Armed With Love

by Anna Joung

  I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until my lungs felt like they were burning. I took a deep breath and released it slowly, still staring into his eyes until my brain finally registered that I needed to say something, anything to stop this from turning into a more awkward situation.

  “Thank you,” I managed to blurt out, blinking my eyes twice.

  “Wires,” he said, and I blinked again, what he said not registering in my brain.

  “What?” I asked, and he moved me over to the side and looked down at a coil of wires that lead to one of the subwoofers that needed to be set up.

  “You stepped on the wires,” he clarified and then he nodded at me. “You should watch where you’re going next time.”

  “Uh, yeah. Thanks again,” I replied, pushing the strand of hair that fell over my face behind my ear. I remembered the stack of papers I was holding and gestured to them with an awkward smile, which to him, probably looked like an ugly grimace. “Well, I uh, should really get these signed. Excuse me,” I mentally cursed at my awkwardness and went to leave.

  “Hold up,” he said curtly, and I turned back toward him, raising my eyebrows in silent query. “Have you seen a young woman about this height, dark hair, goes by the name of Emily?” he asked, raising his hand in the air, holding it up about six inches above my head.

  Emily? Did he know Emily? I was about to reply when we heard a woman’s voice cry out and we both turned towards the sound, seeing the subject of our conversation in the flesh. She split into a wide smile as she saw this guy and me standing together, walking towards us.

  “Hey! Looks like you guys met each other,” she said, her smile splitting wider as she stressed the word, “met.” I pushed away from him and adjusted my dress awkwardly, hearing the man clear his throat.

  “Where have you been? Your workers over there are running around like headless chickens over there,” the man said, scowling.

  “Oh, Dwayne, don’t be such a tight ass. They just need a little direction, that’s all,” Emily said, rolling her eyes. She directed her attention to me next. “Jann, this is Dwayne, he’s my brother. He just got back from the military.”

  So that explained his muscles, I thought. I bunched up the papers in one hand and extended my hand to him with the other, which he took immediately. I released a sharp gasp as I felt a small electrical pulse as soon as my hand touched his. I swallowed my reaction and smiled up at Dwayne once more. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you.”

  He nodded and squeezed my hand tightly, but not enough to hurt. “You too,” he said curtly, and I was a little disappointed at how short his response was. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a monologue or something like that, but he could’ve said something else…something more.

  I let go of his hand and adjusted my hold on the papers, feeling a little disgruntled at his reaction. I mean, I knew I wasn’t making up that connection I felt with him earlier when he saved me, but I guess he didn’t feel it or wasn’t willing to explore it more. It was a little disappointing, but I couldn’t say that it wasn’t expected. He was a very handsome and muscular man and I was…fat. He probably thought the spark was a part of an illusion.

  Emily was still talking about something or another, but I cut her off. “Hey, boss? Um, I’m sorry, but I really have to go and find Mitchell and Donna to get these documents signed,” I told her.

  “Oh, right! I’m sorry for keeping you, Jann. Uh, I’ll go get the boys organized and I’ll meet you there, okay?” she said, patting me on the back.

  I walked away, back to the country club to get back to doing my job, and maybe stop thinking about Dwayne.

  Chapter 4

  Dwayne

  I watched Jann go with narrowed eyes, stretching my fingers to get rid of the sparks I felt in my skin. It was the first time I ever felt anything like that when I touched a woman. I felt it too, the moment I stopped her from falling on her face.

  When she looked up at me after I caught her, my breath got caught too. She was the most fucking beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her hair had come out of the loose ponytail she tied it with, spilling out in gorgeous brown tresses. Her eyes were green but outlined with honey, and her lips were plump. Her chest was full and heavy against my chest, and it took most of my self-control for me to not sneak my hand lower than her waist.

  I must’ve been staring at her form for a while because the next thing I knew, my sister had actually leaped up so she could hit me upside the head. I touched the back of my head as I glared at her in annoyance, and she raised an eyebrow at me.

  “You better not have been staring at her ass this entire time,” she told me off.

  I scoffed and looked away from her. Okay, I wasn’t going to tell her that. Jann’s ass was plump and firm, though. It was evident from the dress she was wearing, no matter how modest the length of her dress was. Her figure was fuller and curvier compared to most women I’ve laid with, but that just made her more attractive to me. Many women in this day and age liked to be stalk-thin and look like they would falter easily, but Jann was different. She looked like she can handle a lot more than the average woman, and I was getting a little curious how much.

  “You’re doing it again,” Emily whined.

  “Shut up and get your staff together, kid,” I told her, picking the plant again. “Where do I put this ugly thing?” I asked, grunting.

  “Oh, you can set that up at the porch of the country club on either side of the entrance,” she replied, going back to her wedding planner mode. “Jeez, this wedding has got to be one of the more demanding ones I’ve ever done.”

  “Really now?” I asked, and she nodded, scrunching her nose. She slapped her hand on my shoulder again.

  “I’ll tell you all about it later when we get home. There’s still much to be done to this place, anyway. We’re just putting up whatever we can now so we’re all set in 3 days,” she said. “I’ll see you in a bit!”

