Disclaimer: These are borrowed characters, but the story line is totally mine.
Thanks for the great response to Chapter 1. Hopefully some of your questions will be answered in this chapter.
Seth checked his appearance in the reflection of Marissa's sunglasses for the third time.
"Seth, you look fine." Marissa tapped her foot impatiently on the cement driveway.
"Fine?" Seth turned towards Marissa. "Just fine? Just fine won't do. I have to look as good, or better than Summer."
Marissa rolled her eyes. "For God's sake, Seth, Summer's probably still wearing her pajamas."
Seth anxiously ran a hand through his perfectly mess mop of curls. "I'm ready," he sniffed, and marched past Marissa to the front door. Once he got there though, Seth melted right back into a puddle of jelly, as he often did when he was around Summer. Marissa sighed and rang the doorbell three times. Seth pressed his ear to the door and could faintly hear the clicking of heels on the floor.
The door opened and Seth jumped back. Summer was standing there, looking beautiful in a fitted cream-colored suit and dangerously high heels.
"You came," she said, somewhat surprised. Kissing Marissa on the cheek, Summer added, "Coop! I haven't seen you in…what? Two days?"
Marissa laughed. "Where's Bri?"
Seth's ears perked at the mention of his daughter's name. He wanted to see her quite badly, although she apparently still held a grudge against him.
Summer noticed the curious look on Seth's face but didn't say anything snide, not this time. "She's at work, finishing some stuff up for me." Brianna loved fashion, just like her mother, and had already begun working at Summer's designer label as a junior designer.
Marissa stepped inside and Seth followed. The house was new; Summer must've sold their house after the divorce. He'd given her everything…well, not everything. But pretty much whatever Summer and her lawyers had demanded Seth had handed over.
They walked into a large room off the kitchen where clothes were hanging up on portable clothing racks. Summer walked over to a rack of tuxedos and expertly selected one.
"Try this on." She handed the suit to Seth, and he shuddered briefly at the touch of their skin. "Bathroom's second door to the right."
Seth nodded, unable to stop his heart from beating faster. It had been so long since he'd touched Summer, touched another woman. In fact…he hadn't touched another woman since that one fateful night, unless you counted the occasional business handshake or something of the sort. Still, Seth had been filled with such enormous guilt that he couldn't bring himself to touch another woman...
He walked down the hall past pictures of Brianna, smiling and laughing, and Summer, looking beautiful as always. A rim of sadness darkened her brown eyes slightly, the smallest detail that Seth couldn't help but notice.
Had he made her sad? Seth sure hoped not. The last thing he'd ever wanted to do was hurt Summer.
After changing into the suit, Seth quickly headed back into the room, which he'd deemed the Wedding Headquarters. For there were piles and racks of clothes, shoes littered the floor, and a desk by the window was piled high with cream colored envelopes- the response cards. He couldn't believe his twenty-four year old daughter was getting married. He couldn't believe he had a twenty-four year old daughter! It made sense though; Brianna had been born when Seth was nineteen. So he was pretty young for Brianna's age.
Seth paused at the doorway, back against the wall. He could hear Summer and Marissa talking, not even bothering to whisper.
"So you're okay with Seth being here?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
Marissa laughed. "Come on, Sum. I'm not stupid, I'm your best friend. I know you didn't want that divorce."
"That was a long time ago, Coop. I'm a different person. He's a different person. It's not like it would make a difference if I still…had feelings for him…which I don't."
"Why not?" Seth cheered Marissa on as she challenged Summer.
"Because…" Summer paused, and Seth held his breath. Had she heard him eavesdropping? "Because he doesn't love me! He didn't love me then…why would now be any different. I mean, when I saw…"
Seth sneezed and his cover was blown, so he had to strut into the Wedding Headquarters immediately. Marissa cast a meaningful glance in Summer's direction before giggling.
"That suit is falling off of you, Seth." Seth looked down. The sleeves were too long and shoulders too broad. His legs were swimming in the pants; a very comical sight. Even Summer couldn't help but laugh.
"I gave you the wrong suit," she said easily, showing no sign of the exasperation and uncertainty of her conversation only moments before. Walking back over to the rack of suits, Summer selected another, smaller suit and handed it to Seth. This time it was she who shuddered slightly when their fingers grazed past each other. Concealing her surprise quickly, Summer pointed to the door. "Go change, Seth. I don't have all day."
Seth changed into the second suit, which fit him like a glove. He gathered the first suit into his arms and made his way back to the room. Summer smiled when she saw Seth. "Much better."
"Much better," Marissa agreed. "Here, let me knot the bow tie." She snatched the bow tie from Seth's hands and was about to put it on when a loud shrilling came from her waist. Looking down, Marissa saw her cell phone clipped to her belt. "Here, Summer, can you do this?" Marissa tossed the tie to Summer and opened her phone. "Marissa Atwood speaking."
Summer stared at the bow tie in her hands for what seemed like minutes. "Summer," Seth said impatiently, "Can you put the tie on already?"
