Accidental Fiancé

by R. R. Banks

  I started walking away from him and I heard his footsteps following me. A second later, I felt his hand grab my elbow to stop me. I moved out of his touch but paused to look at him.

  "What do you want, Brad?"

  "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry about the whole bunk beds in the cabin situation," he said. "I meant it as a joke and it didn't come out as funny as I hoped it would be. I didn't mean to make you so upset. I hope I didn't ruin your week."

  "I appreciate your apology, but this week isn't about you or me. I'm here for your sister. And whether you've noticed it or not, I am here with a wonderful man and we're very happy. We’ve both moved on, Brad. We're adults. I think we can handle being at the same resort for one week to help your sister, my best friend, celebrate her wedding."

  "I agree," he said. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. It really is good to see you. You look incredible."

  "Thanks. I've really got to go. Thea is waiting for me."

  I started to turn away from him, but Brad reached out for my arm again and turned me to face him. I hated to admit it to myself, but feeling him touch me again made tears sting at the back of my eyes. It was like all the pain and embarrassment of our breakup rushed back as soon as he was close to me again. Regardless of what he had done to me, I missed him when I left home. I knew it was going to be hard to see him again, but I wasn't expecting to be as emotional about it.

  "Please, Roxie. I just want to talk to you. I hate the way we left things between us…"

  That was enough to take the edge off the sadness I was feeling and replace it with a bitterness that was much easier to manage.

  "You can't hate it that much," I snapped. "You just got engaged to the girl you cheated on me with."

  "I never got a chance to tell you I was sorry about that," he said. "I never meant to hurt you."

  "Yeah," I said. "You looked really broken up about it when your face was buried in her tits."

  Without giving him the opportunity to say another word, I turned and made my way down the walk to the building. I didn't let myself give into the burn of the tears. Instead, I thought about Luca. The attraction I felt for him was getting stronger, but now I wanted to do more than just run my fingers through his hair. His caramel colored eyes made my body melt just by looking into them. There's something more about him. He was funny, and sweet, and attentive. He made me feel like I was the only person in the world he could see, even when we were among all the other guests. When he looked at me, I truly felt like I was the center of his world. But I had to stop those thoughts. I had to remind myself that none of this was real. He was just doing what I asked him to do, and, for better or for worse, he was so good at it, he was actually convincing me.

  But nobody had been there when we were dancing. Nobody saw the way his fingertips lingered on my cheek.

  I saw Thea sitting at one of the tables on the sun porch to the side of the building. I pushed the thoughts of Luca from my head by smiling and waving at her. We ate breakfast and then headed for the largest ballroom in the back of the building where the reception would be held. Even though she had drawn me diagrams and acted out the flow of the cocktail hour and reception several times before, she needed to show it all to me in person. It was strange to see her this worked up about the wedding. She had always been fairly high-strung, and I was accustomed to her tendency to get overly excited about things, but she had been talking about her wedding her entire life. I knew she would be excited and maybe a little bit nervous, but I didn’t expect her to seem quite as panicked as she did. I wonder how much of that had to do with these unfamiliar surroundings and the fact that Thea had to completely change all the plans she had made before meeting Bryce.

  Before I left for the wedding, I was still holding on to some bitterness toward Bryce for not letting Thea follow through with the wedding plans she had already made. I didn't understand why he was so insistent about them having the ceremony and reception at this resort, rather than having it at the chapel in Maple Grove and then honeymooning here. Now that we were all here, however, and amid all the festivities, I felt like I was finally beginning to understand. The way she looked at Bryce was unlike anything I had seen in all the years I had known her. That was a look I had begun to believe may only exist in movies. The closer we got to the wedding, the more I saw her look at him that way and I realized everything Luca had said about weddings was not only absolutely true, but was playing out in front of me. If Bryce had just stepped back and let Thea create the wedding she had been planning since we were children, it wouldn't really be their wedding. It would be her wedding. Everything would be about Thea and he would be pushed aside, relegated to the role of a filler that could have been replaced by basically anyone with absolutely no impact on the event.

  Instead, despite what she said, she was thinking about him. She wanted this to be a celebration of the two of them. And in this case, that meant letting go of her childhood fantasy and agreeing to get married in a place that meant this much to him. By doing that, she showed him that this wasn't just about the big dress and lavish party. This week was about bringing them together and bonding them for life. I realized that it was only me who felt like she was sacrificing. She hadn’t sacrificed anything. She wasn't missing anything. She had just grown up.

  "The dance floor is going to be set up over here," she said gesturing towards a space in the room that was now occupied by several round tables. "You don't think that's too close to the cake table, do you? You know how great Aunt Florence likes to dance. I just don't want to risk her trying a spin out like she did at my cousin's wedding and ending up in the cake."

  "I'm sure it'll be fine," I said.

