Invisible Crown

by T. A. Hardenbrook

  “Well, I had Tiny pull up my pants last night after I peed.” Walking around the couch, I sunk down next to Danielle as she tried to contain her laughter. Even when you claim you’re not looking at something, you always seem to catch a small glimpse at whatever you’re trying to avoid. Last night, it was my neither region. At least I had been keeping up with my waxing appointments.

  “You let another man see the treasure chest? What next, Molly? Making your own porno? I heard it could be really profitable.”

  “I hate you.” Even with all the drama and craziness that had seemed to engulf the last couple weeks, I could always count on Danielle to bring some much needed comedic relief. However, trying on the wedding dress still didn’t give me any clues as to where Reid was. “So, you talked to Reid?”

  “Not exactly. He sent me a text at, like, four this morning. Normally, I would kill the bastard for waking me up that early, but since it was helping you, I’ll plan his assassination later.” Jumping off the couch, Danielle wandered into the kitchen and started opening the cupboards. “Coffee?”

  Pointing to the one lining the far wall, Danielle blew me an air kiss and set about making the dark roasted goodness.

  “So, after we get some of this legal pick me up in our systems, how about we try and figure out bathing you? I love you and everything, but you’re starting to smell like death. When’s the last time you washed your coochie?” Danielle bobbed her head to some invisible tune while waiting for the Keurig to spit out the coffee.

  Wiping my hand on the outside of yoga pants, I secretly brought my hand up to my nose for a quick sniff test. “I don’t smell, you bitch.”

  “You totally did the self sniff test, didn’t you?” Danielle laughed as she walked into the living room holding two oversized coffee mugs.

  “There was no odor coming from my downstairs, thank you very much.” Carefully, I grabbed the mug in my left hand, and balanced it on my crossed legs. Doing things with your left hand wasn’t exactly easy when you’d been right hand dominate for your entire life. At least it didn’t take my right hand to hold up a vibrator when needed.

  “Alright, maybe you don’t exactly smell…….yet. But you really should shower, and I’m doubting you really want Reid all up in those spots that you can’t reach now. Once again, you can pull the best friend card, and I’ll make sure your pussy gets nice and clean since you’re now officially a gimp.”

  “Seriously, how are you not married yet?” I said jokingly. Bringing the cup up to my lips, I savored the aroma as the heat tickled my nose. Coffee was my perfect drug of choice. Strong, hard, bold, and readily available on any street corner.

  “Monogamy is a hard concept to swallow, Molly. Professing your love to just one person kind of feels like a prison sentence, and while it works for some, it’s not something I’m ready to take on just yet. Besides, my gag reflex isn’t the greatest, so I work my game in other ways.”

  Shaking my head, I tried not to laugh too hard with the massive cup in my left hand. The last thing I needed was burns on my legs to add to the broken arm and smelly pussy. Broken limbs, smelly crotch, and burned legs didn’t exactly make for a sexy honeymoon.

  Glancing at my phone again, I sighed and set it down on the bathroom vanity.

  “Still nothing from Reid?” Danielle asked as she turned the faucet over to hot and pulled it on.

  Frowning, I shook my head and leaned up against the counter. “I sent him, like, four texts since getting up this morning, but nothing. Am I crazy to think that something is going to go kaboom? Danielle, something isn’t right and I’m freaking stuck in his damn house!”

  Pulling off the black booties and rolling up her skinny jeans, Danielle’s look said it all. “I have no clue to as to what is going on, but I also know it isn’t fair to you. Molly, you just have to keep that pretty head of yours held high. Everything will right itself in the world soon enough, and then you can go back to being the horribly clumsy, some what crazy, one hundred percent loveable self that you are.”

  Fighting back the tears, I forced the lump down in my throat, but refused to hang my head. I knew something like this would happen when the tramp went into labor. No matter how confident Reid was that the baby wasn’t his, there was still that sliver of chance that it could turn out to carry his DNA. The end result of that nightmare coming true would surely be life changing, but it wasn’t like there were any more options to pick from. Going about my day was the only way to survive the possible nightmare.

