My phone buzzed in the center console on my way to the nearest party store, and I anxiously awaited the next red light so I could check it. Color me curious. Baby and I will see you then. Xoxo. Excellent.
I scoured the aisles of the party store looking for anything that could add to the picnic dinner I had planned for the two of us. It had been years since I’d been in this store, and I couldn’t believe what it had become. There were aisles of luau décor and Star Wars party favors and fiesta-themed paper goods. I just wanted something simple. I stumbled across the bridal shower and bachelorette party sections and decided it might be fun to include some element of them into the surprise dinner.
“Getting married?” a voice behind me asked. I turned to see an elderly lady who had probably half a dozen rolls of streamers in the basket she was firmly gripping.
“Next week,” I said, smiling. It was weird to say the words aloud.
“Good for you, sweetheart,” the woman said. “I wish you many years of happiness.” She looked at the two packages of confetti I had been debating between. “Go with the rings. Much more fun!”
I nodded as a gesture of thanks and put a package of the confetti in my basket. I thought it would add a nice element of glamour to our picnic blanket. The tiny, metallic pieces of paper were cut into the shape of engagement rings, all different sizes. It was very possible that they were much more suitable for a bridal shower and engagement party, but oh well. This is why Casey was in charge of the décor for the actual wedding.
A “bride-to-be” sash and pack of white fabric rose petals made their way into my basket, and I concluded that I had enough. Even though I was bound to have plenty of time to set up at the clinic, I was still always the type to worry about being late.
The moment the last patient and doctor headed out the clinic doors, I ran inside with my bags of supplies and began setting everything up just as I’d envisioned it. Setting up an 80” x 90” picnic blanket solo proved more difficult than I had anticipated, and I was just thankful that I’d allotted myself some extra time in case something took longer than I’d planned. The manager of Lotus hand-delivered my order, which he had put together in catering trays that were much nicer-looking than the typical takeout containers Chinese restaurants used.
It was show time. I sat in Casey’s old chair and spun around and around, anxiously waiting her arrival. When 9:08 hit and she still hadn’t arrived, I began to get concerned. As she’d gotten further along in her pregnancy, she’d been going to sleep earlier and earlier. Maybe she’d simply fallen asleep for the night.
Finally, before I had the chance to overthink things any further, the shadow of Casey’s silhouette appeared on the sidewalk in front of the clinic.
“Sorry I’m late,” Casey said, greeting me with a sweet kiss. “I wasn’t exactly sure what to wear to some sort of surprise at my old job after business hours.” I could sense the mockery in her voice, but I opted to ignore it.
I eyed her up and down and admired the form-fitting red dress she had decided on. “What you’re wearing is absolutely perfect,” I said. Casey smiled. “But I have one more thing to add to your outfit.” I pulled my left hand from behind my back to reveal the sash I’d purchased earlier. Casey giggled as I placed it on her.
“What’s this for?” she asked.
“It’s your night, babe,” I said. With that, I led her into the vestibule of the clinic and locked the door behind us. “Right this way.” We emerged into the waiting area, and everything looked just as I wanted it to. In front of the desk Casey had sat behind for so long was a large picnic blanket spread out across the carpet. Atop the picnic table, I had set up our meals from Lotus and the confetti and rose petals from the party store. The lights were dimmed, and our primary source of light was the two candlesticks in the center of the blanket.
“What is all this?” Casey asked, visibly choked up. She wrapped me in a tight hug and rested her head on my shoulder.
“I thought we’d take it back to where it all started for us,” I said. “You know, one last big date before the wedding.”
Casey looked up at me and smiled. “Everything looks beautiful.”
“Including you.” I directed her to the side of the blanket on which I’d put her chicken dish, and I sat across from her with the fish entrée I’d decided on for myself. The look of pure surprise and bliss that appeared upon Casey’s face when she realized the food was from Lotus was one I wished I’d captured on camera.
“How’d you know I’ve been craving Chinese food?” Casey asked.
