“Playing videogames.”
“You could have done something else with your time. Something that would help with the wedding.”
“I helped. I texted Madison. And it’s summer break.”
“For Troy. Not for you.”
“Spencer, I had two options. I decided I was in a mood for a videogame. Let it go.”
“What was the other option?” I asked knowing it would be something I wouldn’t like hearing.
“Strip club. It’s not off the table. I can go tomorrow. I have to find a date for the engagement party. We could have the bachelor party after midnight. I know how to share.”
“You are a pig. Don’t talk like that in front of Troy.”
“Again. He’s sixteen. He doesn’t need me to talk about strippers to be thinking about them, believe me.”
“I personally think no one ever should believe a word that came out of your mouth.”
“Finally on the same page… Shit,” I heard an intense clicking sound. “I have to go. I’m about to die because of you.”
“That’s the best thing I heard all day.”
Tyler laughed.
“I knew if someone could dig the mean person out of you, it would be me.”
“Enjoy your play date, boys.”
Tyler growled at me and killed the call.
The next day around noon I went to the dress fitting. Sylvia, Madison and Clem were already there.
“Hello, Mrs. Hartley,” I waved at her, but Sylvia opened her arms showing me she expected a hug. She was holding a glass of champagne. I couldn’t stop staring.
“Oh, relax, Hannah. I’m not drinking it,” she scolded me and pretended she kissed me on the cheeks. “What am I supposed to do? Tell the sales lady I am an alcoholic.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”
“It’s fine. Let’s find you a dress. You will be the most important person at the wedding. After the bride of course.”
“Maybe the third most important person?” I asked with the nicest smile I could muster. She annoyed me already, but I didn’t want to get on her bad side unless absolutely necessary. “Lucas seems important too.”
“No one looks at men at a wedding,” she left her glass on a small table and clapped her hands. “Do you have a color in mind?” Her tone implied she already had a color for me in her mind.
“Not really. Let me take a look around, okay?” I patted her hand and left her standing before she had time to say something else.
I heard that Madison was arguing with someone behind a huge white curtain that hid a part of a large podium.
“Are you seriously going to pass this as a wedding dress? It looks like a potato sack. My baby sister is not wearing a potato sack at her wedding.”
“Madison!” Clem’s voice boomed.
“Clem,” Maddie said firmly, not backing off. “We are in a hurry, but that doesn’t mean we are desperate. We are not buying the ugliest dress they have just because they want to get rid of it.”
“I’m so sorry,” Clem started again. “My sister is…opinionated. It’s a beautiful dress, but it’s not really my style.”
Madison moved the curtain and walked down the podium like a professional model. She was typing insanely fast on her phone and her eyes were narrowed into slits. She turned her head in my direction, her gaze moving up and down my body for a moment, then returned to her typing. When she finally finished, she faced me again.
“I hate pink,” she said, no greeting whatsoever. “All the shades of it. Everything else is fine by me, but you should probably have in mind that that thing you’re holding right now will make you look like a blue-eyed chicken.” I glanced down at my hands. I was holding a yellow gown I had no intentions of trying on anyway. “I am a bridesmaid, so we are going to wear the same color. Stay away from everything pink and we won’t have a problem. I’m thinking you should wear a gown and the bridesmaids should opt for something shorter, something around the knee.”
She pointed at her own knee. She was wearing at least a couple of thousand dollars on her and that’s if you didn’t count the shoes. Her black pencil skirt engulfed her nonexistent curves perfectly. She wore the whitest silk blouse I had ever seen. Her blond hair, the exact same shade as Tyler’s, fell down her back in waves and looked softer than a cloud.
Clem peeked behind the curtain of the dressing room and mouthed I am sorry. I winked at her, and Madison exhaled loudly.
“Don’t try to gang up on me. You will regret it.”
Then she turned her back to me and went back to talk to the sales lady whom I sincerely pitied right now. She had to find a dress for a bride that didn’t really care about fashion in the company of her ex-model mother and her sister that looked like a Victoria’s Secret angel both in body shape and fashion sense.
I tore my eyes away from Madison and focused on finding a dress that wasn’t pink. A few minutes later I saw something that I thought I would look great in. I asked the sales lady for the right size and snuck inside the small room next to the podium.
The truth was I was probably going to choose something pink if it wasn’t for Madison’s warning. A dusty pink maybe. But I didn’t care about it enough to make a big deal out of it.
After I put on the strapless, emerald-green gown I had picked, I looked myself in the mirror. I couldn’t help but hate pink myself in that moment. I swayed my ass and my naked thigh flashed through the slit that reached way above my knee. I imagined Tyler looking at me in that dress.
Tyler of all people, not my actual boyfriend. Shame made my stomach flip. Desperate to distract myself I concentrated on the conversation Madison and Sylvia were having somewhere close to my dressing room.
“I wasn’t interested. Drop it.”
“Madison, he was a pediatrician. Not just any doctor, but one that loves children and would know how to take care of a baby. Do you know how important it is to have a husband like that?”
“I wasn’t interested,” Madison repeated with a venomous tone.
“Mike has a nephew in New York. He is a realtor. He makes a lot of money.”
“So do I, thank you very much. Besides, you just said I had to marry a pediatrician to have someone to take care of my children.”
“If you have enough money, you could hire a fulltime sitter.”
I wanted to get out of the dressing room, but I was curious who would have the last word in an argument between these two.
“Stop setting me up with random people.”
“He’s not a random person. He is Mike’s nephew.”
“Okay, fine. Stop setting me up. Period.”
“Hi,” I heard Clem’s voice somewhere in the distance, probably taking a phone call.
“This conversation is not over,” Sylvia warned.
“It is to me,” Madison said sounding a lot calmer than just a second ago.
Two pairs of stilettos walked away. I took one last look in the mirror and decided to show myself to the women outside.
I strolled out, expecting judgement only from four pairs of female eyes, if I counted the sales lady. But the first thing my eyes found in that bridal store was Tyler’s ridiculously handsome face. He was already staring at me, his gaze moving slowly down my body reaching the slit of my dress. The shame I felt a minute ago when I imagined him ogling me was gone and replaced with exhilaration.