The Lucky Dress: A perfect feel good holiday romance for summer 2018

by Aimee Brown

  While he’s preoccupied with finding the irreplaceable family heirloom I run to the stairwell. When I hear the heavy door boom behind me a flight up I know I might make a getaway without him. I continue to run three blocks before dodging into a parking garage.

  “Are you OK?” I hear a voice behind me and realize I’m leaning on this man’s car, sobbing. “Can I get you some help?”

  I shake my head and wander in a daze to the garage stairwell. I collapse onto one of the stairs and start sobbing into my own knees. Jack is the one guy who I thought would never ever do this to me. I fell in love with him almost the first moment we met and now he throws it all away for some receptionist. How humiliating will it be to have to tell people the wedding is off and why? I mean, Jack can move on with his new piece of ass but I’m the one who didn’t measure up. I’m the one who didn’t deserve to know that things weren’t going well. I’m the one who Jack apparently didn’t really want to marry and he chose to tell me like this? Yet again, I’m the one who wasn’t wanted. I can’t face him. I can’t face any of them.

  I pull my phone from my bag and tap Lily’s name.

  “Can I come over?” the sobs I’ve tried to hold back pour into the phone.

  “Of course, are you crying?! What happened?”

  “Crying? Yeah. It’s a long story. I’ll be there in a few.”

  How do I explain over the phone that I just caught my fiancé, the man I loved more than anything in the world, underneath his nearly nude receptionist two days before our wedding? How could this happen? How could I have not seen this coming? I thought there were always signs of a cheating boyfriend, but I sure didn’t see any. He can’t possibly be that good a liar, can he?

  “What happened?” Lily ushers me into her apartment an hour or so later, wearing a look of worry I haven’t seen since my mother died.

  I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I saw on my way over and I don’t feel good about it, but at least I found out before I was standing in front of a church full of people that would silently judge me.

  “He’s cheating,” my voice cracks again as I try to hold back the seemingly never ending sobbing. I walk across the room, throwing myself face first onto her couch. “I caught him with Madison in his office.”

  “You what? No way, Ems, Jack would never—”

  “He did!” I jerk up off the couch and yell it at her like poison. “It’s been replaying in my head for the last hour. I saw it! I’m not just imagining things. She was on him. ON him, Lily.” I exaggerate the words so she understands just how serious this is. Life altering, really.

  “It doesn’t make sense? Jack adores you.”

  “Apparently not enough to keep his hands off his receptionist.” I lie back on the couch and cover my face with a blanket draped over the back. “Maybe I wasn’t enough. Maybe he got in too deep and didn’t know how to tell me he wanted out? It’s not like we’re from the same worlds. Let’s face it, Lil, we both know Jack is way out of my league. He could have anyone he wanted. Madison, Claudia Schiffer, Kendall Kardashian, even you! I just don’t know how I didn’t see it coming? Am I really that unlovable…”

  *

  I’m not sure what happened; one minute I’m sobbing and rambling to Lily about Jack, and the next I hear a door shutting and Lily is walking in with a pizza, her husband Josh behind her carrying two bottles of wine.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  “Um, you stopped making sense about five minutes into your story so I may or may not have slipped you a Xanax.” Lily attempts a guilty smile. “After that, you cried yourself to sleep, and I have been declining Jack’s calls all afternoon.”

  “And I heard about all the crying and thought some booze was in order,” Josh says, not wasting any time filling his plate with a pile of pizza and shoving my legs off the couch so he can sit in his usual spot in front of the TV.

  “He called?” I pull the blanket off and make my way across the room to the wine.

  “Yeah, he called you, he called me, he called Josh, he even called Evan. I finally answered and agreed I’d try to convince you to go talk to him later.”

  “No way.” I pour wine into the biggest milk glass I can find, all the way to the top, with Lily side eyeing me from the opposite side of the table.

  “That’s a lot of wine.”

