Page 34 of Double

She waved me off. “My cousin’s best friend is connected to a photographer. We’re using him, and she’s handling those details.” She went back to her list.

“Sounds like you’re on top of things,” I commented with my attention still on the balloon arch.

“You sound surprised,” she accused.

My eyes flew up to hers. “What?”

“You sound surprised, like you didn’t think I would be on top of things.”

“Uh, Compton, I don’t know you to⁠—”

She cut me off. “Right! You don’t know me. So I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t make judgments about me.”

“I wasn’t making judgments about you. I was giving you a compliment.” I was still confused. “But since that’s not allowed, let me finish up on this arch so I can get out of your hair.”

She took a deep breath. “Listen. I didn’t mean to crash out. I’m just under a lot of pressure with this event.”

“I understand,” I said uneasily. “I’ve been exactly where you are.”

“My cousin is hosting this event. Most of the guest list is related to me or friends of the family. They didn’t think she should hire me. They’re waiting to see me fail. That’s why it’s so important that I get this right.”

I nodded but kept working. People always had excuses for their bad behavior, after the fact. It wasn’t that I wasn’t forgiving. I just hated when people used their circumstances as an excuse. Hell, I had almost been unceremoniously forced into marrying an old pervert. I had to be rescued from my own blessing ceremony. I’d married a stranger, walked away from my home country, given up my apartment and my belongings, and moved in with a man I didn’t know. Yet I wasn’t going around shitting on people and calling it stress.

Besides, that woman hadn’t given me a real apology. She’d told me to “listen” while she spouted some nonsense about needing to prove her family wrong—as if throwing a good party was going to change their opinions about her if they only wanted to see the worst in her.

I worked as quickly as I could to finish up that balloon arch so I could get out of there. “All right, girl,” I said loudly once all the balloons were attached. “Instructions for how to connect it to the wall and hang it came with the kit. I left them on the table over there. Good luck.”

“Okay. Bye.” She gave me a small wave.

I walked out of the ballroom, thinking that she didn’t even bother to say thank you. That irritated me. I was so busy thinking about how rude she was that I didn’t notice Double coming into the venue as I was walking out, and I bumped right into him. “Oh, sorry. Hey.”

“What’s up? You good?”

“I’m good. Just ready to go.”

The two of us walked to his truck.

“How’d it go?” Double asked once the two of us were in his truck, heading to do a quick check on one of his properties.

“Uh, it was weird. When I first got there, she acted like she had an attitude with me. She’s still upset that you got Lyric to help me with clothes.”

“She’ll get over it.”

“Since she had an attitude, I directed myself right to the balloon arch and got busy on that. After a while, she came over to me and started trying to pick my brain for event designer tricks and tips.”

“You give her any?”

“I didn’t say much of anything. She’s kinda like a bomb—you never know when she might go off. I hope her event is good.” We rode in silence for a little bit. I finally broke it. “It’s the beginning of week three. How’re you feeling about this marriage?”

He took his eyes off the road for a second to cut his gaze to me. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“You could, but I asked first.”

“I wanted a wife that I’m physically attracted to. Someone who’s loyal, smart, kind, and ambitious. Somebody that I could consider a friend. I feel like I’m doing pretty good. What about you?”

“I don’t know, Double.”

“I see you’re becoming more comfortable callin’ me Double. You haven’t called me Jayson in a minute.”