  “Enough pouting, let’s get you naked.” Chuckling to herself, Danielle let a stupid grin spread across her face as walked over to me. “Seriously, I think we should record this. Two hot chicks, one damaged and broken, needing help bathing in this fucktastic bathroom…….. I’m sure it would sell millions.”

  “I don’t think bathing is something that would sell millions of copies.”

  “Have you not looked at all the fetish websites? Seriously, there is a category for absolutely everything.” Danielle grabbed the edge of my tank top and began to pull it up carefully over my head. “I’ve got my phone in my purse in the kitchen.”

  I wasn’t about to splash my naked self all over the internet with some weird bathing video, but I would entertain the thought of sending a little something to Reid.

  Sliding the tank top around the long metal rods sticking up from my arm, I laughed as I stood there topless. “Grab my phone.”

  “I was only kidding, Molly.”

  “We are not making that kind of video, Danielle. But, I am game for sending Reid a little something that is waiting for him at home.” Reaching behind me, I handed my phone over to Danielle. Sure, it wouldn’t be the sexiest thing with the bruising running up my arm and all the hardware, but I could try and pull off the sex appeal Reid was constantly telling me I had.

  “This is either going to be a complete masterpiece, or brilliant failure.” Turning the phone on Danielle swiped across the screen until she came on the camera app. “Are we starting now, or when you’re naked?” Holding the phone up, I tried to stifle a giggle as Danielle reached over and fluffed my hair. “We really should wash you first, there is nothing sexy about that rats nest right now.”

  “You need to close that cockholster. Having his open all the time just seems like a gaping black hole, and while it could be sexy, it’s just not.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about, Danielle?” Carefully shifting my body in the water, I pulled myself forward in the tub, still managing to keep my arm contraption out of the heat and bubbles.

  “Your mouth, Molly. Close your damn mouth. It’s great that you have nice straight pearly whites, but your mouth has been open for the last two minutes.”

  Completely dumbfounded by her last comment, I slid over to the steps and started to crawl out of the bath. My hair was washed, my crotch had been scrubbed, and at least fifteen minutes of somewhat sexy video had been shot. Was I some hot swim suit model coming out of the roaring ocean, looking all fly and sexy like? No. But I was naked and clean and that had to count for something.

  Dropping the phone, Danielle set it down on a floating shelf, then grabbed a towel from the heated rack along the wall. “I still can’t believe all the bruising on your arm. That’s the kind of thing that’s going to take weeks to go away.” Openly gawking at my arm, I snatched the towel out of her hand and tried to wrap it around my body. “Don’t act like you are offended by that damn comment.”

  Danielle reached out and grabbed the towel back, this time helping me adjust it around my body. “Now that you are all clean, want to slip on that dress?”

  “How in the heck are we going to slide the fabric over my arm?”

  “The dress has no sleeves, it will be fine.” Blowing off my last comment, Danielle walked out of the bathroom shaking, her head. “Where did you stash that hot little number?”

  “I think Tiny put it in one of the spare bedrooms.” Grabbing my phone, I checked it again for a message from Reid, but was disappoin
ted all over again. It took everything in me to not hit the speed dial and call him, asking him what was going on and when he would be home.

  “Found it!” Danielle shouted from one of the bedrooms. “Meet me in your guy’s room.”

  Tightening the towel, I huffed and sat the phone back on the ledge. I’d send the video later if I still hadn’t heard from him. Maybe a little naked Molly would make a shitty day better. Either that, or it would hopefully give him a good laugh, since I still viewed myself about as sexy as a two bit hooker trying to dance on the lid of a garbage can.

  Chapter 19

  When the bottom falls out, make sure you have a backup plan.

  “Well, it might be a little tight,” Danielle said through clenched teeth. I could tell from just the look on her face that it didn’t look like the first time we had tried it on.

