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

by Aimee Brown

  “Wow! This place is busy!” People are spilling out of the front doors, laughing, drinking, and just overall partying, as one does in Cancun on vacation. “Come on.”

  We push our way through the crowd and look around the busy bar for the rest of our party. Someone waving from the private balcony above us grabs my attention. Evan.

  “They’re up there!” I point towards his grinning face.

  “Perfect! We wanted to get the balcony but weren’t sure we could at such short notice.” We squeeze through a crowd full of scantily clad half naked bodies towards the stairs, and the man guarding the VIP rope nods towards us without a word while allowing us through.

  “It’s so hot in here,” I yell to Lily over the music, as I follow her to the top.

  “It’s Mexico, Ems. It’s always hot, everywhere.”

  It’s so hot that I think my hair is sweating, but I continue up the stairs and hope there is air conditioning in the VIP room.

  “Finally! What took you so long?” Jack kisses my lips.

  “Lily…” I roll my eyes with a laugh. “She just had to look perfect.” I look across the room at her and Josh already making out in a corner by themselves. “I’m not sure why we are having a party to watch them have sex in public. It’s kinda gross.”

  “They’re not gonna have sex. That would be disgusting.” Evan takes a swig of his beer. “We leave disgusting to me, remember?” He winks at the only other bridesmaid that made the trek from Oregon to Mexico.

  “No,” I shake my finger at him. “Lily will be pissed if you screw her cousin,” I say, using the only demanding tone I know.

  “Lily will never know,” he and Jack both laugh. “Right?”

  “I know you have like zero morals about this stuff, just don’t do it here, please?” I beg Evan to try and keep it in his pants, but I know he’ll never listen. He never does.

  “I got you a drink,” Jack points at the Cosmo on the table in front of him.

  I take a giant slurp, hoping it doesn’t go to war and piss off the burrito from earlier. “Please promise me that if we ever were to get married that we won’t have bachelor/bachelorette parties?”

  “Promised. Really, aren’t they just an excuse to do something dirty right before the wedding?” I glance back at Josh and Lily, still making out in the corner. “I thought so, but apparently, in this case, it’s just to make the rest of us feel dirty.”

  “They’re just in love,” Jack smiles over at them. “Dirty love.” His scrunched-up disgusted face matches my own, as we laugh at his joke.

  You can only drink in a hundred degree room for so long before you feel like you’re going to have a stroke. An hour was about all it took for us to decide to take our party outside to the beach.

  *

  “Where’s Josh?” Lily asks after she finally realizes he’s not lying on the sand with us.

  “Maybe he went to get another drink?” Jack says, never moving from his star gazing position.

  “Evan’s gone too, so I’m sure that’s where they are.” I glance around at the indentations that held all six of us just thirty minutes ago. “Wait…” I sit up and look around again. I may be seeing slight doubles of things, after a couple of Cosmo’s in a hundred degree room, but I know I’m missing a complete person here. “Corinne is gone too.”

  “Yes, as close as she and Evan were getting in the bar I’d say—” Jack groans suddenly, probably because of my elbow in his ribs. “I mean…”

  “What?!” Lily shrieks. “Evan is with Corinne?”

  “No…” I quickly denounce the idea of Lily’s engaged cousin Corinne doing anything she shouldn’t with my brother. “Maybe she went back to the hotel? I’m sure Evan is wherever Josh is.”

  “Let’s go,” Lily jumps up but stumbles backwards, catching herself on a nearby lounger. “Your brother will not defile another of my friends or family members.”

  “Come on, Lil…” Jack is starting to slur his words, which is a rare occasion and I’m sure is only happening because absolutely no one from his family or work is even in the same country as us right now. “Evan has always had a way with the ladies, you know that.” The perverted tone coming from my boyfriend is somewhat disturbing. He’s supposed to be the gentleman of the guys. “It’s not like he forces them to have sex with him. They just do.” He bursts into a giggle as he lies back on the sand.

  “Nice.” Lily stares over at Jack with a glare. “It’s good to know you lost your class at my wedding.”

