A limousine was sitting out front and I jumped in the back of it. The driver turned around with a confused look on his face.
“Please just drive,” I said quickly, pushed the button to roll the partition window up, and threw my head back against the seat.
He turned back around and took off. I saw Josh running out of the store just as we sped past and I felt the heat of my tears sting my eyes.
“Ma’am?” the driver rolled the partition window down, “we’ve been driving around for over five hours.”
“I don’t care,” I groaned in response. The five hours we’d been driving around felt like forever. I had no idea where we had been, and I didn’t care.
“Unfortunately, ma’am, the car was only contracted for five hours, so I’ve got to drop you somewhere so that I can get this car back to the garage.” He gave me an apologetic smile.
“Oh,” I sat up and looked around at the scenery outside. “I guess you can just take me home then.”
“And where would that be?” he asked.
I didn’t want to go home to the apartment I shared with Josh, but I definitely didn’t want to go to my parents’ house. I chose the lesser of two evils and gave him the address. When we arrived, I let myself out of the car and walked carefully to the door. My uncomfortable heels were in my hands and I had bunched the dress up as best as I could to avoid having it rub against the dirty ground.
At the door, I bent down to retrieve the hidden key under the plant and let myself in. To my relief, the place was dark and empty. I flipped the light on and collapsed on the couch. The light on the answering machine was blinking and beeping, but I ignored it.
I had already tried to take my dress off in the limo, but I couldn’t get it unlaced. So, I sat uncomfortably in it and just thought about what I had done.
It was possible that I had managed to make things much worse than they needed to be. My little speech and exit had been broadcast live across the world. By now, I’m sure that even people who hadn’t been watching it live, had seen or heard about it. People across the world watched as Josh was humiliated and left at the altar.
The phone rang, but I didn’t answer it. Thankfully, whoever had called didn’t bother to leave a message. For a second, a panicked thought raced through my head. What if it had been my parents calling because they were trying to find me?
They were probably completely embarrassed and ashamed of me. They had believed everything about Josh and me, and had been genuinely happy for us. I imagined Josh’s dad was probably angry as well. I reached into the bodice of my dress and pulled out the gold wedding band he’d given me to give to Josh. I’d stuck it there before my dad had arrived to walk me down the aisle. I slipped my finger into the ring and spun it around mindlessly.
I looked around the room at all the furniture the boys had worked hard to put together. SuperMart was bound to take it back. Josh had gotten rid of everything he already owned, and once they took the new stuff, the apartment would be bare.
What would we do without furniture?
As soon as I thought about the furniture as ours, a new thought came to my mind, what if Josh didn’t want me to stay with him anymore?
I covered my face with my hands and started sobbing.
The phone rang again.
21.
I don’t know how long I cried, or at what point I fell asleep, but when the door opened it startled me awake and I sat up.
“Holy shit, Mel! We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Josh closed the door behind him and threw his keys on the bookcase.
My eyes were dry and itchy from all the crying and I blinked to try to relieve some of the pain. As I tried to pull myself together, I quickly shoved the gold wedding band back into my dress.
“How long have you been here?” he asked as he sat down on the couch next to me. He was still wearing his tuxedo, but his bowtie was undone and hanging from his neck.
“I don’t know. I rode around in the limo for five hours and then ended up here.”
“Everyone’s been worried about you. We called your cell like twenty times before we realized you had left it in the dressing room. We called this place too, but it went to voicemail.”
I shifted my eyes guiltily and he followed my gaze to see the busted pieces of our answering machine in the middle of the room. He turned back and gave me a raised eyebrow look.
I closed my eyes and sighed, “It was ringing off the hook when I got here. I just got tired of hanging up on people. How mad are my parents?” I changed the subject. I didn’t want to think, or talk, about the phone calls I’d dealt with before falling asleep.
“They’re not mad at you. I explained the whole thing to them.” Josh leaned back against the couch and stared up at the ceiling.
“How mad were Sam and Nathan?” I cringed just thinking about leaving Josh to deal with the whole mess.
“They were both upset at first, but then Sam got a call from one of the executives at CBS and they said the ratings were off the charts and they’d received thousands of calls and e-mails about it in just the first half hour.” Josh laughed dryly, “Nathan decided that since they still managed to come out looking like the nice guy, he wasn’t too mad.”
“Are they going to take the furniture away?” I asked timidly.
“No, he said we could keep it.” Josh sighed, “But he is taking away the free groceries offer.”
“That’s fair, I guess.”
“Sasha was so worried about you that she started having contractions.”
I sat up and turned to him, “What? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. We got her calmed down and Tommy took her to the doctor. He called me a few minutes ago when they were on their way home.” Josh opened his eyes and looked at me.
“How mad are you?” I dropped my eyes as I asked.
“I’m not mad at you, Mel. I wish you had just told me what you were going to do so that I could have helped you.” He took a deep breath. “You didn’t have to take the blame for it all.”
