Wedding Bells

Chapter 7

“I’m so ready for Hell Week to be over already,” Clara groans as we walk through the doors. We were finally on the last day of this forsaken week. Every year we think we will be more organized, and ready for the storm--but every year we are proven wrong.

The shop was cleaned up, luckily for Clara and I everyone had enough energy to stay last night and tidy things back into place. I was thankful for the staff I had.

“Just remember, it’s us by ourselves for the first hour today,” I smiled looking at Clara as I pray most of the girls came earlier in the week. Friday wasn’t the worst day. Most girls understood that if you didn’t come in earlier in the week then there weren’t going to be very many options for you. But there were still quite a few girls that would wait until the last second in hopes to beat the crowd.

I glanced around the shop to see the amount of dresses we had left on shelves. It wasn’t good. We probably would only make it halfway through the day if we didn’t find a few more in the storage room.

“Should we restock?” Clara questions, obviously noticing my downward gaze. I shrug my shoulders before taking a sip of the coffee in my hand.

“I think we can let the girls pick through these first for a while, we need to get rid of these. If we end up pulling more out we might not sell the ones that have to go,” I moaned, placing the cup on the counter. I find my way around the computer quickly logging on so I could check the numbers.

Clara moved a few items as she waited for me to get settled.

“Have you spoken to Carter, is he going to be here today?” I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn’t sure if he was coming. He had came every other day of the week but we haven’t talked.

“I assume he is, but I haven’t talked to him since Monday morning,” I winced at the sound of my voice. It cracked with despair as the pain begin to boil up in my throat once more. I wanted my best friend back. Carter was my everything and this last week only made me miss him more.

“Wait--you guys still haven’t talked? Carter has had lunch with you almost every day this week and you still haven’t talked…” Clara seemed shocked by the words. Honestly I would have been too if I was in her position. But Carter didn’t just let things go so easily. He was always this way. If you hurt him, or truly make him mad, he will hang out around you but he will pretend you aren’t there.

Which always drove me so crazy that I would crack.

“Nope. It’s been nothing but silence when we have lunch together. I’ve continued to text him every morning to tell him I love him and that I’m awake and I’ve been left without a response. This time I really hurt him badly and I don’t know how to fix it,” I shuffled a few papers on the counter before the printer started buzzing.

Clara clicked her tongue before grabbing the warm sheet off the printer. Her eyes buzzed over the numbers as if they were the last thing she was going to see.

“Yes!” She shouted, throwing her fist into the air before bringing it back down in a celebratory motion. I weaseled my way next to her as carefully as I could to not get hit by her flailing limbs.

“What is it?” I smiled, knowing the numbers must have been good for her to act like that. Especially after all the hard work we’ve put in this week to make it perfect.

“We are up ten percent already!” She screams, nearly busting my eardrum as she starts to jump up and down. I rip the paper from her hands to search it for my own knowledge.

She was right. The numbers were substantially higher than they were the year before. Something we had done this year was working.

“Clara do you know what this means?” She stopped jumping and turned to look at me like I was about to tell her something really good.

“What!” She shouts, her smile as wide as it could possibly be before her entire face would split. I shook my head trying to think of how to break it to her.

“We’ve been waiting for something, something huge for the shop...Do you remember what it is?” I figured a guessing game would be better, to keep the mood like this for a little longer. The happiness in her voice and the excitement she showed made me feel slightly better about the events in my life.

“The new room?” She questions, turning to look at the shop before her face dropped once more, “Don’t get my hopes up if it isn’t happening…” She froze before turning around to look at  me again.

“Today is pure profits, if we sell all these dresses and then pull some more from the back, we will be able to extend the shop. We will be able to buy the new dressing room we were looking at and hiring a new consultant to help keep things moving smoothly around here,” The smile on my face was now wider than it had been since I’d been in Paris.

Clara started jumping up and down again. The excitement that filled the room was terrifying. We’ve been waiting for this money for months now. The shop needed to expand we were turning brides away almost everyday and now we would be able to take all of them.

“This is so amazing,” I mumbled staring at the sheet once more. I couldn't believe it. I felt like I should check the numbers again just to make sure they were okay. I’d be able to give employees raises as well with this kind of money. Just as my heart was filling with joy over the shops new journey the door swung wide open. A cold gust of air swooshes through the shop sending chills down my spine.