  “I didn’t lose anything. I’m just sworn to the truth right now because I’ve had way too much to drink today.”

  “Don’t fight!” I yell. “Let’s just go find Josh and Evan,” I try to hold everything together but wrangling emotional drunks to get along is about as effective as herding a flock of seagulls.

  “And Corinne,” Lily adds, like I had forgotten her.

  “Yes, Corinne too.”

  “There are at least five bars between here and our hotel, we’re gonna search them all?”

  “That’s right. And no more to drink for you,” Lily points directly at Jack who only grins.

  “He’s been demoted to bottled water, so no worries there,” I say, hoping that the acid bubbling in my throat is just heartburn and not the attempted reappearance of the previously mentioned burrito.

  The first bar we walk into appears to be a dirty dive bar. Like the kind you actually walk out of wishing you could take a shower. It’s so dark you can hardly see but a few people ahead of you. There is a band playing with strobe lights flashing so the thirty minutes we search is pointless. If one more person grinds against me in here I’m gonna be sick for sure.

  “I think this is an after hours bar.” Jack glances around the next one, his eyes as big as saucers. On the bar are three mostly naked women (I’m not sure if sequined barely there underwear even counts as clothing) dancing in heels so high it hurts me just to look at them.

  “Do you see them?” Lily yells over the swanky music playing overhead. I shake my head, trying to avoid eye contact with just about every person in there for fear of catching some kind of airborne STD. “I’m just going to ask the bartender,” Lily shouts.

  “Jack and I will wait outside.” I turn to grab Jack but he’s no longer at my side. “Shit.” Maybe he’s already gone outside? It is packed in here, and he’s not exactly thinking straight this evening. Of all the places to lose him, why did it have to be a topless bar?

  I shove my way through the crowd and reach the sidewalk only to see Jack sitting on a bench out front. Sitting is an overstatement, he’s kind of curled into the fetal position with his head hanging off the edge of the bench, holding onto a pole that acts as a bus stop sign. A nearly naked, definitely topless woman is sitting next to him, giggling at whatever it is he’s just said to her.

  “Jack!”

  “Ems, I was just asking this lady if she’d seen them.” He jumps up, still holding the pole for balance, and grabs my hand. “I found hher,” he slurs to the woman, who is now looking at the two of us and is a lot less giggly than she was a moment earlier.

  “They haven’t seen them.” Lily comes up behind us looking more than frazzled. “This is the worst party ever!” Her voice quivers as she says it, cuing me as to what is coming next.

  “Please don’t cry,” I say, as tears start to roll down her cheeks. “Maybe they got confused and went back to the hotel?”

  “Less go check,” Jack slurs into my face, causing me to fan the beer smell away.

  “How about we agree to not breathe directly onto one another?” I say with a roll of my eyes.

  “Deal.” He reaches down and takes my hand in his, pulling it to his lips to kiss it, missing on the first try but succeeding on the second. “See… Shtill a gentleman.” He says to Lily with a hair lipped smile.

  “Come on.” I lead him down the street by his hand, my shoes in my other one. “I’m sure they’re at the hotel,” I say to Lily, but of course she’s no longer standing ne
xt to me. “Lil?” I call out. “For Christ’s sake, can we stop losing people?” I turn to Jack who is pointing past me.

  “She went that way.”

  I follow his finger but she’s not there either.

  “Great. How did I end up the soberest out of all of us?” I look over at Jack’s goofy smile and laugh.

  “I know, normally that’sh me.”

  “I think I like it better that way.” I frown at my grown man-child, stumbling along the sidewalk next to me, staring at the sky instead of where he’s walking.

  “I need to sssit,” he says suddenly, lurching towards a giant palm bush and landing head first in the middle of it, his arms and legs flailing loosely until they hit the ground in a sort of star-fish position.

  I drop my head back and sigh. “Let’s lie down for a few minutes.”

  I help him to the beach just a few feet away, steering him towards a lounger and making sure he’s not going to fall off before settling myself into the one next to him.

