Dress Shopping
Dress Shopping
Presley and Cruz held hands as they were followed at a discreet distance by a security team, both hired by Cruz and Liborio.
“I feel like we’re criminals being followed around by cops.” Presley grumbled.
“Ignore them. I know it’s hard but ignore them,” Cruz kissed her knuckles. “Remember when we went skiing at
Whistler?”
She looked at him in surprise. “What?”
“When your dad took us all skiing at Whistler. You were in grade seven or eight. Remember?”
“I do.”
“I was trying to think of all the fun things we did, like a family, and not the pranks and stuff. Your dad always made me feel like I was part of your family. It was partly why I felt so guilty about lusting after you when ! saw you in your undies. I considered you a sister and there I was hard as a rock. Anyway,” he shook his head, “I was thinking of Whistler on my run this morning.”
“What about it?”
“It was fun. We didn’t prank each other once. Odin wasn’t a completely miserable t**t because he was on the ski hill and let’s be real, it’s the one place he was always happiest. He loves to ski. Your dad spent a lot of time with us on the harder hills while you and your mom did the less intense ones.”
“We had bonfires every night. You kept burning all the marshmallows. I wasn’t sad about it because I love them when they’re all charred.”
He nudged her, “why do you think I was burning them? I hate marshmallow.”
“What?”
“I don’t like marshmallow, especially melted marshmallow. The texture is weird to me, and it is way too sweet. You on the other hand love burnt melty gooey marshmallow so I kept burning them on purpose to give
them to you.”
“Huh.”
“I have a framed photo from that trip in my condo.”
“What?”
“Whenever anyone asks, I tell them it’s my family. It’s all of us at the Olympic rings. Even Odin is smiling in it. We’re all in ski gear. It was a good day. One of my favorite memories ever. It was the winter of senior year of high school. Before I found out what my father did to my mother. Even though I didn’t hate him yet, I never felt like he was my family. I always felt like you guys were.”
“My ski instructor was really cute. I crushed on him hard.”
He ignored her comment. “Do you have any memories of us when we were younger which aren’t tainted by pranks and hatred?”
“Lots.” She nodded. “War in the pool. I’d get on your shoulders and Sloane would get on Andersons and we’d
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Dress Shopping
try to knock each other off. There was a trip we took camping when I was in grade five, I would have b nine, I think. Sloane came with us. You and Anderson told us scary ghost stories and you got Odin to jump out and scare us. He was decent on that trip. He laughed so hard,” She blinked back a tear, “If was one of the first times and only times he ever put his arm around,me because he’d scared me, and I fell over. He sat with us at the bonfire and you guys kept telling us more absurd and scary stories, but he sat there like he was protecting me. I felt safe with the three of you there.” She let her voice fall off as she whispered, “I forgot
about it.”
“He had a girlfriend at the time. I can’t remember her name, but he was so different for the month they were together. Then they broke up before school started up again and he went back to being his melancholy self.
“I don’t remember him ever having a girlfriend.”
“He’s had a few over the years but they never last.”
“Maybe because he likes boys more than girls.”
“Perhaps.” Cruz shrugged. “What else do you remember?” He started laughing, “do you remember the
leeches?”
“Oh my gosh, yes!” she started giggling. “You carried me all the way back from the lake to the lake house while I screamed and thrashed over the leeches on my ankles. Three of them,” she shuddered with revulsion. “Nasty gross things. I wouldn’t go back in the water for the rest of the trip unless it was in the canoe. You and Odin would get me into the middle of the lake and tip it to make me swim back.”
“We were trying to teach you not to be scared of the leeches. You only needed to keep your feet off the
bottom.”
“To this day I prefer salt water,” she motioned to the sea in the distance, “or a chlorinated pool.”
“I have a lake house.” He said with a smile. “I bought one on the same lake your dad used to rent the house every summer. Some of my favorite memories are there.”
“Before the leeches episode, I used to get you to throw me off the deck into the water. You never complained.”
“It was a workout.”
“Remember catching fireflies?”
“Remember sobbing your heart out in the morning when you realized you killed them all putting them in a jar without letting them go?” he snorted. “Man, you could ugly cry.”
“Shut up,” she shoved him annoyed it didn’t move him a millimeter.
“You made us have a funeral and bury the fireflies, Ladybird. Such a softy.”
“I was sure they were reincarnated people.”
They stopped in front of a shop and Cruz gave her a smile, “want to go in?”
She stared through the glass at the pretty dresses on display. “Yes but no.”
“No? Why not?”
“What if I find a dress I want to do our wedding in tomorrow and it doesn’t happen, and my heart is broken more than it already is?”