  I carried the big pot of plant over to where she wanted it placed and plopped it on the ground, adjusting it so that it was aligned with the front porch steps of the country club. I went back to the van and grabbed the other potted plant and snorted as I watched Emily’s team run around again. I swear to God, how exactly was she running these people? They needed some training if you ask me. Some of them were running, a couple was just standing there, chatting amongst themselves and not doing what they were supposed to be doing. One of them looked even more frazzled than Jann earlier, and I could tell that the kid was one of those eager to please kind of guys and tries to bite off more than they could chew.

  I watched the scene in front of me some more and shook my head, contemplating whether I should just look for other stuff to do that wouldn’t require me to watch this chaos anymore. There was so much disorder going on and I couldn’t stop myself from comparing this with my life back in the Army. Even at the state of chaos, we experience when we’re in a warzone, there was still a semblance of organization within our unit that at least settled us, soldiers, down. It calmed me down considerably and helped me keep my cool as I faced the dangers. Although this place wasn’t in danger in a similar way a warzone was in, Emily’s team was in danger of not being able to complete their job, and that bothered me more than I thought it would.

  I didn’t know for certain, but Jann probably felt the same way, as I caught her wincing at these bozos before she walked off. Granted, I didn’t know how high her position was or if she even had the rank to tell these guys to settle down, but I didn’t really get to ask her about it, so. If my sister didn’t do something about this soon, though, I can promise her I will. She couldn’t possibly expect me to work in this kind of condition, could she? There was no way in hell.

  After I unloaded everything from out of the van, I walked around the place so I could familiarize myself with the area. I was used to scoping out every perimeter of certain areas I got assigned to, and even though I constantly had to remind myself that I wasn’t in the military anymore, old habits died hard. Besid
es, it gave me something to do and decreasing the chances of me getting lost, especially during emergencies. As I was walking around, I noticed a man sitting by the marble steps, looking desolate and dejected as he took another puff of his cigarette.

  Normally, I would mind my own business, but this guy looked like the world was on his shoulders and it was hard for me to try and ignore him. I rolled my eyes to the heavens, kicking myself for feeling sorry for the man and walked toward him. He looked up at me and scooted over, taking a puff from his cigarette once more before putting it out on the cement.

  “Are you getting married here too?” he asked, nodding his head towards the country club. Immediately, I realized that this man must be the groom and Emily’s client. I shook my head and folded my fingers together as I sat down next to him.

  “No, I was just taking a little break. I was helping out with the decorations,” I replied.

  “Oh! You’re from Emily’s team!” he cried, extending his hand. “I’m Jeff. My fiancée and I actually hired Emily to take care of the wedding planning for us.”

  “Dwayne,” I said, shaking his hand back. “I wouldn’t have thought you were the groom judging by that look on your face earlier.”

  “You saw that, huh?” he said, smiling abashedly. “Have you ever been married?”

  “No, sir. I can’t say that I have,” I answered.

  “Oh, well. This is just the kind of thing that happens when you’re so close to the date,” he explained, tapping the box of Marlboro Lights and then flipping them over and over. “You just start getting these thoughts, you know? Like when you get cold feet and then your life starts to flash before your eyes…”

  “Jeff, buddy? I hate to tell you this, but if that’s what you’ve been feeling the last few days, then I really don’t think you’re in any position to marry somebody, much less your fiancée,” I said, feeling awkward about this conversation. I didn’t expect this talk to work as a kind of counseling session, too!

  He winced before giving me a mortified smile once more. “Yeah, you’re probably right, buddy. I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and try to get these damn thoughts out of my head.”

  “Yes, you probably should,” I responded, nodding. I was actually feeling concerned. A man getting cold feet this close to his wedding date was natural, I guess, but if he doesn’t make a decision soon, it could hurt a lot of people and not just his future wife. It made me curious if he had even tried to talk with his fiancée before this because this was some serious stuff he should really consult her on. Then again, if he had talked to her first, he probably wouldn’t look as conflicted as he did just now.

  I sighed heavily and shook my head, closing my eyes as I tilted my head back and just felt the gust of wind hit my face. Relationships are so messed up, and they get progressively more complicated the closer you got to the altar.

  Chapter 5

  Jann

  It was hard to try and get a person’s attention when said person was so busy talking themselves.

  I had been standing by the door, still clutching these papers for the last ten minutes just watching Madison pace around the room, her phone in her hand as she rattled off with the speed of light. Unlike how Emily seemed to operate, Madison seemed like she had everything under control. She was enumerating tasks through her phone so fast, it made me wonder how she could speak so long without needing to take a breath.

  Eventually, she finally turned around and I immediately raised my hand, giving it a little wave so she’d know I was trying to catch her attention. She raised her eyebrows and held out one finger, signaling if I could wait a minute, probably, before returning to her phone conversation. She whispered rapidly and then snapped her phone a few seconds later, flashing me a bright smile and offering her hand out to me.

