31 Days of Summer (31 Days #2)

by C. J. Fallowfield

  ‘Then we’ll do this, a classic, elegant and unstated white, pink and green theme.’

  ‘I can’t,’ she gasped, ‘It’s your dream wedding.’

  ‘A wedding I’ll never be having, Brooke,’ I sighed sadly. ‘If you love it, I want you to have it, I’ll sort everything so you don’t have to worry. So let’s focus on getting your dress and we can look for either a pink or green dress for me, what do you think?’

  ‘I think I love you, Ellie Baxter,’ she beamed as she hugged me tightly. ‘Molly’s going to love this, I just know it.’

  ‘Then that’s all that matters.’

  ‘Ok, I think you need to be in a green dress, emerald green to go with your eyes and blonde hair, plus Dan loves you in green.’

  ‘He does,’ I smiled. ‘So, I’m thinking you’d look better in a short dress, it will make your legs look longer and with some heels you’ll look even taller.’

  We walked around the store, which we had to ourselves, courtesy of Dan paying them to close for the day just for us, and we were brought some glasses of mimosa and canapés. I discreetly asked for some plain orange juice, as we scoured the vast designer store for her dress. She found the perfect bridesmaid dress for me first. An elegant one that went in at the waist and stopped just below the knee, so that was set aside as a maybe, we had to get Molly’s approval too. Brooke squealed and pulled out a pale mint bridesmaid’s one, with a sweetheart neckline, ribbon waist and flared out to the knee. It was covered in tiny butterflies which stood out from the lace material.

  ‘What do you think?’ she asked, her eyes alive with excitement.

  ‘It’s a bridesmaid’s dress, sweetie,’ I said softly, not wanting to kill her buzz.

  ‘I don’t care, I love it. I mean it’s hardly going to be a conventional wedding is it? Two brides walking up the aisle at the same time? Dad was in bad enough denial I was an occasional muff diver, let alone turning my back on cock and getting engaged to an all-out lesbian. Who says I have to be traditional?’

  ‘I guess you have a point,’ I nodded with a giggle, as Claire, Brooke’s assistant, tried to keep a distasteful look off her face. ‘It is really pretty and would go really well with your red hair. Go and try it on.’ I laughed as she jumped up and down with delight.

  ‘I don’t know why you’re looking down your nose at me,’ she scowled at Claire. ‘This is Pretty Woman all over again and you’ll lose a shit load of commission if you piss us off. Her boyfriend’s like only as big as Apple, the Apple who make iPads, not Gwyneth Paltrow’s Apple or that would make him pretty small. Anyway the point being, he could buy this store about a billion times over and still have change and she’s a PYT bestselling author,’ she berated, with a so there nod.

  ‘NYT, New York Times,’ I whispered, wishing the floor would swallow me up. I hated it when she told people about my books.

  ‘NYT? What’s a PYT then?’

  ‘Pretty Young Thing by Michael Jackson.’

  ‘O right,’ she giggled. ‘Still very valid. “Repeat after me, sing na na-na na,”’ she sang at Claire, as she shook her dress in her face and skipped off to the changing room. Claire followed with a seriously pissed off look on her face, as I chuckled and looked longingly at the wedding dresses. I didn’t mind Brooke having my planned out theme, better she enjoy it than have it go to waste, but to think I’d never get to wear one of these gorgeous dresses, made me feel all emotional. Damn pregnancy hormones. I stopped in my tracks, as I came across a vintage A-line lace dress with a sweetheart neckline and tiny jewels scattered across the lace. It had an ivory satin ribbon around the waist with a beautiful art deco jewelled detail on the front. I pulled it out and held it against me and sighed. It was stunning, just what I would have chosen if we were here planning my day.

  ‘O my God, Ellie, you have to try that on, it’s so you,’ came Brooke’s voice.

  ‘I’m not getting married, Brooke,’ I replied as I looked up and gasped. ‘You look adorable.’

  ‘It’s so cute isn’t it?’ she giggled as she did a spin, then lifted her hair up, holding it up on the top of her head as she stood on her tiptoes. ‘So?’

  ‘I love it.’

  ‘You’re not just saying that are you? You seem kind of out of it today.’

  ‘I do? I’m sorry, I’m tired but I’m so excited for you. You need to get that one and you’ll have to disappear shortly, as Molly will be here to look for hers.’