Summer rolled her eyes and stepped closer to Seth. As she fastened the bow tie on, she leaned into Seth's frame and their knees touched. Flustered, Summer dropped the tie, and bent down at Seth's feet to pick it up. When she looked up, Seth was grinning down at her. She glared at him, the pervert with the sick mind, and stood up. "Hold still," she ordered. Seth nodded and then kept his neck steady. Summer hardly reached his chin and if he just tilted his face down slightly he would be able to smell her hair. He wondered if she still smelled like strawberries and cream.
"There." Summer straightened Seth's collar and left a tingling feeling on the skin of his neck where she touched it with her nails. She patted down the jacket and her heart raced when she traced over his heart. Abruptly she stopped touching Seth, hoping her heart was only beating that loudly in her own head.
Because Seth's heart had been beating wildly too.
She didn't step away from Seth; they were so close she could hear him, almost feel him breathing.
"So how have you been?" Seth ventured.
Summer shrugged. It was hard to think, quite honestly, when she was so close to Seth. The heat emanating from his body was wrapping her in a thick blanket of memory. She could name the time, the place when she last felt this close to him.
Sensing she wasn't going to answer, Seth answered. "I've been better, to tell you the truth," he said, as though Summer had asked him, "But New York's not half bad. You should come out there some time." Oops. The words had escaped his mouth before he had a chance to push them away.
Summer blinked twice. Had he just invited her to New York? What was going on? Before she could use this opportunity to poke fun at Seth, words of her own escaped. "I'd like that." Summer's cheeks reddened. "Uh…um…" Luckily Summer didn't have to think of something to say.
"Summer? That you?" Summer spun around at Luke's voice. Seth looked the tall, dark-haired man up and down. This was not Luke. At least not the Luke Seth knew.
Summer brushed by Seth to hug Luke. She kissed him loudly on the lips, and Seth pulled a face. Neither Summer nor Luke saw. Summer broke the kiss when Seth said, "Ahem."
"Luke, this is…my ex-husband, Seth Cohen. And Seth, this is Lucas Thompson, my fiancée." Summer smiled brightly at Luke. Luke extended his hand warmly.
"Nice to meet you, Seth. You can call me Luke."
Seth shook the guy's hand. He seemed…okay. Luke certainly didn't look as good with Summer as he did. Wait…why was he even thinking this? He and Summer were divorced, as in, married and fallen out of love and now no longer married.
"You can call me Seth," Seth laughed, as did Luke. So the guy had a sense of humor too. That was…a good thing, Seth supposed. At least Luke appreciated a good joke when he heard one.
Luke turned to Summer. "So, you ready to go, hon?"
"Um, let me finish sizing Seth for his suit. Why don't you go watch TV or something? Or if Coop's off the phone, you can talk to her." She kissed Lucas lightly and he left the room. Turning to Seth, Summer forced herself to say, "Isn't he great?"
"Yeah, he's great," Seth replied glumly, smiling a little at Summer. She was still perky and filled the entire room with sunshine. At one point she'd filled his entire life with sunshine, stupid as it sounded it was true. Summer had been the highlight of his young adult life.
Summer pulled nervously at Seth's collar. "I'm going to sew that so it doesn't bother you, okay?" Seth nodded. "And I think I'm going to have to let out the sleeves another half inch. Your arms are too long, Cohen!"
Summer was a Cohen too, but Seth didn't feel it wise to point this out.
"Can I go change now?" Seth asked. After his close encounter with Summer, he really needed to escape her presence, because some very unsettling feelings were arising once again in his heart. And Summer was just egging them on, thought unbeknownst to her.
Summer nodded and sighed, relieved, when Seth left the Wedding Headquarters. Seeing him was just…too old. Too many old memories were clouding her vision and she needed to look to the future right now. She had a future, a great future. Summer was engaged. And she had a wedding to attend! Their daughter's wedding.
This weekend wasn't going to get any easier. Summer was sure it would only become harder, a heavy weight pressing down on her heart.
Seth reappeared in the room with the suit in his hands. He handed it to her and Summer noticed that his fly was unzipped. She laughed, her eyes straying to his pants.
Seth looked down; he'd seen her staring. "What?"
With more than a hint of amusement in her voice, Summer replied, "Your fly's unzipped, Cohen."
Seth looked down again, and, sure enough, his pants were not zippered. He pulled the zipper but didn't stop Summer's laughing. "It wasn't that funny," he protested. "Besides, why are you looking there anyway?"
Summer glared at Seth, and he wondered if she was still known for her rage blackouts. He decided it would be safer to ask Marissa later. "Shut up," she snapped, but her gentle face betrayed her.
This was comfortable…this…this was exactly like old times.
Why did Seth think he could just come back to Newport and get her all fired up? He didn't, Summer knew. It was her, her fault for popping the cork off the bottle of her old feelings.
But he'd broken her heart, so he got the blame. As always, Summer could justify her actions. Maybe she just didn't want a reason, a real, solid reason, for these feelings arising. Maybe it was time to let them out.
"You can't boss me around; we're not married anymore," Seth replied tartly, hiding the beginnings of a smile beneath his glare.
Or maybe not.