Jen’s family was middle class — on the higher end, but not quite upper. In high school, while Mandy and her friends gossiped on their own phones, Jen worked 25 hours a week at Baskin Robbins. With her parents’ help and a few academic scholarships, Jen was able to go to Yale. None of the shower guests ever had to worry about much. Affluence and pampering prepared them for lives of more affluence and more pampering. Jen had worked excruciatingly hard to level the playing field.
After the shower, none of that would really matter any more. Jen had accepted a job as a political science professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, giving up her position as the legislative director for a powerful U.S. Senator. In two days she’d be living in Minneapolis — alone, but rescued from Bethesda’s gossipy Jewish community. Who she dated or didn’t date, as was more often the case, wouldn’t be discussed anymore. She was about to achieve persona non-grata status, and she loved it.
Jen quietly nodded hello to everyone as she took a seat at the end of one of the couches. The gift opening had begun. It was a ritual that could not be disrupted. “Hi, Jen!” Mandy exclaimed between tearing open professionally wrapped boxes. The finely dressed attendees mischievously squealed as Mandy pulled slinky lingerie from a box. The plain white silk shirt and black pants that Jen wore were no match for the designer labels that garnished each garment worn by the others. Their nails glowed like freshly waxed cars. Jen’s were well groomed, but otherwise nondescript. The jewelry worn by the others sparkled. Jen wore only a watch and a thin silver bracelet with a small locket attached to it. The locket was a nostalgic reminder of what Jen wanted. On the last day of sixth grade, Brad Swanson gave it to her right before their awkward first kiss during the “two minutes in the closet” fiasco. He was the last guy who had been really crazy about her.
Beneath the stiff-fitting clothes and conservative light brown bob that flipped out at the bottom was a natural beauty. The freckles that once adorned her face had melded together and formed a rich, warm complexion. Her shapely body screamed to be noticed, but because she didn’t, no one else did either. Her infectious smile and soothing chocolate brown eyes had yet to be really appreciated and cherished by a man.
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