Nuptials for Sale

by Virginia Jewel

  I jumped out of bed and dug through my bag for my cell phone. I dialed Josh’s number and chewed on my fingernails as I listened to it ringing. His voicemail picked up and I sat silent, not sure what to say. I hung up and dialed our home number.

  “Hello?” Mr. Matthews picked up our home phone.

  “Oh, um, hi Mr. Matthews, this is Mel. Is Josh there?”

  He chuckled, “Yes he is, but he’s in the shower and I’ve been given strict orders from your mother not to let you talk to him.”

  My face fell, “Right. That sounds like something she’d say.” I sighed dejectedly, “Well, then I guess I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

  “Good night, Mel.” Mr. Matthews said with a hint of a laugh.

  “Wait!” I shouted before he could hang up.

  “What?”

  “Um, could you just tell him that I called to say good night?” I stumbled on my words. It wasn’t really what I wanted to say to Josh, but it was all I could think of in a hurry.

  “Sure.”

  I hung up the phone and flopped back down on the bed. I forced my eyes closed and took a few deep breaths. The sound of muted voices caught my ear, so I got back up and walked softly to the door. I opened the door quietly and tiptoed down the hall towards my parents’ room and the muted voices.

  “I know, dear, but it’s not our day. If this is what they want then we just need to be supportive.” My dad’s deep voice was softer than usual.

  I pressed my ear against the door to try to catch more of it.

  My mom’s voice followed, “I just think that Melody would have preferred something smaller and less lavish. This whole thing seems to have stressed her out.”

  “She did seem less like herself tonight,” my dad sighed.

  “Except when she was in the backseat with Josh,” my mom giggled.

  I could feel my cheeks burning, even though I knew no one could see me.

  A deep laugh joined in and added, “I’m afraid of what might have happened if I hadn’t interrupted them.”

  “They are going to be so happy together.”

  “If anyone can be, it’s those two.”

  My mom let out a long contented sigh.

  “You’re thinking about grandkids already, aren’t you?”

  As I walked back to my room, I could hear my mom laughing softly. I crawled back into my bed and pulled the blanket up around me. I needed to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, no matter what happened.

  18.

  The rain was really coming down, but I just couldn’t muster up the strength to knock on the door. I could hear the television on inside, so I knew he was home, but I also heard two voices. The last thing I wanted to see was a happy couple. But the longer I stood there, the wetter I got.

  I took a deep breath, wiped the mascara away from my eyes, and knocked lightly on the door.

  It opened swiftly and a petite redhead in a white tank top answered it with a smile. “Are you the pizza delivery person?” Her eyes roamed the length of me, looking for a pizza box.

  “Is Josh here?”

  She opened the door wider and Josh appeared in the doorway in a tank top that matched the redhead’s. His back was to me as he counted his money. He turned around, ready to pay for the pizza.

  When he saw me, his face fell.

  “Mel? What’s wrong? Why are you soaked?” he asked with a panic. “Have you been crying?”

  All the sobs I’d fought off since getting out of the car came bursting out of me. Josh pulled me into the apartment.

  “Who is this?” the redhead asked him.

  Josh ignored her and sat me down on the couch. He pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around me. He put his arm around me as he sat down next to me. His hand rubbed my back as I continued to cry.

  “Josh, what’s going on?” the redhead was not content to be ignored.

  “I don’t know,” he answered without taking his eyes off me. “Mel, what’s going on?”

  I took a deep breath, “Stephen broke up with me.” I choked out slowly.

  Josh sighed and pulled me closer to him.

  “And he kicked me out,” I cried against his arm.

  “Shh,” he rubbed my back harder, “He’s an idiot.” He rocked me slowly for a few more minutes.

  Eventually, he got me up off the couch and led me to the bathroom to wash my face. The cold water against my face helped, but I still wasn’t feeling myself. When I came back to the living room, the redhead was gone.

  “What happened to your girlfriend?” I asked with a hoarse voice. I scanned the room for her, but couldn’t see anything but a pizza box.

  “I sent her home.” Josh handed me a mug of hot tea, “And she wasn’t my girlfriend.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mess up your night.” I set the mug down on the coffee table and walked towards the door.

  Josh grabbed my arm, “Don’t be ridiculous.” He pulled me back towards the couch. “I didn’t really like her anyway.”

  I sat down and he handed me the mug again.

  He sat down next to me, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Tears started welling up in my eyes again and I shook my head.

  “So I’m guessing you’ll need a place to stay tonight?”

  I nodded and wiped a tear away.

  He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me into his side. “You are welcome to stay here as long as you need to. You know I love having you here.”

  “That’s just because I like to clean,” I sniffed against him.

  He laughed, “You know me so well.”

  I let him hold me for a few minutes before I sat up and pulled away from him. I put the mug on the coffee table and fell back against the couch. I closed my eyes and sighed.

  “You know you’re too good for him, right?” Josh whispered softly.

  “Josh,” I pleaded with him to stop.

  “I know. You don’t want to talk about. I just thought you should know that you are an amazing woman who deserves to be treated better than the way he treated you.” He said quickly, before I could stop him.