“It was my fault that it got that far.” I raised my eyes to meet his, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you, or humiliated you, or hurt you.”
Josh sat up so that his face was just inches from mine. “Don’t take it all on yourself, Mel. You did the right thing.” He pressed his forehead against mine, “You also said that I deserved more than just someone pretending to be my wife.”
I let out a sigh of relief and the tears started to well up in my eyes.
He wiped a tear away from my cheek, “Do you want to know what I was thinking about the whole time you were walking down the aisle with your dad?”
I nodded my head slightly.
He pressed his cheek against mine, “You said that you would try,” he whispered softly into my ear.
I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Josh’s face being so close to mine. His fingertips ran over my neck and shoulders.
“I was also thinking about how gorgeous you look in this dress.” He ran a hand down my back. “I’m not complaining, but why are you still wearing the dress?”
“It turns out that it’s just as impossible to take a wedding dress off by yourself, as it is to put it on by yourself.” I chuckled nervously. His fingertips and hand were causing quite a stir in me.
“Would you like my help?” he said teasingly as he pulled on the laces up my back.
I blushed and muttered, “If you could just help loosen the laces, then I think I can manage the rest.”
Josh stood up and pulled me up off the couch. I turned my back to him and he went to work on the laces. As he loosened each one, I felt myself get more and more relaxed. When the last lace was loose, I sighed and turned around.
“Can you handle the rest or can I come help you?” Josh wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“When I said I would try I didn’t mean tonight, Josh.” I held the bodice of the dress against me as I walked down the hall to my room.
“Damn!” Josh said dramatically and
then laughed. “I’m going to call your parents and tell them that I found you.”
“Thanks.”
The first thing I did in my room was put the wedding band in my jewelry box. I pulled the dress off me and kicked it towards the closet. The next torturous thing to go was the ridiculous girdle and bra contraption I had to wear underneath the dress. I threw on my usual old college shirt and pair of leggings.
When I walked back into the living room Josh was nowhere to be found. I called his name and he shouted back at me from his room. I opened the door to find him standing shirtless in front of his bed.
“Sorry!” I blushed and turned away.
“What’s the big deal? I wear less than this to breakfast every morning,” he looked down at his chest as he spoke.
“I know, but it just feels different now.” I kept my back to him.
He chuckled, “I’ll put a shirt on if it bothers you.”
I turned around, but kept my eyes off him. “It doesn’t bother me,” I said with annoyance. “Whatever. Did you call my parents?”
I plopped down on his bed.
He threw a shirt on and sat down next to me. “Yes. They were very relieved to know that I found you.”
“Are you sure they’re not mad?” I twisted my hands in my lap.
Josh reached over and grabbed them. “They’re just happy that you’re okay. Stop worrying about what other people think.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I scoffed and pulled my hands away. “You’re the gorgeous, charming guy who got left at the altar on national television. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam tries to pitch you a reality dating show!”
Josh shook his head, “I wouldn’t do it. Have you seen the women on those shows? Plastic, fake, and desperate,” he counted on his fingers as he listed each quality, “No thank you!”
“Yes, well, my point was that I am probably the most hated woman in America right now. There are probably people out there right now writing nasty things about me and what I did.”
“So? Who cares what people you don’t know think about you?” he asked with a shrug.
I shifted so that I was facing him. I pulled my feet under me and stared down at my hands. “Josh, you didn’t hear some of the phone calls we got tonight. People were really mean.”
“Is that why you destroyed our phone?”
“I tried unplugging it, but that only stopped the incoming calls. The beeping was driving me crazy and I just couldn’t take it anymore.” I shook my head slightly.
“No problem, we can just get a new one.”
My head tilted to the side and I sighed, “Josh, the phone is not the real issue. How am I ever going to get through this?”
He reached over and wrapped his arm around me. Gently, he pulled my head down onto his shoulder. “First of all, you are going to get through this, but you’re not going to do it alone. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere. If I can stand beside you for ten years, waiting for just a chance that you might notice how much I love you, then I can certainly stay here and help shield you from all this.”
He wrapped his other arm across the front of me and squeezed.
“How is it that I never noticed just how amazing you are?” I said with a smile.
“I’ve been asking myself that question for ten years!” he said with an exasperated tone.
I giggled and Josh kissed the top of my head.
“What’s the second thing?” I asked when I’d stopped giggling.
“What?” he sat up straight and looked at me.
“You said ‘First of all’, so I assume that there is more.” He dropped one arm, but kept the other around my shoulder. We both leaned back against the headboard of his bed.
“Oh yeah, secondly, you are going to be just fine because all of this will blow over in a week or so. Somebody famous will do something stupid, or some other poor unsuspecting fool will have a video go viral, and the media will move on to more exciting topics. If you can get through the first week, then everything will be fine.” Josh nodded his head confidently.
I eyed him suspiciously. “Do you really think that, or are you just saying that to make me feel better?”
A small grin formed on his mouth, “It could happen!” he said hopefully.
