Fed up

her.
    Adrianna was soon followed by her mother, Kitty, who appeared to be in deep mourning. She wore a black pantsuit with no accessories except a watch that she was already checking. Her badly tinted blonde hair hit her shoulders, where it rolled under in a perfect curl. Her expression suggested a combination of dissatisfaction and grief. Despite Kitty’s funereal garb and air, it was hard to miss her incredible figure and easy to see where Adrianna had gotten her modelesque looks.
    “Chloe, it’s lovely to see you. Where shall I put this?” Kitty held up a white gift bag.
    “I’ll take it. It’s wonderful to see you, too.” Knowing that Kitty did not like to be touched, I leaned in and gave her air kisses. “I know my mother is eager to catch up with you. Why don’t you go find her in the kitchen?”
    “Wonderful, darling.” Kitty brushed past me to seek out my mom.
    I went to shut the door and nearly slammed it in Owen’s face. “Owen? What are you doing here?”
    Poor Owen’s disheveled appearance made me suspect that Kitty had put him through the wringer since her arrival yesterday. No matter what, Owen was always incredibly handsome, but today his black hair was messy, and his fair skin had a sickly pallor.
    “I drove Ade and Kitty here. I can’t leave Adrianna alone with that woman! Please let me stay.” His expression was pitiful.
    “No, you can’t stay, dummy. This is a shower just for the girls. I promise I’ll mediate the Kitty situation. Ade will call you when it’s over.”
    “But what if—”
    “It’ll be fine,” I said as I shoved the groom-to-be out the door.
    I introduced Robin and Nelson to Adrianna and then left the three of them to discuss the video.
    Next to arrive were Owen’s mother, Eileen, his grandmother, Nana Sally, and his cousin Phoebe. Moments later, two women from Simmer showed up: Isabelle, a shy young cook whom Josh had taken under his wing, and Blythe, a waitress. My sister, Heather, who had let herself in the back door, deposited a gigantic box on the coffee table. Heather had curled her hair into a mass of Shirley Temple ringlets. As usual, Heather was vibrating with such energy that she made the rest of us look like slugs. The mother of a one-year-old and a five-year-old, Heather always looked as if she’d just emerged from fourteen hours of sleep followed by a trip to a spa.
    “Give me a hug, Sis.” Heather wrapped me in her arms and held me tight. “So I hear that young Emilio caught your eye. Any chance you’re finally done with Josh?”
    I pushed her away and glared at her. “Don’t start,” I warned her.
    “Don’t get all pissy. I’m just asking.”
    Unlike my parents, Heather was anything but a fan of Josh’s. Her idea of the perfect man for me was a moneymaker who had gone to a four-year college and who worked a traditional job with regular hours.
    “Well, stop asking,” I snarled. “And today is about Adri-anna, anyway, not about me. Or Josh. So we are not getting into it now.”
    She smiled sneakily. “But Emilio is hot, isn’t he?”
    I couldn’t help grinning back. “Well, duh!”
    I didn’t notice Nelson until he quickly turned his camera away. The exchange with Heather was a segment that would have to be edited out of the final video. I hoped, of course, that there would be few such segments. But at least the video would show that a satisfying number of people had attended the shower. Desperate for guests, I’d expanded the list by including a couple of my fellow students from social work school, Julie and Gretchen, who must have been bewildered about why they had been invited to a shower for someone they didn’t know, but who showed up nonetheless.
    The guests helped themselves to plates of food from the dining room. My parents had sprung for champagne, which was poured, served, and sipped by most of the guests. Adrianna avoided it, of course, as did I, but Owen’s grandmother, Nana Sally, compensated for our abstemiousness by quickly drinking her first glass, refilling it, downing that one, and then getting yet another refill. “Mother, go easy!” I heard Eileen whisper.
    Kitty sat down next to Eileen on the living room couch and nibbled on a shortbread cookie. I sighed, hoping that they’d manage to converse without bashing the wedding. In particular, I hoped that Eileen would refrain from voicing her belief that Adrianna had tricked Owen into marrying her by getting pregnant. Nelson and Robin stood a few yards