章 2: The Wedding Dress
This is just wonderful. There is only one clothing store in this town, calling it a clothing store is even too kind. It is like something out of a Farmville movie. There is absolutely no way I am wearing these rags. Whoever designed these things should be fired. I won't even go as far as call them designed.
I am seriously starting to doubt my brilliant idea to stay in this town; they will most certainly only have one of every other kind of store. Even worse, they will be joint stores, a pharmacy in a grocery store, a beauty salon in a barber. I am still struggling to say the darn place's name.
This is an absolute nightmare.
Now I am standing here with Clara, trying to convince me that this is my only option. "Jenna, there is really no other choice; you will have to wear these."
Well, she has something coming, for she has no idea how stubborn I can be. 'I don't have to if I don't want to."
"Are you going to carry on wearing that dress?" she asks me fairly, frustrated.
'If I have to, I will. What is this thing anyway?"
"A pair of pants," she claims.
Well, that surely got me laughing. "You could have fooled me.”
"Your only other choice is to make your own clothes." She is not only a terrible cook but surely is bad at telling her version of a joke.
"Now that is definitely not happening."
I browse through the racks again; even touching these things makes my body cringe. There is no color; there is no body-hugging form; it is not appealing at all. I have decided I am not wearing this.
Now I do believe there must be a far better option. "Where is the closest mall?"
Well, it is me that is now providing the day's dose of laughter. "You are joking?"
"Does it look like I am joking?"
Very much shocked at the fact that I am indeed very serious, she reluctantly answers, "It is nearly 200 miles away."
"That does not sound far," well, not that I knew how far 200 miles is. "How do I get there?"
"You will get lost," is her immediate answer. Then as to be on purpose, she adds, "And they have not towed your car back yet."
"Then I will rent a car," now I should not even have bothered.
"We don't have rental cars here," she says with an amusement that I am about to slap off her face.
"You not serious?" After a few moments of silence. "You are!"
"There is a reason why people live here," she eagerly reminds me why this is in the middle of nowhere. "They want a simple life," is her answer.
"A little bit too simple if you ask me," I ask with my own hint of sarcasm.
Carla takes me back to the B&B. I am surprised they even have one, then again, it is just a room in her house, so it really is not a B&B. Why did my car stop near this forsaken place?
I need to find another town; I need to find that mall, for now, it looks like I am staying in my wedding dress.
The only thing that Brendan did not skimp on was my wedding dress. It took me months to find, the first time I saw it, I knew it was the one. When I told him the price, he smiled at me and said, pick whichever one you want. It took me many nights at the gym to keep my body slender enough to fit in it.
I kept it hanging on a coat rack to remind me every day of how much I was looking forward to my wedding day, how lucky I was to marry Brendan, the one that I thought I loved. I was happy; that was what I believed. This dress symbolized a new beginning, a new chapter in our lives.
This dress was beautiful, amazing, to me a one of a kind. Wearing this still does not stir an emotion; it does not make me feel the least bit sad, not even mad. It is still amazing, it is still beautiful; I don't care if everyone tells me to get out of it.
Then there is a knock at the door. My very first thought is that she has come back to be a bigger pain than she already is. So I reluctantly answer. "Yes?"
"I hear you having a wardrobe malfunction," and without having control of my body, I am beyond excited to see the handsome stranger standing in all his splendor leaning in the doorway.
"Who are you?" The most stupid three words that I can utter. Well, of course, how can you forget that perfect toned muscles that are formed with the utmost precision.
And as he speaks, my body becomes weak in more than just one way. Those lips form every word perfectly. "I feel hurt; you have already forgotten about me."
In total embarrassment, I answer him abruptly. "Not you."
"Unfortunately, yes me," he says with a cocky answer that turns me into a mess.
"What do you want?"
"Coming to lend a hand."
"How is your hand going to find me clothes?" I curiously ask. Those hands can lend me in a far better way than touching fabric.
And then he steps through the doorway; as he brushes past me, the tingles of pleasure send a sensation that has laid dormant. Then as he spins around to face me."I heard you being a bit difficult." His cologne attacks my senses.
"I am not difficult; I just know what I want."
Well, just when I thought he could not get any hotter than he already is, he nips at his bottom lips. "You ain't gonna find what you want in this town."
"I sort of figured that much."
Then he gets even more amused. "I hear you wanna drive to the next town."
Just as I think I cannot feel any more embarrassed, these damn cheeks flush a deep rosy pink. Under my fluttering eyes, I whisper. "Yes."
"You gonna get lost."
"Then I stay in my wedding dress."
And then he does it for the third time and takes my breath away as he bursts out in laughter. "The townspeople think you are nuts."
"And what do you think?" Well, Jenna, you just let yourself open to rejection.
But I am thankful as he answers, "I am not the townspeople."
He has now unknowingly opened himself to a string of questions. "What do you mean?"
"I don't live in town."
"Where do you live?"
"Outside town."
"Where outside town?"
"Up into the valley."
"On a farm?"
"No, it is a house."
"What kind of house?"
And this is where he starts to feel somewhat interrogated. "What is up with the twenty questions?"
"I am just curious," well, it is not just simple curiosity, for I am secretly hoping he lives nearby if I do decide to stay in this little town in the middle of nowhere.
"Sounds more like an interrogation," he says, but what he does not know, I have a whole new line of curiosity.
"Are you married?"
"No," he says firmly without even blinking.
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
He smiles at me with that damn seductive lips curving into the most gorgeous expression on his face. "Why are you interested?
"No, just wondering."
"Wondering about what?"
"If a hot guy like you are taken," that leaves the door open for so many questions.
"You think I am hot?"
"Did I say that out loud?" I say innocently as I clasp my hand in front of my mouth.
"Yes."
"Shit, I take it back."
"You can't." He shakes his head, knowing exactly what his presence is doing to me.
So let us change the direction this conversation is directed. "What are you doing here?"
"To take you to the mall," he says as his face now turns serious.
"Serious?"
"Yes. The townspeople think we are getting married; I would like to get that idea out of their heads."
-- 贈り物
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