I rolled my eyes at his optimism. “Well, I suppose I could always just hide out here for the first week. I have the time off anyway.”
Josh’s grin widened, “I think I like that plan, you and me hiding together in this apartment for a week. Whatever will we do?” he added in a voice heavy with sarcasm.
I elbowed him in the side. He flinched and laughed a little.
“Okay, okay, so maybe we’re not ready just yet,” he conceded happily. “I do, however, have a better idea than that.”
“What is it?”
“We could go to Hawaii like we’d planned. Your parents can’t get their money back for the trip and they don’t want to go. You and I could just slip off to Hawaii to hide while this dies down.” Josh glanced over at me sideways with a mischievous look.
“Do you think it would be weird for us to go now?”
“What do you mean?”
I blushed, “Well, people who are just exploring the possibility of a relationship don’t usually go on vacation together. Do you think that we’d be rushing things?”
Josh thought about it for a second, and then came back with, “People who are exploring the possibility of a relationship don’t usually live together either. So, I say we buck convention and go to paradise!” He smiled at me, “Who knows? Maybe we’ll fall in love under the Hawaiian sun.”
I raised my eyebrow at him.
“Okay, maybe you’ll fall in love under the Hawaiian sun!” he corrected himself with a smile. “You have to admit, it does sound like a good place for you to fall in love with me.”
He held his hand out in front of him and waved it back and forth like he was painting a scene, “Picture it, my perfectly toned body, glistening and tan, relaxing next to you in the sand. You could lie on the beach in that little red bikini.” He smiled wickedly, “That’s my favorite part of this picture, by the way.”
“It does sound good, actually.” I smiled back at him.
Josh broke into a wide grin. “Then it’s settled. We’ll leave tomorrow morning just like planned.”
“Okay, but let’s not tell anyone until after we get there.”
Josh pulled his arm out from behind me and started to get up off the bed, “As far as I’m concerned. We don’t have to tell anyone until after we get back!”
“No, we should definitely tell my parents where we are. They’ll worry if they don’t see or hear from me after a few days.” I watched him get up from the bed with a smile.
“Fine, we can call them from the beach, but not until after our first drink!” he said as he stood in front of the dresser.
I saw him watching me in the mirror, and I smiled widely at him. He turned around and gave me an inquisitive look, “What are you smiling about?”
“I was just thinking that after all these years, you finally had me in your bed, and you just walked away. What’s that all about?” I asked sarcastically.
Josh gave me a quick warning look before he jumped at me. I screamed and tried to squirm out from underneath him, but he was too quick. He wrapped his hands around my waist and started tickling me. The sound of our laughter filled the apartment as I continued to try to escape from Josh’s tickling.
When I was barely able to breathe, Josh pulled away and collapsed on the bed next to me. We both worked to slow our breath from the giggle and tickle fest.
After a minute of just our raspy breath filling the room, Josh said quietly, “I’m willing to wait until you’re ready for the next step, Mel.”
“I know, and I appreciate that,” I answered softly. “I can’t guarantee that it’s all going to work out, Josh.”
He rolled over and propped his head up on one arm. “I know, but I appreciate that you’re will
ing to try.”
“I at least owe you that,” I rolled over to face him, “plus I think you’re worth it.”
He smiled, “So are you.”
I closed my eyes, sighed, and whispered, “What do we do now?”
“Wanna go to Target?” Josh said with the distinct sound of mischief in his voice.
22.
I woke up early, eager to get everything ready. I crawled quietly out of bed, making sure not to disturb him. My feet slid carefully across the carpet so that my steps wouldn’t make a sound.
My jewelry box was sitting on the dresser in the other room. I opened it and shifted the unorganized bunches of gold and silver until I found what I was looking for. When I found it, I placed it onto my thumb and closed the jewelry box. A big smile spread across my face when I thought about what I was about to do.
Back in the bedroom, I slipped back into the bed, but stayed on top of the covers. A quick glance at his face told me I must have been stealthy in my quest. A smile spread across my face as I watched him sleeping.
“You know how creepy I think that is,” he said dryly without opening his eyes.
I laughed and snuggled against his chest. He pulled me tighter to him and took a deep breath.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning,” I said as I nuzzled under his chin.
He rubbed my arm and yawned, “Why were you watching me sleep this time?”
I pulled my arms onto his chest and rested my head against them. “You’re cute when you sleep. You smile a lot. What were you thinking about?”
“Hawaii,” he smiled coyly. “More specifically the third day in Hawaii, actually,” he added.
I rolled my eyes at him.
“Of course, I’ve enjoyed every day after that. But that day in particular always brings a smile to my face.”
“It was a good day for me, too.” I smiled warmly at him.
He scoffed, “If I remember correctly, it was more than just a good day for you.”
I pinched him in the chest and he squirmed under me.
I gave him a stern look, “I need to talk to you about something serious. Can we be serious for a moment?”
“Give me a kiss first,” he said and puckered up.
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