Bad Girl

Dash: So….how did we meet?

Lenny:....at work? Someone introduced us but, then you got called and that was it

Dash: lol. no. I mean what do we tell my family about how we met? I’m flattered you remember how we really met before the funeral though.

Dash: I remember too

Lenny: haha. Oh. okay, we can say we met at a work party? 

Dash: Nah. I don’t want to tie it to work. 

Lenny: dating app then?

Dash: lmao. No way. No one would believe that

Lenny: haha. Ok ok. We can say we met at a mutual friend’s birthday party, something like that. 

Dash: yh perfect and then we started talking before we realized we work in the same company. Good

Lenny: How long have we been seeing each other?

Dash: good one. A year? 

Lenny: too much. How did you manage to hide me for a whole ass year?

Dash: lol. Fair point. 5 months? Or 6. It was love at first sight so it’s not weird that we’re getting married so soon

Lenny: are we engaged yet?

Dash: not yet. After tonight. Maybe in a week

Lenny: alright, got it.

Lenny has a habit - one that makes it very hard for her to move on from the bubble of euphoria she feels from certain conversations. She re-reads old text messages over and over and over again. Just so she can be reminded of how she felt when she was in the moment of the conversation. 

Even though right now she’s at a bridal shop with Lynn as they pick out the perfect wedding dress for Lynn’s and Toby’s wedding; Lenny keeps picking up her phone and reading texts between her and Dash from this morning. 

It’s been two days since they had their bizarre dinner and he hit her with the proposition to be his fake wife in exchange for 5 million dollars. Yesterday she signed the agreement and sent him a signed copy and tonight she is going to meet his family at a charity dinner party hosted in honor of Sienna Behrt-Lehman, Dash’s late mother. 

Everything is happening so fast. Lenny hasn’t decided if she should tell Lynn about this yet and she hasn’t thought about how this will affect her at work. After all, her boss is technically Dash’s older brother, Darius and it’ll come as a shock to him and all her other colleagues that this whole time she had been seeing Dash. The same Dash has a reputation of being somewhat of a playboy. She had heard stories about him even though some sounded made up but, you know what they say - ‘there’s no smoke without a fire. Not that Lenny cares anyway, it’s not real but, no one else was going to know it’s not a real relationship and they’d probably think she’s out of her mind for getting married to someone with such a reputation. Or - they’d think she’s a gold digger.

“Ohmygod, Lenny, this is it. This is the one. Look how gorgeous I look”, Lynn is saying as she comes out of the dressing room accompanied by one of the shop assistants. She’s draped in a jaw-dropping diamond white Cathedral train lace and tulle dress that transformed her into a real-life princess. 

“Wow….Lynn, you look…..”, Lenny can’t find the words to describe how beautiful Lynn looks right now but, even without any words, Lynn nods in approval of Lenny’s speechlessness. It’s funny to Lenny how she always got compared to her sister so much while growing up. However, in their comparisons, no one ever put one sister down as the ugly one or the unattractive one. They were always such beautiful girls, such beautiful sisters. But unlike Lenny, Lynn had a pair of sweet blue eyes to match her beachy, blonde hair and there was always something……innocent about Lynn. Something much more precious and endearing about her. Maybe it was because of how tiny she was, even now as a full-grown 27-year-old adult, she’s only 5 ft 2. Or maybe it’s because she has a resting-welcoming face like that of a grandmother seeing her grandbabies for the first time. Whatever the reason, everyone has always been aware of it. And everyone has always been aware that Lenny doesn’t possess that quality. 

“It’s perfect. Take a picture of me, I wanna send it to mum and see what she thinks”, Lynn all smiles as she hands over her phone to Lenny. The shop assistant is also beaming as though it’s not every day they get to see such a peaceful and trouble-free bride-to-be. 

Lenny almost rolls her eyes at the mention of their mother but, she doesn’t because she knows Lynn will catch it, and then they’d have to talk about it. She takes a few steps away from them as she finds the best angles to take the picture from. 

“Alright, pose for the camera hot stuff”, she teases as Lynn does several poses; all of them looking graceful as ever. Lenny is having so much fun taking pictures of her sister and mimicking paparazzi comments when another text from Dash pops on her phone. However, the phone in Lenny’s hand is Lynn’s phone and Lenny’s phone is actually on the chair she was sitting on before; right beside where Lynn is posing. 

Of course, Lynn catches the way Lenny’s eyes dart to her phone immediately after the notification pops up on her screen and at first, Lenny ignores it but, then she gets another text, then another;

“Damn, who’s blowing up your phone?”, Lynn asks curiously and finally looks at the name on the screen. Lenny saved Dash’s number as ‘D’ in an attempt to be discreet.

“D”, she says cheekily and as Lenny picks up the phone to check the texts, she watches her with a teasing look on her face. 

Dash: should I come pick you up? 

Dash: or you’d prefer to come by yourself

Dash: Also what’s your favorite color

Lenny replies but, makes sure to keep a straight face as she types so Lynn doesn’t read too much meaning into it. 

Lenny: My favorite color? Is your family gonna quiz us on how well we know each other?

He replies instantly 

Dash: lol. you can never know. Everyone knows that favorite color is a topic that naturally comes up in conversation at dinner parties.

