Friday Night Brides (5 page)

“Sorry Becs,” Angie said as she reached around and hugged her.

“I know I’m being stupid,” Becca said, her voice trembling, “but it’s hard when someone plays on your fears and insecurities like that. I always knew Danny wasn’t the greatest guy in the world—and he certainly wasn’t “the one”—but…I don’t know…I just didn’t expect him to be so mean.”

“Look, I know it’s easy for us to sit here and tell you to ignore it or get over it, but that wouldn’t be fair,” Ella chimed in. “Just know Danny’s the only one who thinks like that.”

“True that,” Angie and Hailey said and then laughed.

“You guys are the best,” Becca said with a small smile. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You’d be sad and miserable,” Hailey said with a dramatic sigh.

They all laughed again and finished their meals.

“Oh, I totally forgot to ask,” Ella said excitedly once their dishes were cleared away, “what were you and the sexy photographer talking about last night, Becs? Dylan and I saw the two of you talking over in a corner.”

“Oh? Oh, really?” Hailey cooed. “Do tell!”

“For crying out loud,” Becca muttered. “Actually, he had an idea for a gift for your mom.” Beside her, Angie snickered. Becca elbowed her to shut her up. “He wants to do a slide show video for her with pictures from all of her fashion shows. Can you get those?”

Hailey’s eyes lit up. “Max thought of it? That’s so sweet!”

“He also wants to do a segment that is solely on the four of us and our years modeling in the shows. He’s going to use the pictures he took of us last night too. I kind of told him I’d have them by next weekend. Do you think you can do it?”

Hailey nodded. “Absolutely! Last year we scanned all of the old photos into the computer and there’s a file for them. I always wanted to do something like that for Mom, but I had no idea how to do it. It’s so cool that Max thought of it!”

“I wonder why he talked to you about it and not Hailey,” Ella said curiously.

“Oh…um…I don’t know,” Becca stammered and then shrugged. “Probably because we ran into each other as I was leaving. Maybe he thought Hailey was too busy doing stuff or…um…who knows really? You’d have to ask him.”

While Becca fidgeted with her napkin, Ella, Angie and Hailey exchanged looks again and by silent agreement, decided to let that little bit of nervous rambling go.

For now.

****

Glass of wine in hand, Angie sat down on her favorite oversized chair and got comfortable, her cat curled up beside her. Picking up the TV remote, she began her nightly ritual of channel surfing in hopes of finding something of interest to watch.

Or at least something to take her mind off the fact that it was a Saturday night and she was sitting home alone.

In her pajamas.

Okay, the cat technically meant she wasn’t alone but that wasn’t something she wanted to advertise to the world either.

There was a time when she wouldn’t be caught dead sitting at home in her pajamas on a weekend night, but that was before
him
. “Dammit,” she cursed but continued to scan the channels.

Eight months ago she had met Sean Peterson while helping her cousin Tricia plan her wedding. The attraction had been instantaneous and what had started out as a bit of a chore wedding-planning-wise had quickly turned into something amazing. She and Sean worked together on a bunch of wedding-related activities and Angie found he was someone she really wanted to spend time with once the party was over. She had thought he felt the same way.

Clearly she was wrong.

Sure they had kept in touch and even got together for a couple of weekend getaways, but with Sean based out of Long Island and Angie in Raleigh, the strain of a long-distance relationship eventually did them in.

At least that’s what she kept telling herself.

Unfortunately, it was too easy for her own self-doubt to creep up and have her wondering what it was about her that made Sean break it off. It wasn’t anything new—she had been torturing herself about it for weeks and she was doing her best to keep it to herself and not bring it up with the girls. And after going off on Becca at lunch earlier, there was no way she could bring it up any time soon.

So she sat staring at the television and hoped she would eventually find something to take her mind off of men and relationships and how she didn’t have either in her life right now. Trampus, her cat, stared up at her with annoyance. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she murmured, “I know I have you.” With a curse, she tossed the remote aside once she clicked over to Netflix and decided on binge-watching
The Walking Dead
.

Nothing romantic about that at all, right?
She thought.