  ‘You can’t tell her what I got,’ she warned. ‘Or about the theme, other than showing her your dress, but try and get her into something that fits in with it all. I want her to be surprised on the day.’

  ‘My lips are sealed,’ I nodded, miming pulling a zip across them.

  ‘Please go and try that dress on, it’s so you. To please me, as it’s a really special day for me today,’ she added with a pout, giving me her perfected doe eyed stare with her big green eyes.

  ‘You dare tell Dan,’ I warned with a pointed finger. ‘He’d have a heart attack.’ She mimed locking her lips and threw away the pretend key as my assistant, Trish, took the dress from me and asked me to follow her. ‘Is this allowed when I have no intention of buying a wedding dress?’ I asked.

  ‘For what your boyfriend’s paying us for the day, you could ruin it skateboarding and still have spare change to buy plenty more,’ she replied. ‘And that’s not a cheap dress.’ My heart started beating a little faster as she slipped it over my head and I held my hair out of the way, as she zipped up the back. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from crying, it was stunning. It would have been too big around the bust for me not long ago, but with these bad boys I filled it perfectly. ‘It’s gorgeous on you, why don’t you go and show your friend before she scares Claire anymore than she already has,’ nodded Trish. ‘She has a fear of lesbians, let alone open and forward ones.’

  ‘O dear,’ I laughed and headed out to find Brooke lounging in her dress on the chaise, as she supped on her drink with Claire at a safe distance.

  ‘O babe,’ she sighed as she sat up. ‘You look beautiful. Let me take a picture. It’s so you, classy and elegant. Dan would go nuts to see you in this.’

  ‘You think?’ I smiled.

  ‘Hell yeah. If only he’d kill off his wife once and for all, you could have your fairy tale happy ever after.’

  ‘She’s in a long-term coma,’ I announced quickly, with a glare at Brooke as Claire and Trish looked at us in horror. ‘Very long term. I’m not a stealer of married men, I promise you.’

  ‘She totally didn’t know he was married when they first had hot sex, after she nearly drowned in an icy Scottish loch,’ Brooke nodded as she snapped me on her iPhone. ‘She has morals. She didn’t know he was loaded and using a fake name at the time either. She left him when she found out, even when she had his baby in secret she refused to run back to him, until he came to claim her in some masculine “Me Tarzan, you my Ellie” way. It’s an epic love story, they ought to make a Nicholas Sparks type film out of it.’

  ‘Thanks for sharing all of that with complete strangers, Brooke,’ I sighed, thinking how my life sounded like a soap opera.

  ‘Hardly strangers. Claire here has seen my bare tits and arse and don’t think I didn’t see you slyly checking them out, or trying to cop a feel,’ she nodded at her, as she held out her empty glass. Claire went bright red as she grabbed it off her and scuttled out of sight.

  ‘Don’t tease her, she has lesbian fear.’

  ‘O game on,’ giggled Brooke. ‘What’s that called anyway? Lesobia? Lesanoia?’

  ‘Other than discrimination, I have no idea,’ I laughed. ‘Look it up on my iPad, while I go and get changed.’

  ‘Your friend’s crazy,’ observed Trish, as she undid my zip. ‘I bet she’s a hoot on a night out.’

  ‘You have no idea,’ I smiled. ‘She’s all bark and no bite though, she has a heart of gold under there.’

  ‘I’ll leave you to get changed,’ she advised, as she slipped out of the cu
rtain. I reluctantly slid the dress off and carefully hung it up, as I ran my eyes over it one last time. Mum would have loved it, it looked so much like her vintage art deco style dress, the one I’d wanted to keep, so I could have it altered to fit me for my wedding day to Zac. One of my aunts had taken it though for my cousin. I didn’t have enough backbone then to argue, I was too emotional having lost both parents at once, but I’d vowed then I wasn’t ever going to let anyone else walk all over me again. I’d nearly let Zac, but going through all of that with him and then Dan, had really toughened me up. I pulled on my jeans and high heeled brown knee high boots and ran my fingers through my hair, wondering if Dan was having fun out with Logan. Oliver was spending his first full night away from me, having a sleep over at his grandparents, which had me feeling extra on edge. I missed him already, but Dan and I were overdue some quality alone time. I’d planned a romantic meal so I could seduce him and have him all happy, before I hit him with my news. Much as I’d miss my little boy, it would actually be nice to have sex without the baby monitor interrupting us.

