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The chaos Stacey walked into Monday morning continued the entire week. She lost count of how many babies were born, how many mothers had to have emergency c-sections, and how many dads passed out in the delivery room.
All she knew was that the babies born in the hospital this week of April were the cryingest bunch of babies she had at one time in her five years of nursing.
All week, her shifts flew by, and she hardly got time to eat or pee, for that matter. She was so glad she had all the details of the wedding finished because she was of no use to Kristen by the time she got home. She just nodded and agreed, not hearing most of what her best friend was telling her and fell into bed.
By the time her shift was over Wednesday night, she about crawled out to her car.
She wasn’t sure how she made it home that night, but she did, and as soon as she got there, she climbed into bed. Her goal was to sleep in Thursday morning, and when she woke up, even though it was her day off, she was going to work her butt off to prepare for the wedding of her two most favorite people.
She fell asleep thinking of Kristen and Jacob happy.
Then she was shaken awake. “Stacey, I’m so sorry.”
Was Kristen really waking her up? Someone better be dead. She opened her eyes a little bit. “Who’s dead?” She mumbled.
“No one. I forgot to order the flowers. I just remembered. What are we going to do?”
Flowers. Kristen was waking her up for flowers. She reached for her phone. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the time.
Seven o’clock.
Kristen woke her up at seven o’clock because she forgot the flowers. She grabbed the pillow next to her and put it over her head, willing Kristen to just go away.
“Stacey. I know. I’m so sorry.” Kristen pulled the pillow from her head.
Stacey let out a moan. Knowing when she was not going to win, she sat up and tried her best not to glare at her future sister-in-law. “Okay. You make coffee, find a way to get me a cinnamon roll from Des, and I’m going to take a shower and meet you in the kitchen as soon as possible.”
Kristen grabbed her in a hug way too hard for her still sleeping bones to handle. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the best, Stacey!” and she bolted out the door.
Stacey really contemplated dropping back onto her pillow and getting back under her nice warm covers but knew she wouldn’t do that to her friend. So, instead, she pushed herself out of bed and trudged heavily to the shower.
One very hot shower, two cups of coffee, and surprisingly a warm cinnamon bun later, She was awake and calling around to flower shops to find flowers for Kristen. Luckily, they didn’t need many, and that tragedy was soon fixed. Flowers would be delivered with boutonnieres and bouquets by ten a.m. tomorrow.
“I can’t believe you woke me up for something that was that simple to deal with.” Stacey was on her third cup of coffee and second cinnamon roll. If she kept this up, she wouldn’t be able to fit in the already tight dress she bought for the wedding. She looked at the rest of her breakfast and all its ooey gooey goodness sitting on the plate in front of her and contemplated throwing it away.
Her phone pinged.
It was Tristan.I won’t be able to be at your house. My plane was delayed. I’ll hopefully be home tonight. Do you still want me to come by?
Stacey felt her shoulders droop like her body deflated. Yeah, she did want him to come by, but it wouldn’t be fair, and she couldn’t go to him. The girls were all staying here.No. I’m sure you’ll be tired, and we’re having a thing for the wedding anyway. I’ll see you at the wedding?
He didn’t answer. Stacey couldn’t hide the concern on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Kristen asked.
“Tristan’s plane’s been delayed. He won’t be in until late tonight.”
“Stace. Sorry. I knew you wanted to see him and finally have that talk.”
She shrugged. Not a big deal. Just another day to figure out her feelings. He didn’t answer her text. Give him time. Her attention went back to the cinnamon roll. No need to waste good food.
“So, what do we have left to do?” Stacey asked. Change the subject.
Elizabeth and Jessica both had today and Friday off, so they came by. Stacey was so thankful for the extra help. She and Kristen would never have been able to get everything done on their own. Even with the extra help, the girls took all day to finish everything on the list and only took a small break for lunch.
Chad and Brady brought pizza and beer to the house for dinner, and the seven of them ate, then set up the outside tables and chairs and strung lights from the deck and the trees. Everyone got their directions and rules for the next day, and then the party began. They celebrated Jacob and Kristen’s relationship, which spanned years. Stories of Jacob’s obsession with her when he and Chad were freshmen in high school, and she and Stacey were juniors. It took him a while to get over his Kristen obsession, but he finally did soon after he left home for college. It turned out, this was when Kristen started having a crush on him. It then went back and forth for years. On again, off again.
Stacey stood up, quite a few beers in, and tried her hardest not to slur her words. Her emotions were getting to her. Here it goes. “Y’all are my two most favorite people. Everyone knows how much stress you both put on me. Every time you were together or when you broke up, I always picked up the pieces. But what you didn’t know is that I always prayed that you would both find each other.”
