The Right Wedding Gown

by Shirley Hailstock

  Saturday, at the auction, when she had sat down next to him, Justin thought the universe had clicked into place. He made a decision to get her back.

  All he needed now was a plan.

  Chapter 2

  Patchett’s wasn’t the best restaurant in the District of Columbia, but Carl the chef, outdid himself whenever Samara and her friends were there for a meal. Samara suspected he was trying to impress Geri. She owned Shadow Walk and it wouldn’t hurt for her to know how well he could handle a kitchen.

  The group had no set date to meet, eat and review the experiences of the day, but somehow the five of them were seated at Patchett’s at least once a month. Well, four of them were seated. Diana was expected, but as usual, she was late. Of course, there was nothing extraordinary about that. Diana was always late.

  The five of them had met in traffic school. Each had been stopped for speeding and in order to keep their licenses, they had to appear for the eight-week course. Over the weeks, they each told their version of why they were part of the mandatory schooling. Their friendship spilled from the class to a local coffeehouse and eventually to Patchett’s where they’d been meeting for the past three years.

  Diana Quade worked for a marketing and advertising firm across the Potomac in the Crystal City complex. Geri Muir had trained as a nurse and worked at Children’s Hospital until she acquired Shadow Walk, which was now her sole endeavor. Shane St. Pierre hailed from Louisiana and according to her, she directed plays at the National Theater. Actually, she was an assistant director. But the group let her live in her own fantasy. Finally there was Carmen Icylin, a lawyer, who worked for the State of Utah in its D.C. office and loved antiques.

  All were single women, except Shane. Geri had been married and divorced. Except for Samara, they all wanted to find Mr. Right and settle into lives of baking cookies and attending parent-teacher conferences.

  The conversation was always lively and tonight was no exception. Samara was still thinking about Justin and his appearance earlier today. Something about him always set her off. Unlike most men she wanted to get rid of, Justin didn’t seem to understand her hints or her direct rebuffs. She was apt to see him anytime she turned around. And that was happening more and more recently.

  “This has got to be the best Beef Bordelaise I’ve ever tasted,” Carmen said, as she took another bite of her meal, bringing Samara back to the present and to the Shrimp Imperial that she was only playing with. They didn’t wait for Diana to order. Since there was no telling when she would arrive. She could catch up when she got there.

  “As usual,” Shane said, “Carl has outdone himself tonight. He must have a crush on one of you.” She looked from Geri to Samara. “Food doesn’t taste this good unless there’s a lot of love in it.”

  “Whoever it is,” Geri said, “it’s not me. But it tastes like he’s in love with someone.”

  Apparently, love was the subject of tonight’s discussion. They often got around to it. Each of them regaling the others with her new love or being consoled when the last man turned out to be a jerk.

  “We can ask him to come out and then find out who the lucky lady is,” Samara suggested in her usual logical reasoning.

  “Yeah,” Carmen said. “You’ve got another man on your mind.”

  “What?” Shane stopped eating. “Samara, there’s a man in your life and you haven’t brought him to the table?”

  “You’re misunderstanding,” Samara defended. “There’s no one.”

  “I met him,” Carmen said. “He’s gorgeous, with broad shoulders, eyes that could melt stone, a cute little dimple in his left cheek, tight waist and buns of steel. I just wanted to put my hands on them and squeeze,” she said, grabbing the air.

  The women squealed at her description and gestures.

  “Unfortunately.” Carmen glanced at Samara. “But he has a fatal flaw.”

  “What man doesn’t?” Geri asked. The whole group at the table laughed.

  “What’s his flaw?” Shane asked.

  “He’s formerly married.”

  “Oh, my God!” Shane put her hands to her mouth, purposely overacting. “Divorced. Well, obviously he has no right to live. We should take him out and hang him.” They all laughed. All except Samara.

  “Give it a rest,” Samara said, sourly. “I am not interested in him.”

  “Him? Does this him have a name?” Geri asked.

  “His name is Justin Beckett. Works at OEO,” Carmen supplied.

  “Ooh, handsome and mysterious, too,” Shane said.

  “Yeah,” Geri said. “Only a handful of people know what goes on in there. It’s one of those agencies that never makes headlines, has an unpretentious address from which no one ever enters or leaves by the front door. And he has a brother who owns an antique shop. Maybe these two might have a mutual love for all things old,” Geri teased.

  Samara didn’t like the teasing because it made her think of Justin Beckett all the more.

  “Guys.” Samara put her hands up. “Can we please talk about something else?”

  “I have something to talk about.” At that moment the always-late Diana slid into the empty chair waiting for her.

  “Diana, where have you been?” Carmen asked.

  She put her glittering left hand in the middle of the table, a smile splitting her face larger than Samara had ever seen.

  “Is that real?” Geri ask incredulously, taking Diana’s hand in hers and adjusting the ring to different angles to watch it sparkle.

  “Engaged?” Shane asked, with awe and surprise in her voice. “When did this happen?”

  “Today at lunch. Greg showed up out of the blue with a ring. In the middle of storyboards and marketing campaigns, he got down on one knee. I tell you, every woman in the office was drooling.”

