Lola waved her hand. “He had a last-minute business trip to Greece. He’ll be back in time for the wedding, don’t worry. I didn’t have any plans, so I called my old peeps from LA to fly out so that we could have a proper party … oh yeaahhh!” She raised her glass, spilling vodka on her feathered dress, which was no doubt worth thousands of dollars.
Cringing, Elly reached into her gigantic mom purse and pulled out a Kleenex and a thin manila file. “Well, since you are having such a good time, I won’t be long, I just need to talk to you about….”
“Lame!” yelled one of the redheaded twins, pushing Elly aside and sitting on Lola’s lap.
“Robert, get off me.”
He batted his glitter-covered eyes at Elly. “No way. No files allowed! This is a party, not a meeting. Put that damn thing away.”
Elly squirmed in her seat. The last thing she wanted to do was be the only adult at this party. Actually, truly the last thing she wanted to do was be at this party. Waiting at home for her was a glass of wine, a new rom-com and some flannel pajama pants. And Dennis. Her fantasy faded. Dennis, always there, in “his” room, playing MageCraft until the sun came up. Maybe hanging out for a while wouldn’t be so bad. Either way, she had to get Lola to talk about the wedding flowers. “Thanks, um, Robert, is it?”
He tossed imaginary hair behind his shoulder. “Robbey, with an E Y.”
“I need to talk with Lola for just a few minutes about wedding stuff.”
Lola gave Elly a kind smile as she shoved Robbey off her lap. “I promise we’ll do that, but we are actually about to leave.”
Elly looked around. “But you haven’t even eaten your food yet!”
Lola looked confused, her pretty brown eyes widening. “Oh my gosh, we ate a ton.”
Oh, right. Skinny people. “Well, if we just can run over this really quick….”
“We’re leaving, ladies! Get your stuff together!” crowed the gorgeous black girl. Suddenly, everyone was gathering their bags and checking their appearance in a handheld mirror that one of the twins produced. Lola placed her tiny hand on Elly’s shoulder. “We’ll run over it in the limo, promise.” Elly gave a dutiful nod. After several minutes of everyone preening themselves like a pride of lions, they made their way down the VIP staircase.
The murmurs started as soon as Lola hit the floor, rising to a loud hum of excitement as she walked toward the door, her entourage strutting behind her. Elly heard the click of cell phone cameras and the voice of Lola’s bouncer booming over the crowd. “Stay back! No touching Ms. Plumb, please.”
Elly followed behind her, trying to stay level on her heels, looking as suave as ever carrying a manila envelope, intimidated by the noise inside the restaurant. This is madness, she thought, people turning this elegant restaurant into a den of frenzied picture-taking, all because Lola is here. This wasn’t prom, what were they doing? It couldn’t get any worse than the restaurant patrons acting like teenagers, right? Then Elly stepped outside.
At first, she thought it was daylight, this searing white light. It wasn’t. But it wasn’t night anymore, either. Hundreds of flashbulbs were firing in her direction, one giant spark after another, a symphony of popping flares and loud clicks.
A chorus, a hundred voices strong screamed Lola’s name. “Ms. Plumb! Look over here!”
“Ms. Plumb, is it true you are leaving your fiancé?”
“Lola, are you doing crack again?”
“Lola, what do you have to say to Chloe Britt?” The shouts overtook each other, louder and louder until every sound was drown out by the sea of screaming photographers.