  My lips curved up when I heard the word come out of my mouth.

  "It took forever for Bryce and me to agree on the cake. Do you know how many different types of cake flavors there are? And then you start mixing in the fillings and the icings and fondant... I didn't even know what fondant was... it's just crazy. We must have tasted over a hundred different combinations before we... Roxie?"

  "Hmmm?"

  "Are you listening to me?"

  "Yes," I said. "Wedding cake and fillings and icing and fondant."

  "Good,” she said. "It seemed like you were somewhere else for a minute."

  "I'm not. I promise. I am here for you and only you."

  Thea smiled and hugged me. She clung to me just a little bit longer than she had during our other hugs that week. I felt like the closer we got to the ceremony, the more she felt like she needed to hold on. Nothing was going to change about our friendship. Not really. She was always going to be my best friend. But as soon as the ceremony was over, she would also be Bryce's wife. That was what was going to be different. No matter how long they had been together, even in the last year since they had moved in together, they hadn't been married. From one moment to the next, there was going to be a shift. She was going from being a single woman, living her life and sharing a house with her fiancé, to being a married woman, not only sharing her home with her husband, but her life. I knew we would still talk and see each other. She was my family and always would be. But it was going to be different. No matter how wonderful that difference was, or how happy I was for her, we both felt the change that was coming.

  I took a step back from the hug.

  "Bryce and I are going to get some pictures done this afternoon, but I'm going to see you for dinner tonight, right?"

  "Of course, you are. You have that whole communal salad thing planned, don't you?"

  "It's not a communal salad, Roxie. That sounds like something you contract a disease from. It's a build-your-own salad social."

  I remembered her telling me about the idea a few months ago. Rather than having a traditional salad bar, she wanted to set up tables that would each feature a different type of lettuce, vegetable, salad topping, or dressing. All the guests would have to roam around the room and socialize with each other in order to build their salad before actually being able to eat
it. I know that it sounded like a fun idea to Thea, but I could only imagine there were going to be some frustrated people with handfuls of sunflower seeds wondering how long it would take the little Italian restaurant down in the town to deliver a pizza.

  "I'll meet you there," I said.

  "Good. What are you going to do for the rest of the day? There are a lot of activities at the resort that you could do. I left a list of them in your invitation package."

  I nodded.

  "I know. I was pretty impressed with how thorough you were. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do the rest of the day." I looked around and then back at her. "Have you happened to see Luca?"

  Thea shook her head.

  "I haven't seen him since dinner last night. Is everything OK?"

  "Oh, I'm sure everything is fine."

  Listen to that. I withdrew my ban of the word and now I'm slinging it around with reckless abandon.

  "Maybe he went out fishing," she said." I heard some of the guys were planning on seeing what they could catch today."

  "Maybe," I agreed. "I'll just call him."

  We parted ways, and I took my phone out of my pocket as I headed back toward the cabin. I had personally had enough of the bonding activities the day before, and was looking forward to a few hours of quiet away from the rest of the wedding party and family. The days leading up to the wedding were filled to the brim with activities, so I needed to take time to myself when I could get it.

  "Where are you?" I asked when Luca answered.

  "Where are you?" he responded.

  I glanced around myself, half expecting to see him walking up to me or peering at me through one of the windows.

  "I asked you first," I said.

  "I had an errand I needed to run."

  "I'm heading back to the cabin. We have a few hours before dinner with everybody tonight."

  "I know," he said. "Meet me in front of the cabin. There's something I want to show you."

  I hung up the phone and picked up my speed slightly. I was curious about what he could have been doing all morning. When I got to the cabin, Luca was standing outside. He smiled at me as I approached and immediately started walking down the walkway in the same direction.

  "Where are you going?" I asked.

  "Come with me," he said.

  I did not argue. I fell into step beside him and we made our way down the path toward a less dense section of trees than what we had explored the day before. We walked along for several minutes before the trees parted and we stepped out into a clearing. Luca had been walking in front of me as we wound through the trees, but now he stepped aside so that I could see the clearing fully and I gasped. In the middle of the clearing a large blanket was laid out with a picnic basket set to the side.

  "What's all this?" I asked.

  "I was thinking about what you told me about Brad," he said. "I know it's not quite the same. We don't have a special spot or anything and I don't know exactly what he had planned. But that seems like too good of a memory for you to waste on him. This way when you think about picnics, you don't have to think about that. You can hold on to this memory until you have another one."

  I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't know what to say. Instead, I just wrapped my arms around him and buried my head against his shoulder. Luca held me around the waist for a few seconds and then released me, so he could guide me to the blanket. We sat down and he opened the basket, pulling out the containers and packages of food inside.

  "How did you do this?"

  "I got back in that stupid tinker toy of a car and went into town. While we were lost, I noticed a couple of gourmet shops and a bakery. The ladies there were kind enough to help me put this together."

