Almost a Bride

by Jo Watson

  “That’s it!” Chris launched himself at Trevv, pushing the manager out of the way. Was he going to hit him? Neither of these men looked like they knew how to throw a punch, or had ever successfully thrown one in their entire lives. Trevv had muscles, for sure, but those were all for show. They were more window dressing than actual elbow grease. And as for Chris, let’s just say you can’t throw a punch when it appears that your hands are still awkwardly superglued to your hips.

  But no one hit anyone. Instead, Chris stopped right in front of Trevv’s face and leaned in.

  “One day you’re going to realize what an idiot you were for letting Annie go.”

  Chris’s remark clearly pissed Tess off, who moved toward her precious Trevvy and hooked an arm around him.

  “I doubt that,” she hissed at Chris through a clenched jaw. I was still the only one not in on the action, but I couldn’t move. I stood there watching this whole thing unfold before my eyes. I was vaguely impressed and officially flattered. I’d never had a fight break out over me before—albeit a lame one.

  “Zat’s it, I’m phoning security.” The man gave up on his jumping and rushed off to the other end of the room. As soon as the man left, Chris took the opportunity to get right up into Trevv’s perfect little face.

  “You never deserved Annie anyway. She’s too good for you,” he said.

  “Oh please, she never deserved me!”

  “How dare you!” And then he did it and I didn’t know whether to laugh, or cheer.

  Chris slapped Trevv across the face. A big open-handed girl slap. Trevv looked like he had seen a ghost; I don’t think anyone had ever laid a hand on his pretty face. He looked shocked for a moment, then horrified. Then pure evil flashed in his eyes.

  And then he struck back. Chris tried to block him with a swish of his arm, and then the two were in full-blown slap wars. A miracle occurred at that point, too; the once-dead duck took flight and hurtled through the air, hitting not Trevv, not Chris, but Tess. She screamed as the duck leg momentarily clung to her hair. She wildly beat at her hair as if a bat was tangled in it.

  I jumped in this time and grabbed Chris around the waist, trying to pull him back. A couple of diners had gotten involved, too, and a man was ushering a now-crying Tess to a seat. (I doubt he had any concern for her well-being, he was just enjoying the fact that he was able to wrap his arm around her disgustingly sexy body as he guided her.) His wife shot him several death stares.

  “Well!” Trevv screamed the word so loudly that everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked. “Well…we can definitely scratch them off the guest list, isn’t that right, Tessy.” His tone was deeply sarcastic.

  “What guest list?” I stepped forward now. Intrigued.

  “We were—out of the goodness of our hearts and in the spirit of reconciliation—”

  “Re-con-cil-iation!” Chris hooted.

  “Yes! Tess and I were going to invite you to our wedding.” He turned to his captive audience now, as if he assumed people were watching him and hanging on his every word because they liked him. “We’re having a beach wedding at dusk the day after tomorrow.”

  Chris laughed. “That’s a joke, right?”

  Trevv shook his head. “It’s going to be perfect. Tess will be the center of attention and everyone’s eyes will be on her and her alone.”

  “Why on fucking earth would you think we would ever want to go to your wedding?” Chris snapped back, his Australian accent slipping once more.

  I was horrified. Nauseated that Trevv was trying to rub his relationship in my face once more. His happiness and his so-called perfect life. And in that moment, I think I hated Trevv more than I had hated any human being before.

  I hated the fact he spelled his name with two pretentious v’s! I hated the fact that his hair and teeth were so perfect and his shirts were always ironed so fucking anally. He was the worst kind of person: sleazy, manipulative, cunning, hurtful, boastful, egotistical, patronizing…the list could go on forever but I didn’t want to waste any more brain cells on him.

  I was officially done.

  “I just thought it might be informative for the two of you,” Trevv said. He was puffing his chest up once more and the look in his eyes was undeniable…a challenge.