After the second episode, Angie got up, stretched and went to grab something to drink when she heard her phone—or rather the tone of an incoming text. Figuring it was one of the girls, she picked it up on her way to the kitchen.

Grabbing a bottle of water and a couple of Oreos, she walked to the living room while scrolling for the text.

And froze.

Sean: Hey. You around?

Collapsing on the couch, Angie let the water and cookies drop. “Son of a
bitch
,” she hissed. “For real?” And the worst part of it all was how she was actually torn about what to do. It would be easy to just answer him but she didn’t want to make things easy on him. After pretty much dumping her without a word, she wasn’t sure if she should yell at him or ignore him.

Sean: Thinking about you. I know it’s been a while.

And then she thought of her cousin Tricia who was married to Sean’s brother, Ryan. Tricia had basically kept Angie somewhat updated on what Sean was doing—even though Angie never asked. He and his brother had an architectural construction business they had started a year ago and supposedly they were both working like mad to establish themselves. Angie understood all about hard work—she was the queen of it—but she still made time for the things and people who were important to her.

And clearly she wasn’t important to Sean.

Okay, she reasoned, that wasn’t really fair. Just because she was a considerate person didn’t necessarily mean Sean was.

And he wasn’t.

Sean: I’d really like to talk to you. Call me. Any time.

“Typical man,” she muttered. Did he even realize what a complete tool he was? He’d been ignoring her for months and now all of a sudden he wants to talk and she’s supposed to just drop everything and call him? She snorted with disgust. “Well…screw that.” Tossing the phone aside, Angie picked up the cookies and cleaned up the mess and then took a long drink of water before settling back in for another episode of
The Walking Dead
.

The phone was technically out of sight, but her gaze kept going in its general direction. So that was it? Three little texts and the ball was in her court?

As much as she wanted to focus on the TV, her thoughts kept straying to Sean. Maybe she should call Becca or Hailey. Calling Ella wasn’t really an option because as much as Angie loved her, Ella wasn’t the best person to give advice on situations like this. Then again, Becca was pretty jaded right now and probably wouldn’t be feeling too kindly toward any guy. That left Hailey.

“Screw it.” Muting the TV, she grabbed her phone and scrolled to Hailey’s number and hit send.

“H’lo.”

“Hails? Are you okay?” Angie asked.

“Sorry,” Hailey said around a yawn. “I was sleeping.”

“It’s nine-thirty on a Saturday night. Why are you already asleep?”

“Nothing else to do,” Hailey said, sounding a little more awake. “What about you? You okay?”

Angie told her about Sean’s texts. “Do I call? Or do I text him back and tell him to go to hell? Or maybe I just ignore him?”

“What is it that you really want to do?”

“If I knew that I wouldn’t have called!” Angie said with exasperation. “I want to do all of those things but I’m not sure which one of them I
should
do.”

“Okay…okay…give me a minute.” Hailey paused.

“I kind of want to ignore him—at least for now—just because I’m pissed.”

“But…?”

“But…part of me wants to call him and tell him directly how pissed I am.”

“Okay.”

“But then I think I should probably just text him so that I can’t be overly bitchy.” Angie sighed and then growled with frustration. “Can you understand my dilemma here?”

“I do, Ang. I totally do.”

“So if you were me, what would you do?”

“Hmm…honestly?”

“Seriously?”

“Fine, no need for sarcasm,” Hailey said wearily. “I’d probably text him back. Don’t give in and call him—especially if you don’t think you can talk to him without getting nasty and all that. Ignoring him just puts you on his level and really…you’re better than that.”

“Thanks.”

“What are you going to say to him?”

That was the million-dollar question, Angie thought. “I’m not sure. I can’t imagine why he’d contact me after all this time.”

“At least you know it’s not a booty call.”

“How can you be so sure? Maybe it is. Oh, God…do you think it is?” Panic began to choke her. She wasn’t ready for a booty call but man oh man could she use one.

“Ange, he lives like ten hours away. I would hope that if he were here in Raleigh, he would have given you a bit of a heads-up. Otherwise, it’s a complete douchebag move on his part—to be so presumptuous.”