  I held back the tears this time and just kept my eyes closed.

  “I’ll go get the bed ready for you.” He got up from the couch and left me alone.

  Even though I hated hearing it, I knew that Josh was right. He was always right. Every time a guy broke my heart, Josh was there telling me what I’d known all along. I may not have been good at picking boyfriends, but I could not have picked a better best friend.

  “Okay, the bed’s all made.” He announced when he came back into the room. “I even used clean sheets.” He grinned goofily at me.

  I smiled at him, “Are they actually clean or just cleaner than usual?”

  “I got them out of the closet just for you.”

  I sighed, “What would I do without you, Josh?”

  He grabbed my hands and pulled me up off the couch, “Who knows? It’s amazing how you got through sixteen years before you met me.”

  His room was a mess, but in the middle of the room sat a clean bed.

  “I’ll sleep on the couch tonight, and tomorrow we’ll figure everything else out.” He rubbed my shoulders as he gently nudged me into the room.

  I kicked my shoes off and crawled into the bed. “We can both sleep in the bed. I can’t give you the same kind of night your redhead friend was offering, but I can promise not to hog the covers.”

  Josh smiled at me, “Trust me, your offer is much more tempting, but I don’t mind staying on the couch.”

  “Will you at least hang out with me for a bit?”

  He crawled onto the bed and sat up against the headboard. “I can stay with you until you fall asleep, if you’d like.”

  “Thank you,” I closed my eyes and squeezed the pillow tightly.

  Josh stroked my hair and cheek, and for the first time in a long time, I started to relax.

  “I can’t believe I wasted over a year on a guy that was
never going to marry me.” I whispered against the pillow.

  “Love is a complicated thing, Mel. You can’t make someone love you, no matter how badly you want them to.” He kept stroking my hair lightly.

  “We’ve been fighting a lot lately and things had been really tense. I caught him out with a girl tonight, and when I confronted him about it he said it was my fault. He said that if I wasn’t such a nag then he wouldn’t be tempted to go out with other girls.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Trip.”

  “I know,” I sighed, “it just feels like it.”

  “Mel, someday the luckiest guy in the world is going to snag you and all this heartache is going to be a distant memory.” He leaned down and kissed me on the top of my head. “I’m sorry that you’re hurting right now.”

  “This helps,” I said softly against the pillow.

  The next day Josh and I drove over to Stephen’s place, my old place, and gathered up all my things. Since I’d moved into Stephen’s apartment eight months earlier I didn’t have many things of my own anymore. All the furniture in the apartment was Stephen’s, so I only had clothes and a few decorative items to get.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to break something just to spite him?” Josh asked for the third time. He’d already picked up a vase and a glass sculpture and offered to smash them.

  “No, he’s not worth it.” I smiled at him.

  “Well, you just say the word and I’ll bull-in-a-china-shop this place!” he wiggled his eyebrows at me.

  After we left my old apartment, Josh drove me to the furniture store to pick out a new bed. The one surprisingly good thing about living with Stephen was that he hadn’t made me pay rent. I’d saved a few thousand because of that, so I was able to buy a new bed without worry.

  “I probably won’t stay with you for very long, so I’m not going to get a dresser or anything yet. I just need a bed to sleep in and a closet to throw my stuff into it.” I said when we got back to his apartment.

  It had taken us two trips to carry all my stuff in and now we were standing in the empty guest room of Josh’s apartment.

  “You know you can stay as long as you want. I like having you around, you’re fun.” He threw a bag of clothes at me.

  “Yes, I’m a real laugh a minute these days,” I said sarcastically and rolled my eyes.

  Josh picked me up in a big bear hug and shook me until I started laughing.

  “You know I love you and having you all to myself is even better!”

  For the next two weeks, Josh kept me busy and happy. As long as he was around, I didn’t think about Stephen. I didn’t have time to think about him because I was too busy laughing. Josh always knew exactly what to say, or do, to make me happy again. Whether it was organizing a board game night at our place, or just renting an old movie and curling up on the couch with me, Josh knew how to keep me smiling.

  But no matter how happy I seemed during the day, or while Josh was around, the emptiness always came back at night. Sleeping alone after sharing a bed with someone for almost a year, took some getting used to. For me, the empty spot beside me was a nightly reminder of all the months I’d wasted with Stephen.

  Some nights, I’d lay awake for hours after I should have been asleep and just think about everything that had gone wrong. Other nights, I cried myself to sleep.

  One night, as I lay in my bed using my pillow to dry my eyes, Josh burst through the door.

  “I can’t do this anymore, Trip. It’s been two weeks and I’ve listened to you cry yourself to sleep almost every night. I can’t take it.” He didn’t raise his voice at me, but I could tell from his tone that he was angry.

  I sat up in the bed and unleashed all my anger on him, “I’m sorry, Josh, but I can’t help it. I miss him. I know you don’t understand it because you never liked him, but I did. I loved him and I thought I was going to spend my life with him. So sue me if I need a little time to get over it!”