  “It’s all the fluids my body has been hanging on to since the surgery.” Turning around to face the full length mirror, I scowled as my eyes adjusted to the sight. My once beautiful slinky, soft, perfectly form fitting dress now looked like I stuffed the Michelin Man into an off-white ensemble. This was horrid, and the cast on my arm didn’t do anything for the dress either.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Well, you’ll keep drinking a shit load of water, and it will be okay.” Danielle sucked in her bottom lip and came up behind me in the mirror. “Now, the whole cast thing might be a problem.”

  Looking down at my arm, there was no way to hide the hideous contraption for the wedding. “At least I get the rods taken out the week before.”

  “See, that’s a bonus. I’m sure we can order some of that casting material shit online to match something in the color scheme. Vibrant pops of color are huge right now, so I’m sure a bright red cast would look great.” You could tell Danielle was lying out her skinny little ass.

  “I think I’d rather go with black, and you don’t have to lie to me, Danielle. I already know it’s going to be a massive eyesore.” Shaking my head, I let out a small laugh. It was going to be this gorgeous affair, with lots of rock and roll glamour and attitude. Then there would come the fat bride stuffed into her wedding dress with a black cast on her arm, stumbling down the walk way in heels.

  “We could totally do black; I’ll just switch out the draping behind the alter. See, Molly? Everything is completely fixable, unless you don’t drop this water weight. If that doesn’t happen, then I’m special ordering a mu-mu.” Danielle scooted back before I could use my good hand to swat the bitch.

  “You really know how to build someone up, then tear them down in a matter of seconds. If I actually had a complex about my weight, this would have cut deep.”

  “Cut deep? Please. Let’s go order pizza and cry over a greasy piece of pepperoni.” Danielle started to gather the dress at my hips, gently gliding it back over my head. Grabbing the hanger, she placed the gown back on padded handles and set it gently into the garment bag. “But, in all seriousness, we need to try this on a couple days before the wedding. I would hate to stuff you full of diuretics the day before the ceremony and risk a massive wedding day blow out.”

  My body shuddered at the thought of my beautiful white dress turning a nasty shade of brown. If it happened to someone, it would happen to me. After all, my name is Molly Anne McGlenister.

  ***

  “Seriously, if they made a massive pizza, I would totally roll all over that greasy bitch.” Danielle groaned as she stuffed another bite into her mouth.

  Picking at the piece on my plate, I forced another bite into my mouth then pushed the plate away on the counter top.

  “I was only kidding about the fat comments, Molly. Two slices of pizza will not kill you in that dress.” Danielle finished the piece she had in her hand then downed the second glass of wine.

  “It’s not the pizza, Danielle. I still haven’t heard from Reid, or even Tiny now. He left here last night saying he would only be gone an hour, and obviously that was a big ass lie.” I guess it wasn’t fair of me saying he lied to me, since that baby wasn’t coming from his vagina. Birthing babies or unknown baby daddy’s spawns wasn’t a walk in the park, and obviously took more than an hour. The only thing that killed me was that he didn’t care to update me on the process or even check in on how I was feeling.

  “Men don’t think in highly stressful situations. Their brains basically stop functioning, and it takes forever to bring them back to life again. Really kind of reminds me of zombies.” Grabbing my plate, she tossed the picked at pizza into the garbage and set the plates in the sink. “I love Reid, but damn well know that man couldn’t count to twenty-one if he was barefoot and without pants.”

  “I should just call him. Sitting around here moping isn’t doing any good, and what’s the harm in checking in with my fiancé?” It wasn’t like I spent the day stalking him or anything. I just wanted to hear his voice.

  Reaching for my phone, we were both startled as it started to ring on the counter.

  “See, you were totally getting all psycho girl crazy for nothing.”

  Looking at the screen, my forehead wrinkled when I saw Megan’s name flash across the screen.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked after answering the call. I didn’t expect her name on the screen when I grabbed my phone seconds ago.

