Page 97 of Storm in a Teacup
My body sags gratefully—and even though I want to kiss him, I don’t. I turn on my heel and rush out of my building. The hotel that Mel and everyone coming in from out of town are staying at is closer to the church than the city center, so I have to catch a bus there. I take the bus, then run the entire ten minutes it takes to get to the hotel on a road with very little shoulder with my arms very full. I get to the hotel and rush past reception to head toward the elevator, wondering too late if I need a key to get up to the rooms. Thankfully, I don’t, so I press the button for the fourth floor with my foot.
I find the room quickly once I get to the correct floor. The door flies open before I even have the chance to knock.
“I heard you coming,” Kensie says, gesturing me inside. She’s in a pink robe with her dark hair done up and about half her face etched with makeup. I’m sure with nothing else to do with Mellocked in the bathroom, she started to get ready. Which I get. A weddingwillbe happening today. Jen waves at me from the bed, still in sweats, but her hair also done.
I drop my things over the desk and chair, and then go to the bathroom door. I knock hard. “Mel? It’s Linny. Can you let me in?”
No response or indication that she even heard me. If we weren’t on the fourth floor, I’d be afraid she climbed out a window.
“Melly?” I try again to no response. I sigh. Fine, I’ll do this the invasive way. I go back to my bag and dig out my wallet. From it, I pull an old gift card. Kensie watches me curiously, likely wondering what I plan to do with it.
I stick the card in the door and wiggle it until I hear the lock click open. I smirk back at the other women. “My mom taught me that.”
I push into the bathroom, saying, “Mel?” She hardly glances up at me from the bathtub where she has stationed herself. She’s in her white, silk robe, hair poorly pulled into a claw clip and eyes red from lack of sleep. I close the door behind me, the wedding dress hanging on the back of it slapping against the wood.
I slip off my shoes and climb into the tub across from her. She still doesn’t say anything, but holds the open Champagne bottle, likely meant for mimosas, across the tub for me to take. I play along, accepting the bottle and having a swig of it before setting it down outside of the tub.
I take her hands in mine, sliding my feet across the porcelain to interlock with hers. “What’s wrong, Melly?”
Her shoulders lift, then she lets out a little Champagne burp.
“Classic case of cold feet?”
She says softly, “Julien doesn’t look at me like that anymore.”
I cock my head. “Like how?”
“Like how Ben looks at you.” She pulls from my grasp and throws her arm out in a gesture toward the bedroom. “Like how Kensie looks at Jen.” She drops her forehead on her knees.
I can’t say anything for how Ben looks at me because I’ve never noticed any significance in it, but I do know what she is talking about with how Kensie looks at Jen. It’s the same as how Jen looks at Kensie. How Isla and Rachel look at each other. How David and Callum look at each other. And, the same as how Julien looks at Mel. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it and been so deeply jealous of it.
“Yes, he does,” I say firmly. “Maybe you stopped noticing it because you’re used to how he sees you, but he looks at you like that. He loves you so much, Mel.”
She glances up at me with big eyes. “You think?”
“Yes,” I say vehemently. “My eyes are not always to be trusted, but I have seen the way he looks at you. He is crazy about you. And I’ve seen the way you look at him, too.”
“I love him,” she says, a tear slipping from her eye.
“I know you do.” I grab her hand again. “You want to marry him. And he wants to marry you. You’re a little scared. It’s perfectly natural.”
She nods slowly, then stares at her dress. “There was a black mark on my dress this morning. It felt like a bad omen.”
“Kensie got it out. It’s not a bad omen. I bet it was just grease on the door hinges that you hung it on. But it’s in plastic now, so it’s safe.”
“But…” She shakes her head.
“But what?”
“But is that it? One thing goes wrong and we fix it, but it completely breaks me. What if something worse happens?”
“Nothing worse will happen. Something always has to go wrong, but this was it. And it’s been fixed. Everything else will be fine.” I knock lightly on her head. “Knock on wood.”
She swats my hand away, but smiles. “Yeah.”
“Mel, do you want to marry Julien? Like, if you didn’t marry him today, would you be sad?”
She stares at me like I’m crazy. “I’d be devastated.”
