Chapter 3
Tori
Then the Whos, young and old, will sit down to a feast.
~ Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
“I’m so excited!” I practically squeal as we ascend the steps of the Waterford bridal boutique, The Other Half.
The shop’s also the go-to prom dress store, and the place where anyone goes to get holiday dresses if they are attending the kind of function that calls for something slightly bougie or elevated.
The boutique is located one block away from our downtown in half of an old Victorian home, sharing the building with our town’s tux and suit shop, The Vest Side.
What can I say, we’ve obviously got time on our hands when it comes to naming businesses around here.
They’ve been stocking up the holiday garments since early November. Christmas music fills the air when we walk in. Live evergreen boughs with holly sprigs tastefully top the whitewashed armoires holding gloves and veils.
“Team bridesmaids is ready for action!” Steph announces.
Alyssa stands in the middle of us all, looking around with a misty softness to her eyes. “You guys. This is actually happening.”
The door opens again and Alyssa’s mom and aunt enter the shop.
After we all greet one another, we’re ushered to the back of the store where a three-way mirror and pedestal fill the back corner of the room.
Tufted benches flank the walls, giving us spots to sit like spectators while Alyssa tries on dress after dress.
“Did you want something so … poofy?” Steph asks bluntly about one of the selections.
Is this dress number four or five? I lost count.
“It’s beautiful,” I say quickly. “Just maybe a bit …”
“Poofy,” Steph says again.
“I look like someone inflated me and covered me in carnations for the Macy’s parade!” Alyssa covers her mouth and laughs into her hands and we all join her.
“That’s definitely not the dress,” Noelle aptly assesses.
“Definitely not,” Alyssa agrees.
She tries on a few more that are far more flattering and then she comes out in one that literally causes all of us to gasp.
“Oh!” Alyssa’s mom says. “It’s perfect.”
She dabs at her eyes.
Alyssa steps up onto the podium and turns each way, studying her own image with a dreamy expression on her face. “I love it. Do you love it?” she asks all of us.
“It’s the one,” I say softly. “Carson is going to lose his mind.”
“He really will,” Jennifer agrees. “You found your dress!”
We’re all up on our feet, rushing Alyssa before she even steps off the platform.
We nearly tackle her in a group hug. Tears are falling from all our eyes.
I don’t know why I’m so emotional. I didn’t cry when Noelle and Liam got married even though I was beyond happy for her.
This wedding’s just hitting me differently.
My heart pinches thinking of Alyssa walking down the aisle toward Carson …
him seeing her in this dress … the life they’ll build together. It’s everything I want for her.
After Alyssa chooses her veil, her dress is pinned for alterations, and we all try on bridesmaid dresses.
Alyssa had the employees at the shop set aside a few selections.
Noelle and I are in the downstairs bedroom which has been converted into a dressing room with an open area and two separate, smaller stalls set off by curtains for privacy.
I step out of my dressing area at the same time as Noelle. We take one look at one another and smile.
“I hope Steph and Jennifer look as good in this one as we do,” she says.
“You look so beautiful,” I tell her.
“And you do too.”
I stare at myself in the full-length mirror. I curled my hair this morning. Put a little more time into doing my makeup. The blue in the dress complements my skin and eyes. I love it.
“This is far better than the one that looked like a second skin.”
“Oh my gosh!” Noelle laughs. “And that other one. So much ruching.”
“I looked like a giant red accordion!”
“This is the one,” Noelle says, looking at the two of us in the mirror again. “If it works for Jennifer and Steph, we’ve found our dresses.”
Her eyes meet mine in our reflection. “Hey. Are you okay?”
“I’m so happy for Alyssa. I just …”
“You feel like the last one standing.”
“Yeah. I’m not, obviously. You and Alyssa are in the minority still. It’s just … this town’s not exactly crawling with princes.”
“You never know,” Noelle says with a motherly tenderness to her voice. “I wasn’t looking for Liam when he showed up on my porch.”
“Well, maybe you all need to rent a prince to arrive on my porch,” I joke. Then I quickly add, “Kidding! I’m kidding.”
