Authors: Anna Cruise
FORTY THREE
ABBY
I stared at my reflection in the dressing room mirror.
“Well?” Tana demanded from outside.
“I don't hate it.”
“Finally.”
I threw open the door and stepped out. She looked up from her phone and an appreciative smile formed. “Hey. That actually looks nice!”
“Gee, thanks.” I folded my arms across my ample stomach.
“You know what I mean,” she said. She stood up and moved closer, examining the long white dress I was wearing. “It looks like you.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She put her hands on my shoulders and spun me around, checking out the back. “It means you don't look like a puffed pastry. You look like Abby. Wedding Day Abby. You know, like Wedding Day Barbie.”
I rolled my eyes. “Pretty sure she wasn't knocked up in her wedding dress.”
Tana waved her hand in dismissal. “Puhleeze. Pretty sure she's been sleeping with Ken for years. And what's the other guy's name? The dark-haired guy?”
“That's still Ken.”
She shook her head. “No, it's not. He had a different name.”
“I'm scared that you know these things.”
“You should be more scared that we played with slutty dolls growing up. That's probably how you ended up like this. They were a terrible influence.”
I laughed. God, I missed having my best friend around. She'd surprised me by coming home the weekend following the fourth of July. She'd marched into my parents office at five o'clock on Friday night and had insisted on going dress shopping.
“No,” I'd told her. “We haven't even set a date.”
She'd frowned at me. “You haven't set a date because you're worried about finding a dress. I know you. So we're going. I've set aside my entire weekend to go dress shopping. And I'm not going back to San Luis until you find one.”
Which was why it was Saturday afternoon and we were in our fifth dress shop and I was still trying on wedding dresses.
“I like it,” she said, fingering the fabric of the dress. “Like, really like it.”
I was hesitant to admit it, but I did, too. It was a soft jersey material, a simple white dress that flowed seamlessly. The beaded neckline added just enough to make the dress special, dipping enough to show off my bigger cup size, and the empire waist flattered the growing bump that was my stomach.
She reached for the price tag and whistled.
I sighed. “That much?”
“No. That little. It's under three hundred bucks!” She spun me back around so I was facing her. “You have to get this dress. It's perfect for a beach wedding.”
“Who said anything about a beach wedding?” I studied my reflection in the mirror. It really did look good on me.
“Where else are you gonna have it?” She plopped herself back down in the oversized arm chair. “You guys had your first date at the beach. He proposed at the beach. He surfs. We live in fucking Pacific
Beach
.”
I smiled and shook my head. “You've got it all figured out, don't you?”
She nodded her head vigorously. “Totally. I'm thinking you should get married over Labor Day weekend.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh really?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I'll be home. Three day weekend, you know. And the beaches will be crowded but not too bad. Zonies will have all left already. And Grif and West know some secluded spots. They could bring their boards and hit the waves after.” I shot her a look and she held up her hands. “Kidding.”
“And you think we'll be able to find a minister for a wedding in...” I tried to calculate in my head. “...in seven weeks.”
“You don't need one.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Seriously. It's like you're on crack or something.”
“No, no. Hear me out.” She leaned forward in the chair. “Griffin's gonna marry you guys.”
“What?” I wasn't kidding anymore. I was certain she was doing drugs.
“I talked to him last night,” she said, her voice triumphant. “He's going to get his Internet marriage license.”
I braced myself against the dressing room door. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“There's this church online,” she said excitedly. “They're like this New Age-y church that thinks that anyone who wants to should be able to perform marriages. Funerals, too. But that doesn't matter right now. Anyway, all you have to do is submit an application and pay a fee for the certificate. Boom, done. You're an ordained minister.”
“An ordained minister?”
She nodded. “How cool is that? Griffin will totally do it for free and guess what? He's available!”
I just shook my head and sighed. “Anything else you wanna plan for me?”
She smiled and eyed my stomach. “Well, I do have a couple of names I like for the baby...”
FORTY FOUR
WEST
“You look exhausted,” I said to Abby.
She was collapsed on the couch, her legs curled up underneath her. She had one hand behind her head, the other resting on her stomach.
“I am.”
“Dress shopping that tiresome?”
“No. Tana is that tiresome.”
I grinned and tossed my keys on the dining room table. I'd just gotten home from work, an Open House thing for the academy, and was pleasantly surprised to find Abby waiting for me.
“You find something you like?” I asked, sitting down next to her.
She nodded. “I actually did.”
I squeezed her calf and leaned down to kiss her. “Good.” I glanced around. “Where is it?”
She elbowed me in the stomach and I groaned. “You can't see it,” she said indignantly.
I smiled at her. “I know, I know.” I dropped a kiss on her head. “I'm just impatient. I wanna see you in it.”
“Well, apparently, you might be seeing me in it sooner rather than later.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?” We still hadn't decided on a date.
She nodded, her eyes closed.
“Why is that?”
“Well, after I bought the non-refundable dress, Tana informed me that I had maybe two months to wear it.”
I frowned. “Why is that?”
“Because apparently I'd be crossing into 'beached whale' territory if I waited much longer.”
“Bullshit,” I said dismissively. “You'll look beautiful whenever you wear it.”
She sighed. “Maybe. But if we wait, Griffin might not be available to marry us.”