“You have a point.”

“I normally do,” Hailey said before yawning loudly again.

“Go back to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“What are you gonna do?”

Angie considered the question. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

“Whatever you decide, good luck,” Hailey said. “And call me in the morning.”

“Okay. Thanks, Hails. Night.”

“Night.”

Turning off the TV, Angie stared at the phone in her hand while she tried to decide on what to do. Texting was the safest choice but the snarky shoulder angel kept poking at her to ignore Sean and make him sweat it out.

“I’ll never sleep tonight if I don’t do something,” she finally admitted and made herself comfortable. Pulling up Sean’s text, she took a steadying text and replied.

Angie: Just got ur message. What’s up?

As if Sean was sitting there waiting for her response, her phone instantly dinged with his reply.

Sean: How are you?

“Seriously?” she muttered. “Why can’t he just get to the point and forget about social chit-chat?” Rather than type the sarcastic comment like she wanted to, she went for vague.

Angie: Busy.

Sean: Oh. Is this a good time to talk? Can I call you?

Crap.
The last thing she wanted was to hear his voice right now. Sort of. If she was going to hold on to her sanity and not completely unleash all of her anger and frustration on him, this conversation needed to stay digital.

Angie: Out with the girls. Just happened to see ur text.

Liar. Liar. Liar.

Sean: Can you call me when you get home?

Her patience hit an end.

Angie: What do you want, Sean? It’s been a while. I’m busy and I really don’t feel like chatting.

She held her breath while she waited for his reply. On some level, Angie had hoped to keep things light, civil, but he was being a little persistent and it grated on her nerves.

Sean: I’m sorry.

“For
what?
” she cried out, rather than typing it. “Sorry for blowing me off? Sorry for bothering me? Sorry for being such a jerk when I thought things were serious?”

Meow
…beside her Trampus looked up at her like he had an answer. Then he licked his paw and cleaned his face before getting up and leaving the room.

“Traitor!” she called after him. The dinging of the phone had her looking down again.

Sean: You still there?

Angie: Yeah

Sean: I really didn’t want to apologize over a text but I kind of got the feeling you weren’t open to talking with me

Angie: You would be correct

Sean: Wow. Okay.

Dammit. Now she actually felt bad.

Angie: Did you really think I’d want to talk to you after you pretty much blew me off?

Sean: I know. It was shitty of me.

Angie: That’s not gonna cut it.

Tears welled in her eyes and she wished he would beg—maybe just a little—for her to understand. Maybe he had a good reason for blowing her off.

Sean: Five minutes. Just give me five minutes on the phone.

For a minute, all she could do was chuckle. It was like the man was living right inside her head and knew exactly what she was thinking. And quite honestly it was freaking her out.

Sean: Please

Angie: It’s not going to change anything

Sean: Then use the time to yell at me. I promise not to stop you

She laughed again.

Angie: Tempting but I gotta go

And then that was it. He didn’t respond and Angie felt like there wasn’t anything else she could do. Yelling at him would have felt good in the moment, but ultimately it wasn’t going to change anything. And until she had a clear idea of what she was going to say and knew she’d be able to say it like an adult, it was for the best that she stay quiet.

With a sigh, she put the phone down and went in search of the television remote. Settling back in her comfy chair, she started up the next episode of
The Walking Dead
.

Sort of felt like the current story of her life.

****

“What about this one?”

Wednesday night they were all gathered at Enchanted Bridal as planned and were now staring at the sixth gown Ella had tried on. Judith fussed around her—fluffing the skirt, adjusting the train.

“Are you sure you didn’t try this one on already?” Angie asked. “It looks a lot like the second one you tried on.

“She hasn’t tried this one on yet,” Judith said with a smile as she continued her work. “That’s why I gave you girls a scorecard.” She rattled off the item number of the dress for them to write down. “Trust me. I have all of Ella’s choices on different hooks all over the room. I just took this one out of the garment bag.”

Turning to Becca, Angie murmured, “Still looks exactly the same to me.”