  “And you kept this from us until now?” Shane feigned hurt.

  “I haven’t been separated from the man since. I could barely get away to come here.”

  They each looked at each other imagining what her words meant. A slow smile started on their faces and broke into a full grin.

  “Congratulations,” Samara said. She was happy for her friend. Diana had really wanted to get married.

  “I am so happy for you,” Shane said, getting up and hugging Diana. Tears were in her eyes when she straightened up. Using her fingertips, she wiped them away and resumed her seat.

  “You have to tell us all the details,” Geri said.

  “Well, first of all, I want you all in the wedding,” Diana began. “That includes you, Samara.”

  “Have you set a date yet?” Carmen asked.

  “Next June if we can get all the details in place.”

  “Great, that’ll give me time to lose some weight,” Carmen said as she took another forkful of food and slid it into her mouth.

  “I was thinking about the details on the way here. There is so much to do,” Diana said. “If my mother was still alive, I could call her and then sit back and let her do all the work.”

  “Well, Samara has a wedding gown. You can start there.”

  Absolute silence covered the table as if all sound on earth had been ripped away. Four pairs of eyes were trained on Samara, boring into her with piercing directness. They all knew her superstitions about weddings. Samara didn’t believe in tempting fate.

  “Has something happened we should know about?” Geri broke the strained silence.

  “No,” Samara answered quickly.

  “You were just protesting that this guy meant nothing to you. And you somehow got a wedding gown between our last dinner and tonight? What gives?” Geri asked.

  “Guy? What guy?” Diana interjected, wanting to know. “Samara, have you found a man?”

  “There is no guy,” Samara objected. “You all act like I’ve never had a date.”

  “Well, when was the last time?” Shane asked with a laugh.

  “Don’t change the subject,” Diana commanded. “I wanted to know about the guy.”

&nbs
p; “There’s nothing to tell,” Samara said, cutting her eyes at Carmen. She had turned this story into a drama. “Carmen took me to an auction at Shadow Walk and I bought a trunk.” She stared at Geri as she emphasized the name of the place.

  “Don’t blame me,” Geri said, her eyes wide and innocent. “I wasn’t even there.”

  “Anyway,” Samara continued. “There was a guy sitting next to me that I knew.”

  “Is he married?” Diana asked.

  “That’s irrelevant,” Samara dismissed.

  Silence hovered over the table again. Samara felt uncomfortable and needed to somehow steer the subject away from Justin Beckett.

  “Anyway,” she said, “when we got back to my apartment and opened the trunk, there was a wedding gown in it. I was hoping for old letters or books.” She tried to downplay the gown, but remembering Carmen holding it up, she couldn’t help thinking what she would look like dressed in the delicate lace concoction. Mentally shaking the image away, Samara remembered it was her sister who went in for trying on wedding gowns.

  “So, you got a guy and a gown,” Diana teased. She dangled her hand in Samara’s face. “Maybe soon you’ll have one of these, too. We could make it a double wedding.”

  “Dream on,” Samara said. “Marriage is not part of my master plan.”

  “Plans change,” Diana said.

  The trouble with routine was you got used to it. When something changed, it could throw the whole day off. She didn’t know why Justin had been coming to the Archives regularly, but he had. Samara was used to seeing him on her daily excursion from the bowels of the building. Even the guards would point him out when she stepped off the elevator. Now, it had been five whole days since she’d last seen him.

  He usually surprised her in the main viewing room of the Archives building a couple times a week. But he hadn’t appeared since the night of her dinner with her friends. It could be he was busy at work, she reasoned. After all, speculation was the OEO dealt with international emergencies and that could mean any number of things at any time of the day or night. There could be another reason, Samara’s mind told her. Maybe he’d finally taken the hint and was no longer pursuing her.

  Her heart felt as if a tiny pin had pricked it at that thought. She shook herself. Why was she spending time thinking of Justin? She didn’t even like him. And after the way they had met, why would she ever allow him back in her life?

  “She’s right over there.”

  Samara heard the guard’s voice and whirled around, thinking he was pointing her out. He was speaking to a tourist and pointing toward a child standing alone near a glass case. The mother’s sneakers scrunched on the limestone and granite flooring as she paced quickly to her daughter.

  Samara’s heart dropped. She let a breath out. Good thing Diana wasn’t here. She would swear Samara was disappointed that Justin has not appeared. She checked her watch. It was time to go anyway. She was meeting her sister for dinner and had just enough time to run downstairs and clear her desk and table before leaving for the night.

  On her way to the elevator, she passed one of the guards, Alan Stackhouse, the same one who had pointed out the little girl to her mother. He was short and as round as he was tall, but he had clear blue eyes, a happy smile and a good word for everyone.

  “Everything in order?” Alan asked her that several times a week. It always made Samara smile. The question and answer were a sort of game they played.

  “Everything is exactly as it should be.” She gave him the stock answer. She wondered what he would say if she varied the routine and said something different.

  Here she usually got into the elevator and descended to her floor, three levels below. Today, she turned back to face him. Today she was varying the routine.

