The Gold Digger's Ledger novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Paid by Daddy

The Marlowe's tea room had white tablecloths, and I knew every waiter in it.

Three of them looked at me as I came through the door, and one gave me a tiny nod.

I wore the navy funeral dress, because it was mine.

Lydia had reserved the round table by the window.

Five women in pastel silk sat around it, and they all stopped talking at once.

"Miranda!" Lydia stood and kissed the air by my ear. "You came. Everyone, this is Miranda."

"The famous Miranda," said the woman in pearls.

"The book," said the woman with sunglasses pushed up in her hair, and two of them laughed.

I sat down in the only empty chair, which was the one with its back to the kitchen.

I let it go. I had already won that fight once.

The waiter poured champagne I wasn't going to drink.

"We're the bridal committee," Lydia told me, bright and kind. "We're planning everything for July. Tristan and I are so happy."

"I'm sure you are," I said.

"I posted my apology," she added, to the table. "I know it wasn't enough. I'd just like Miranda to feel included."

"That's so big of you," said the woman in pearls.

They ordered salads, and I ordered the crab cakes, because I had worked in this building for four years and knew which ones were good.

The talk was about venues.

It was about a tent, and a florist, and whether the Beaumont family church could take three hundred.

Nobody asked me one question, and when someone did, it was about money.

"Is it true you write down what men spend on you?" said the woman with the sunglasses. "Every single thing?"

"Yes."

"That's so honest. Isn't that honest?"

"It's very honest," Lydia said, and smiled at me over her glass.

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