Chapter Twenty-Four
"You can't be serious, Beth. All my rings?" Simone Kostan has had enough.
"Come on, Simone, it's just for a couple of days. Harmony and the others have promised to give them back." Beth realizes it's a lot to ask and she well knows how it felt to have another woman wearing her prized stone. "You know what, just a few of the unprecious ones, if you have any?"
Simone gives her the look of a wealthy woman: as if she would have anything non-precious in her jewelry drawers. But she surprises her friend by indicating a small cedar chest in her walk in closet. "This was my mother's hope chest. I know she put in a few of her trinkets. I intended it for my daughter, if I ever had one. But now it appears I have a better use for them. I'm sure there are quite a few rings in there as she loved cocktail rings, especially black onyx and opals, so 50's."
"Oh, Simone, are you sure? These are so beautiful and surely must have sentimental value?"
"My mother would have loved to hear about all of this. She had a great sense of humor. Maybe not my marriage to a vampire but she certainly would have laughed over Ugg and Harmony. Do you think that girl even has a clue?"
"Absolutely not. As clueless as we were at 21 but I did have a chat with her asking her how much camping, cooking and caving she's done."
"And?"
"She says she and her family – I guess her aunt and grandmother were both famous actresses – were really outdoorsy kind of people."
"That makes all the difference, doesn't it? Ah, well, they'll just have to figure it out. But we'd better make sure we have rock solid pre-nups in place."
"That's for sure. Josef is already fuming at us about the cost of this whole thing. We wouldn't want him or Mick to have to pay these ditzes off, too."
"Of course, Elliott might be right."
"Oh, what about?"
"He figured that the girls would domesticate them pretty quick and I just saw Thor using the tv remote. Programming it! Their learning curve is pretty high."
Beth giggles "If we or their new brides can just keep them off the sauce."