“We’re going to find a way. We have to. I’m not giving up.” Cruz held the door open, “come on. Let’s go look.”
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Dress Shopping
She followed him into the shop and listened as he spoke in French to the shopkeeper. Whatever he was saying made the woman gush and squeal.
“What was that?”
“Told her we were getting married tomorrow, and your dress didn’t get here on time. I fudged a bit. I asked her if she has anything in your size in samples for you to try.” He nodded to a small selection of wedding dresses at the back of the shop. “She said she has one which didn’t get picked up and she would be happy to sell it to
us if it fits.”
“Doesn’t bode well if someone didn’t pick it up.”
“Or it’s meant to be yours,” he laughed. “Stop thinking half glass empty.”
“I’m trying.” Presley looked around the shop.
The woman came back out from behind the curtain and ushered Presley to the changing room, dragging a bag behind her.
In moments, Presley was out of her clothes and into the beachy bridal gown.
She stepped out of the changing room and Cruz turned to look at her from where he was staring out the window. “Well?”
He opened and closed his mouth before puffing a big breath, “wow, Ladybird. You look incredible.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. Though,” he cleared his throat, “when we do a big wedding back home with all our family and friends and the big reception and all of it, I want you to surprise me with the dress.” He gripped his chest, “because I have a feeling a dress you take your time in picking out is going to make what I’m feeling in here, a thousand times more potent.”
“Cruz,” her bottom lip trembled at his words.
“Don’t you cry, Ladybird.” He looked at the shopkeeper. “Do you have others so she can compare.”
“No, I want this one.” Presley argued with him. “I feel as pretty in this one as I did the colorful dress you took me to dinner in.”
“That was a great dress.” He smiled at her. “You should feel pretty. You’re gorgeous.”
“Thank you,” she twirled back in front of the mirror, turning left and right, reveling in the feeling in her chest at the way she looked. She met his eyes, “I want it to be real. We can do the big wedding back home, Cruz, but I want it to be real.”
“I can make it happen.” He said seriously moving to stand behind her, his hands resting on her hips. “Liborio kept asking me why I would want to sleep with someone who made my childhood a living hell and I said the heart wants what it wants but the truth is, I wanted you, crushed on you, because you were good to me. The pranks sucked and were mean and you were a bully, but there was good in there too and since we’ve been here, other than being your very blunt and arrogant self, you’ve been good to me.”
“I want to make up for it,” he held her gaze in the mirror. “I want to make up for every terrible thing I ever did to you. I want to take every bad memory and crush it and replace it with good, glorious memories. Like playing in the waves yesterday morning, trying on wedding dresses today,” he kissed her cheek, “celebrating you
Dress Shopping
ના બની કે hitting the number one spot on the New York Times or finding our first home together. I want us to decorate our home together. I want to take vacations. I want to go skiing and swimming and skating. I want to build an entire life with you Presley and I want to make every bad memory you have of me, disappear and to replace it with new good happy memories.”
“I’d like that.”
“I will do better than I did today. I was out of line, yelling at you and calling you childish. The things I love most about you include your imagination and your zest and I’m letting my fear control me. I’m sorry.”
She reached up and cupped his jaw, “I forgive you but please don’t talk to me the way you did earlier. It really
hurt.”
“I know. I could hear the words coming out of my mouth and my brain was telling me to shut the f**k up but my mouth kept running. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He turned her on the little pedestal and rested his hands on her shoulders, “I will wait. If for some reason, we can’t get out of this s**t, despite how much I want to get out of this s**t, if we can’t and you have to go through with it,” he looked to the ceiling as if wanting to vomit with the notion, “I want you to know I’ll wait. I will wait for you to come back to me. I won’t be angry with you. I won’t be upset with you. For as long as it takes.” He linked his–fingers through hers, “just marry me for real first. Before you go with him. Before you leave with him, marry me for real.”
“Okay.” She nodded with tears on her cheeks. “I’ll marry you for real tomorrow.”
He kissed her mouth softly, “I love you, Ladybird.”
“I love you too, Cruz.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shopkeeper approaching and she figured the woman was ready to help her out of the dress but suddenly Cruz started jerking in front of her, twitching and falling to the floor.
The woman held a taser in her hand.
“What the f**k?” Presley stepped back in horror.
“I’m really sorry about this,” the woman said in a thick accent before using a second device on Presley.
A bunch of people came storming into the shop and the last thing Presley noticed before she passed out was the pretty woman standing at the door.
“Yup. That’s her. That’s the one he wants.”
Then everything went black.
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Tatienne Richard
sorry we’re late posting today. I’ve been sick for several days and can barely get out of bed to get to my computer to post. On the mend now I think. ;)
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