She can’t help but chuckle at this and her eyes dart up to find that Lynn has been distracted by the shop assistant and now they’re talking about something about the dress. She looks back at her phone and replies.

Lenny: totalllyyyy

Dash: lol. Yes…..so what is it? 

Lenny: pink

Dash: didn’t see that coming

Lenny: haha. What did you think?

Dash: idk. I didn’t think anything. Just thought pink was for girly girls

Lenny: you don’t think I’m a girly girl?

Dash: I think you’re a bad girl

Dash: fuck. Uhm. That came out weird

Lenny: super weird. I’m kinda busy at the moment, send the address and I’d drive there, no need to pick me up

She sends the last message somewhat passive-aggressively and puts her phone on silent so she won’t have to know when he sends her another text. It’s not that she’s upset that he doesn’t see her as a girly girl, she’s upset that they’ve barely had two conversations and he’s already seen her as what everyone in her life keeps seeing her as - a bad girl. A narrative that she had been given by her mother even before she knew who she was. 

“Oh, looks who’s finally put her phone away. So, who’s D?”, Lynn asks excitedly. Now Lenny has to decide whether to tell Lynn the whole story or the same story Dash will be telling his family. She decides to go with the latter;

“Well…I’ve been seeing someone for a few months now”, she says with an intentionally shy smile on her face. Lynn squeals as the shop assistant take her measurements for adjustments to be made to the dress. 

“I knew it. Tell me everything”

“I don’t know, it’s relatively new, I don’t want to jinx it.”, 

“Is that why you finally let Hannah spend the weekend at Mum’s? You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with Mr. D”, Lynn is having a good time teasing Lenny about this but, she’s clearly trying to extract information out of Lenny in regards to their mother. At least, that’s what Lenny thinks.

“Is that what she told you? That I’m keeping Hannah away from her?”, upon Lenny’s question, Lynn’s expression drops a little but she’s still being lighthearted when she responds;

“Hannah hasn’t spent the night at Mum’s since Christmas.  We thought it was deliberate, no?”,  

“If mum wants to see Hannah more, she can just ask me instead of talking shit behind my back. She never reached out and asked to see Hannah but, now you’re making it sound as if I was actively keeping her away from Hannah. Not that that would be the worst idea”, Lenny adds the last part out of spite. 

“Lenny, she’s her grandmother. Of course, she wants to see Hannah. She shouldn’t have to ask”, the tone in Lynn’s voice is no longer all bright and cheerful but, somewhat critical. 

“Whatever, it’s not like I expected you to not take her side anyway”, 

“Look, I hear what you’re saying and I acknowledge how you feel but, you and I know that you’re projecting”, Lynn says as the shop assistant is rounding up on her measurements and trying to keep off any expression on her face. 

“Oh, wow, you not only hear me but you also acknowledge my feelings? You get a gold star for that. Do you guys sell medals here too? Trophies? Add that to the cart for my big sis over here”, she directs the last part at the shop assistant who is visibly uncomfortable.

“Lenny, I’m just trying to intervene. I don’t like it when you and Mum fight”,  as Lynn says that the shop assistant informs her that she’s done with the measurements and she can take the dress off now. 

“Let me go change out of this okay? And we can go grab lunch or something. Have some girl time, no mum talk”, Lynn offers;

“I have to go now, I have a thing I’m going to later tonight and I have to prepare”, Lenny says vaguely deciding that now might not be the best time to tell Lynn that she’s meeting his family.

“A thing with Mr. D”, she taunts playfully in an attempt to lighten the mood again. Lenny rolls her eyes but, smiles a bit so her sister can know there’s no bad blood between them. 

“Alright, have fun. And be careful. I’m here to listen whenever you’re ready to talk about him”, Lynn waves her off and heads back to the dressing room to change. 

Lenny leaves before Lynn is back even though she has plenty of time to prepare for the dinner party tonight but, she notices she’s a bit on edge and she doesn’t want to pour it all out on her sister. She can’t tell for sure why she’s this way - is it because of Dash’s comment about her being a bad girl? Or the reminder of her mum and the fight they had over two months ago during Christmas. Whatever it could be Lenny decides to just go home and have a nice relaxing bath so she’d be a nicer version of herself when it’s time to meet Dash’s family. 

Once she arrives home, there’s a huge parcel waiting for her at her doorstep. She looks around in hopes that she’d see the delivery person and let them know it’s the wrong address but, there’s no one in sight. Lenny doesn’t remember ever receiving any package at this address. She hardly even lets people know her address because she’s not very proud of this place and she feels very protective of Hannah’s privacy. 

She squats to observe the parcel better and sees that the sender's name on it is Dash. She picks it up and weighs it and can tell it’s not something heavy that’s in it. When she’s convinced that it couldn’t be a bomb or something potentially harmful, she picks it up and heads inside before ripping it open. 

It contains two Valentino dresses that are so pretty and seemingly expensive, Lenny can’t believe the delivery person just left it outside like that. One of the dresses is jade; a shade of green that resembles the color of her eyes. The other is pink. There’s a card inside the parcel and all it says is this - ‘see you tonight.'