Fed Up - By Jessica Conant-Park & Susan Conant Page 0,27
under my shirt but didn’t want to risk one of Ade’s mood swings. I cleaned up the kitchen and helped myself to some freshly baked coffee cake while Adrianna gathered her styling tools. Although the temperature in the little apartment felt comfortable to me, Ade decided that the thermometer that read a mere seventy-two degrees was horrendously inaccurate, so she cranked up the air conditioner while I huddled under a blanket. “Besides, the AC will dry out the air in here and make for better hair,” she insisted. “Now, go stick your head in the sink and then sit in front of me. And this reminds me. Tell your mother I’m doing her hair, too. I don’t want to take the risk that she might stick something weird in it. Seriously, I love Bethany to pieces, but I really don’t want her wearing one of her craft projects on top of her head.”
This wedding had become a Carter family affair. I was performing the ceremony, my mother was to be Adrianna’s matron of honor, and my father was walking the bride down the aisle. Josh was doing double duty. Besides serving as Owen’s best man, he was catering the reception. Digger was going to help in the kitchen, but I had no idea how Josh was going to coordinate the food preparation while simultaneously being a member of the wedding.
We watched Veronica Mars on DVD while Ade began blowing out my hair. “Oh, ick, Chloe! Look at your roots!” My highlights had grown out enough to horrify the bride-to-be. Consequently, after my hair was thoroughly dry, she started covering my head with foils and lightener. “And you need a trim. Your hair has got no shape left in it.”
I resigned myself to sitting in one spot for the next few hours while Adrianna brought my hair up to her wedding standards. After toying with a variety of complicated updos involving curls and twists pinned to my scalp, Adrianna decided on a looser, more flowing style with gently shaped curls that would work beautifully with her simple veil. When the predicted hours had finally passed and I was finally allowed to look in the mirror, I was speechless. I’d almost forgotten about the veil affixed to my head. I’d never before worn a veil, and I have to say that all of a sudden, I was a princess! I was about to start twirling when Ade saw me wide-eyed in the mirror. “Don’t get all dopey on me now. Let’s get through my wedding first. You look like a lovesick puppy.”
“It’s just so fun to wear a veil. There’s really no good excuse for wearing a veil except for when you’re a bride, so let me enjoy myself for two minutes. Please?” I was so not taking off the veil. A short headband piece that had been wrapped in bright white material was affixed to the top of my head, and sheer layers of fabric fell to just below my shoulders. I looked at my reflection and imagined myself traipsing down the aisle, headed toward wedded bliss with my chef.
“All right,” she agreed. “But don’t get anything on it.”
I crossed my heart with my finger. “Promise. Hey, I’m going into Simmer for dinner tonight. You want to come?” I leapt up and down the narrow hall, letting the veil fly out behind me, while Adrianna shook her head at my lunacy.
“No, thanks. Owen is going to be home soon, and I want to take a nap, and then we’re finally going to put the crib together.”
The baby’s room was actually a walk-in closet with a window and a radiator. Once a crib was in there, it would occupy so much space that there might not be room for an adult to stand. To get the kid into the crib, Adrianna and Owen would be able to open the door and toss the baby in. But how would they ever get the baby out?
“Come here,” Adrianna said. “Let me do your makeup, too, and then you’ll really knock Josh’s socks off tonight.”
I reluctantly let Ade remove the veil. By the time she’d painted my face with M•A•C cosmetics, I was ready for this in-home salon to close. I hugged her good-bye, thanked her for the spectacular job she’d done on my hair, and rubbed her belly.
I went home and admired my newly blonde-streaked hair in my own mirror. My scruffy clothes looked silly with my fancy hair and makeup, but I didn’t