Page 13 of Deny Me

I guess my staring at Lu didn’t go unnoticed because she finally called me out on it. “What’s up? You keep staring at me.”

“Ummm…” I cleared my throat. “I, uh….”

“She has the dress design she wants to show you,” Jameson announced. My head jerked up and my eyes landed on him. He started shoveling food in his mouth, not acknowledging my stare. When I felt his hand clamp onto my knee, squeezing for reassurance, I was pretty sure I almost fell over from shock. “She showed it to me. You’re going to love it. Really gorgeous.”

Eyes wide, I just stared at him. He hadn’t seen the dress, but there he was, talking up my design like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. The swelling in my chest came back and now I began stuttering for a whole new reason as I struggled to process the way his words made me feel. Appreciation for this man roared through me like a fire. My whole body was warm from the praise. Maybe the way Taylor talked down about my job last night had bothered me more than I thought. I brushed it off at the time, focusing on the prize at the end of the night, but his words kept creeping in at random times, making me question myself. I didn’t like it.

But there was Jameson erasing all of that. Dropping my head, I squeezed my eyes shut and let the smile consume my face. Jameson gave one last squeeze before letting go to reach for his drink. But the feel of his fingers offering me the silent support spurred me on to reach in my bag.

“Oh my God!” Lu squealed, pushing her food aside. “Jack, go take your food to the bar. Jameson go with him so he isn’t lonely. He can’t see my dress and I can’t wait. “

“We’re eating, Lu. Can’t it wait? Or can’t you go to the bar?” Jameson argued.

Luella leveled a death stare at him. “My wedding, my rules.”

Jameson looked to Jack for support, but he was already grabbing his food. “You know I don’t tell that woman no.”

The men began walking away with their plates loaded with pizza, but not before Jameson muttered his parting shot. “Bridezilla in the making.”

We ignored him and I pulled out the tattered sketchpad. “It’s just a rough sketch. And if you don’t like it, then just let me know. We can always come up with something different. Don’t feel bad if you hate it.” My words were choppy and stuttered out quickly.

Lu looked at me with scrunched eyebrows. “Are you, Evelyn Valero, nervous?”

“Maybe,” I hedged, rolling my eyes. Not wanting to linger on anyone else calling out my nerves, I flipped to the page. Silence settled between us and I hesitated before looking at her reaction. I couldn’t take it anymore and looked to find her with her hand over her mouth and tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Evie…” her voice wobbled. I stared, frozen, still unsure. But she flung her arms around my shoulders and mumbled in my shoulder, “It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe you came up with that. For me. How did I get so lucky to have such an amazingly talented friend?”

Her emotions brought forth mine and combined with the sweet things Jameson said earlier, I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. I set the notebook aside and wrapped my arms around her. “So you like it?”

She pulled back and wrapped my face in her hands. “Like it? I fucking love it! It’s perfect.”

“Oh thank God. I’ve been a nervous wreck that you would hate it but not tell me and then we would always be haunted by the ugly dress I made you wear on your wedding day.” Slouching, I let all the tension drain out of me.

“Bitch, please. I don’t think you could design anything I would hate.”

“I mean, I could try,” I joked.

“It wasn’t a challenge,” she laughed. We both wiped our eyes and finished off our pizza, talking accessories and bridesmaid dresses. “Hey, I need your help for wedding songs. Jack and I can’t narrow it down, so we downloaded them and I thought we could listen to them here.”

“Sure. Yo, Jamie-Boy, we are going to play some music, can we touch your precious sound system?” He had installed it last year and banned Lu and I from touching it, accusing us of possibly breaking it with our “shitty music.”

“I’ll get it set up for you.”

“What? You don’t trust us to do it ourselves?” I asked indignant.

“Well, last time I was assaulted by you guys screeching to the Spice Girls.”

“Whatever, you loved it. Deep down, we all know you did.”

He just rolled his eyes and took Lu’s phone to hook it up.

“Let’s practice dancing, Jack.” Lu stood up holding her hand out to him to join her on the small dance floor. “Maybe it’ll help us figure out which one fits us best.” When she walked past Jameson as he headed back to the bar, she snagged his arm, halting his progress. “No, no, no. You’ll have to dance with Jack’s sister at the reception because we are pairing you guys up down the aisle, so you should practice dancing too. We all know you need it. Evie, help him out.”

“Luella, no…” he hedged.

“Nope,” she cut him off. “My wedding, my rules. Now dance with her.”

Jameson turned to me with a pinched expression. He hated it, but he would do anything for his sister.

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