Chapter 10
Elizabeth was pissed off. Not in that she had a bad morning or she spilled coffee on her favorite blouse kind of pissed off either.
No, this was every possible thing had gone wrong in the span of twenty-four hours, and she had no idea how to fix any of it kind of pissed off. Just when she didn't think things could get any worse, she received a call from St. Timothy's church saying there had been a small fire inside the church, and that the wedding would have to be pushed back at least a few weeks.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
The caller had assumed she was the bride and apologized a thousand times about ruining the most special day of her life, which confused Elizabeth tremendously at first, and then it broke her heart about a million times over.
And now she was sitting across from Lulu, who could care less that her wedding was pushed back a few weeks.
"It's just a minor bump in the road," the blonde muttered, glancing up at the sky above the terrace of Kelly's. "Do you think it's going to rain?"
"Hopefully not," Elizabeth replied, shivering at the thought. She hated thunderstorms, and not in that normal, the sounds made her jump kind of way. They kept her up all night until the last thunder clacked and lightning struck.
"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, her voice so heavy with concern that it caught Elizabeth off guard.
"Fine," she said, glancing at all the lists in front of her, and trying to calculate which direction would have the easiest start. She needed to reprint invitations and reschedule fittings, well, just her's seeing as she was suddenly roped into being the maid of honor, and Lulu had plans on going back to Europe to shop for a wedding dress with her mother.
Elizabeth hadn't talked about her dress at all with Lulu, mostly in fear that it would be a terrible color that washed out her skin tone or something with ruffles. One look at the blonde and she knew she was a woman with an appreciation for ruffles.
No one should appreciate ruffles. Ever. Let alone on a gown of someone in a bridal party.
"Well, if you need to talk-"
"I don't," Elizabeth cut in firmly, shaking her head.
She was starting to rethink her decision to help plan the wedding simply because it caused Lulu Spencer to suddenly think Elizabeth was her blood sister or soul sister or whatever the hell stupid girls called it these days, and she just didn't have any of those. Ever.
Granted, there was a positive to all of this, in that Lulu considered Elizabeth her friend. She was always rattling on about herself, her family, and Johnny, as if Elizabeth actually cared. And maybe she did, just a tiny bit, but that was mostly because she was looking for something to use against Lulu. There had to be a flaw there somewhere, something that would completely infuriate Johnny, and she was determined to find it.
"Sorry for snapping," she murmured, glancing down at the blonde as she got up from the table and tossed her bag over her shoulder. "I just have a lot going on with the wedding, my art show…" Her voice trailed off and she silently added on the fact that she and Jason had heatedly had it out at the bar, and they hadn't spoken in an entire day.
She was used to pissing Jason off, having been capable of doing it practically her entire life with the snap of her fingers. Whether he knew it or not, his short temper, that he often tried to hide, was something that he had in common with Jason Quartermaine. He would blow up at her, and though she knew she deserved it, nothing ever upset her as much as when Jason was mad. Usually his anger only lasted for a few hours, and they were tripping over one another's apologies and going out for beers like nothing had ever happened.
This time was different though; she had lied – though if she wanted to be technical, he hadn't exactly given her the chance to be honest.
Lulu's story about how she and Johnny had met swirled around in Elizabeth's heads for days, and she found herself wondering what would have made him such a mess. Johnny had always been somewhat of a drunk, even when they were teenagers, but aside from his sexual endeavors, he was generally a responsible drinker. He always took cabs or called her and Jason for a ride, and she had seen him in countless situations where he realized he reached his limits and should switch to water.
She just knew that something happened to him.
Normally, she would have involved Jason in something like this, especially with how close they were now, but she knew he would react just as he did at Jake's. He would have told her to mind her own business and stop doting on Johnny because he was a grown man who had the right to live his own life, even with secrets.
The thing was, Elizabeth wasn't used to secrets, at least where Jason and Johnny were concerned. It had always been them against the world, and Johnny leaving caused a shift, even if none of them wanted to admit it. Maybe she was silly for wanting to hold onto the people that they were or wanting them to always be so close, but they'd been through more than anyone could understand, and they'd done it all together.
