taller on her stool, her expression imperious. “I’m doing this because I don’t think it’s right that people can just lie and get away with it.”
“So you’re doing this in the name of truth?”
“Exactly.”
“Bullshit!” I was so loud that several people at the counter looked over at me. I lowered my voice only slightly. “You’re doing this because you’re jealous.”
Mimi shrank back, her jaw dropping. She touched her chest. “Jealous? Moi?”
“Yes.” Fired up, I gave her my meanest stare. “You. Are. Jealous.”
She laughed, but it was one hundred percent fake. “What would I have to be jealous about?”
“I don’t know. My ring? Hutton’s money? The attention we’re getting? Or maybe,” I went on, remembering the way Thornton kept looking around and checking his watch at the reunion, “maybe it’s my relationship with Hutton. The way we look at each other. Respect each other. How close we are.”