Her Best Friend's Wedding

Chapter 8

Virginia was surprised by the question, yet she agreed for three reasons; it was late, Tamara was tired and she would rather Tamara be there than anywhere else, so, after Virginia secured the house and turned out the lights, she led Tamara to her bedroom.

"You can sleep in here." She removed the couple pieces of clothing from the already made bed and hung them back in the closet.

"Where will you sleep?"

"Next door, in my brother's old room." Thankfully, Virginia still had clothes at her mother's house and she was able to give Tamara something to sleep in. "I'll grab you a toothbrush and a towel for tonight."

Virginia left and returned with the items, placing them on the edge of the bed as Tamara looked around the empty room. "If you need anything else, just let me know."

"Virginia?"

Virginia took a step back into the room. "Yes."

"Stay with me please."

Tamara didn't want to be alone and Virginia sympathized with the emotion, having been there before. She obliged without question and silently swore to herself to be everything Tamara needed and wanted. So, if Tamara needed comfort, affection, and attention, she would gladly provide her with it.

Virginia left only to prepare herself for bed and returned with no expectations just nervous energy. Laying beside Tamara was something she hadn't foreseen and it was more than she thought she would accomplish in such a short space of time.

"I used to share a bedroom with my older brother," Tamara broke the silence, "I always thought it was odd but we only had three bedrooms, my mother and father in one, my two sisters in the other so it left me and my brother to share."

Virginia was curious to know why Tamara had thought to share that nugget of her life but she didn't interrupt as Tamara continued on about her family life and the numerous reasons why she separated herself from her siblings, who on countless occasions she had to bail out of trouble.

Then she went on to tell Virginia how she came out to her mother when she realized how much she was in love with Melody, never telling her mother that it was Melody, of course, but she wanted it to be out there for whenever they decided to be together officially, which needless to say, never happened.

There had been others like she said before and there had been one other woman who came close to winning her heart but Melody walked back into her life and tainted it. It was as if the woman had assaulted Tamara and she couldn't bear to even speak to her anymore. Finally, Virginia found her voice and asked Tamara why she was telling her all of this.

"I just wanted you to know me better," was the only answer she gave, and soon, their sleep deprived bodies gave into exhaustion.

The next morning, Virginia found that she was alone in bed. Had she dreamt the entire thing? She hadn't, not with so much detail and as soon as she took note of the clothes that Tamara wore, folded on the edge of the bed, she concluded that Tamara left.

Virginia headed towards the kitchen, following the scent of breakfast that wafted into her bedroom but on arrival, she found that it was only the remnants of what was there.

"I smell breakfast but I don't see any."

"Good morning to you too."

"Sorry." She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. "Morning."

"We didn't want to disturb you."

"We?" Her mother revealed that she and Tamara ate already. "Is she still here?"

"No. She left about ten minutes ago. She said she would call you."

"Okay."

Virginia pulled the crate of eggs from the refrigerator to prepare herself an omelet. Her mother watched her over the newspaper in her hands but said nothing.

"I can feel you staring at me."

Celia folded the newspaper she was reading and focused her entire attention on her daughter. "Are you going to tell me why Tamara was sneaking out of here this morning?"

Virginia slipped two slices of bread in the toaster before she responded. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking then that's not what happened." She cleared away her mess on the counter. "She was tired and asked if she could stay so I said okay."

"That's nice of you. Even nicer of you to share your bed with her."

"Nothing happened. We just spent the night talking, well, she did most of the talking." Virginia removed her freshly toasted bread from the toaster and tossed them on her plate with her omelet then took a seat beside her mother. "It was nice."

"This crush you have, are you still claiming that it's small?"

"Yes." It was a lie, they both knew. "I know there's no hope for me. That reminds me, I never got to tell you about what happened at the party last night." Virginia went into detail on how her title changed from date to assistant to girlfriend in a matter of seconds along with the reasoning behind it. "Oh, and I saw Alti. Apparently, Melody is getting married to her brother."

"How is she?"

"She's the same." Celia gave a knowing hum. "She wants us to catch up." Another hum came from Celia but she didn't comment on the topic of Alti.

"So, Tamara loves Melody?"

"Yes."

"And wants to be with her?"

"Yes."

"And Melody's getting married to a man?"

"Yes."

Celia unfolded the newspaper she initially cast aside and brought it up to eye level. After a few seconds passed, she folded a corner of the paper down to look at Virginia. "This won't end well for either of you, you especially."

"Me?"

"Yes, you because I can see you like her more than you say. If you didn't, you wouldn't go along with this charade. And I like Tamara, I really do but you're not going to get anywhere with her if this Melody person is still a factor."

***

Two hours later, Virginia was at the department store, Tamara told her to meet her at and found Tamara perusing the racks of dresses on display.

"Hi." Tamara's greeting came in the form of a smile and she continued her search for whatever she was looking for. "Found anything nice?"

"I wasn't really looking." She let go of a particular dress. "Well, I was looking but not for you. I'd rather you dress yourself, you'd be more comfortable if you did."

Virginia examined Tamara's outfit. "Did you dress yourself today?"

Tamara shot her a glare but then the look softened. "I'm not sure if I should be offended or if you're simply asking because of what I told you."

"The latter."

"Well, it is something she bought but I didn't consult her before putting it on."

"Do you like it?"

"Is there something wrong with it?" Tamara looked down to assess herself.

"No, I think you look great in it but I just wanted to know if you like what you're wearing."

"It's growing on me."

"That's a no then."

"It's not a no but it's not a yes either."

"How about you let me buy you something you'd actually wear and you have to wear it today." Tamara resisted the idea immediately. "If you don't then I'm pulling out of our deal."