"Can I ask you something?" she asked, sitting back down in her seat and staring Lulu in the face.
"Of course," she replied, smiling happily.
"Have you," Elizabeth started, clutching her purse tightly in her lap, "or would you ever lie to Johnny?"
"No," Lulu answered, without stopping to think even for a second.
"Never?" she asked in disbelief.
"No," she said again, firmer this time. "John and I have had our differences. It's obviously no secret that we are two very different people from two opposite worlds, but somehow we met in the middle."
"How?" she asked, leaning back in her chair and dropping her purse to the floor beside her. "How do you meet in the middle?"
"I have no idea," Lulu replied, laughing softly. "I've never really thought about it. Maybe it's about making sacrifices or putting someone else before you. I didn't ask John to give up his drinking or his cursing or his less than cavalier ways with women."
"You didn't try to change him?" Elizabeth asked, prying more than she meant to, but none of this seemed to make sense to her. How did someone like Lulu Spencer, the quintessential good girl, bed and wed – assuming she did so in that order – a man like Johnny O'Brien.
"I think I knew from the very first time that we met, there was no changing him," she said, smiling genuinely as she seemed to replay their very first dinner in her mind. "Why else do you think I put him in his place and sent him packing? The second time we ran into each other, he just needed someone. I knew he was so far from home, and he was highly unlikely to call you or Jason and beg one of you to visit, so I told him I would be his French friend under the condition that he acted like a normal human being when he was with me."
"Do I want to know how he responded to that?" she snickered, knowing Johnny was less than privy to any woman telling him how to live his life.
"Oh, not very well at first," she replied, grimacing at the memory, "but he quickly changed his mind…Probably because he didn't have anyone else to turn to."
"So, he just gave up all his vices for you without any problem," Elizabeth said, trying to wrap her head around the thought.
After all, it wasn't like she and Jason hadn't been on him for years to turn his life around before he ended up dying in a pool of whiskey, to which he often responded by saying he'd die happy. As much as it killed her, she was seeing the difference between that Johnny O'Brien and the one that returned from Europe; this one would die loved.
"It was difficult, as giving up anything is," Lulu murmured, tugging nervously at the end of her hair. "I have vices of my own."
Elizabeth arched an eyebrow wondering which one she was talking about, because from where she was sitting, she could list tons for the blonde.
"I'm not perfect by any means," she said, placing a hand on her chest in assumption that was Elizabeth's thought. "I just come from a family where perfection is expected."
"Name three vices," she challenged, mostly curious as to whether it was pleated skirts and lacrosse sweaters.
"Shopping, correcting other's conduct – that one I'm still working on. I blame my mother who constantly rode me about what a real woman was made of. I think John has helped me loosen my ties a bit to the proper conduct of a lady," Lulu replied, wrinkling up her nose. "Oh, and lastly, cigarettes...Yes, I smoked, but when I told John that drinking would do wonders for his liver, he responded the same would come from my filthy habit."
"That sounds like Johnny," Elizabeth mused, fondly recalling his ability to always match one of her flaws to his whenever she dared to point them out. "So, I guess my next question is what about him don't you like?" She was asking partly out of curiosity since she seemed to have him placed on such a pedestal and partly because, well, honestly it was just a way to find out some kind of dirt.
Elizabeth Webber was definitely going to hell for this.
"He never wears ties," the blonde replied, grinning in a way that made Elizabeth think she didn't really consider that a flaw. "He has a terrible fake laugh that he loves to use on my father, who now thinks he's the funniest man in the world because of it. He leaves his wet towels everywhere, always drinks milk from the carton, and has a terrible habit of leaving notes in the oddest of places. Oh, and the worst, he eats ketchup with everything which completely disgusts me, not to mention it's embarrassing in Europe because you have to ask for packets, and he never seems to be able to get enough."