  The air is warm, even with the slight breeze. The moon reflects off the ocean in a way that almost makes it so bright that you feel like it’s not night time at all. I’ve never seen a sky prettier than the one above me. It’s like you have to fall in love with the tropical atmosphere.

  I look over to Jack who is peacefully sleeping off the few drinks he’s had. He’s a lightweight so I knew if he let loose this would happen. He never allows himself to lose control so I can’t possibly complain about one time. Even though he’s snoring obnoxiously, and all my friends are missing, there is something romantic about this exact moment.

  “Jack?” I ask a few moments later, sort of checking to make sure he’s still alive.

  He mumbles something under his breath.

  “If we ever got married, I’d want to do it here, with just the people closest to us, without all the alcohol and stress, but just us. Ya know? It seems so much easier than all the fuss of a real wedding. It would be so romantic.”

  He only groans over at me. I’m kind of glad he doesn’t totally hear what I’m saying because we haven’t talked about marriage at all. We’ve been together for three years and not once has he hinted that we should get married. He’s always so focused on the next step in his career that I don’t think it’s honestly even on his mind.

  Our relationship is great, so why change it? But with my friends getting married I’m starting to feel a little left out. I mean… I’m twenty-six years old; I feel like this is the marrying age if there was one. I’m done with college, I’m working in a career I don’t hate and I’ve no doubt that Jack is the one, so maybe I should mention it… preferably when he’s not passed out on a lounger next to me.

  “Ems…” Jack groans at me, causing me to jerk awake and try to figure out where I am. I look over at him, no longer on the lounger but lying in the sand between the chairs we were originally in. “Why are we on the beach?”

  I glance around. It’s not as dark as it was when we sat down here so I pull my phone from my pocket and check the time. 4:33 a.m. We’ve been lying out here since just after 1 a.m. and we must’ve fallen asleep.

  “We stopped because you were dizzy, remember? We can head back to our room now. Do you feel OK?”

  “No…” he half laughs as he rubs his head. “But I can make it back.” He sits up and looks over at me, his dark hair falling across his forehead, his skin pale, and yet he’s still absolutely gorgeous. “I think this is the first time I’ve been this drunk.”

  “In front of me for sure.”

  “Well, that’s a change,” he laughs, as I try and pull him off the ground.

  “That it is.”

  “I had a dream that we got married.” His smile is faint, but his eyes are locked on mine. He must’ve heard me earlier. “We got married right here, with the moon in the background.”

  “Oh yeah?” I ask, pretending I have no idea why he’d dream that.

  “Yeah, it was…” he stops walking, obviously searching for a word to use. “Beautiful,” he reaches up, touching my face and gently kissing my lips. “Just like you.”

  My heart melts. How could I not be happy to hear that?

  “Thanks, Jack. Let’s get you back.”

  *

  I slide the hotel card key into the suite we are all staying in and watch the flash of the green light before the door pops open and Jack pushes his way through like a bull in a china shop.

  “Hello, bed,” he says as he walks down the hall to our room.

  “Let me just make sure everyone got back,” I say, watching him fall face first into our bed.

  I knock quietly on Corinne’s door. She doesn’t answer so I crack the door open to make sure she’s at least in bed. She is… But so is Evan. Obviously, they have been up to no good, considering I’m standing on their clothes near the doorway.

  “EVAN!” I half whisper, poking him in the back. “EVAN!”

  “What?” He groans, opening one eye.

  “Get back in your room or Lily will kill you when she gets up. What is wrong with you? Corinne is engaged!”

  “So… It’s not like we’re the ones getting married tomorrow.”

  “Just go!” I toss his clothes at him and watch him kick off the blankets, holding his wad of clothes over his nether regions and tiptoe back to his room across the hall. “Not a word of this to anyone!”

  “Whatever, Mom.” His door clicks shut behind him.

  I glance in at Jack, who isn’t moving but has somehow managed to strip himself and is now lying completely naked on top of the covers, his bare ass exposed to anyone looking in through the wall of windows.