  “Not yet it isn’t.”

  “Can I give you some advice?” Josh talks in between pizza bites. Putting down a plate of food, no matter how serious the situation may be, has never been Josh’s strong point.

  “Do you have to?” I ask, more than irritated, having no patience for stupid ideas right now.

  “Go and talk to him. This isn’t like Jack. I’m sure there’s more to the story.” He bites off the end of a piece of pizza. “I’m not saying go over there and forgive him and take him back, but at least hear him out.”

  I down half the glass of wine and set it on the table. “He doesn’t deserve to be heard. I saw what I saw and even if Madison somehow accidentally fell on top of him, how did her clothes accidentally get strewn across the room?”

  “True enough, still, doesn’t seem like something Jack, of all people, would do.”

  As Josh speaks, I drink down the other half of the glass of wine and set it on the table.

  “Fine. He gets five minutes. Drive me?” I ask Lily who nods, grabbing her purse and keys from the chair next to her.

  *

  Jack and I live in a high-rise building on the river downtown. We are on the fifteenth floor and our apartment was originally overlooking the river and city beyond it, but after we moved in they started construction on a building next to ours and now our view is the living room of the elderly couple next door. Thankfully, they keep their curtains closed most of the time and when they don’t they spend a lot of time waving every single time we walk into the room.

  I make my way to the elevator, glancing in both directions before sliding my key card and choosing my floor. When the elevator doors slide open on the fifteenth floor, I hear it, Jack’s voice.

  Our apartment is only a door away from the elevator so we often hear loud conversations as people make their way down the hall to their apartments. I make my way to the edge of the elevator, peering around the wall, hoping not to be seen.

  “What are you doing here?” Jack asks a woman standing at our door. She’s tall, lanky, wearing shorts that could cross over as lingerie and a hooded jacket that is covering just enough of her that I can only see long blonde hair draped down her chest.

  “I heard you’re newly single and thought you might need someone to talk to?” She runs her perfectly manicured finger down the front of his t-shirt before standing on her tiptoes and planting her lips on his cheek. “I’m a great listener.”

  Ugh! I’d know her fake woe-is-me voice anywhere. Greta. The girl who’s been flirting with Jack since the day she met him, despite knowing that he’s with me.

  I can almost audibly hear my heart burst in my chest for the second time today, and rain down through my insides, crushing any hopeful feelings that were still hanging on.

  Jack says nothing, only opens the door for her to enter and steps aside as she does, closing the door behind her.

  “What in the holy fuck?” I say in a near whisper as I step back into the elevator. I can barely breathe or even think about what to do next. All I can see is my wedding day and me standing at the front of the church, watching Jack try and decide if I’m the right choice out of the three girls it appears he’s got lined up.

  He knows I hate Greta. She’s made my life miserable because she thinks I’m not good enough for Jack, and now not only is she in my apartment but him letting her in there pretty much shows me what choice he’s made.

  I slide my card through the elevator keycard reader and click the button for the lobby. As I walk through it I don’t even know what I feel. I want to say rage but it’s not, it’s more numbness than anything else. I’m humiliated.

  “What happe
ned?” Lily asks as I slide into her car silently.

  “Is Josh still considering the transfer to Dallas?”

  Josh is from Dallas, he went to medical school in Portland and was recently offered an opportunity to work at the same hospital his father works at. I was devastated when I heard my best friend would probably be moving thousands of miles away but maybe this is how things were meant to be.

  “Yeah…”

  “How do you feel about taking me with you?” Sometimes, life throws something at you that you have escaped. Sometimes, you just need a new life.

  “Emi, what happened up there?”

  “He let Greta into our apartment. She kissed him. He didn’t turn her away.” I glance over at Lily, a single tear sliding down my cheek before I can wipe it away. “I can’t stay here, Lil. I’m mortified. I can’t face all those people expecting to see us get married this weekend.”