  He was building up to something, I could feel it. Then he smiled. The smuggest smile I had ever seen in my entire life. It was disturbing. It was bordering on evil. The kind of smile a demon-zombie might give you before it ripped your head off.

  “I thought it might give you two the opportunity to see what a real couple looks like, a real couple in love.”

  He was putting way too much emphasis on the word real and it was starting to worry me.

  “Isn’t that right…Boyyyden from Australia, mate!”

  My blood ran cold as Trevv removed his eyes from Chris and planted them firmly onto me. He knew. He knew. He rolled his eyes. I wanted to pull them from their sockets—maybe use the industrial stapler on them, too. And then he graced me with the same serpentine smile. “Pathetic, Annie, really pathetic. Did you think you would get away with it?”

  I inhaled sharply as tears started burning the back of my throat and eyes, and I bit my lip hard. I didn’t want to cry, not now, not in front of him. I didn’t want to give Trevv anything more to be smug and satisfied about.

  Trevv shook his head. “I mean, Boyden. From Australia?” He left out a wild, shrill laugh that would easily compete with a pack of hyenas.

  I was gutted. In that moment it felt like my world came crumbling down once more. Chris turned to me, and through my now-blurry eyes, I thought I saw him mouth something. I couldn’t make it out.

  “Thanks so much for the invite, Trevv!” Chris shouted, looking smug himself now. “But we wouldn’t have been able to come to your wedding anyway. Annie and I will be a little busy ourselves.”

  “Oh?” Trevv raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “Annie!” Chris swung around and started walking toward me. “I was going to do this later, but I guess now is as good a time as any.” Chris continued his approach and suddenly nerves gripped me. There was something strange about the way he was looking at me. Very strange.

  “Annie.” He was right in front of me now and took my hands in his. “Since the moment I met you, at the airport that day, I knew in my heart that you, gorgeous beautiful Annie, were the woman, the only woman in the world, that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Forever. Until my dying day.”

  “Sorry…what?” I interrupted him and Chris shot me a look as if to say play along. Play along with what? I was so confused right now. I still didn’t even know why this whole thing had broken out in the first place.

  And then Chris started lowering his body. Lower, lower, lower still until he was on the floor. On one knee. In front of me!

  A few aaahhhs and sweets rose up from the crowd, but I don’t quite think I had fully grasped what was going on yet. It was all just so surreal; one moment Chris and I were on our first date, enjoying each other’s company, and now he was kneeling in front of me, in front of Tress and an entire room of people, including a jazz band that had stopped playing, a manager who was busy making frantic calls, and a chef who looked homicidal.

  Chris continued. “I wanted it to be a surprise. I know how much you like surprises. I organized the whole thing. A small romantic beach wedding, just like you always wanted. Just like we talked about all those nights while lying in bed together in each other’s arms.”

  “Oh please!” I heard Trevv snort from the sidelines.

  “Your friends helped, of course, you can’t stop Lilly and Jane from getting involved, you know. They’re even flying out here tomorrow for the special day.”

  “Chris…I…what, are you…?” I said under my breath.

  “Annie. Annie, Anne. Love of my life. Woman of my dreams. You complete me. You make me whole, you make me a better man, you make me believe in love. Will you make me the happiest man alive and accept my hand in
marriage?”

  “Your what?” I whispered in total shock.

  “Marry me, Annie.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  My mouth fell open. My jaw slackened, and if it loosened any more, I would probably be scooping it up off the floor in a few moments. I felt a crushing sensation in my hands and realized that Chris was squeezing them.

  “Oh please!” Trevv snorted again. “This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Annie?” Chris smiled up at me from the floor. This was certainly not the proposal I had dreamed of. And it was certainly not with the person I imagined. But despite all that, there was something so perfect about it.

  Chris was perfect. The way he was smiling at me now, his eyes crinkling and his entire face lighting up. I felt myself getting swept away, swept up in the moment, caught up in the romance of it all.

  This is not real, Annie. This is not real.

  But no matter how many times I said it to myself, the way my body was reacting to this moment made me believe otherwise.

