She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Net Thirty

On Monday at noon I walked into the Natchez Garden Club in a navy dress with a copy of my invoice in one hand and the rental statement in the other.

The club meets in a white house on State Street with a porch the width of a church.

Forty women in pastel linen were eating chicken salad at round tables when I came through the double doors.

Every head turned.

Priscilla sat at the head table under a portrait of somebody's great-grandmother, with a gavel at her elbow.

The club treasurer, a thin woman in a seersucker jacket, half rose from her chair.

"Joelle," Priscilla said. She did not get up. "This is a members' luncheon."

"I know. I came to give you the bill, since you didn't answer the first one."

A murmur ran around the room.

"I told you," Priscilla said, very gently, for the benefit of the room, "that family does not send invoices to family. Sit down, dear, and have some chicken salad."

"I'm not family. I filed a petition last week, and you were notified."

"A misunderstanding between young people."

"Forty-one thousand two hundred dollars," I said. "Net thirty. I have a receipt book and a list of your guests."

I walked down the aisle between the tables.

I put the invoice on the white cloth in front of the treasurer, because she was the one with the club's checkbook.

"I'm sure there's a procedure for a debt owed by a member," I said. "I'd like to follow it."

The treasurer looked at the page and then up at Priscilla.

"Priscilla?" she said carefully. "Is this right?"

"It's an invoice for a wedding gift," my mother-in-law said. "The girl cooked at the reception, which was her own idea, and she has been unwell. I won't discuss it in public."

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend