When You Come to Me

by Jade Alyse

  Natalie nodded. “Yes, yes, I am…”

  “Ah,” the woman said, in an unmistakably northern accent. “So, you’re the one who had Brandon running around all afternoon…”

  “I think so…”

  The woman came to her, extended her hand as if to help her up, and Natalie complied, coming to her feet in run swift movement, shivering.

  “You don’t look too good,” the woman said. “Let’s get you inside, shall we?”

  Natalie nodded.

  The woman escorted Natalie up the staircase, and into another bedroom across from the one she stayed in. The woman walked her into the bathroom, flicking on the light, inviting Natalie to stand in front of the mirror.

  “What’s your name, honey?” the woman asked gently, tugging at Natalie’s clinging sleeve.

  “Natalie,” she told the woman through clenched teeth.

  “Natalie, that’s pretty,” she said. “I’m Mark’s wife…Joanna…Joanna Greene…”

  “I’ve heard a lot about you,” Natalie admitted, allowing the woman to pull her shirt over her head.

  “Oh, really? I hope it’s all good stuff…”

  Natalie nodded. “Yes, Brandon thinks very highly of you…”

  “Well, that’s always good to hear,” Joanna Greene said. “Here I am looking for my purse that I left here and look what I come up with…you had Brandon searching for you up until the time that the party started…we had to force him to leave…we assumed you’d turn up eventually…and you did…”

  Joanna Greene tossed Natalie’s wet clothes off in a corner to the side, and she stood in nothing more than the bra and panties that she’d dressed in that morning.

  “We’ll stick these wet clothes in the dryer on the way out,” Joanna suggested.

  “I can’t go anywhere,” Natalie said timidly. “I don’t have a dress…”

  Joanna Greene reached for a tissue from the box on the marble countertop and started to wipe Natalie’s face clean. Natalie watched the woman purse her lips in thought.

  “Hmm, hold that thought,” the woman said, dropping the tissue and walking back into bedroom. Moments later, the woman returned a black, floor-length, open-backed number, with tasteful sequins, three-quarter length sleeves, and a plunging V-neck.

  “We look around the same size,” Joanna Greene said. “I think that it would look great on you…”

  Natalie held up her hands in protest. “Joanna, I can’t accept this…”

  “Natalie, please, I would be offended if you didn’t accept the dress…it would look magnificent on you…and I’m sure that Brandon would love to see you in it…I have no problems letting you be a princess for the night…”

  “Joanna, I…”

  “Jo, call me Jo…”

  “Jo, I can’t accept this, it’s too much…what if I mess it up?”

  Joanna Greene shrugged. “Take it to dry cleaning in the morning…no problem…”

  Natalie couldn’t understand why the woman was being so friendly or what made her give so easily. But she sighed. It was a pretty dress, and she did need to get to that party before it was too late. After all, she was already an hour late.

  “Natalie,” Joanna Greene sang, dancing the dress in front of her. “I have matching shoes…”

  Natalie accepted. She had a clue that this woman wouldn’t stop until she agreed and she simply didn’t have the time to waste.

  Joanna Greene helped her pull the dress up, zip it in the back, and the brown girl examined herself in the mirror. She had to admit that she looked good, and if her words weren’t enough to win Brandon back, she had this…

  They blow dried her hair and Natalie assembled it in the best and simplest and most efficient way she could, opting for a side-parted chignon, and Joanna handed her a pair of black chandelier earrings and the pair of black stilettos, that, when she put them on, made her a giant.

  “Now, step back for a second, let me get a good look at you,” Joanna Greene said, pushing the girl back, looking her up and down.

  And the woman smiled softly, sighing to herself, and she said, “You look like an angel, honey…now let’s get going…”

  She’d wanted to thank Joanna for helping her, but there wasn’t time. She spent most of the car ride thinking of what she’d say to Brandon, how he’d react when he saw her, hoping that he wouldn’t completely shun her, hoping that he’d understand, hoping that he’d believe her.

  He had to…

  . . .

  The oldest hotel in all of Saratoga, the Inn was a renovated green Victorian home, set peacefully on Broadway, quaintly decorated with flowers, nineteenth century trimmings, and the occasional portrait of some famous person who’d visited over the span of its one hundred or so years of existence.

  Joanna took Natalie by the hand, took her through the lobby that smelled of fresh linen and old wood, past a series of rooms on the first floor, to the Grand Ballroom, dimly lit, with hardwood flooring, round tables, dressed in burgundy cloth about, and a long white table overlooking the small dance floor where Jack and Martha sat, snuggled close to each other.

  When Joanna and Natalie entered the room John was giving a toast. Joanna had pushed the door so hard that it caused John to slip up his words a little and caused a few of the listeners to turn and look in their direction.

  Joanna and Natalie snickered at each other and scurried to the first open chairs that they saw.

  John finished his toast and Mark stood up next, keeping his short and sweet, telling his parents how much they meant to him, explaining that he learned what love really meant from them.

  “And blah, blah, blah,” Joanna whispered, causing Natalie to laugh, causing the old, white-haired couple that shared the table with them to stare at her.

  Natalie shamefully cleared her throat, then watched as Brandon stood up next, looking very handsome in his black suit and combed and parted hair. Her stomach felt funny.

  “Forty years is an outstanding achievement,” he began, clearing his throat. “Especially in a time, like today, where relationships beckon so many uncertainties, so many problems. Forty years is an outstanding achievement because love takes patience, love takes understanding…takes an understanding of each other’s differences, takes compromise, takes communication, takes an appreciation of where each comes from, and loving that, and going along with that…”

  Natalie watched as Brandon cut his eyes to his mother subtly before clearing his throat and continuing.

  “Because of the example that my wonderful parents set before me, I was able to find love with someone who is starkly different from me, who, I can honestly say, I barely have anything in common with…no, we don’t make any sense together…but, we feel so right together…and…what my parents need to understand is that I love her…[Brandon looks at his mother]…I really, really love her…and marrying her is something that I’ve always dreamed of doing…you can’t stop me…you can’t…you can’t fucking stop me…”

  Brandon dropped the microphone that he was holding, Mark and Matt stood up, grabbing at him, but he shoved then off, ducking through a side door.

  Joanna leaned into her. “If ever there was a time to go after him, Natalie…this would be it…”

  She didn’t hesitate. She stood up from her seat, while the guests of the Greene Anniversary party sat in silence, while the Greene parents looked completely dumbfounded. She scurried in her long black gown across the dance floor, in front of the Greene coupling, watching the Greene brothers eye her, watching Martha’s mouth drop, through the side door, which her fiancé had gone, which lead toward the outdoors.

  He hadn’t gone far. He sat on a set of steps, leading from the door. The rain had stopped. His head was lowered with defeat and he ran his fingers through his thick hair, spouting, “Fuck,” with frustration, burying his face in his hands, before he knew that she was standing there.

  She gathered the dress between her fingers, descended a couple of stairs, kneeling before him, her fingers, graz
ing at his knees. He looked down at her, his eyes reddened and puffy.

  He shoved her off. “Natalie, go away…”

  She touched him again.

  He pushed her away again. “Stop it…you drive me crazy…you make me say things that I shouldn’t say…you made me curse at my parents…you made me chase you…I can’t stand you, you know that? You make me do things that I don’t like doing…I fucking can’t stand you…what am I supposed to do if you go away for real? What am I supposed to do without you, huh?”

  She heard his voice break.

  She touched him, sliding her hands up his thighs, pressing her forehead against his. “I’m not going anywhere, baby…”

  And he looked at her. “Can you promise me that? Can you?”

  She kissed his lips once, savored the taste, the feel and sighed. “Yes, I think that I can…”

  A Chandler Christmas

  JOANNA WAYLAND hailed from Brooklyn. She was born into a roman catholic Irish family of five children in a tight brownstone in historic Cobble Hill. With her intelligence, sassiness, and overall rebellious demeanor, she was able to stand out from the rest of her siblings, and equally managed to send her strict, religious parents in an uproar, only giving them relief when she was accepted at Harvard University back in the nineties. She initially studied business, because of her parent’s strong desire for her to do so, but it wasn’t till she met tall, handsome Mark Greene, an apprentice to the pastry chef at a restaurant in Cambridge, that she discovered her love of cooking, pushing her to leave school, move in with him, and make the moves to start a business of their own.

  Jo’s Dessert & Coffee of Vinegar Hill…

  When Mark brought the fiery, bohemian redhead with her feather earrings, floor-length sundress and liberal aura home to meet the parents, Martha Greene wasn’t at all pleased, citing the fact that Jo was a little “too wild” for conservative Mark. Nevertheless, they married two months later on a whim in Las Vegas, only making Martha Greene angrier. Julie Ann Greene came a year later.

  “It’s a catholic thing,” Jo explained over the phone to Natalie nearly a month following the Saratoga anniversary party disaster. “Not a racial thing. Mother’s are far more protective of their sons. Trust me, I have four brothers and I swear that my mother was trying to set them up with anyone and everyone in Cobble Hill. Don’t worry, she’ll get over it…”

  Natalie couldn’t explain why she immediately attached to Joanna, why their phone conversations from Georgia to New York and vice versa lasted so long, why she started asking her future sister-in-law questions about her wedding, why she was just so cool, and so easy to talk to that you would never be able to suspect that she was the mother of a three-year-old girl, and she couldn’t understand why Asha and Maya and Sidney were so bothered when she informed them that she’d elected Joanna to be the fourth bridesmaid.

  “Nat, seriously,” Asha began as they window-shopped in downtown Athens a few days before Thanksgiving.

  Maya and Sidney came down to visit for a couple of days to help her select a dress.

  “Don’t you think that this is all happening a little too fast?” Maya suggested.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Asking this girl to be your bridesmaid…” Maya said, locking her arm with hers.

  “What’s so fast about it?”

  “You barely know her…” Asha added, reaching for her other arm.

  “We’re getting to know each other,” Natalie explained, stopping in front of Eve’s Dress Shoppe. “She’s a great person…”

  “We haven’t even met the girl,” Sidney said. “How do we know that she’s not some psychopath?”

  “That’s a little overdramatic, don’t you think?” Natalie chuckled. “Girls, trust me, I wouldn’t be trying to get to know her if I thought she was crazy…besides, Brandon’s practically in love with her…and I trust his opinion…you people are being silly…”

  “Sure, we’re silly,” Asha began. “Because we’re trying to look out for you…”

  “How can you be so judgmental of someone you’ve never met before?”

  “And when will we meet this person?” Sidney asked.

  “The holidays,” Natalie said. “I’ve invited her and Brandon’s brother, Mark, down here for New Years…”

  “This just gets better and better, doesn’t it?” Maya said, throwing her hands in the air with exasperation. “Soon, she’ll be planning it for you!”

  “Not true,” Natalie replied, rolling her eyes.

  She decided then to refrain from telling them about the fact that she not only elected Joanna to be her bridesmaid, she also asked her to do the wedding cake and the hors d’oeuvres for the reception, and that she’d agreed with no charge…

  “You’re about to be family,” Jo had told her, chuckling. “We’ll just put it on your tab…”

  #

  There was very little money for the wedding. They hadn’t saved very much, choosing to spend the money that they didn’t spend, on their individual rent and other bills on groceries, on gifts, plane tickets and clothes. Helen Chandler refused to put any money forth for the wedding, and after the scene they’d made at Jack and Martha’s fortieth wedding anniversary dinner, the Greenes were certainly less than thrilled about laying any money on the table as well.

  Brandon and Natalie each sat down in the house on Trent road, a few days following the Thanksgiving holiday, compiled a list of the people that they really wanted to come, including friends and family, excluding those acquaintances that they hadn’t talk to in years. Narrowing the list down meant that they would be feeding less mouths, thus, they could bend the cost a little, which meant that Natalie could spend a little bit more money on the dress she wanted. They opted on not sending out engagement announcements, throwing an engagement party, or any other cheesy, rather unnecessary pre-nuptial event. Natalie could only focus on the wedding day itself. And finally, after establishing the tiny budget of two thousand dollars, they realized that they couldn’t afford going on a honeymoon, or, at least the one that they’d dreamed of going on. At the point that they sat on the couch, they realized that they could barely afford a hotel room.

  Natalie tried to assure him that all she wanted to do was marry him, and all the frills and fancies of the wedding didn’t matter to her.

  But they did.

  She internally admitted that she was one of those girls who hung a pillowcase off the back of her head, pretending as she were a bride, marrying whatever snot-nosed boy she had a crush on at the time. She’d always wanted the dream wedding, always wanted the big, white princess dress, always wanted to get married in the church she grew up in. But, as she watched her fiancé fumble through his financial records, as if he were trying to search for some hidden money that he’d stashed away and forgotten about, she couldn’t help but feel her heart fall at the sight, watching those dreams crumble right before her eyes.

  “Two thousand isn’t a lot,” Brandon began, as they got ready for bed. “But, we can make it work, can’t we? I mean, I know my way around a computer, we can make invitations on there, and Maya’s pretty nifty, she can do flower arrangements and stuff like that…”

  “Sure…” she agreed, climbing into bed beside him.

  He pulled her near him, exhaled when they got settled, and he reached over and turned off his lamplight.

  “It’s not the end of the world,” he whispered to her in the darkness, sensing her unease. “We can make this work…”

  Sure, they could. If they could dump their significant others at the drop of a hat just to be together, curse at their parents, create a scene in front of hundreds of guests at an anniversary dinner, then they could definitely make this work…

  She told Jo about her financial woes while en route to Decatur for Christmas. She’d taken off two weeks from work to be with her family and she planned on enjoying it, and, in the process, trying to convince her mother that Brandon was still the person that she intended to spend the rest of h
er life with.

  “That’s a sticky situation,” Joanna Greene said with a sigh. “But, what you should realize is, is the fact that not every wedding has to be the huge, grand affair that we all dream about…in the end, it’s about you and Brandon…it may not be what you dreamed of, but being surrounded by your friends and family and the love of your life should be enough satisfaction…”

  Although Jo made so much sense, she couldn’t help but feel the same, considering herself spoiled, childish and selfish, knowing that Brandon was putting up twice as much money as she was and yet she still wanted more.

  But she kept quiet. She knew that that would be the best thing, knew that it would keep the tension at bay, and she tried to convince herself that it was just one day…just one day…

  Brandon elected to spend the holidays with her and her family in Georgia, and she thought that they’d made progress when Helen hesitantly agreed to let him stay on the couch in the den.

  “He won’t enjoy himself,” Helen huffed, fumbling around in the kitchen over Thanksgiving. “Why doesn’t he spend Christmas with his own family? Won’t they miss him sitting at the dining room table in front of a dry turkey and runny cranberry sauce? Won’t they miss him sitting by the marble fireplace, sipping on high-end tea and singing terrible renditions of Christmas carols? Why on earth would he want to miss out on all of that fun?”

  “Because he wants to spend the holidays with me,” Natalie said firmly, folding her arms. “He wants the southern Christmas experience…and I think that this is the best place to get that, don’t you, Mama?”

  “Fine,” Helen Chandler said. “But does the boy have to stay in the house?”

  “Yes, Mama, yes he does. If you’d like, he can sleep in my bed with me…”

  Natalie knew that this would irk her mother, and she anticipated the moment that her mother’s lips would curl tightly, as if she were imagining the idea of her daughter’s white fiancé with his arms wrapped around her, kissing and rubbing on her. Oh, what a travesty!

  “Natalie Savannah, no such nonsense will go on during Christmas. He’ll sleep on the couch, right in front of the Christmas tree. And he’ll help your grandmother and I put the presents under the tree for your cousins.”