  “Is anyone actually buying this charade?” Trevv laughed loudly again. I’d forgotten he was there. “You would never go for a guy like him, he’s a loser, and you, Anne—”

  “Love him. I love him and I am going to marry him!” I screamed across the room. The whole romantic moment I had just been caught up in was over, Trevv had burst it, and now this was all about getting even with him.

  “Yes!” I shouted down at Chris. “I’ll marry you.”

  Without waiting for a response from Chris, I threw myself into his arms and kissed him. We stumbled and fell onto the ground, and I continued my mad lip assault. The kiss was completely over-the-top, so fierce and melodramatic. It was the kind of kiss you see in daytime soap operas. When the long-lost lover, who you thought had been dead for years from that freak meteor shower, returns as his better-looking twin and kisses his lover for the first time again. It had that same sense of delicious overblown drama.

  Chris wrapped his arms around me and laughed against my mouth. I soon joined in.

  “Oh, Annie fucking Anne,” he said. We were half laughing, half kissing on the floor and must have looked like total lunatics.

  “There they are,” the man in the tux shouted. I looked up from the kiss to see security guards burst through the door of the restaurant. Chris reacted instantly, and quickly pulled us both off the floor.

  “Come.” He grabbed me by the hand and started dragging me through the restaurant. “Bye, guys,” he shouted over his shoulder as we ran past the angry manager, past the jazz band and the chef, and out the back door.

  Adrenaline sloshed through my veins and was manifesting itself in wild, crazy laughter. We burst through the door and ran outside straight into the pouring rain. I hadn’t noticed it had started raining. Chris picked up his pace and I was struggling to keep up.

  Running through the rain was exhilarating, and I hadn’t felt so alive in years. We ran across the large lawn and down the long driveway. I was so out of breath now and my lungs were stinging, but it felt amazing. We ran out through the wrought iron gates, and it was only when we were back on the main road that we finally stopped.

  “I can’t believe that just happened,” Chris said through sharp, jagged breaths.

  “Oh my God, you proposed to me.” I laughed even harder until my ribs started to ache. “You were on one knee.” Suddenly the image was the funniest thing in the world. “Your kneeeeeeee…,” I wailed, and it hurt.

  “And now we have a wedding to plan!” Chris was borderline hysterical with laughter and I was not far behind. “What the fuck!”

  “The duck!” I screeched. “Did you see the duck leg?”

  “Her face.” Chris was holding his sides now. “I thought she was going to have a seizure.”

  “And you slapped him.” I squealed between the laughter. “I can’t believe you slapped him!” The rain was coming down hard, which was making it even more difficult to talk and catch our breath.

  “God, it felt so good!” Chris mimed the slap in midair and made a sound to go along with it. “The look on his face was priceless.”

  “You’re my hero!” I screamed through the loud rain.

  “But you know what felt better than slapping him?” Chris quickly added.

  “What?”

  “This.”

  Chris walked me backward until I was pressed into the wall. He grabbed my hands and pushed them above my head. He had me pinned to the wall now, and I had never been more turned on in my entire life as Chris bought his lips down on mine. But we couldn’t kiss. We were still too out of breath. We smiled at each other and locked eyes as we both panted frantically against each other’s mouth, waiting for the oxygen to adequately fill our lungs.

  The rain was still coming down and I could taste it and feel it all over my body. My dress was soaked and my hair was hanging in my face. Our breathing finally tapered off and as it did, just as I was able to take the long deep breath I needed, Chris kissed me. It was hard and deep and possessive. It was filled with desire and need, pure necessity. We needed to kiss each other right then like we needed air to live. His hands left mine and they trailed down my arms and my sides. They worked their way down the sides of my body and came to rest on my hips.

  “Yes,” I whispered as I pushed my hips into him. He responded with a moan and ground into me. I parted my legs and let him slip between them. His body crushed me into the wall even harder.

