Page 28 of I Always Will

It did not take the haphazard and excited introductions for Alexandria to figure out this was Esme’s mum, Mrs. Thompson. She was shorter and stockier than Esme, but no less floaty and feminine and excitable. Alexandria watched them hugging each other hard as she took in Mrs. Thompson’s entirely purple outfit—including winter coat and boots. She and her daughter looked like they had come from entirely different seasons and fallen through time to meet each other here, in autumn. For which neither had dressed.

“Alexandria,” Mrs. Thompson gushed as she pulled Alexandria into a tight, motherly hug. “It’s so nice to meet you, finally. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Thompson,” Alexandria replied, attempting to fight off the way her body wanted to stiffen at being embraced by a stranger. She wondered about the Thompson family’s perception of time. Could youfinallymeet someone you’d only known existed for, at most, three and a half months?

“Oh, please, call me Celia,” Mrs. Thompson said, stepping back and reaching up to take Alexandria’s face in her hands like an adoring mother looking at her own child.

Alexandria swallowed repeatedly, blinking against the cold and the tears threatening to fill her eyes. What was it with this family that just sucked her in and made her feel so mushy inside? She didn’t understand it. She wasn’t sure whether she liked it or not.

She couldn’t remember the last time her mum had held her like that. That just wasn’t the way their family worked. But it clearly was the way the Thompsons did.

As Mrs. Thompson—Celia—let her go, she could finally see it, properly see it—why Daniel had fallen for Esme so quickly, why they were getting married after only a few months, all of the reasons they weren’t doing the formal wedding their own mum wanted. She’d shown up today ready to fight to protect Esme, to hopefully help her mum see that Daniel was happy, but she was now fired up in an entirely different way. When you looked at them together, when you let them in, it made sense. Her whole life was about analysing the data, finding the patterns, considering the likely outcomes, and Daniel and Esme just defied the odds. They were going to get married quickly and live happily ever after.

“Alexandria? What are you doing here?” her mother said from behind her, clearly surprised and, perhaps, a little annoyed.

“Wedding dress shopping with Esme,” she replied, knowing full well her mother would think that a facetious answer. She smiled brightly as if there were nothing amiss.

“So great having all the girls together,” Celia said after greeting Susan. She beamed at the three of them like they were old friends. “Shall we get started?”

“Yes,” Esme squealed, bouncing up and down before leading them towards the shop’s door.

Alexandria looked at her mum, who looked like a deer in headlights. “Ready?”

She narrowed her eyes, looking at Alexandria. “This isn’t even a wedding dress shop.”

Alexandria suppressed a quirk of her lip at the way Susan’s words popped. Her mother was incredibly predictable. So was she, in many ways, but at least she was on Daniel’s side. Their parents would say they were too, but it wasn’t real. They wanted what they thought their childrenshouldbe, instead of who theywere.

Her mum walked into the shop ahead of her, muttering about weddings and standards, and Alexandria sucked in a huge, deep breath for strength. It was going to take a lot of work, in a very short amount of time, to win her mother over. If they even could. But at least it was just the four of them. Concentrating on her mum would be a hell of a lot easier without Hailey being there, after all.

Eleven

Present day

Hailey charged through the door faster than she’d ever entered a clothing shop in her life. She liked shopping, but she was never in this much of a rush to do it. However, she was here for Esme and she only had an hour for lunch, so she had to be quick.

It was one of those stores with a floor so polished that it looked wet and, if you looked at it for too long, you’d fall over from convincing yourself you were slipping in puddles. Plus, it happened to actually be slippery enough to fall on.

She rounded another tall rack of pristine, glittering dresses and collided with a soft, warm body. Her shoes squeaked, loud and uncomfortable on the overly-buffed floor, and she winced. It didn’t take the voice immediately apologising or the look up at her face to know it was Alexandria. Even if they’d been apart for seventeen years, she’d still know that woman anywhere.

“I’m so sorry. So, so sorry,” Alexandria said, rubbing her chin and righting herself. “I wasn’t expecting to…”

What she was and wasn’t expecting, however, Hailey didn’t get to hear, because Alexandria looked up, registered who it was, and promptly trailed off, her mouth opening and closing in a very un-Alexandria way.

It was unfair that she was still so beautiful. Of course she was, she always had been, but they were playing this ridiculous game of pretending not to know each other. Or pretending they didn’t have history. Hailey didn’t know which one it was. Alexandria had just taken a lead in their shared group chat and, as always, Hailey had followed along like a lovesick puppy. She’d been having some fun of her own with it, dropping in references—mostly musical—to things she knew only Alexandria would get, but so far, the woman hadn’t wavered. She’d said nothing. She acted like she hadn’t noticed anything amiss. It was infuriating in a very Alexandria way.

But here she was, in front of Hailey, looking perfect and beautiful and flustered. It was cute. And she couldn’t hide things from Hailey in person nearly as well as she could in texts.

She shook her head and began patting herself down, looking around on the floor.

“Are you okay…?” Hailey asked, her brow furrowing. Had she caused enough of an injury to confuse Alexandria? Was it possible she’d gotten a concussion from their run-in?

If she needed to go to the hospital, would she let Hailey go with her?

Seventeen years later and Hailey wasn’t any better at seeing Alexandria hurt and not wanting to fix the world for her immediately.

“My phone…” Alexandria said, her voice taut. “I must have dropped—”

“Here it is,” Hailey said, spotting it under one of the racks of flowing dresses and reaching underneath them to grab it.

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