  “Oh my God, Emi. I’m so sorry. Yes. I won’t say a word, it’ll be a fresh new start,” Lily rubs my back for a moment before finally putting the car in drive and leaving behind what I thought was my perfect life.

  Three

  Working Up The Nerve

  Present Day

  Dallas, Texas

  “Today is the day, huh? Are you nervous?” Alisha, the assistant manager at The Coffee Bean, my coffee shop, knows good and well that I’m nervous.

  I’m pretty sure it’s all I’ve talked about for the last three months. I’ve searched high and low for reasons to not go to this wedding but Evan, my twin brother, and also the groom, won’t approve of any of them.

  “I think you owe it to yourself really. It’ll be a chance to prove that you really are over him.”

  “You can stop making sense now,” I say as I sit at my desk staring at the email. Normally I would delete it as soon as it came in but for some reason, I just couldn’t delete this one without reading it. He wasn’t mean, or rude, or anything really. Just to the point. We need to talk, please give me at least that.

  The second it appeared I sent Lily an SOS text and she’s now on her way over at the speed of light to talk me off the cliff I’m edging towards.

  Alisha throws her hands in the air with an audible huff as she makes her way back to the counter. Hearing the business of people at the counter is a tad relieving because it means Alisha can go back to work and I can talk this through with Lily when she gets here. Don’t get me wrong, I love Alisha, but it’s hard to explain the feelings I’ve had over the last few months to a woman who’s only seen the after effects of things.

  “What happened!?” Lily says as she races through the office door.

  “He wants to talk,” I point to the opened email.

  Lily leans over me, a single eyebrow raised before she finally rolls her eyes and takes a seat in the corner.

  “I think it’s time for the speech.”

  I nod. I know she’s right. It’s actually something she came up with not long after I opened the shop. Sometimes, a girl just needs a little reassurance that she’s doing the right thing. Something she can hear herself say out loud until it becomes reality.

  “I do not need Jack Cabot. I’ve moved on, I’m happy, and my life is exactly what I wanted it to be, here, in Dallas, thousands of miles from where I once had the worst day of my life.” I recite.

  “Good… and…” she prompts.

  “I am over Jack Cabot. I don’t love him anymore and that feels great.” I almost believe myself when I say this.

  Lily nods with a smile. “See, don’t you feel better?”

  I raise a single eyebrow. “I guess so.” I don’t. In fact, it feels different this time because I know that in just a matter of days, I’ll have to finally face Jack in person. It’s easy to believe a lie when you never have to actually encounter the truth.

  “Can I get some help out here?” Alisha yells across the room. Sending Lily and I both into the crowded room. The door dings as someone leaves and when I look in that direction I swear I see the back of Jack walking away, but there’s no way. Is there? I shake my head, hoping to bring myself back to reality. He doesn’t even know I run this place. I’ve made sure of that.

  “Didn’t you tell me when we first met that the whole reason you came down here and opened this shop was to prove to yourself that someone else didn’t define you? You could be anything you wanted. You could create your own happiness. What happened to that girl?” Alisha asks, knowing that my little speech in my office didn’t exactly up my self esteem the way I’d hoped it would.

  “She sometimes temporarily flees.” I sigh as I wipe down the counters after our crowd finally dies down. “I looked him up on Facebook last night, something I promised I’d never do and despite my best wishes, he’s not fat, he’s not poor, and he’s not ugly. If anything, he looks better.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “Look at me!” I throw my hands out. “I had to be sculpted with medieval underwear to even present this bridesmaid dress at all. And he’s all suave and lady killer as usual.”

  And he had the nerve to send me the email asking for a chat making sure I would indeed be at the wedding because he had some things to get off his chest and needed to do it in person. A final farewell to make himself feel better and free himself of any lingering guilt.

  Although, I’ve been staring at this email for twenty-four hours now and it has a different ring to the ones he’d sent before. The ones where he begged me to please just see him so he could explain things. The more stubborn I was, the angrier he got. He deserved to feel what I felt.

