Read Whose Bride Is She Anyway for Free Online

she said flatly.
    Linda looked disappointed that Tara didn’t want to play. “I know, all those interviews and tests and stuff are grueling, huh? Okay, so I’ll just tell you. ”
    At this stage of the game, that might be a right fine idea. Tara leaned against her rental car and folded her arms over her breasts. “Okay. ”
    “See this?” Linda waved the envelope under Tara’s nose.
    “Uh-huh. ” She nodded.
    “Know what it is?”
    Her loser certificate? Ah, yes to make it all official and all. She could frame it. “I have no idea and no, I can’t guess.” Tara smiled.
    Linda thrust it at her. “Well, silly, open it.”
    She threw her purse through the open car window and tore open the envelope, peeking inside she pulled out the official “Whose Bride Is She Anyway?” letterhead and began to read it.
    Tara’s expression went from wary to shocked. A grin spread over her lips in astonishment, then a frown, then another grin.
Holy Shit!
    Linda put her hand under Tara’s chin, clapping her mouth shut. “Cool, huh? ”
    Indeed
. She nodded wordlessly.
    Hell’s bells … they’d chosen her as the jury foreman.
    Tara’s knees began to shake as her eyes blurred from the long day and an end to her goal in sight.
    “Did you read the small print?” Linda shook Tara’s shoulder.
    She squinted and looked to the spot where Linda’s finger pointed, reading the smaller print below her acceptance letter.
    Oh…
    Well, that was just silly. Who could possibly leave at this very moment to go to Hawaii? I mean, really, she thought as her head spun. Who could just up and leave with no notice whatsoever to anyone? She had a job and an apartment. A fern that needed watering…
    Bills to pay … a more definitive blueprint for “Kelsey Little disaster” to design.
    But the letter said if she wasn’t prepared to board a plane tonight, then she would be excluded from the competition.
    Well crap. If she didn’t sign this now and go, she wasn’t ever going. What a friggin’ crappy thing to pull. All this high-and-low emotional stuff was going to be the death of her. How could she possibly prepare mentally for this if she didn’t have
time
? Humiliation was a craft best given one’s single-minded efforts.
    Linda leaned over her shoulder and asked, “So what are you going to do?”
    Tara ran a hand through her hair and started putting her brain into neatly filed compartments of organization. Call mom, call work, return rental car, go to hotel, pack bags… Clothes, she didn’t have any clothes but what she’d brought with her for a couple of days. They couldn’t make her go without clothes. That settled that.
    “But I have nothing to wear. I can’t just jump on a plane for a month and have no clean underwear with me. I mean when I watched all of the other shows the jury talked about how they had weeks to plan to leave. How can I go without clean underwear…”
    “We take you shopping. You have two hours to buy what you’ll need and a budget the size of two of your paychecks. This is a new twist they added, sort of a catch-you-off-guard thing. It’s happening to the contestants too.”
    “Well, the contestants don’t need anything to wear but a Speedo! I mean all it is—is some suntan lotion and a thong. ”
    Linda laughed at her obvious anxieties. “Those are the rules and,” she looked at her watch, “you ha ve five more minutes to give me an answer. Your flight leaves tonight.”
    “But my stuff at the hotel…”
    “We’ll send someone to get it. Four minutes…”
    “And my rental car…”
    “Staff will take it back for you. Three and a half minutes.”
    “My fern…” Tara said weakly.
    “Can’t help ya there. Two minutes.”
    She grabbed Linda’s arm and covered her wrist watch in frustration. “Oh, all right! I’ll go!” Tara grabbed the pen Linda held out and signed the release, scribbling her name quickly before she freaked out. “There,” she said with a matter-of-fact tone, “now