  “Actually,” she said, and then hesitated, “all is not the same.”

  His eyebrows went up in mock surprise. “Is one of the documents missing?”

  “Nothing like that,” she said. “It’s not paper. It’s just that I haven’t seen Mr. Beckett in a few days. He’s usually prowling around the floor, checking all the glass cases.”

  Alan looked up as if her words suddenly made him aware of Justin’s absence. “I haven’t seen Mr. Beckett, either, in the last few days. He’s probably just working hard. Could be his busy period.” The guard offered a solution to Justin’s absence.

  Samara nodded. “That’s probably it,” she agreed, seizing his suggestion as the truth.

  The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside. “See you tomorrow,” Samara said.

  She wondered what was occupying Justin’s time that he couldn’t take a moment out for his evening routine.

  Or who?

  Cinnamon and MacKenzie had been married for a little over a year and, as her sister approached her, Samara saw she still had her newlywed glow. The smile she offered was as bright as daylight.

  “You look great,” Samara said as she hugged her sister under the restaurant canopy.

  “Thank you. What about you?” Cinnamon moved back and studied Samara’s face.

  “I’m fine.” Samara dropped her chin a little so her sister couldn’t read her features. There was nothing really to read. “How’s Mac?” She tried to change the subject.

  “Mac’s great. He’s probably on camera about now.” Cinnamon paused to check her watch and look up at the building across the street. “He’s going to meet us when the broadcast is over.”

  Inside the maître d’ showed them to the same table they always ate at when she met Cinnamon here. It was actually Mac’s regular table and she supposed, being a celebrity, you get those kind of perks.

  “Are you going to make me an aunt anytime soon?” Samara asked when they’d ordered.

  “Are you going to give me a brother-in-law anytime soon?” she countered.

  “Don’t wait on that one,” Samara told her. “You know I’m not planning to marry.”

  “I know you believe marriages don’t last, but when you meet that one special guy, none of that will matter.

  “Speaking of special guys, is there a new guy in your life?” Cinnamon asked.

  Her sister always asked that question. Samara shook her head. “I suppose specials are out of fashion this year.”

  “What about an old guy then?” Cinnamon teased. “There’s that guy that kept trying to get a date with you. The one we saw in Stafford Cafeteria. Did you ever go out with him?”

  “I did not.”

  “He was kinda cute. What have you got against him?”

  “Nothing. He’s not my type.”

  “Shame, I just saw him.”

  “Justin!” Samara’s head came up too fast and she spoke too quickly.

  Cinnamon snapped her fingers. “That’s his name. I’ve been trying to remember it, but I only saw him a few times and then only for a short while.”

  “Where did you see him?” Samara asked, fiddling with her water glass and trying not to appear too interested.

  “Over at the studio. He was coming in to see Mac, just as I was leaving to come here.” Mac was Samara’s sister’s husband. He was an anchor on the nightly news.

  “Did he look all right?”

  “What do you mean?” Cinnamon leaned forward. Her keen sense of intuition kicked in and Samara knew she’d played her hand. Although she denied it, she was interested in Justin.

  “He looked a little tired, but other than that he was just as good-looking as he was the last time I saw him. Why do you ask?”

  Several reasons she could have expressed went through her mind, but she rejected them all for the truth. “He often comes by the Archives. In the last few days, he hasn’t been seen and I wondered if anything was wrong.”

  “So you are interested in him?” Cinnamon asked.

  The waiter set their food in front of them and Samara waited until he was gone to answer. “Not really. It’s just that I’ve gotten used to his presence.”

  “Has he asked you out?”

  “Many ti
mes.”

  “And is that what you miss?”

  “No, I miss nothing about him. It was just the routine that changed and I wondered why.”

  “You’re not telling the truth, Samara.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I know something you don’t.”

  “And what would that be?” Her curiosity was peaked.

  “I know you did go out with Justin and I know what happened.”

  Cinnamon raised her hand to stop Samara when she started to speak.

  “He seems like a really nice man and he’s interested in you. I know the beginning wasn’t the best, but he is divorced now.”

  “Cinnamon, he was dishonest with me. How can I trust someone like that?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose you need a heart that forgives.”

  Samara stared at her sister. “What did he tell you happened between us?”

  “He told Mac. He said you wouldn’t answer the phone or talk to him. He said after finally getting you to go out with him, his ex-wife ruined it again. She lured him away—”

  “Lured? It looked more like he was willing to go with her.”

  “She told him her car wouldn’t start. Mac says he has a strong sense of honor.”

  “But what about the dishonest thing he did to me?”

  “He told you the truth afterward and he was divorcing at the time. That part was true. And Mac says they don’t come any more sincere than Justin. And as you should remember, Mac and I didn’t have the most auspicious beginning. I was the one who was dishonest with him.”

  “That was harmless.”

  “You haven’t been harmed. You’re scared. I’ve seen it for a long time.”

  “Me? Scared? What have I got to be afraid of?” Samara’s voice was higher than normal.

  “Your heart.” Cinnamon spoke quietly. “You feel something for Justin and you don’t like it.”