  I don’t blame him. I mean sure, I had every right to be mad, hurt, even heartbroken but, I did leave him with having to deal with his family and the canceling of the wedding. The only people who know what happened that day are me, Lily, Jack, Josh, Madison, Greta, and Alisha. I didn’t even have the nerve to tell Evan or Hannah what actually went down because I have never been so embarrassed in all my life. I spent so many amazing years with the man of my dreams only for him to yank them away just days before our wedding.

  The Coffee Bean has helped me dump all that frustration and anger into something that’s been really good for me. Without it, I’d probably still be wallowing around Lily’s apartment watching sappy romance movies all day, eating daily cartons of Ben & Jerry’s. With the shop I’m earning a living, making some friends, and actually, having a lot of fun.

  “Do you have everything? Josh will be by to pick you up in the next ten minutes. Dress? Suitcases? Makeup? Toiletries?” she glances over my many hot pink bags sitting near the front door. She raises on eyebrow and says, “The Lucky Dress?”

  “Shhh…” I say glancing around for wherever Lily has disappeared to. “Lily and Josh can’t know about that. It’s just um… just in case.”

  “Right…” Alisha laughs, holding both hands in the air with her fingers crossed. “Just in case.”

  I don’t know what just in case means but it can’t hurt to bring it.

  The honk of the cab outside startles me out of my daydream. I start grabbing bags as the front door pulls open, Josh on his way in and Lily following me out.

  “Remember, you’re just closing the door to the past and moving on, for good. Jack Cabot does not own you, does not deserve you, and you are over him.”

  I nod, “Got it.”

  “Is this something we’re going to have to chant the whole way there?” Josh asks with a roll of his eyes.

  “Maybe…” Lily says, grabbing one of the bags and wheeling it to the back of the cab.

  “This is it! Your brother and Hannah’s wedding. Are you even a little bit excited?” Lily asks, attempting to change the subject from Jack to Evan.

  “Of course, I’m excited. Evan is my only brother. I can’t help the fact that he fell in love with my ex-fiancé’s only sister, can I?”

  “Completely out of your control,” Lily says as she pats my back with a smile.

  “Also, out of your control, whether it ends up as one big episode o
f Jerry Springer,” Josh laughs to himself until he notices that neither Lily, Alisha, or I are amused.

  “It was a joke.” He protests.

  “Call me if you have any problems, Alisha! OK, promise me?” It’s my first time leaving my newly opened coffee shop in the hands of my assistant manager and even though I know she knows everything I do, it’s hard to leave something you’ve poured your heart and soul into while avoiding the exact thing you’re leaving it for.

  “You know I will. Have fun! Lay off the stubborn thing.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I roll my eyes at Lily as I slide into the cab next to her as Josh secures our bags in the trunk.

  “She’s right, you know. Technically, whether you like it or not, Jack will be kind of family now, so you might as well take this time to learn how to let that happen without constantly needing to hate him.”

  “I don’t hate him.”

  “Really? And before Alisha convinced you to not respond to his most recent email, what would your response have been?”

  “To call you over and panic, exactly like I did. I have nothing to say anyway so Jack can just go away.”

  Josh slides in, closing the door beside him and letting out an already irritated groan. “If that was true we wouldn’t still be sitting here talking about him almost one year later like it just happened yesterday.”

  “I have an idea. Let’s just not talk about him at all!”

  “Avoidance… yes, that’s actually my favorite Jack game. I’m in.” Josh says as he snaps his seatbelt.

  “I’m in too, actually. This week isn’t about Jack or you, it’s about Evan and Hannah and I think we owe it to our friends to make sure they have the best wedding possible, without throwing in our own issues.” Lily glares through a smile.

  “Exactly. It’s like we’re one mind.” I turn my attention to the drive to the airport we’re flying out of.