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With that, Gabe stood and walked towards the bedroom door of my suite. After opening it, he disappeared down the hall. Out of sight, but not out of earshot, I heard muffled tones as he announced the news of our engagement to the partygoers. Hoots and hollers erupted from the other room, and before I realized it, my friends were clamoring into the bedroom to offer me their congratulations and well wishes.
They’d all been well accustomed to my fainting spells over the years, so we were able to move past the issue with a minimum of questions and concerns. The true discussion, of course, was about my acceptance of Gabe’s proposal. We laughed and chatted for the better part of half an hour. Between congratulations and admonitions of ‘I told you so’, at some point, the discussion of wedding and bridesmaids dresses came up when Cheri issued a challenge.
“Let’s do it,” she said, as her face flashed with eagerness.
I scoffed as I looked at her.
“Do what?”
“Go shopping for dresses,” she continued, as she looked at the rest of the group for support. “It’ll be fun!”
As soon as she finished her thought, the excitement we’d experienced moments before as we chatted suddenly fell away into silence. One by one, they turned and looked at me.
“What?” I said, as I moved my gaze from one to the next.
“Cheri is right, Fiona, let’s go do it. Let’s shop for dresses,” Kelly said, as she smiled at me.
“Wait… You guys want to go shopping for bridesmaids’ dresses for yourselves and a wedding dress for me? Is that what you’re telling me?”
Almost before I could utter my final word, eight arms reached down and grabbed hold of me. The pulled me out of the bed, hugging me and congratulating me. The next thing I realized, they promise to take me wedding dress shopping first thing in the morning, whether I was ready or not.
GABE
“Okay,” my friend Brad said as he hung up his cell phone. “I’ve got the information on the dress. Just give me the word and they’ll deliver it here.”
“Do it, man,” I said, as I looked at him. “The sooner we get it here, the less likely it is Fiona will be suspicious of anything.”
Brad nodded. After swiping his cell phone on, he disappeared around the corner for a minute or so before returning.
“All right, the dress is on the way.” As he slid his phone back into his pocket, he continued, “And, it looks like it’s your lucky day. The dress was a perfect fit. The woman who runs the place told me they didn’t need to do any alterations.”
I smiled and nodded.
My plan came together better than I could have anticipated. Not only that, but we’d managed to bring our groups of friends together and they’d all hit it off. There was only one minor issue between Brad and myself. I had no intention of allowing it to linger, so once he’d put his phone away, I got right into it after inviting him to take a walk outside with me.
After leaving the confines of the suite, I wasted no time.
“I know we haven’t really talked about this since the first night I met Fiona,” I began, as I looked at him. “But, this is something we need to discuss and get it behind us.”
Brad hooked his thumbs inside the front pockets of his shorts as I talked. But almost as soon as I finished, he began to shake his head.
“Look, Gabe, I was out of line. I shouldn’t have said what I said about her that night at the restaurant.”
I nodded, appreciative of his candor.
“Brad, you should know me well enough to know that I don’t have a problem with someone speaking their mind.”
“I know, but what I did went beyond that. I was being a shitty friend and certainly not someone who’s deserving of a best man position.”
Brad leaned against a wall outside the suite.
“Yeah, well, be that as it may, you’re still my best friend.”
I walked closer towards him and slapped my hand on top of his shoulder.
“No hard feelings, man. Really, it’s all in the past. The important thing right now is the future.”
“That’s not going to be good enough for me, Gabe,” he said, as he looked up at me. “I need to make this right between us.”
I removed my hand from his shoulder and slipped it into my pocket.
“You’re wasting your time, man.” I replied. “But, if it’s going to make you feel better and get us past all of this, be my guest.”
“I appreciate that,” he said. “I know there’s a lot to do so I’ll keep it short.”
“Please.”
With that, Brad slapped his palms down on top of his thighs. As he looked up at me, he said, “I’m sorry for what I said about Fiona at the bar the night you guys met. I was way out of line, not to mention insulting. It’s clear to me now what you saw in her the night you guys met. I didn’t mean to be so shallow and superficial. Please accept my apology.”
