Three Girls And A Wedding

by Rachel Schurig

  I really shouldn’t expect any more from her. For my mother, life revolved around work. She had been like this for years. It didn’t mean she didn’t love me. I was just about sure of it.

  Chapter Six

  I was determined to get a lot of work done after talking to my mom, but only an hour or so later, Annie came barging into my room, all wrapped up in her raggedy old plaid bathrobe, her hair wet from a shower.

  “We’re having a girls’ night in,” she announced, flopping down on my bed. “Wait—what are you doing?”

  “I’m working,” I said. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  “Jen, it’s Friday night. You’ve worked all week.”

  “This is a big account, Ann.”

  “Yeah, but this is taking things a bit far, even for you. Come on, we’re all off work tonight, Danny is with his dad. You have all weekend to get stuff done. You need to relax.”

  “I’m fine, Ann. Honest.” Unfortunately, at that moment I yawned hugely.

  Annie rolled her eyes. “Yup, fine. Come on, Jen. You’re exhausted. Come relax with us. We’re ordering Chinese….”

  I had to laugh. I knew she was trying to tempt me. Chinese was my favorite take-out.

  “Is that what your aerobic instructor recommends?”

  “Bite me. We’re doing aerobics so we can afford to splurge on calories. Let’s go, Campbell. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

  I was faltering. I couldn’t help it. I really was very tired.

  “Do we have movies?” I asked, and Annie grinned, knowing she had won.

  “We have three absolutely ridiculous chick flicks. You’ll love ’em.”

  “Okay, okay. You talked me into it.”

  I felt a slight pang of guilt as I stood up from my desk. Oh well. Annie was right—I did have all weekend. Plus, my mother never needed to know.

  ***

  Kiki called me no fewer than ten times over the next two days. As promised, I had planned an entire day of dress shopping for us in the coming week. Kiki was therefore obsessed with dresses. She was looking in bridal magazines and online and every time she saw something she liked she wanted to tell me all about it.

  In between her numerous calls, I tried to enjoy what was left of my weekend. Friday night with the girls was exactly what I needed: relaxing, silly, and fun. And when Josh showed up early on Saturday morning to drop off the baby, Annie was actually civil to him. I was so proud of her that I decided to make us all breakfast.

  I loved cooking. I always had. My earliest memories of my mother, before the divorce, before she went to school and got her job, involved the two of us in the kitchen. She used to love to cook: the two of us would experiment, making our own recipes, always trying to find things we thought my dad would like.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I saw her in a kitchen though, and I, too, was usually too busy to cook much these days. But sometimes, usually on weekends, I’d give myself a few hours to totally zone out and, in Annie’s words, do my Rachael Ray Thing.

  I decided on crepes, though we were out of fresh fruit. Ginny assured me it didn’t matter—the nice thing about having Josh around was we could order him out to pick up whatever we needed.

  I hummed to myself as I worked, methodically adding ingredients to my batter. I felt calmer than I usually did these days. Calm, and strangely confident. Food was so predictable to me. I knew that if I added this and that, and did such and such to it, that I would get a certain result. There was no second guessing, no wondering if it would turn out. It was like science, and I loved the exactness, the consistency of it.

  But then Josh had to come along and shake everything up, just as he had done so many times before.

  “Jen,” he said softly, standing at my elbow as I cut the strawberries he had fetched for me. “I need to talk to you and Annie…ask you something. Do you think you guys could let me take you out for dinner tomorrow?”

  I dropped the knife I was holding, looking up at him in surprise. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him pat his jeans pocket absentmindedly. Josh looked nervous—really, really nervous. But, beyond that, if I looked deep into his eyes, he looked incredibly happy…content. Excited.

  Oh my God.

  “Sure,” I replied, hardly hearing my own voice. “I’ll tell Annie.”

  Josh smiled at me. “Thanks, Jen. Uh…don’t tell Ginny, okay? She’s taking Danny to the store with her tomorrow, to do inventory. Um…let’s just keep it between…us. For now.” Josh was rambling awkwardly and I was having trouble breathing. “Here, I’ll go set the table.”

  He walked out of the kitchen, a definite spring to his step, and I started to feel a little dizzy. I looked down at my perfectly ordered counter, ingredients lined up, just waiting to be added to my creation. I had been in this very same room, cooking breakfast for the girls, when Ginny found out she was pregnant. Ginny, my best friend in the world. And now…now Josh wanted to ask…

  Just don’t think about it, I ordered myself. Maybe he wants to talk about her birthday, or planning a vacation...

  But somehow, I knew that wasn’t it. I knew that whatever Josh had to say to Annie and me, it was going to change us, all of us, forever. And I wasn’t sure I was anywhere near being ready to hear it.

  Chapter Seven

  ‘Sharing the news of your engagement is a fun experience. You can expect most people to be incredibly excited for you. They’re likely to want to know all the details of the proposal—and, of course, to see your new ring! For some brides, telling certain individuals can be stressful. Do you have friends that might be jealous? Relatives who don’t approve of your relationship? Hopefully, the people who truly love you will celebrate with you regardless, so don’t feel shy about spreading your good news far and wide!’—The Bride’s Guide to a Fabulous Wedding!

  I decided not to tell Annie about Josh’s request until we actually left the house the next night. I simply told her we were going out to eat. I knew she would be pissed when she found out Josh was coming, but I would rather deal with that than her questions and obsessing about why he would want to see us.

  I was right to wait; as soon as I told her who we were meeting, she started up a barrage of irritated questions.

  “I don’t understand why he wants to eat with us,” she muttered darkly. “What did he say, exactly?”

  I sighed. “Exactly what I told you, Annie. He wants to talk to us.”

  She huffed loudly.

  “It’s not that weird, Annie,” I told her. “He’s our best friend’s boyfriend. Maybe he’s trying to get to know us better.”

  “We went to high school together, Jen,” she reminded me. “We’ve known him since we were fifteen.”

  “I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Ann,” I said, exasperated. “We’re just about there and then we’ll know what’s going on, okay?”

  “Fine,” she mumbled.

  I pulled into the parking lot of the seafood place where I had arranged to meet Josh and turned to her. “Listen, Annie. Whatever he has to say…just be cool, okay?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Just…I don’t know. Don’t make a scene.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Do you know something I don’t, Jen Campbell?”

  I shook my head. “No, I told you everything he said to me. I just…I don’t want you to get all dramatic. I know you.”

  “Whatever,” she said, climbing out of the car with a huff—rather proving my point about her tendency for dramatics.

  Josh was waiting for us at a table near the windows, and he stood up when he saw us. He definitely looked nervous now, much more so than he had in the kitchen,

  “Hi, girls,” he said, kissing us each on the cheek and gesturing for us to sit down across from him. “How’s it going?”

  “Pretty good,” I said, sitting down next to Annie. “How are you?”

  “Fine, fine…” Josh said, clearly distracted.

  “Yes, I’m glad to see we
’re all fine and nothing drastic has happened since we all ate breakfast together yesterday,” Annie said, rolling her eyes. I shot her a warning look.

  The waiter arrived to take our drink orders. I opted for a beer, having the feeling I might need it before I got too much older.

  Once we were alone again, Josh started fiddling with his menu. He was clearly agitated, and I wished he would just get it over with.

  “Girls, I…I thought we should…I wanted to have a talk with you. There are…there are things I need to tell you, things we should discuss.”

  Annie looked at me with raised eyebrows, and I shrugged.

  “Sounds pretty heavy, Josh,” she said coolly. “Maybe we should order first.”

  Josh blinked, confused. “Oh…right. Food. Good idea.”

  We all directed our attention to our menus and I tried to lighten the tension I could feel radiating off of Josh in waves. “The chowder here is so good,” I said. “So are the crab cakes. And the lobster. Yum.”

  Annie shot me a look as if to tell me to shut the hell up. I couldn’t blame her; I sounded ridiculous, like a mother trying to convince her picky child that she might like the food.

  After what felt like a long stretch of awkward silence, the waiter came back with our drinks. He took our order, brought us some bread, and then retreated again, leaving the three of us alone.

  Josh cleared his throat. I looked at him expectantly.

  “It’s occurred to me that I never apologized to the two of you.”

  I felt Annie freeze next to me. She clearly hadn’t been expecting this.

  “After Ginny took me back, she told me that she owed you guys everything…She said she and Danny wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you. And I’ve never thanked you for that.”

  Josh did not meet our gaze as he spoke, instead directing his attention to the straw wrapper on the table in front of him, which he twisted and crumpled distractedly.

  “Not seeing Danny born…Not being with Ginny for those months when she was carrying him…I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.” He looked up at us finally and I saw tears glimmer in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Not just to Ginny, but to you guys as well. You shouldn’t have had to deal with all that, not on your own. And I can never thank you enough for what you did for them.”

  I looked sideways at Annie and was shocked to see tears in her eyes as well, but she met Josh’s gaze evenly.

  “I love her, Annie,” he whispered hoarsely. “Please believe me.”

  “I do,” she replied, her voice soft. “I was just angry.”

  Josh nodded, rubbing his eyes roughly as the waiter appeared with our food. He cleared his throat and Annie swallowed a few times. I knew their moment was over, but I was happy they’d finally seemed to come to some kind of understanding.

  After the waiter left, we all awkwardly tucked into our food. I began to wonder if maybe I had misread things with Josh yesterday. Maybe he had only wanted to apologize, and not ask us…well. Maybe he had said his piece.

  “So, girls,” he said, setting down his fork after a few moments. “Now that we’ve cleared the air a little bit, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Or maybe not.

  “I’m kind of old-fashioned about some things, so it was important to me that I do this the right way.” Josh seemed less nervous now, more excited. I felt my heartbeat quicken.

  “The two of you are Ginny’s family, much more so than her parents. So it’s only right that you be the ones I ask.”

  I wanted to look at Annie, wanted to see if she had figured it out yet, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Josh.

  “I want to ask for your blessing...To propose, I mean. I’m going to ask Ginny to marry me.”

  Chapter Eight

  Josh proposed to Ginny on a Monday afternoon in the living room of our little yellow house.

  Annie and I were both at work when it happened, but Ginny described it to us later in intricate detail.

  He didn’t go for any huge romantic gesture—that wasn’t their style. Instead, he made her a sandwich and changed the baby so she could eat her lunch in peace. When she was finished, they went to the living room to play with Danny. Ginny knelt on the floor to place Danny on his play mat—when she looked up, Josh was kneeling beside her with the ring.

  My best friend is engaged.

  I still can’t believe it. Ginny is going to be married. Ginny is going to be someone’s wife. How weird is that?

  After Josh asked us for our blessing, Annie and I stared at him for a full minute before either of us could say a word. I snapped out of it first, telling him, of course, that I would be so happy for them and getting up to kiss his cheek.

  Annie took a bit longer, and she couldn’t be quite so effusive as I was. But she did smile at Josh and tell him congratulations, very nearly managing to sound happy.

  Waiting for him to actually ask her was the hardest part. I felt very weird knowing about this before Ginny did, but Josh assured us they had talked about it extensively.

  “I’ve wanted to get married since the day I came back,” he explained ruefully. “But Ginny has been dead set against it. She wanted to keep her independence, and stay with you girls. I ask her about it every month or so, and lately she’s finally saying she thinks she’s ready. All that’s left is to actually propose.”

  When I got home Monday night, Ginny was still weepy.

