Chapter Eight
My mother once told me that shopping for a wedding dress is one of the most rewarding experiences of a young girls life. Trying on the beautiful gowns, having shop assistants fawn over you, selecting the most beautiful dress in the store and blowing everyone away with it.
My mother was clearly a liar because shopping for a wedding dress was turning out to be my worst nightmare.
So, I was dealing with the situation in the only way I knew how. By drinking the boutique's cheap wine… and lots of it.
I was just pouring the contents of my third glass down my throat when Lana stepped out of the dressing room adorned in a white wedding dress. It was gorgeous... like the other fifteen dresses she had tried on.
"What about this one?"
"Oh that's stunning," the shop assistant cooed as she urged Lana up onto the footstool. "The beading on the bodice is just lovely, you could find the most amazing pair of earrings to suit."
Lana looked at me, "what do you think?"
I surveyed the dress closely and attempted to form a helpful opinion. "It looks like the last one you tried on."
Lana sighed heavily and placed her hands on her hips, "c'mon Amber help me out here. As maid of honour you're supposed to make decisions for me when I'm completely lost."
"Lana I don't know a thing about wedding dresses." I replied honestly, as I took another glass of wine from the assistant, "I've only ever been to one wedding and it was such a disaster that we still talk about over Christmas dinner."
"Lost ring?" the shop assistant asked sympathetically.
"Lost groom," I corrected.
"You don't have to have experience," Lana cut in, "just tell me which wedding dress looks the nicest on me."
I shrugged, "I liked the first one."
"But it was so plain," Lana frowned.
"Traditional," I corrected.
"It had a bow," Lana reminded me.
I held my hands up in defence, "hey, you asked for my opinion. I gave it to you."
Lana paused thoughtfully, "the first one," she finally murmured, "really?"
I held my glass up to her in a silent toast, "just put the first one back on and put me out my misery."
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Ten minutes later Lana was examining her dress from all angels in the mirror. The shop assistant was hurrying around the store suggesting accessories, veils and tiaras, while I was happily consuming my weight in wine as I yelled into my phone attempting to re-schedule my afternoon with a particularly demanding media contact.
'No," I said for the tenth time, "I can't make the meeting this afternoon. How about tomorrow morning? No I can't today… this afternoon wont work… tomorrow morning… yes…" I sighed in relief when I hung up the phone, "people are particularly dense today."
"It happens from time to time," Lana murmured distractedly as she examined her reflection from over her shoulder, "I need a second opinion."
"Didn't you say the Eric was having his suit fitting today?" I questioned popping a mini quiche into my mouth and chewing thoughtfully.
Lana nodded and twisted further around to see the back of her dress, "yeah him and Danny are coming in."
I raised an eyebrow in surprise, "you failed to mention that."
Lana looked at me, "I didn't think it would be a big deal, I thought you and Danny were getting along fine now."
Getting along was a little optimistic. Over the past week we had developed a successful working relationship based on avoiding one another as much as possible.
I shrugged, "we have an unspoken agreement. Its fine. But I didn't mean that, I meant that you failed to mention that Danny was best man."
"Eric only just decided a few days ago. The same day we decided on the date," Lana grinned excitedly and bounced up and down, "June 1st. It has a nice ring to it doesn't it?"
I nodded, "152nd day of the year."
"How on earth did you know that?" asked a voice.
Lana and I both spun around to see Eric and Danny standing in the doorway to the dressing room.
I was just opening my mouth to reply to Eric's question when Lana shrieked and attempted to cover her dress with her arms, "Eric get out!" she yelled. "You can't see my dress before the wedding! Get out!"
I watched in amusement as Eric clapped his hands over his eyes. "I didn't see anything," he yelled as he backed out of the dressing room.
Once he was gone Lana relaxed and lowered her arms, "so Danny what do you seriously think of this dress? Too white?"
I passed him my glass of untouched wine, "you're going to need this."
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I muttered darkly and scowled at no one in particular as I tried to ignore the fact that I was standing on a footstool while some old lady pinned my lurid pink bridesmaid dress to the right length. I was in a horrible mood. Several hours of wedding dress shopping, my weight in cheap champagne, and my ex looking impossibly attractive in a tuxedo was clearly not a good combination for me.