“Because you’ve mentioned it, oh, I don’t know, twice a day for the past week,” I said. I chuckled, and she joined in with me. God, I loved to see her smile.
We ate our dinners in sweet silence as we scraped up every morsel in the containers. Our normal dinner time was closer to 6:30 or 7, so, by now, we were starving. Casey and I took turns picking out bites from the other’s container and sharing the dumplings and spring rolls I’d placed between us. “Babe, this is amazing,” Casey said, when her container was nearly empty. “Thank you for all of this.”
“Anything for my soon-to-be wife,” I said. I got chills saying the words, and Casey’s face brightened. When we were done eating, we cleaned up our mess and laid on the picnic blanket like we were looking at the stars. Instead, our view was that of the clinic ceiling’s white textured paint, but neither of us seemed to mind. With confetti in her hair, Casey told me stories about the picnics she had gone on with her mother when she was young.
“My favorite picnic was to a local park when I was six or seven,” Casey said, looking over at me. “My mom picked me up early from school and told me it was the perfect day for a picnic. She had packed us little egg salad and peanut butter finger sandwiches, like the kind you see at tea parties, and pudding cups, and juice boxes. That’s one of my favorite memories of my whole childhood.”
I nodded gently. “It sounds like it was a great day,” I said quietly.
She smiled. “It was. Just like today.”
Casey knew exactly how to reassure me that things were going to be ok. Whenever I worried about her, she said the exact thing I needed to hear to know that she was going to be alright. She bared her soul to me, counting down—or was it up? – her favorite childhood memories. She counted her top two as the picnic and a beach trip with her mother. The third was one that caught me by surprise. Casey had briefly mentioned to me before that one of her foster families had thrown her a birthday party, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
It turned out that the Foresters had spent weeks planning a surprise party for Casey in their backyard. They had rented out a moon bounce and trampoline, set up a slip and slide, and even had carnival foods like snow cones and popcorn. Casey had no idea it was coming, and her foster sister, Clara, had initiated the big reveal. “I can still imagine that moment like it was yesterday,” Casey said. Her eyes were closed as if she was trying to picture it. “I was wearing a pink and purple striped t-shirt, and Clara told me there was something she wanted to show me out back. She opened the door and kind of nudged me onto the deck, and that’s when thirty or forty of my neighborhood friends and classmates yelled, ‘Surprise!’.”
Casey’s eyes lit up just talking about it. I had to admit that I was guilty of assuming that all of Casey’s experiences in foster care were negative. This was one of the few positive memories I’d heard, and I begged for more. “I want to hear about the good times, Case,” I said, trying to be gentle. “I love how you light up when you talk about them.”
“Let me think for a minute,” Casey said. We sat in silence as I watched her gorgeous face in the candlelight. “Did I ever tell you about the time I won a raffle at my school’s bingo night?”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“It was my fourth or fifth foster family, the Bells,” she started. “I was the first foster placement they’d ever had, so they didn’t have a clue what they were doing.”
“Sounds li
ke a recipe for disaster,” I chuckled.
Casey rubbed her hands together for dramatic effect. “You bet. Although, all things considered, they got off easy. Anyway, there was a bingo night at my school and I really wanted to go. Mrs. Bell agreed to take me, and we met up with one of her friends, whose daughter was in my class. When the friend’s daughter asked her mother for money for some raffle tickets, I sort of froze. I knew better than to ask my foster parents for anything that wasn’t a necessity.”
I cut Casey off. “I thought you said this was a good story.”
“Hush, you,” Casey said. “I’m getting to it. Sooooo, my foster mom, who clearly really wanted me to like her, handed me a $5 bill without me asking and told me to go buy some tickets and put them in for the raffle baskets I wanted. Long story short, neither of us won any bingo games, but I won a raffle basket. I can still remember the look of pride on Mrs. Bell’s face, and the sense of accomplishment I felt, as I went up to get the raffle basket.”
“That’s sweet,” I said with a smile.