Carter was here.

He was here earlier than I had expected him to be, and honestly I was too excited to let him ruin my mood.

“Carter guess what?” I muttered praying he would answer me in front of Clara. I turned to look at my best friend. He stood tall in the doorway, giving the door just enough room to close behind him. We were getting married in four days, why was he still treating me like this?

“What?” He mumbles, his breath was harsh and cold as he spoke, sending chills down my spine. Clara searched my face, as if she was trying to see how I was handling this. I wasn’t.

“We made enough  money this week that we are going to be able to extend the shop. We can get another dressing room, and hire another consultant to help us out. Doesn’t that sound amazing?” I could feel the happiness draining from my voice as I spoke but I did my best to hold it.

“Whoo,” Carter was still being difficult. Showing signs of annoyance he turned around the counter and begin logging onto the computer he would be using for the day. I rolled my head kicking my foot at the ground.

“Carter, can you help me grab some boxes on the top shelf out of the storage room please?” Clara questions. Carter looks up from the computer and nods his head carefully, his eyes searching both of our faces. I turn to look at her before I moved towards the computer opposing Carter. We didn’t have long before customers would be flooding through here and I’d need to help ring them up until my mother arrived.

“Thank you,” Clara muttered as she led Carter to the storage room. She stopped to look at me.

“You are coming too,” She sniped, pointing her finger in my direction. I shook my head pointing towards the computer.

“Nope, gotta get it all set up, we open in twenty minutes,” I did my best to find a way out. But all Clara had to do was give me that look and I knew I wasn’t getting out of it this time. I trailed along behind her and Carter until we got to the storage room.

Clara opened the door and we all head into the large room filled to the brim with dresses. All of the dresses that were supposed to fill the empty spaces after today, sat perfectly on the racks ready to go.

This room was huge, and honestly we could have probably used part of this as a dressing room, but my father always loved having it this way, this size. He said the dresses needed time to breathe if they were going to truly shine.

As a little kid this used to make me laugh. I’d think about his words and remind myself that dresses weren’t alive, but if you treated them like they were they would sell better for some reason.

“Okay you two, I’ve had enough of this silly drama you think you need to keep going. You are getting married in four days and I’m not letting you out of here until you guys make up,” Clara turned on her heel sprinting for the door as fast as she could. Carter and I both shout in annoyance as she slams the door behind her.

“Don’t even try to get out, I’ve locked it.” She shouts from the other side of the door before we hear the click of the lock latching it shut. We were trapped in here.

Of course she would do something like this. Clara never liked when people were fighting, especially if I was fighting with a boyfriend or in this case my fiance.

“So now what?” I search Carter’s face. If we were going to get out of here he would have to talk to me. My heart sank because I knew Carter could hold off a lot longer than I could when it came to something like this.

“Please talk to me,” I beg. My head drops towards the floor as I wait for his response. It’s followed by nothing but silence.

“Carter, if you don’t say anything we are going to be locked in this room all day…” I felt myself getting more desperate. He just stares at me though, not saying a single thing. It was driving me crazy. The more I needed him to talk the more it was apparent that he wasn’t going to.

“Erin,” When the word fell from his lips it was soft, like it was filled with so much pain and he didn’t know how to handle it. I shook my head. “I love you more than anything on this planet and it kills me that I act like this especially towards you, but are you freaking kidding me right now,” He hands fell to his sides as he searches me face. I didn’t know what to say and he knew it.

“You sit here and act like you didn’t do anything wrong. Like it’s me who is acting like a fool but you don’t even believe in us enough to move in with me a few days before the wedding. Damn Erin, you practically live at our house already why won’t you just make the leap. I’m sitting here wondering what the hell is wrong with me when you own fiance doesn’t want to move in with you. I thought I made you happy, I thought I showed you how much I love you every single day, but I was never good enough for you, and if you are going to leave before the wedding, well just get it over with so I can head back to California and try to salvage everything I’ve given up for you.” His words were like knives flying across the room. Every single one of them hitting the exact mark they were supposed to. I sank in my own skin, feeling like a small child who just got in trouble for something so ridiculous.