  "You braved the car for me?" I asked.

  "We'll think of it as my dragon to slay," he said.

  I laughed, my mind filling with the image of Luca dressed in a suit of armor as he crossed the parking lot to confront the dinky little vehicle.

  "Thank you for all of this," I said. "It means a lot to me."

  Luca popped a grape into his mouth and held one out to me.

  "I'm glad," he said.

  Chapter Ten

  Luca

  "No, seriously, come here. I'm not kidding."

  I took Roxie by the wrist and pulled her up the thickly carpeted stairs to the second floor of the bed and breakfast. She had been spending so much time with Thea over the last couple of days I had been left to my own devices and ended up exploring the resort during my free time. I had spent a considerable amount of time hiking in the woods and roaming the beach before eventually getting bored, and ending up in the main building of the resort. Just like I told Roxie, it really did remind me of the vacations I used to take with my family when I was younger. It made me remember being little and still unaware of the larger world around me. I guess every child goes through that. The first few years of a child’s life, their world is made up of their home, parents, and maybe a few extended family members and friends. To them, that’s their entire existence. But eventually, that bubble pops and you’re suddenly irreversibly aware that there is a vast, unpredictable world out there.

  For some people, this realization meant they would find out there was so much more to life. Different people. Different places. New experiences and opportunities. For me, when that bubble popped, I realized I was different than the other kids. I honestly assumed everyone had the same experiences and lifestyle we did. It was after that awareness came to me that I truly became appreciative of everything that was provided to me when I was a child. Even though I rarely discussed my money and didn't live nearly as lavishly as the rest of my family, I still held onto that appreciation and gratitude in my heart. Standing inside the bed and breakfast, however, I remember how it felt before I was aware of our status and wealth. When my favorite memories didn’t come from exploring the world or hosting extravagant parties. Instead, they were from the summers my family would go to a beach resort very much like this one and spend two weeks away from the chaotic existence of our daily lives. When we were at the beach, my father wasn't leaving for work at the crack of dawn. And my mother wasn't running herself ragged managing the house and our schedules, making sure everything was always perfect for the clients and dignitaries we would entertain for my father’s business. When we were at the beach, the suffocating suits and formal shoes I had to wear so often were replaced by bare feet and swimming trunks. It was just us, and it was blissful.

  There wasn’t much to find in the bed and breakfast building. Beyond the two suites, the sun porch, the breakfast room, and the ballrooms, the lower floor had little to see. When I climbed the stairs, however, I discovered a room that made me feel like I had stepped into another time. It was like the upper floor of this building had been forgotten years ago, or had been preserved in such a way to reflect a simpler time. Unlike the lower floor that had been extensively renovated to accommodate the large rooms necessary to host events, the upper floor seemed largely intact. Instead of keeping the rooms as bedrooms, they had been converted into dedicated activity rooms, like Thea had mentioned. One of the rooms was filled with heavy oak tables, plush chairs, and board games. When I found that room, I discovered a table set up with a game of chess that had either been played partially and abandoned or set up to look like someone was playing it to make the room more appealing. I moved a few pieces around just in case.

  Another room was filled with shelves of books and magazines. It was organized with the children's books in one corner, arranged on low, colorful shelves. Large bean bag chairs strewn around the carpet invited little guests to curl up and read in comfort. The other corners of the room were filled with a wide variety of genres in both paperback and hardback. One shelf was even filled with comic books and magazines.

  A third was set up as an art studio with long tables along the walls and containers of paints, pencils, and even clay. I envisioned leaving a masterful tiny sculpture in the middle of one of the tables for so
meone to find years from now. I managed a nice stick figure on a canvas by the window.

  It was the fourth room I was bringing Roxie to now. I didn't know if she was going to be as excited as I was, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to show it to her. I brought her down the hallway and opened the door dramatically. She stepped inside and looked around, then looked back at me.

  "Seriously?" she asked. "Am I actually seeing this?"

  I stepped inside and laughed, looking around just as she had.

  "Yep," I said. "We have discovered the cavern of the long-lost DVDs."

  The room was slightly larger than the other three, but it was hard to tell because of all the shelves, displays, and tables that were laden with DVDs and DVD players. The fact that there were no televisions in the room told me this room had been intended as a lending library of sorts, allowing a guest staying at the resort to come and borrow the technology for their room or cabin.

  "I can honestly say I never would have guessed this is what you wanted to show me," she said. "For such an expensive resort, this seems like an odd use of space."

  I shrugged.

  "I think it's awesome," I said. "I love movies."

  She slid her eyes over to me.

  "So do I," she said.

  "You do?" I asked.

  Roxie nodded.

  "I love curling up in a blanket with snacks and watching as many movies as I can fit in. As sad as that might sound, it’s how I got through a lot of lonely nights when I first moved to the city."