Page 105 of The One I Love
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Whatever he did, I want you to know, you’re right and he’s wrong. No questions asked.”
She laughs, and I can tell she’s pushing back tears. “Thanks. I’ll go ahead and bring out the rest of your food.”
Charlie turns and hurriedly walks back toward her kitchen. She doesn’t come back out, instead sending out a server to present me the dinner options.
Oh, Simon, what the hell did you do to this poor woman?
Chapter 32
Amelia
“Oh, Amelia! You look absolutely stunning!”
“My baby girl is finally in a wedding dress. I think I might cry.”
I might cry too. But not for the same reason my mother is going to be.
Horror. Straight horror. This wedding dress might be the worst thing I’ve ever put on my body. I didn’t know that much tulle could exist in a dress. And then there are the beads. And the random additions of lace and sequins.
If I didn’t want to get married before, I definitely don’t now. I hate to judge people, but who in their right mind would wear this?
I turn around from the mirrors to look at Mom and Barb, who are both sitting on the couch at the bridal store, and I swear I see hearts, angels and song birds coming out of their eyes. And tears. So many happy tears.
I sneak a look over to Kendra, Whitley, and Betsy, who are shaking their heads so fast you can barely tell that they are moving. They also haven’t blinked.
“What do you think?”
“I think I want to keep trying things on,” I say to the woman waiting on me at the bridal store.
“Oh, of course,” Mom says. “You have to try them all on. We need to make the most of this day!”
I force myself into a fake smile as I walk back to the dressing area. The second I get into my room I strip off the dress, hand it to my consultant, and throw on a robe. “I’m not telling you what to do with your inventory, but you should burn that dress.”
She laughs as she puts it back on the hanger. “Believe me, if I could, I would. Which one would you like to try on next?”
I look at the wall where my options of dresses are hanging. Since I didn’t really know what I wanted—on top of the fact that I don’t want to be here—I told everyone that they could each pick one dress for me to try on today. The one I just had on, which was my mom’s pick, was the worst. I didn’t think it could get worse than Barb’s dress that made me look like I was going to prom in the eighties, but I was wrong.
I was so wrong.
“Actually, can you give me a minute?”
My consultant, whose name I think is Jessica, nods. “Of course. If they ask where you are, I’ll make something up. I’m really good at being dramatic.”
“Thanks,” I say with a small smile.
I wrap the robe around tighter and sit down in my dressing room. The second I hear the door close the first tear comes out.
And I just cry.
How did this get so out of hand? I fooled myself into thinking that things were calming down. That maybe my plan about taking things slow, and eventually they’d get to a point where we could tell them rationally, had worked. It had been two weeks sinceShane went to the caterers—which was organized by Mom and Barb with the help of Whitley. She didn’t want to do it, but I had tied her hands with the secret. She had to play along. And when she said she didn’t think she could get appointments, you know, to help me out of this, Barb and Tammy sat and watched her make phone calls, on speaker phone, to see if they could sneak us in.
But since then, things had been silent on the wedding front. I should have known it was just the eye of the storm.
In the past week alone we’ve gone cake testing, talked to a DJ, visited three different florists from the one we originally went to—because their roses weren’t bloomed enough. Oh, and I had an appointment with a travel agent to talk about a honeymoon. You know, so we can have some time to ourselves to make grandchildren.
Barb’s words, not mine.
The more places we went, the more I knew I needed to say something. The only thing I took solace in was that we didn’t put down a deposit for anything. Then I was told yesterday that I was going to get picked up in the morning for a girls’ day to try on wedding dresses.