  “Molly? We have a problem. We have a big, big, big problem.” Megan’s voice was shaking on the other end of the line. It was never good when someone started the conversation off with having a problem. It was times like that I was glad my prescription for pain killers took me into the next week.

  ***

  It always got worse before it could get better. The only problem with that saying was knowing when the situation was the absolute worst. I was the queen of thinking it couldn’t get any worse than what was playing out in front of me. Sure, I fell down a couple steps and broke my arm in three different places, resulting in surgery right before my wedding. I guess I could have broke my neck, and that would have been the worst, but at the time it didn’t cross my mind. Not fitting into my dress was another issue that pretty much kicked rocks. But, once my body cleared all this crap it was holding on to, I should be able to fit in it again. Sadly, the phone call I just received was basically the worst news I could have gotten. Reid was the father of Cassy’s baby, and after some unknown complications, that baby was now without a mother. They say shit rolls downhill, but fuck, this wasn’t a casual roll. This was a pound down the damn mountain, smashing into some large ass boulders, then flying off a ginormous cliff that ended in a pool of starving alligators waiting to tear your limbs off slowly, one by one.

  “What do you mean she’s dead, Megan?” My breathing started to quicken and the room began to spin. Danielle quickly ran to my side, steadying my weaving body on the small barstool.

  “She died giving birth, Molly. Stephanie called me like ten minutes ago and told me to call you.”

  “Wait, let’s just take a few steps back. The baby is Reid’s?” Not only was the room spinning now, but the small amount of pizza I had eaten earlier was going to make an appearance all over the counter top if I didn’t get to the bathroom quickly.

  Stumbling off the stool, I dropped the cell phone and bolted to the bathroom. Crashing into the wall as I rounded the hallway corner, it didn’t matter that I slammed my arm directly on the doorway, I just needed to find the toilet. Dropping to my knees, I expelled everything possible from my system, and continued to gag when there wasn’t anything more left in my body.

  “What’s going on?” I could hear Danielle say as her heels clicked on the hallway tile. “She’s dead? Like dead, dead? Never coming back kind of dead?”

  I knew Danielle was standing in the doorway now, but I couldn’t lift my head from the toilet bowl. Just when I thought things were finally looking up, that my wedding would go off without a hitch minus the cast, and we would live our happily ever after, the world decided to sucker punch me, landing me right back on my ass.

  I heard
Danielle end the call and set the cell phone on the bathroom counter. “Molly, sweetheart?” Her normal smartass tone was now void of emotion, basically solidifying the news that Megan just broke to me. “Megan is on her way over here. Let’s get you cleaned up and in bed.”

  Reaching down to help me off the floor, I smacked her arm away as I continued to cling to the toilet. The cool porcelain was soothing to my skin, as my body felt like it was set on fire and left to burn itself out. I didn’t want to move. My mind had turned to mush with all the questions bouncing inside my head. Nothing was making sense, and the only thing I could think about was getting to Reid.

  “I need him, Danielle,” I gurgled while lifting my head out of the throne.

  “Baby, I know you need him, and I’m betting he needs you right now, too. But, we need to pull you together first. Reid is obviously going to be a mess, and you, Molly, will need to be the rock for him to stand on.”

  Being the foundation for someone’s emotional support was never my strong suit. When things got tough I normally said fuck it and ran. This I couldn’t run from. This was something that would change our lives forever. There were no do overs, no second chances, there was no coming back from death. How do you pick up the pieces and move forward when you weren’t even prepared to start the journey in the first place?

  Danielle grabbed a towel from the closet and ran it under the sink. After ringing it out, she handed me the cold washcloth and I proceeded to wipe my face off. Giving her a silent nod, Danielle gently hooked her hand under my functioning arm and helped me stand. Closing my eyes, I tried to center myself as the world started to spin again. There wasn’t anything left in my system, so I just had to let this wave of nausea pass.