As if she was part of an infomercial, Casey threw her hands in the air and said, “But wait… there’s more.” I leaned in closer to listen to the rest of her story. “Well, the raffle basket ended up being this huge, decorative basket filled with chocolate bars and all sorts of candy. The Bells made the terrible mistake of leaving eleven-year-old me alone in my new room with a bunch of candy. Needless to say, I ate about ten times my weight in chocolate and threw up all over their house.”
I laughed, but a thought lingered in my mind. “Is that why you went on to the next foster home?” I asked.
“Nah,” Casey said. “I lasted there a few more months until they got off the waitlist for an adoption agency. They’d really been hoping for a baby.”
“Oh.” I wanted desperately to lighten the mood back to how it had been a minute earlier. “So, how many raffle tickets did you put in to win that basket?”
Casey flashed me a mischievous smile. “All of them,” she chuckled. I loved that Casey and I were still learning new things about one another. I knew she was a closed-off person, someone I would have to learn about layer by layer. I was just glad we were making headway.
Casey had never looked sexier than she did in the flickering light of the candle. I leaned in gently and took her lips in mine. We kissed passionately as we fell into one another on the picnic blanket. “I have an idea,” Casey whispered. Without another word, she led me back into one of the examination rooms, and I let her have her way with me.
Chapter 29
Casey
“Do I really have to go?” I pleaded with Alexander as he zipped up my blue, beaded cocktail dress. The dress was decent-looking at best, but there wasn’t exactly an extensive selection of dresses suitable for a bachelorette party in the maternity section.
“Don’t be silly! It’ll be great,” Alexander said. He planted a kiss on my forehead. I walked around in the bedroom I still couldn’t believe was mine to try to get used to walking in my new wedges. Clearly, I looked unsteady, because Alexander added, “Are you sure you don’t want to wear different shoes?”
I frowned in his direction and made sure he saw it. “I only get one bachelorette party,” I said. “And I want to feel like a princess. I already feel more like a beached whale.”
Alexander took my hand in his and pulled me over to the bed. “You look beautiful. And that bump, that thing you say makes you feel like a beached whale, is going to be our baby pretty soon. If that’s not magical and majestic, I don’t know what is.” He always had the ability to look at things in a positive way, and to get me doing the same. I supposed it was pretty magical. Either way, this was the only dress I had that was bachelorette party-ready and also fit over my enormous stomach.
All in all, I had mixed feelings about my bachelorette party. On one hand, it was exciting to have a night out with my friends. It had been a while since I’d had a girls’ night. Liana had invited Jane, two of our other friends from college, Stacey and Angelica, and a girl I was friendly with at work, Grace. It was an interesting mix of people, and I was sure they would be a fun group. On the other hand, I couldn’t have alcohol, my ankles were swollen, and I had to pee every half hour. Oh well. There was no turning back now.
I shooed Alexander away so I could do my makeup. I hadn’t gotten much further than blush when Liana arrived. After gushing over the house—especially the chandelier in the foyer—she took over makeup duty and got me dolled up and ready to go.
“Don’t go over the top, Li,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Liana replied. I knew what that meant. She ditched most of my makeup in favor of glittery eyeshadow, metallic eyeliner, and bright red lipstick. I was more of the natural makeup type, but there was no use in resisting. One of the cores of my friendship with Liana was our mutual stubbornness. Besides, Liana’s sister had thrown her a lame bachelorette party a few years back, so I knew that Liana was determined to make mine extra special. If that included obnoxious, over the top makeup, then so be it. At least it would be better than Liana’s chain restaurant bachelorette party that had lasted less than two hours.
As Liana took a curling iron to the back of my head, the doorbell rang. “I thought we were meeting the girls downtown,” I said.
Liana shrugged. “We are. Must be the guys for Alexander’s shindig.”
“They’re meeting at Flanagan’s,” I said, shaking my head. I let Liana finish the curl she was working on before leading her downstairs to open the door.