  “Lil?” I crack her door enough so that the light shines directly onto the bed, giving me the perfect vision of her and Josh doing things I never even wanted to imagine they did. “OH MY GOD!” I squeal.

  “EMI!” Lily yells and tosses a pillow towards the door.

  “Sorry!” I yell through the crack, quickly shutting the door. “Shit.” I race into my own room, shut the door, and close the curtains so Jack doesn’t gain a crowd when it’s light outside.

  Right then it hits me: not the alcohol because I barely drank tonight, but the burrito. I barely make it to the bathroom before the burrito makes a second appearance.

  I don’t remember sleeping for the next few hours on the bathroom floor but I’m awoken by Jack, using the toilet in the same way I remember using it last.

  “I’m never drinking again,” he moans, lying down next to me and wrapping his arms around me. “Why are you in here?”

  “Bad burrito last night.”

  We both lie on the floor, me using his chest as a pillow, for the next hour until he finally feels well enough to take a shower and get dressed.

  “Wedding is in eight hours,” he stands in the doorway looking as handsome as ever in his cargo shorts and white button up t-shirt. It’s almost as if he didn’t just have the first hangover of his life.

  “I’m so sick,” I cry from the floor, wishing I’d never had gone to that burrito stand with Evan yesterday. “Is Evan sick?” He’d better be; it’s only fair.

  “I dunno, sweetie. I’ll go get you some aspirin and find out.”

  I hear the door open a few minutes later, but it’s not Jack’s flip-flops in front of me, it’s Evan’s chucks.

  “What the hell? Jack said you’re sick from the burrito stand yesterday?”

  “You’re not?”

  “Nope…” he pats his non-existent gut. “I feel great.”

  “You are a disgusting human being.” I push his calf in an attempt to force him out of my bathroom.

  “Why’s that?” He kneels down to where I’m still sprawled across the floor.

  “Because you screw everything.”

  “Oh, come on now… not everything. I have some standards.” His sly smile makes me feel even sicker.

  “I brought you Evan’s hangover cure,” Jack walks in behind Evan. “Come on…” He helps me walk to the bed and sits a tray of bur
nt toast, juice, and aspirin in front of me.

  “But I don’t have a hangover, I have a burrito-over.”

  Jack laughs. “Eat, babe, and I’m sure you’ll start to feel better.”

  He sits with me as I try to force down the toast, rubbing my back and being supportive even though I feel like I should be doing this for him.

  The toast doesn’t help. I race to the bathroom to throw up, collapsing on the bathroom floor until Lily comes in and maintains that she can’t wait any longer. I have to get ready.

  I sit in a chair on the balcony, the sun beating down on me, as she fixes my hair and makeup. Jack practically carries me to the beach and all the way down the aisle, insisting the entire way that despite my being sick, I’m still the most beautiful woman there.

  Somehow, with Jack’s help, holding me upright throughout the ceremony, I make it all the way through without even needing to use the prettiest trash can Lily could find for me to hold just in case, my bouquet taped to the front of it. Then nearly as miraculously as it came on, it was gone.

  I lie on the bed in Jack and my room the next morning feeling terrible for how things went. “That was a miserable time, wasn’t it?”

  “It wasn’t too bad.”

  “Did I ruin her day? I couldn’t live with myself if I did.”

  Jack sits next to me, pulling me against him and allowing me to rest my head on his shoulder.

  “She’s as happy as she’s ever been. So, it’s safe to say you haven’t ruined anything.” He kisses my forehead. “I heard what you said the other night, about wanting to get married on the beach.”

  For a second my heart stops and my ears turn scalding hot, the same way they used to when I knew I was in trouble as a kid.

  “You did?” Why on earth did I say it out loud? Every girl knows not to mention marriage first. It only scares men away.

  “I did,” He grins. “And I agree… It would be perfect.”

  “Yeah?” My heart starts pounding in my chest, wondering if he’s going to ask me to marry him right this second.