“None of that is true Carter. I am not going to leave you, I want to marry you, I’m sorry that I said those things, they weren’t what I meant. I was sleep deprived, so caught up in another world that I couldn’t even tell you what was going on. I don’t even remember what I said to you, which is why I can’t apologize because I know it was bad, but just saying sorry is not enough to heal the wounds I’ve caused. I can’t remember for the life of me, and it’s been destroying me this last week, because you’ve been ignoring me, acting like YOU didn’t want to get married and YOU  were going to leave,” The words spilled from me like a river. Crashing against everything that was in their path.

“Erin, I will never leave you. But you are treating me as if I am Andrew, as if he was the man sleeping next to you that night. I was tossed aside as if I wasn’t my own person,” He looked down at the ground once more. The  pain of that night echoes in my heart. I was over Andrew. I had no concerns of what he was doing or who it was with.

But Carter was my future, he was my everything and for him to feel like he was just another Andrew in my life crushed me.

“I’m scared, but I’m not blind. You are the man for me and yes, I’m sorry I had an engagement that didn’t work out and I thought it was right, but you did too, so please don’t blame me for actions that I didn’t mean to hurt you. I can’t wait to live with you, I just want to  wait until after the marriage. I’ve already spent more time living with you than I ever did with Andrew, but living with Andrew was what ruined our marriage before it even started. You and I have history, we have years, we are stronger than that and I’m not afraid of that. I want you in my life and I need you in my life,” I could tell Carter wasn’t happy with what I was saying. Though I was doing my best to reassure him things just were getting worse.

“Then why won’t you move in with me? If you need me in your life, if you want me there?” His words were sharper than knives, needles pricking my skin leaving tingles all over in such a way I never wanted to feel every again.

“Oh honey, that is not at all what I meant by what I said,” I took a step closer to him. Trying my best to close the distance between us, if we wanted to figure this out we needed to be on the same time. Not so far away.

It felt like there was an ocean between us, the waves crashing all around me as I tried my best to try and breathe. The water filling my lungs as I gasp for more air.

“I know, it just… Erin i’m so scared that I’m just like Andrew to you, that you will be able to toss me to the side like what happened when we kissed. You are such an amazing girl what if another guy comes around?” Carter shook his head but his hand came up from his side as it slowly wrapped around mine, our fingers now interlocked.

“There will never be another guy, that was different because I was leaving the wrong guy for the right one, the one I should have picked, the guy that was always meant for me. The reason I never dated in high school, the man I fell in love with so many years ago. The one who came to my father’s funeral with me, who knew my real mother had died when I was born.  You were there for everything no one will ever be able to stand up to that. It’s me and you forever,” I slowly wrapped my arm around his waist pulling him closer to me.

I needed Carter more than he realized I did.

I know I spent a few years without him. We hadn’t talked and he had just left me like nothing about us matter. I would be a liar if I said that hadn’t terrified me throughout this whole engagement.

“I hope so,” Carter whispered allowing his body to crash into mine. His cologne wafting over the two of us. He truly was the love of my life and I never wanted to let him go.

“Everything okay in there? I don't hear screaming!” I rolled my eyes, even though I didn't want the moment to end I had to pull myself away from Carter. Clara must be growing impatient with the two of us.

Glancing at the watch on my wrist I took note of the time. We had a few minutes to spare before the doors needed to open.

“I will love you forever Erin Rose, I promise you that.” Carter whispers before kissing my forehead. His hot breath warming my entire body as we stand there in the storage closet of the bridal shop.

“Yes we are good,” I screamed back at Clara. Trying to get her to stop banging on the door, but as I waited for her to answer I turned to Carter staring into his eyes before whispering my response.

“I love you too,” I couldn’t help but smile. The massive weight that had been on my shoulders this entire week was finally lifted and I was ready to head into the shop, to work beside the people I love more than anything in this world.

“Welcome to Hell Week,” Clara muttered as she opened the door. Carter and I could hear the girls screaming as they grabbed for dresses, pushing the racks and shoving each other as they tried to be the first one in. Without wasting another second, Carter and I knew what we needed to do.