“We better hurry up,” Liana pushed. “We don’t want to keep everyone else waiting!”
I rolled my eyes. This was my big night, and I wasn’t going to let anyone rush me. “I’m not sure who this is. Maybe a solicitor, but who would be selling something door-to-door this time of night?” I said. “Maybe it’s…” My voice trailed off once Liana pulled open the mahogany door and revealed the culprit.
“Surprise!” Emily squealed.
“Oh my gosh!” I tried to wipe the shock off my face as I gave Emily a hug and helped her with her suitcase. “You came all the way up here for me?!”
Emily laughed. “You think I would miss my future sister-in-law’s bachelorette party?!” She paused to motion to Liana. “You’ve got a pretty great friend here. She arranged the whole thing.”
I thanked Liana and introduced the two, then brought them both back upstairs to help finish my half-curled hair. After two more bathroom trips and one curling wand burn, I said goodbye to Alexander, who promised to stay in touch through text messages, and we headed off to my pre-wedding celebration.
The limousine that sat out front of the house was yet another surprise I wasn’t expecting. I thanked Liana for her thoughtfulness, and it occurred to me—not for the first time that evening—that we probably weren’t going to be having the low key dinner and dancing Liana had promised.
“Liana, this wasn’t necessary,” I said, as we started on our way to pick up Jane, Stacey, Angelica, and Grace. “This was so sweet of you.”
Liana offered up a sly grin. “Actually, this is more for us,” she laughed. “We didn’t want to have to worry about having to find another DD.”
The three of us shared in a laugh. “We aren’t just going to dinner and dancing, are we?” I asked.
“The itinerary is a surprise,” Emily cut in, before Liana had the chance to answer. Liana nodded in agreement. By the time we finally had all the other girls in the limo, an hour had passed and my stomach was grumbling. Liana must’ve heard, because she offered up a bag of cashews from a compartment in the limousine I hadn’t even noticed.
My main worry of the night had subsided. My immediate reaction when I saw Emily at my door was excitement, but I slightly panicked that she wouldn’t hit it off with the other girls. I also worried because Grace didn’t know anyone and Angelica hadn’t seen the others for at least three or four years. Luckily, a bachelorette party and booze seemed to be the perfect recipe to get everyone chatting like they’d been f
riends for years.
“Miss you already. Boys took me to some mega arcade,” Liana said during a rare quiet moment. It took me a minute to realize she had swiped my phone off the seat between us and was reading a message Alexander had just sent. Everyone laughed, and I was just thankful that the text message hadn’t been something inappropriate—especially since his sister was sitting just a few feet away.
As we pulled up to the restaurant, Jane pulled a white sash from her purse. “The bride-to-be has to put this on,” she said.
“That’s ok,” I replied. “It’s really not necessary.” A chorus of “boo” and “c’mon” left me no choice. I slipped the “Bride-to-Be” sash over my dress and bump as everyone cheered me on.
Dinner was at a family-style Italian restaurant I’d been to a few times over the years, normally for birthday celebrations and office holiday lunches. For once, I was glad to have the excuse that I was eating for two, because the food at the restaurant was incredible. For the seven of us, we ordered Caesar salad, fettucine alfredo, chicken marsala, eggplant parmigiana, and meatballs. Needless to say, there were tons of leftovers, and I heard more than one complaint from the girls that they wanted their dress to fit well for the wedding and the delicious meals weren’t helping.
I had to admit that Liana had picked well. I would’ve never considered the restaurant for a bachelorette party, as there were plenty of Italian restaurants closer to my side of town, but it was a great choice.
“Where are we off to next?” Grace asked. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who felt completely out of the loop.
“Emily and I are the only ones who know,” Liana said, smirking. “Let’s go find out!” We paid the bill and went back to the limousine. We couldn’t have been driving for more than five minutes when we stopped outside of a bar. I couldn’t quite make out the name from the angle I was sitting at, but I did see something that left me puzzled: a light-up sign with the words “Strip Club”.
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