  “Annie.” His hand traveled lower. My dress was wet and clung to my body like a second skin, but his fingers started tugging at it, peeling it off my leg. I almost screamed at the feel of his palm moving up my thigh. I threw my head back and he brought his lips down onto my neck. His hand traveled higher and his lips moved lower until I felt them in the gap between my breasts. His hand climbed higher still, and his fingers grazed my panties.

  “Fuck.” I bit down on my lip and rocked my hips forward. It felt so good. Amazing.

  Chris slipped a finger underneath the fabric of my underwear, and I instantly raised my leg and wrapped it around him. I wanted him so badly. I’d never wanted anything more in my entire life. His mouth traveled back up, and his hungry lips found mine again.

  I could barely kiss properly, especially when his finger slipped inside me. My entire body shuddered and my mind went blank. I ground my hips into him even more and started rocking against him. He moved perfectly with my rhythm. The rocking soon turned to an almost frantic thrashing as I panted harder and harder. The sensations ripping through my body now threatened to overwhelm every one of my senses. I was so close now and Chris could feel it.

  “You’re so fucking sexy, Annie.”

  I moaned and he slipped another finger inside. I grabbed him by the shoulders, digging my fingers into them. The rain was still washing over us and the moment was so intense. I was drunk on adrenaline and giddy from the running and laughing. I was overjoyed, I was exhilarated, and I was feeling sexier than I had ever felt with anyone.

  My body stiffened and I took one last gulp of oxygen before it all exploded. Shattered. I let out a moan that was so primal and guttural that it sounded like an animal. The rain drowned out my cry and flooded my now-open mouth. I felt the last of the waves rushing through me, and my body started going limp. God, that was not enough. I needed more of him, more. I wanted all of him. My hands traveled down between us and I started tugging at his zipper.

  “Annie.” I loved the sound of my name on his lips; it was driving me wild. I pushed my hand inside his pants and suddenly remembered what he looked like. I wrapped my hand around him; he was so hard and I wanted it. Chris started fiddling with the button on his jeans as I pushed my hand under the material of his boxers.

  “Fuck,” he gasped. I was so engrossed in the moment that it took me a second to react to the sound of the honking car horn.

  Like a pin being pushed into a balloon, the moment popped. It popped so loudly that I jumped. For a second, time stood still and reality
came flooding back in.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  My hands went up to Chris’s chest and I pushed him back. I frantically grabbed at my wet, clinging dress and tried to pull it back down. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Chris struggling to zip his jeans up and pull his shirt back down.

  I tasted iron in my mouth and ran my hand over it. Blood. A tiny bit of blood from the bite on my lip. The bite that I had inflicted on myself because the pleasure had been so intense.

  I was shocked. It shocked me to my very core, twisted my guts, and made my heart feel like it was thumping in my chest. My cheeks stung hot in the cool rain and I threw my hands over them. I’d totally lost it in the moment, and God knows what I would have let Chris do to me against that wall. Well, I did know. If that car hadn’t stopped us…

  I looked up at him and he was staring at me with wide eyes. I couldn’t bear to hold his gaze, and my eyes flicked down to his mouth, the mouth that had been on my breast.

  My eyes moved down his arms to his hands, his hands that had been all over my body. My eyes looked at his fingers. They had just been inside me, taking me to the edge of total abandon.

  I moaned as if I was only realizing it now. And in a way I was. Some other Annie had been lost in that moment; some other mad, intoxicated woman had ground and rocked and thrashed on him.

  My eyes moved to his pants. He was still straining against his jeans, and I felt my hand burn with the memory of holding him tightly in my grip. What had I done? Was I out of my mind?

  “Annie, I…” Chris started coming toward me, and I held a hand out to stop him.

  “Stop! Just, stop.”

  “I never meant for that to…I wouldn’t have, it was…”

  “Stop.”

  The ground was spinning as shock merged with deep, deep embarrassment. How had I let it get that far? And against a wall on the side of a road?

  “We were caught up in a moment, Annie.”