She nodded, feeling more mixed than anything. They were all things that drove Elizabeth crazy, all habits and routines she knew far too well, yet Lulu spoke with such affection, whereas she only saw red.
Then again, Elizabeth was the one who would spend hours shopping with him for suits and ties, only to never see the look complete once they left the store. Not only was it a waste of money, but he wasted her time by always forcing her to pick out a tie that would bring the ladies – his words, not hers. She was the one who knew his various fake laughs; one for the businessmen he associated with, one for the elderly men he appreciated, but not enough to really laugh at their jokes, and one for the men he completely believed to be assholes and not worthy of his time.
She never said much about his wet towels, mostly because it was a habit of her own, and she always said something to him about the carton, simply because it was disgusting. His notes were the worst, his way of avoiding her when she would ask him to run an errand or to pick something up that she needed. Days later she'd ask him about it, and he would say he didn't have time and he left a note, which she wouldn't find until weeks later, stuck in the side of her couch or on a box of cereal.
And the ketchup, well, it was just a trademark. If there was food and Johnny, there were always several sides of the red sauce that she'd grown to appreciate, seeing as it would always be present in her life.
"That's it?" Elizabeth asked after a few seconds, knowing there had to be something the two lovebirds would never see eye to eye on – politics, religion, or business – there just had to be something. "There's nothing that drives you absolutely insane?"
She shrugged half-heartedly, showing her indifference. "I think we all have quirks, so I try not to be too judgmental." She paused, glancing at her apprehensively before going on. "Take Jason, for example. I'm sure he does things that drive you completely insane, but you just accept it."
"Everything he does drives me crazy," she laughed, meaning it more than Lulu realized. "He is so damn crazy about his office supplies because I love to steal them…And he has the craziest system for organizing his travel books. First, they're by country, then he judges them by accuracy and most well written, and if I so much as put the second book before the first, he notices immediately, and then tries to re-educate me on his system."
"The worst," she continued on, still grinning, "is that he always wants to pay for everything, like I don't have my own money or something. He always pays for dinner, and if we're shopping, he'll even try to pay for my clothes, and that drives me crazy. I'm not some slut that he picked up at the bar and he's trying to win over, you know? That's not the way to my heart."
"I'm sure he knows that," Lulu said, resting her chin in her hand and staring at her. "He just wants to take care of you, and it sounds like you're not used to that."
Elizabeth stiffened, not sure how to take her remark. Surely, Johnny hadn't told Lulu everything about her. Some things were just too private, especially when it came down to how her entire life had been spent depending on her two best friends, because her family was less than supportive of her ways and her choices. Granted, she had depended on them, probably more than she ever should have, but she was used to making her own money and supporting herself.
"He wasn't always like that," Elizabeth replied, folding her arms over her chest. "I always knew if I needed anything, I could ask him, but within the last year, he just started to take care of me. I guess he feels obligated or he wants to, after everything I've done for him." She shrugged, not sure her words were coming out right. "It's strange though because when Jason does something like that, when he buys me dinner or he talks me down when I'm upset, it's like he does it because he wants to, not because he has to."
"Which is how it's supposed to be," Lulu murmured, frowning briefly. "I don't want to pry, but I'm assuming he's the one you lied to."
Elizabeth suddenly felt like a deer caught in headlights, knowing she'd let Lulu see more than she wanted. She was supposed to be gathering dirt on the girl, not vice versa. Shrugging, she leaned over to grab her purse and got up from the table, hoping Lulu would see the cold shoulder as her answer. She headed towards to the door without saying goodbye, stopping only when she heard Lulu call her name.
Hoping she had a question about the wedding or something trivial, she turned around, her hand pressed against the door, waiting to let her escape.
"Just remember," Lulu started, smoothing out the wrinkles of her neatly pressed pencil skirt, "sometimes it's difficult to be honest with someone that you love, but you don't have to worry about that. If you love someone and they love you, they can always handle the truth because they'll always forgive you."