  ‘What’s with the plain orange juice?’ demanded Brooke, as I stepped out to find her with her hands on her hips, back in her shorts and blouse. ‘I downed your glass as you weren’t touching it and there wasn’t a drop of alcohol in it.’

  ‘I’m … breastfeeding,’ I replied, feeling my cheeks heat up. I didn’t like lying, but I felt Dan deserved to know first this time, especially as he’d missed out on so much first time around.

  ‘Bullshit alert,’ she shot back, as she mimicked the sound of a siren. ‘You promised we’d drink and have fun today, we’re going out for a late lunch then to a cocktail bar to get bladdered, your suggestion. Plus you don’t have Oliver tonight, it will be out of your system by the time you see him.’

  ‘I’m just … I’m not feeling in a getting bladdered mood that’s all, I can still have fun without it.’

  ‘O my God, I so know when you’re hiding something. You’re pregnant aren’t you?’ She fixed me with a gaze that would have the most hardened prisoner of war wilt.

  ‘No,’ I mumbled, as I tucked my hair behind my ear.

  ‘You big fat liar, Ellie Baxter. You are, aren’t you?’ she squealed as she bounced up and down on the spot, clapping her hands. ‘I’m going to be an auntie again.’

  ‘Sssshhhh,’ I warned, knowing there was no way I could keep up the pretence any longer. ‘Dan doesn’t even know, I wanted to tell him first, so please don’t say anything to Molly.’

  ‘O. M. G. This is awesome. How far gone are you?’

  ‘About three weeks, I’ll see the Doctor sometime next week to confirm it.’ I laughed as she flung her arms around me and squeezed me tightly, then danced around the room singing The Pointer Sisters I’m so excited.

  ‘Someone really does like her dress,’ smiled Trish, as she came back in with a fresh orange juice for me. ‘Molly’s arrived, can I show her in?’

  ‘No telling her anything about my dress, ok?’ warned Brooke.

  ‘I won’t tell if you don’t,’ I reminded her.

  ‘I’ll go shopping for some underwear, call me when you’re done and we can go and eat.’

  ‘Sounds good,’ I replied with a kiss to her cheek and chuckled as she winked at Claire on her way out, making her go even redder. I took a seat as I waited for Molly and sent Luiza a text asking how Oliver was doing.

  ‘So how did it go?’ Molly asked as she came in.

  ‘Really well, Brooke has a gorgeous dress and I have a potential bridesmaid’s one set aside, dependant on what you go for.’

  ‘I’m a classic girl, well with clothes anyway,’ she laughed as she kissed me and gave me a hug.

  ‘So all white and long?’

  ‘Yes, I’m not into lots of fuss either. Is Dan better?’

  ‘Much,’ I smiled.

  ‘Looking forward to your night alone, or are you thinking of dragging Maisie out of retirement and going to pick Oliver up as soon as we’re done here?’

  ‘Am I that transparent? I miss him so much. Come on, I’m starving already, let’s get dress shopping.’

  We ended up choosing a white strapless draping column dress in Chantilly lace, with a waist sash with white protruding rose buds. With her dark hair and pale skin she looked stunning in it. I showed her the green bridesmaid dress for me and she was happy with it too, so we arranged to have all three dresses shipped up to the hotel, where they’d be stored in Dan’s suite ready for the day. I was already running through a checklist in my mind of all the things I needed to sort, like the flowers, cake and menu. If there was one thing I’d learned from Dan, it was that with the right amount of money you could get anything done, in a seemingly impossible timeframe.

  After checking in on Oliver again, to be reassured by Luiza that he’d spent the afternoon haring around their large house and had finally collapsed on the sofa and was snoring, I got a text from Dan to say he was with Logan, waiting outside the cocktail bar. I kissed them both goodbye and left them in giggling heaps in the private booth, tucked into the far corner. They were completely wrecked, but what was worse, I couldn’t even imagine having enjoyed getting in such a state, it had been so long. As I worked my way up towards the exit I suddenly felt a hand on my arm.

  ‘Ellie? Is that you?’ a voice slurred. I looked around and frowned at the stocky dark haired guy leering at me, trying to place him.

  ‘Alec?’ I queried, wondering if it really was one of Zac’s best friends from the stockbroking firm he’d worked at. He’d lived in the same building as us in Canary Wharf and had often come around for drinks and parties.

