Miss Independent by Kiki Leach Page A

a deep breath and pushed the green button, forcing a smile as she set the phone on speaker.
                  “Hello, Mother.”
                  “My God, Vanessa!” Alexis hollered. “Girl, where in the hell have you been ? I’ve been calling you since this morning, worried you had tossed yourself into the East River when you never called me back!”
                  “What?”
                  “I can’t imagine that you haven’t seen it. Have you seen it?”
                  Vanessa went back to her ice cream and licked the cookie dough sitting at the edge of her spoon.
                  “Have I seen what ?” she asked, her mouth full of dough.
                  “The infamous invitation.”
    “Oh, yeah. To the wedding from hell? I’ve seen it.”
    “I had been trying to call you about it.”
                  “That’s what all the missed calls were about? Why were you so desperate to tell me about this, Mother, to rub my face in it?”
                  “No, Vanessa, I would never do such a thing. Especially not when it came to those two.”
                  Vanessa rolled her eyes.
                  “ Right. Then why were you calling me?”
                  “To warn you. I was hoping you wouldn’t read through it when you noticed it was from Sheila.”
    “It would’ve made no difference. Had I not gotten the invitation, it would’ve been in the papers or on the internet and local news.”
    “Not for at least another two weeks.”
    “And how do you know that?”
    “Sheila’s mother called me last month when I was in the office to inform me of the wedding as well as when they had planned to announce it to the press and send the invitations to everyone.”
    She tossed her spoon on the counter and knit her brows in fury.
                  “Last month -- Are you kidding me?! Mother, why the hell wouldn’t you tell me about this if you had known long before now? And not only that, why wouldn’t you tell Veronica that there was no way in hell I was actually showing up to her demon seed’s ceremony? If she told you of the invitations that means you knew damn well I was invited!”
                  “Watch that tone !” she snapped back. “And I didn’t think about it at the time! She called during work hours and I had other things on my mind to worry about, such as Alexander’s health scare and your sister’s new baby.”
                  “Your husband is fine, Mother. It was just a scare. The man didn’t need a cornea transplant, he just needed a better set of glasses and daily contacts. And last I checked, Felicia and her husband lived in Newport with their newest baby as well as their oldest, and all four of them are perfectly fine and healthy. Meanwhile, you’re in Paris and apparently becoming more neurotic by the second. If anyone needs to be worried, it’s you about yourself.”
                  “Long distance uncertainties, honey. You’ll learn as you get older.”
                  “Mm-hmm.” She dropped back on the counter and dug out more ice cream with her index finger, licking it quick before it could drip down the sides of her hand. “So when are you coming back?”
                  “I’m taking an early flight out tomorrow morning. I hadn’t planned on it, but it seems someone missed a few appointments as well as reschedules with important publishers for the magazine.”
                  “Well, maybe if I hadn’t gotten that ridiculous invitation at work and had known as long as you have about this impending circus, I’d have been there for all of that today instead of at home eating a tub of ice cream in my underwear.”
                  “Oh, Vanessa! Sometimes, girl, you can be so classless. It was five years ago, honey, when are you