"I'm ready to murder someone," I burst out suddenly.
"Kill me first," Danny, drawled from across the room where he was standing in a similar position to me having his pants taken up, "put me out of my misery."
"Any requests on how you wanna go?" I asked curiously.
"You got a gun?"
"Nope."
"Knife."
"No."
Danny paused thoughtfully, "poison?"
"I suppose nail polish remover might do. But I don't have it on me, we need something immediate."
"Maybe you could just hit me on the head a few times with Lana's shoe." Danny suggested.
Lana looked up at us in annoyance, "okay lets change the subject please. We can't talk about death while we're getting fitted for the wedding; we have to talk about something happy.
"Like happy hour?" Danny asked in amusement. He paused an added as an afterthought, "Speaking of happy hour, I'd love a beer right now. That'd be so good. What time is it anyways?"
"Its crying time," I replied sarcastically.
Lana rolled her eyes.
I glanced at the lady crouched at my feet, "excuse me, do you have any beer?"
Danny snorted with laughter across the room.
The lady looked up at me as though I were crazy. Maybe I was by this stage. "No we don't sorry, just champagne."
I shifted my weight and placed my hands on my hips, "alrighty then."
There was silent in the room for a few moments until Danny asked, "do you want to go get a beer once we're done here?"
I thought for several moments that he must have been talking to Lana, but when I looked up and met his eyes I realised I had been mistaken. My eyes widened slightly, "you and me?"
Danny shrugged, "yeah why not?"
I could think of at least five reasons off the top of my head. I frowned, what was he playing at? The two of us, together, in a room, drunk, with more alcohol to be consumed… That definitely couldn't be a good combination. Danny was still staring at me waiting for my decision and I finally reached the conclusion that I had nothing to lose, "ok."
Danny's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly, "really?" he asked in surprise.
I shrugged and repeated his earlier phrase, "why not?"
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It was quite possibly the single most uncomfortable moment of my young life. I sat at a rickety table trying not to fidget too much as we waited for our drinks. While I was almost jumping out of my skin, Danny on the other hand seemed as cool as a cucumber. He sat across from me, reclined back in his seat, the collar of his jacket propped up to shield his skin from the cool breeze that drifted through the windows. He didn't seem nervous at all, on the contrary he was watching me leisurely and my apparent nervousness seemed to amuse him.
"This is a little awkward right?" he finally said, his voice cutting through the silence like a knife.
I let out a deep breath I hadn't known that I was holding, "a little."
Danny surveyed me thoughtfully before making a brave stab at conversation, "so um, are you looking forward to the wedding?"
I clutched the familiar topic like a lifeline, "I was. But after that fitting I'm thinking I don't want anything to do with it. But I'm happy for Lana and Eric of course, and the wedding will be beautiful, but it all seems like a bit too much effort you know?" I was blabbing. I trailed off and cringed. "Ok, I take it back. This is really awkward."
Danny smiled at me and sat forward on his chair, resting his arms on the table, "look, I didn't ask you here to make you uncomfortable. I just thought we could hang out for a while. Sit and talk like old times despite…" Danny paused and wrinkled his nose, "everything else."
'What would be talk about?" I asked curiously.
Danny reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of crumpled paper. I watched curiously as he smoothed it out. "You made a list of topics?" I asked torn between amusement and flattery that he had gone to so much trouble.
Danny shrugged sheepishly, "yeah well our previous attempts at communication didn't really go all that well, so I'm thinking if we stick to safe topics we might get through these drinks alive." He looked at me from underneath his eyelashes to gage my reaction.
I smiled. And for the first time since Danny left it was actually a true smile, filled with happiness and amusement. "Alright, what's first on the list?"
Danny sat up straighter and flatted out his piece of paper, "ok, I've been wanting to ask you this for a while." He paused dramatically, "why in the hell do you go to the top of a tall building only to put money in the binoculars to look at things on the ground?"
I laughed. Some things never changed.
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To be continued!
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