  “Damn it Trip, you are so frustrating!” he sighed and threw his hands up in frustration. “The perfect guy for you could be standing right in front of you and you would never see him because you get in your own way. You can’t keep blaming yourself for something that’s not your fault. I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”

  I got up on my knees on the bed and shouted back at him. “Have you ever been in love Josh? Have you ever felt your heart aching just to be near someone? Do you know what it’s like to feel that? Do you know what it feels like to hurt this much just because someone doesn’t want you anymore?”

  Josh walked to the bed and crawled up to meet me in the middle. “I do know. I’m sorry, it’s just hard to see you hurting like this and not be able to help you.”

  I sank back down and sat on my feet, “You are helping, believe me. I don’t think I would be half as sane right now if you hadn’t been here for me.”

  He curled up beside me and I rested my head on his shoulder. “I’ll always be here for you, Trip.”

  19.

  I watched as two tan teenagers passed by carrying surfboards.

  “Can I get you another drink?” a waiter appeared at my side.

  I smiled brightly at him, “Actually, I was thinking of joining my husband in the water. Can you bring that drink to me in ten minutes?”

  “I certainly can. Enjoy your swim,” he nodded and walked away smiling.

  I stood up, unwrapped the skirt from my waist, and tossed it on my chair. Several people watched as I walked across the sand wearing nothing but the little red bikini my mom had given me. As I walked towards the warm blue water, I looked out and saw Josh standing waist deep waving to me.

  He looked amazing. The Hawaiian sun had bronzed his skin and lightened his hair. Water droplets glistened against his chest making him look even more gorgeous than usual. I could feel the smile spreading across my face, as I got closer to him.

  “I’m glad you decided to join me,” he said with a smile when I waded out to him.

  I wrapped my arms around him and pulled his face down to mine for a kiss.

  His fingers played gently in my hair even after he pulled away from the kiss.

  “Mel, wake up.”

  “What?”

  “Melody, honey, you need to wake up,” he said again, only this time he said it with my mother’s voice.

  Suddenly, everything was shaking. Josh’s face faded away and the view around me changed from the beautiful Hawaiian scene to my bedroom in my parent’s house.

  I opened my eyes wider to try to find Josh’s smiling face again. However, it wasn’t Josh’s face I saw above me, it was my mom’s.

  “Melody, it’s almost five-thirty. I thought you had to be at the salon at six?” my mom asked as she sat down on the edge of my bed.

  I shot up. “What? I was supposed to get up at five!” I threw the covers off me, shrouding my mom with the blanket, and jumped out of bed.

  She pulled the blanket off her head. “We heard your alarm go off and thought you’d already gotten up. But when I walked past your room, I stuck my head in to say good morning and you were still in bed.”

  I ran around the room gathering the things I needed to take a shower and get ready for the salon. “I’m never going to make it there on time!”

  “Don’t worry,” she stood up, “You get in the shower, and I’ll have your father start loading things into the car. We’ll get you there as quickly as we can.”

  By the time I got out of the shower, my dress was loaded into the backseat of my father’s car and my mom was waiting for me with a banana and a cup of coffee. We pulled into the salon fifteen minutes late.

  The Wake up America camera crew was already in place and began filming as soon as I walked in. I was pushed into a chair and several sets of hands began to work on me at once. One person was working on my hair, one was very skillfully torturing me with hot wax, another was filing away at my fingernails, and the last one was rubbing my feet with lotion. With all that, there was still one m
ore person sitting across from me trying to conduct an interview. I answered questions as best as I could with all the people working on me.

  It took two hours to get my hair, nails, and makeup done. When they finished, I stared at myself in the mirror, not recognizing the woman staring back at me. It was more than just the painted face and elaborate hairstyle. I didn’t recognize myself at all. Everything that I was seeing was the opposite of what I’d always wanted for myself.

  As a little girl, when I dreamed about my wedding, I always imagined it being something small. Perhaps it would be in my parents’ backyard or on a beach somewhere. I never wanted the big church affair with a fancy ball gown and stuffy party afterwards. Of course, what I was about to do wasn’t anything close to the big fancy church wedding, but it was still too much for me.

  Wake up America had ordered a car to take me from the salon to the store. I crawled into the backseat and let out a huge sigh of relief. I was alone, finally. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the seat.

  “Don’t smash your hair! Try not to lean against anything!” the stylist shouted from the other side of the glass before we could pull out of the parking lot.

  I sat up and smiled at her. When the car pulled out of sight, I put my head back down against the seat. The quiet of the car was a welcome reprieve from the noisy salon. For the first time that day, it was quiet enough for me to hear my own thoughts.

  My mind immediately went back to last night’s thoughts.

  Josh was in love with me, and always had been.

  I needed to talk to him. I needed to hear him say it before I could process it. I reached into my bag for my cell phone and called Josh. Just like last night, I got his voicemail. I didn’t leave a message. What would I say?

  We pulled into the store’s parking lot. It was empty except for a few cars and several news vans. The car pulled right up to the front door and Sam came out to meet me with several of the assistants trailing behind him.

  “Good morning, Mel. You look great!” Sam opened the door for me and helped me out of the car. “The photographer is already set up to get some candid shots of you getting ready.”