  ‘You remembered,’ he chuckled, as he yanked me closer. ‘I always knew you had a thing for me.’ I pulled my head back and wrinkled my nose in disgust. The smell of beer on his breath, mingled with stale cigarette smoke was revolting enough on a normal day, but while I was still in the early sickness phase it was far worse.

  ‘No, I was just being nice as you were Zac’s friend. It’s really good to see you, but I need to go, someone’s waiting for me outside,’ I advised with a polite smile, as I tried to pull my arm out of his grasp.

  ‘Stay, have a drink with me. You can’t deny there was always this chemistry between us, serious chemistry,’ he nodded as his eyes lingered on my breasts and his grip around my forearm tightened.

  ‘Chemistry? I’m sorry I think you’re sadly mistaken, there was never any chemistry. Please let go of my arm.’

  ‘El, have you had your tits done? They’re seriously fuckable now. Zac will kick himself if he sees you looking like this.’

  ‘I’d happily pay to see Zac kick himself, preferably right in the testicles, as hard as possible, you too if you don’t let me go.’

  ‘Fighting talk, I like a girl with a bit of spirit,’ he laughed and his friend next to him joined in, as his eyes fixated on my breasts and he leered.

  ‘Alec, I won’t ask again, let me go please.’ I tried to step backwards and pull my arm out of his, but he pulled me right up against him, his erection pressing against my stomach. My stomach with Dan’s baby inside. I suddenly felt even more sick than I had a few minutes ago. ‘Get off me,’ I hissed, as I whacked him with my clutch bag, but he just laughed and grabbed my free hand and anchored it behind my back.

  ‘Got a bit of spunk in you now haven’t you? Zac always said you were a fantastic fuck, seriously tight, but too prim and proper and not down enough with the dirty stuff for his liking. He kept hoping you’d loosen up. Do you know how many women he fucked trying to satisfy his urge for pure filth while he was with you? He was a fool, women like you can be trained to be dirty, to be a whore in the bedroom. I’d be happy to break you in,’ he chuckled, as he tried to kiss my neck.

  ‘I’d be happy to break your fucking fingers,’ came a growl behind me. Alec yelled in pain, as his grip on me was suddenly released. I quickly stepped back, automatically placing a protective hand over my stomach as I saw Dan holding him in a wrist lock, bending it so
far back it was on the verge of snapping. He had a look of complete fury on his face. ‘Apologise for being disrespectful to my girlfriend right now, or I’ll show you what breaking in really looks like.’

  ‘Dan,’ I warned, as I saw Alec’s free fist come flying at him. He staggered as it struck his jaw and he let go of Alec, who lurched to his feet and took advantage of Dan’s surprise to throw another swing at him. The noise in the bar suddenly died as people backed away, me included. Who would be mad enough to take Dan on? Then again Alec was pissed. Dan lay a couple of pummels to Alec’s stomach making him stagger back against the wall.

  ‘Apologise, now,’ barked Dan.

  ‘Look at you playing the big man. I think you’re overcompensating for a tiny dick. Maybe if you fucked her more often, or better, she wouldn’t still be so uptight,’ Alec chuckled. I groaned and covered my eyes, saying that to Dan would be like a red rag to a bull. I heard the sound of the punch cracking against bone, as a gasp went through the crowd. I peeked through my fingers to see Alec with blood pouring out of his nose, with his head securely fastened in a head lock under Dan’s arm as they wrestled and he tried to repeatedly punch Dan’s side.

  ‘Apologise and I’ll walk away before you get really hurt,’ warned Dan, as he let him go and shoved him back.

  ‘Fuck you and your prissy bitch of a girlfriend,’ laughed Alec, as he wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve. I cried out as I saw him grab a glass off a table and stepped forwards to try and get it off him, before he hurt Dan with it, but thankfully his friend prised it out of his hands just in time, as Dan grasped Alec by the shirt collar and threw him up against the wall, leaving his feet dangling as he thrashed to get out of the choke hold.

  ‘Stop!’ I yelled. ‘Just stop.’

  ‘Did you hear what he said about you?’ Dan growled, never taking his eyes of Alec who’d suddenly recognised he was out of his league and had a look of fear in his eyes. ‘No one talks about you like that.’

  ‘I don’t care what he said Dan, it’s just words. I don’t want you getting into trouble and I just want to go home, please,’ I pleaded.