  “Hi! You must be Emily’s assistant. She told us you would be stopping by,” Madison greeted nicely. I smiled back and shook her hand before walking towards one of the chairs in the room, placing the documents on my lap as I waited for her to settle in. She crossed her legs and straightened her posture a little.

  “Yeah, I’m Jann. Nice to meet you,” I said, introducing myself before getting to business. “I just brought over these documents that I need you and your fiancée to sign so we can continue on with the wedding preparations.”

  “Oh, right. I’m sorry, I completely forgot about that,” she cried, shaking her head. I gave her the stack of papers and started flipping through it, her eyes briefly scanning each of the paragraphs before she turned to another page. I sort of wanted to tell her not to skim over it and just read the contracts and documents in its entirety, but I wasn’t sure if she would appreciate me telling her that. She looked like she had everything under control, though, so I wasn’t sure why I was feeling something…off.

  “I’ll sign my half of the documents right now, so you can go and hand these off to my fiancé once I’m done, okay?” she said, and I frowned, furrowing my eyebrows.

  “I’m sorry, Miss Cromwell, but wouldn’t you rather review the documents with Mr. McCallister?” I asked her. She faltered at this, her eyes going off-focus as a page escaped from her fingers and fell back to the stack. After a couple of seconds, she lowered her hand and turned her eyes at me, her face looking like it was torn between smiling and frowning.

  She shook her head minutely before giving me a forced smile. She looked so torn and it was obvious that she was struggling to hold herself together, and judging from how off she acted the moment I brought her fiancé up, whatever she was going through had something to do with him.

  I couldn’t help myself. I mean, I knew it wasn’t part of my job description, but I couldn’t just sit there without trying to do anything to help her out.

  I gave her my best comforting smile and asked, “Miss Cromwell, is there something the matter? Are you okay?”

  Two questions. That was all it took to break the dam and Miss Cromwell’s seemingly collected façade. Her face scrunched up and she buried her face in her arms, crying about how stressed she was with work and their family and how everything seemed to be falling apart before it had even begun. She was blubbering as she told me that she and her fiancé – Jeff, as she called him—had been fighting each other nonstop for the past few days all because of their parents not liking each other and how the wedding was costing them so much more than they had anticipated.

  My heart went out to her. I mean, no coupe deserved to be accosted with so many terrible things days before their wedding—especially not all at once! And I knew that Emily was counting on a big payday with this gig, but I feel like I had to talk to her about this and maybe cut back on some of her grandiose plans. She’d probably get mad at me. Worst case scenario, Emily would probably try to come after me with a hatchet. But so what? I think she would appreciate it in the long run if we made this celebration more budget-friendly and ease the couples’ worries instead of making it such a big spectacle. The event can still be pretty while also being super cost-efficient at the same time, and at the end of the day, what our clients think about the event and how they will rate our services is so much more important.

  I patted her hand and told her that I was going to talk to my boss and try and help them out, even volunteering to help oversee the planning so that anything that could be subbed with a cheaper alternative will be replaced immediately without compromising the beauty of the occasion. She almost leaped off her chair and hugged me, but I settled for a handshake. I was empathetic to her worries, but her mascara was leaking and I did not want the trouble of cleaning that out of my white dress, thank you very much.

  When I came down from Madison’s room (office), I saw Dwayne sitting on the porch by himself, his head tilted to the sky. I walked over and placed my hand on his shoulder, startling him a little from his rest.

  “Hey, what are you doing over here?” I asked him curiously. He reached up and scratched the back of his head, his face contemplative.

  “I just had a talk with the groom,�
� he said, and I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

  “Oh, really? How did it go?” I asked, tucking my hands on my lap. He sighed before shrugging.

  “He didn’t say it in so many words, but I think he’s having second thoughts about this wedding,” he said, and I gasped.

  “No! We can’t let that happen!” I cried, and the space in between the middle of his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion this time.

  “Why not? And why ‘we’?” he asked.

  “We can’t let them back out of this wedding!” I said, the wheels already turning in my head. What should we do? Should I just hijack the whole thing and try to organize one in less than 12 hours? “Look, I just came down and Madison pretty much told me she was so close to canceling this.”

  “Well, I can’t blame them if that’s what they want to do,” he supplied. I shook my head at how naïve he sounded.

  “No, no. no. If they break up, then all the work everyone did to start this event would’ve all gone to waste. Besides, your sister needs this to be a success, Dwayne. The fate of her company depends on it!” I explained, standing up and beginning to pace around the garden. It was going to be tricky, what with the wedding happening in less than a week. There was probably some stuff that I can no longer cancel or replace in Emily’s wedding plan, but I’m sure I can still look for little things to reduce the price significantly. The flowers had to be fresh and at least only a day old, so maybe I can go for a cheaper alternative?

  I saw Dwayne just sitting there, staring at me with a dazed, almost sleepy look in his eyes and I furrowed my eyebrows at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You’re really cute when you do that,” he blurted out, and I felt my cheeks heat up from the compliment. I blinked at him multiple times, making sure I wasn’t imagining that at all. When I was certain that I wasn’t, I couldn’t help but ask him a very important question.