  “Oh, Jen,” she said shakily, her eyes red-rimmed. “I’m just so happy. I knew this was coming, we had talked about it, you know, but for it to be real…” She trailed off in tears. Her smile, though, was radiant and had yet to leave her face since I walked in the door.

  “Ginny, I’m so happy for you,” I told her honestly, hugging her tight.

  “It’s what I’ve wanted my whole life,” she said simply. “I know that might sound silly, but it’s true.”

  I was happy for her, honestly I was. I knew she loved Josh, always had, and I knew he loved her back and took good care of her. I knew it was great for Danny that his parents would be together.

  But I couldn’t help but be a little sad for myself. I knew it was selfish, but there it was. I loved the little family that Ginny, Annie, and I had created with Danny. I loved coming home at night, knowing that they’d be there. I loved making my plans based around them.

  When I first started at NoLimits, I let myself get a little bit nuts with the job. I felt like I needed to go out all the time, network, meet people. It seemed like I was always going to club openings, dinners, restaurants. I went on dates with guys based purely on their status, on how much I thought they could help me.

  I hated it.

  When Ginny found out she was pregnant, everything changed. I had a reason to take a step back, to relax a little more. It was the perfect excuse to stay home, be with the girls in the evenings and on weekends. It was hard to watch Ginny go through so much uncertainty, but so nice to be there for her, the three of us together.

  And now she was engaged. Now she’d have a new family. Now Josh would always be there, the one she turned to first.

  Things wouldn’t be the same for us, is all.

  When Annie came home from work, we decided to stay in with pizza to celebrate. We sent Josh out to get it for us, and while he was gone, Ginny confronted us—or, rather, confronted Annie.

  “Are you okay with this, Ann? Tell me, for real.”

  “I am. I promise. I’m happy for you.”

  I couldn’t help but believe her. Something had changed for her when she had her talk with Josh—she trusted him now, with her best friend. Pretty high praise for Annie, let me tell you. I knew then, instinctively, that Annie was going to be fine with this.

  Josh came back with the pizza and the five of us lounged around in the living room, discussing the wedding.

  “I think we should just go down to city hall,” Ginny said, taking a swig of pop.

  “What? Absolutely not!” I c
ried.

  “Why? I don’t care about the wedding, I just want to be married.”

  “That’s all well and good, Gin, but why wouldn’t you want the people that love you to celebrate with you?” Annie asked.

  “I think you’ll regret it if we don’t have a real wedding,” Josh said.

  Ginny wrinkled her forehead. “I doubt that.”

  “Don’t you want to have a special day?” I asked, aghast. “A day that’s all about you, all about love? Think of the flowers Gin, the cake.” I closed my eyes, picturing it. “Oh Gin, you’d look so beautiful in a simple a-line…with a little duster veil. And a bouquet of dahlias and lilies…” I opened my eyes. “Don’t you want all that?”

  Ginny only shrugged.

  “What if I want it?” Josh asked.

  Ginny laughed.

  “Hey, I’m serious! Why is it always the girl that gets to have her special, magical day? Why does the girl get to be the princess? What if I want a wedding?”

  “I think Josh should have the fairytale wedding about which he so obviously always dreamed,” Annie said.

  Everyone else laughed—I, however, was too horrified at the thought of Ginny not having a wedding to be amused.

  “Ginny, listen to me,” I said seriously. I had to change her mind. “It’s not about fairytales or magic or being a princess.” I wanted her to understand this, to see what a wedding should be, how important and wonderful they could be.

  “A wedding should be a night that’s all about the two of you. Sharing your relationship with the people in your life. Showing them what you’re like, the two of you, and what matters to you guys. Let me help you, Gin. We could make this wedding so perfect, so you, I know we could.”

  Ginny looked at me for a moment. “You know what, I think you could,” she said finally. “I think if anyone could plan a wedding that wouldn’t make me want to throw up, it would be you.”

  I beamed at her.

  “Will you let me help you then?” I asked. “Can we have a real wedding?”