"I hope it takes you into autumn because the church puts on a darling fall festival and I just know you'd love it, Zelda," Diana said.
Ash squeezed my thigh again, his thumb stroking high enough to glance over my panties like a proper perv. "I'm sure Zelda enjoys a good fall festival as much as the rest of us," he said. "But we have an early morning at the office so we should—"
"At the office?" Rob echoed, glancing between us. "I didn't realize you're in financial services too."
I shook my head. "Oh, no, I'm—"
"Zelda has an extensive background in customer-facing operational systems and employer-side federal and state compliance as well as quantitative analysis. I'm fortunate she accepted my offer to get my house in order as I'm now in a position of needing to rapidly scale up," Ash said.
This was met with a moment of collective eyebrow lifting though it took me the duration of a full minute to realize the response wasn't because these people doubted a word he'd said about me. Everyone at this table knew Ash rarely invited anyone inside the house, never mind letting them put it in order. Those eyebrows were all for Ash.
Life was a real trip. One day you were busy hearing you didn't have what it took to make it in academia while simultaneously writing—ahem, make that proofreading—someone else's graduate thesis for them, and the next you were the brains of the operation and no one doubted it for a second. Life was a real fucking trip.
"We should grab lunch sometime this week," Rob suggested. "My office building is a few blocks away from where you guys are on State Street and your schedule"—he paused to smile at Magnolia—"is pretty flexible up until Thursday, right?"
"Depends how my final fitting goes," she said ominously. "I might not be allowed to eat the rest of the week."
"Stop it. You're eating. Yes, you are," he replied.
"Maybe not after Tuesday," she argued with a hearty laugh. "The seamstress will break my ribs if that's what it takes to get the corset laced up. Honestly, though, I will turn into a ball of fire if it's too small again. Actual burning fire."
"I told you to try the green juice cleanse Heather from the yarn store recommended," Diana said. "She looks fantastic."
Magnolia leveled a glare at her mother. "Not another peep about that, you hear me? I'd rather wear three layers of Spanx than get married smelling like cabbage and garlic."
Rob set his elbows on the table and rubbed his forehead. "I still don't understand why you bought a dress two sizes too small."
"It was a designer trunk sale," Magnolia replied. "It's a limited edition dress and I was able to get it for one-tenth of the price. There was no other option."
"I still don't get it," Rob grumbled. "I would've paid the other ninety percent and saved us the misery."
Diana shifted her attention back to me. "You should come with us to the fitting, Zelda."
"Did you ignore the part where I mentioned Zelda is essential to the continued functioning of my business?" Ash asked.
"Yeah, drag the nice girl along because it sounds like such a good time," Linden muttered. "Hangry Maggie, broken ribs, great balls of fire. You're really trying to put Zelda through the paces, aren't you?"
Diana patted my hand. "I didn't raise them to be such rude boys. Ignore them. I do."
"It's okay," I said, laughing. "They don't scare me."
"I like you," she said with a wink.
"You should totally come with us," Magnolia said. "You'd be doing me a huge favor by subjecting yourself to my mother's ceaseless meddling while I'm brutalized by a very small but very strong seamstress."
"Meddling? I don't meddle at all," Diana said. She spoke in a tone that suggested she truly believed it too.
Carlo pushed away from the table and collected two empty serving dishes from the center of the table. With a glance to Rob, he said, "Best of luck."
"We're not about to debate whether you meddle," Linden said. "It's accepted as fact. Let's move on."
After muttering something about her children needing her meddling in their lives, Diana returned her attention to me. "The shop we're visiting has lots of lovely pieces. I'm sure they'd have something perfect for you to wear next weekend if you'd like to browse for yourself. I'd be happy to help you look."
"Oh, that's not necessary," I said, suddenly flustered. I didn't know why I reacted this way but I could feel