She took a step back. “Not as creepy as you calling nonstop, coming to my work, and following me everywhere I go. Besides, I asked her to come here, and the only thing I’ve asked you to do is leave me alone.”
He shook his head. “You’re such a witch,” he exclaimed, then stormed out.
She looked over to Hannah. “I had no intentions of talking to him again, but I didn’t have a choice.”
“No kidding. He’s scary,” Hannah answered as they went back to her room.
Cally plopped on her bed. “Not ten minutes after I swear not to talk to him again, I talk to him again. I am so going to Hades.”
Hannah looked at her. “He showed up at the door late at night and wouldn’t leave. It’s not your fault.”
“Yes, it is. I don’t know if I didn’t explain it right or what, but it is my fault that he won’t stop and it’s my fault he now thinks your brother is obsessive. All of this is my fault.” And it was her fault for telling Seth that she was going to breakup with Dakota and that there was a chance that they could be together again. It was her fault that all this was happening.
Hannah tried to defend her, which was a losing battle for sure. “It’s not your fault someone won’t take no for an answer. You told him tonight you didn’t want him coming around, and I’ll bet he will still be coming around tomorrow. He’s the one with the problem, not you.”
Cally sat down on the floor and started looking for a C.D. “If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t be doing any of this. He now thinks Dakota is the bad guy because I invited you here.”
“Seth needs to get a life. You said no three times, and he’s still coming around. He’s the one with issues,” Savannah threw in.
“Yeah, but it’s my fault,” she insisted.
“How? You told him no. He’s the one who won’t accept it,” Savannah argued.
It wasn’t possible to explain to any of them what happened and to expect them to understand. All of this was her fault. If she hadn’t talked to him, none of this would be happening. If she hadn’t let him convince her that he was better than Dakota or that she should breakup with Dakota for him then maybe he would have let it go. This was all her fault. She did it, and now she was going to have to live with it.
Savannah finally asked, “What are you looking for?”
“My C.D.s,” she answered absently.
Hannah seemed to perk up a little. “Do you know what song you’re going to pick.”
“Yep.”
She wasn’t in the mood to talk anymore, so the silence stretched until Hannah asked again, “Which one?”
“Nope.”
Savannah didn’t want to accept that. “What are you going to choose? We have to make sure it’s the right song.”
“Nope.”
She had most of her music in a pile on the floor when Savannah dropped another pile next to hers. She already knew which song she wanted, so it didn’t matter what they said or did. The C.D. was sitting there, staring at her, four sets of eyes staring at her, telling her that this was the beginning of forever.
She just leaned against the bed as they started playing song after song. With each C.D., the pile became mixed up and thrown around. She didn’t want to lose that disc in this mess, so she pulled it out when they weren’t looking. She slipped it in between her mattress and box spring, hiding it so that they didn’t lose it in the new mess they were making. No matter what they thought or decided, she had the perfect song; it was a song that spoke everything she felt and believed and everything she was.
She closed her eyes as she realized how much her world was changing. She was losing everything she knew and lived for, just to be with someone for the rest of her life. A life that she had no idea would even work. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be; this wasn’t how she had always seen her life playing out. No, when those words had come out, everything had changed; everything was gone. Her life was now completely unknown to her except for one thing—the only thing she refused to believe.
* * * * *
The next two days seemed to come and go all too fast. As Cally had feared, Seth showed up at the store, and when he came back when she got off, she was shaking. Her only salvation had been that Savannah and Jay had been there to take her home. She had taken Thursday off to do all those pre-wedding errands and stuff. It seemed that her soon-to-be mother-in-law was more excited than anyone else to do all the girly stuff with her soon-to-be daughter-in-law.
Cally knew she should have been more excited, but she always felt like a toy that people liked to dress up and play with for a while before she was lost in the pile in the closet again. She walked through the day like she had so many others, letting others decide everything for her.
She woke up around eight and couldn’t believe it—she was getting married today! Cally was taking the biggest step in her life, the one that would determine everything else for the rest of her life. She just stared at the clock while her nerves seized up inside her and started squeezing and twisting into the most painful knots she had ever felt.
“Time to get ready,” Savannah ordered, opening her door.
She managed one weak faint word. “Coffee.” Yes, coffee—the nectar of the gods; she could still make the best argument that coffee was the ambrosia of the gods of mythological times. But she doubted that was important today. But if anyone wanted her to get up, then they were going to give her some of that glorious black brew to jump-start her.
She rolled over and dragged herself into the shower. Hot water quickly turned to cold water, and it wasn’t helping her stomach one bit. When she stepped out of the shower, she saw it hanging there; it was the first time she had looked at it since the day they bought it, but it was also the first time the true meaning of the dress sank in. She somehow managed to put on her clothes and the dress when the door opened behind her. Savannah smiled, fully dressed and ready to go.
“Come on, I’m going to do this in the living room where there’s more room.”
She nodded as she realized how much she was going to miss having her own personal hairdresser and makeup artist living in the next room. But Savannah was in her element and on a mission to make her look the best she could. She saw the stool pulled out, and everything laid out on the counter, but she just stumbled past them to the kitchen—coffee, coffee, coffee was the only thing going through her mind that had any meaning at all.
Cup in hand, she plopped on the stool and had her coffee taken from her before the first sip. She didn’t have to see her face to know what she looked like. “I’ll give it back after I cover the dress. You can’t spill anything on it.” She was still in shock with the loss of her best morning friend when her sister wrapped a huge plastic cape around her and then fastened two towels around her shoulders before letting her have her coffee back.
In her own little happy place now, she spaced out as she enjoyed her coffee, and Savannah started working on her hair. The cup was empty just as her sister took it and started on her makeup. By the time Savannah was finishing, the coffee had started working, because Cally was realizing there were people running around, talking, and Kaylee was playing on the floor next to her.
She heard her mom saying, “Will you do Kaylee’s hair next?”
Savannah was focused. “Yep.” Her sister’s eyes looked her over before ordering, “Go brush your teeth so I can do your lips. You can’t kiss him with coffee breath.”
Cally started pulling at the towels when her sister yelled, “No, keep those on! You can’t get anything on the dress.”
She walked back to see the bathroom was now occupied, so she went in the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets until she found some pretzels, the breakfast of champions.