“
What
?”
She nodded and pushed herself into a sitting position. “You didn't know? He didn't tell you?”
“That he can fucking marry people? No, must've slipped his mind.”
She half-laughed. “Tana was babbling about how he was going to get his marriage license. Marry us on the beach. This is news to you?”
I laughed, too. “Uh, yeah. Definitely news to me. How the hell is he gonna do that? Attend seminary during the day and bartend at night?”
“He's applying online. Some church that issues certificates.”
I laughed harder. “Pretty sure we'd end up right where we are now if we went that route.”
“Where is that?”
“Not married.” I smiled at her. “Because it probably wouldn't be legal.”
She smiled in return and I scooted closer to her. She propped her feet in my lap and I grabbed one and gently began to knead her heels. She sighed and closed her eyes.
“Maybe you should talk to him about it, then,” she murmured. “Discourage him or something.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I think I will.”
She opened an eye. “He seriously didn't say anything to you about it?”
I shook my head. “Not a word.”
He had talked to me about other things since the night we'd all talked in the living room. Mostly about moving out. I knew we'd have to figure things out, eventually—either I would have to find a place for me and Abby or Griffin would have to move out so we could have the apartment. It was one of those things that I'd been meaning to talk to him about but it seemed like our schedules never meshed, at least not long enough to sit down and have something longer than a five minute conversation. And figuring out our futures were gonna take a little longer than that.
“He did say he was planning to move out,” I told her.
The other eye opened and she stared at me. “He did?”
I nodded.
“What did he say? Where is he going to go?”
I shrugged and picked up her other foot. “I don't know. It was kind of a quick conversation. Just said his last month would be August. He'd try to help cover rent for us as long as he could after that.”
“He doesn't need to do that,” she protested.
“I know,” I agreed. “I told him that. He just sort of waved his hand and said whatever.”
“He didn't say what he was going to do?” She made a face. “I feel bad. Like I'm kicking him out.”
I shot a look in her direction. “Stop. We knew we were going to have to do something. Either he was gonna move or I was. We need two bedrooms. I'd already started looking at apartments.”
“You did?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Found a couple that might work and was gonna talk to you about them this week. Maybe see about going and taking a look.” I looked at her, trying to read her expression. “And if you want to check them out, we can. We don't have to stay here if you don't want to. Lease is up at the end of September so we'd still have time to move and get settled before the baby.”
Abby shook her head. “No, no. I want to stay here.” She smiled. “This is what we know. We're comfortable here, you know?”
“I'm just not sure about sticking a baby in Griffin's room,” I said, grinning. “Gonna need haz mat suits when we go in to clean it.”
She laughed. “That's your department. All yours.”
I rolled my eyes and made a gagging sound and she reached up for me and pulled me down, kissing me and laughing. I touched my lips to hers and I knew, without a doubt, that I would do anything to make her happy.
Including cleaning Griffin's hellhole of a room.
FORTY FIVE
ABBY
“I can't believe you were serious.”
Griffin's smile was triumphant. “Dude. I am legit.”
West and I both stared at the piece of paper he was holding. The piece of paper from the Universal World Church that declared him an ordained minister.
West rubbed his temples. “Holy shit.”
“Right?” Griffin jabbed at the paper with his finger. “You know what this means, right? All those dipshits who come to the bar and get shitfaced? Who hook up and end up finding their soul mates in
my
bar? I can fucking marry them!”
I ripped open the plastic wrap on the Twinkie I was holding. “Who finds their soul mate in a bar?”
“Lots of people.”
I took a bite. “Name one.”
Griffin grinned. “Who finds their soul mate standing in line at Mesa?”
He had a good point.
“Anyway,” he said, turning to West. “I can totally marry you guys. If you want.”
“Let me guess,” West said. We were sitting at the dining room table and he leaned in close to me and opened his mouth. I offered him the Twinkie. He bit off a piece and swallowed it. “You're free Labor Day weekend.”
“Bingo!”
West rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Can you believe this?” he asked me.
Griffin and Tana had been relentless. She'd clogged my Instagram with beach photos and emailed my work account with links to possible wedding locations. She was driving me insane. Griffin had been less obtrusive but he'd clearly done his part in their master plan by going ahead and getting his certificate thing.
“No,” I said.
Griffin grabbed a Twinkie from the box and tore the plastic off with his teeth. “It's the next weekend Tana will be down,” he said, his mouth stuffed with cream filling. “And it shouldn't be too busy at the office, right?” He looked at me. “Or at the academy?”
“They're not gonna stop,” West said to me, his voice low. “You know that, right?”
I sighed and nodded.
He reached for my hands. “You still wanna marry me, right? You haven't changed your mind.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “Of course not.”
“And you don't want a big wedding?”
I shook my head.
“And you're fine getting married on the beach?”
I nodded.
“By this dumbass?” He jerked his head in Griffin's direction.
I glanced at West's best friend. He'd wolfed down another Twinkie and was grinning at me, cream filling dotting his chin. I nodded again and Griffin launched himself from the chair, fist pumping like mad.
“Yes!” he shouted. “My first official wedding.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my chair and whirled me around.
“Dude,” West warned.
Griffin ignored him. “I charge two-fifty. But for you guys? Man, I'll totally do it for free!”