Noelle smiles.
Steph knocks on the door. “Did you two get eaten alive by the dresses?”
“No! We’re coming out. Wait til you see this one!” Noelle answers.
Our friends try on their options, and we all decide that the blue dress is the winner. We finalize our order and then we drive to The Dogwood House, another converted Victorian across town. The bed and breakfast also serves high tea and brunch. We order from the menu.
Alyssa’s mom recounts her memories of Alyssa growing up. “I had basically resigned myself to her singleness. She was happy. Who was I to say she had to find a man? Times have changed.”
“I wasn’t looking,” Alyssa says with a shy smile. “He just … came out of nowhere.”
“That seems to be a theme,” I say to Stephanie. She’s seated next to me.
She’s about to answer when a man approaches our table.
It takes me a beat to recognize him without his glasses. I haven’t seen him in a while. We went out once when I moved back to Waterford after college.
“Hey! Tori. Wow—it’s been a minute. How are you?”
The table stills and everyone turns to look at Bill.
“I’m good, Bill. It’s been a while!”
“Yeah, well ... We should do it again sometime.”
“Um. Yeah. That would be … great.” I smile widely to cover the actual awkwardness I hope he’s not picking up on.
“I’ll message you,” Bill says with a genuine smile, not one like mine. I wonder if I look like someone’s poking my backside with a hot poker but daring me to keep a straight face.
“Sure. Good seeing you.”
I glance around at my friends. They’re all staring at either Bill or me.
“Okay. Well, have a nice lunch,” he says, waving stiffly, but still smiling a kind smile.
“Yeah. You too,” I say. “I mean. If you didn’t have lunch already. Did you have lunch?”
“I did.”
“Well, have a nice … after your lunch.”
I want to drop through the floorboards.
“I’ll do that,” he says with an amused grin. “Good day, ladies.”
He tips a fake hat and walks off.
“Sure?” Alyssa asks as soon as Bill is out of sight. “Sure you’ll go out with Bill?”
I blow out a long breath and say, “Aaagh” in my inside-the-teahouse voice. “What was I supposed to say?”
“You just told him you’d go out with him,” Alyssa says.
“No, I didn’t!”
My friends laugh. All of them but Jennifer. She just looks at me like I’m in a foreign country and can’t speak the language.
“When a man says I’ll message you, and you say sure, that’s a pre-date statement. You just agreed to go on a date,” Alyssa explains. “Plus you said, That would be great.”
“I did?” I think I blacked out just a little under the pressure and surprise of unexpectedly seeing Bill.
“You said sure like you were open to him messaging,” Steph adds. “Messaging is code for I’m going to ask you out.”
“Gah!” I cover my face with my hand. “He’s sweet. Just not ...”
“... Not doing a thing for you?” Noelle asks.
Jennifer is a little too quiet on the subject.
“I don’t feel anything for Bill. Not even a little.”
“You deserve someone who gives you the little flip in your stomach,” Alyssa says, looking at Noelle for confirmation. Noelle smiles and nods softly.
“That man, the one you finally choose, is the one you’ll get all nervous around because his opinion matters, not because he ambushed you at tea with your friends,” Alyssa says with this wistful tone to her voice as if she’s remembering her early days with Carson.
“He’s the one you’ll think about after you’ve gone your separate ways at the end of a date or even just bumped into him somewhere—the one who looks at you like you're his first meal after fasting for a week.”
“His first meal?” I say. “That sounds desperate.”
“Okay. Well, a man that looks at you the way Liam looks at Noelle. Better?” Alyssa crosses her arms over her chest.
“Yes.” I sigh. “It’s perfect.”
I’ve watched Liam and Noelle for nearly two years now. If a man ever looked at me the way Liam looks at Noelle, I’d be done for.
“I don’t think that man is out there,” I admit.
“Not for me. This is Waterford. I’m fishing in a pretty small pond these days.
Besides, not all of us end up with our own real life fairy tales.
I don’t think my dad ever looked at my mom that way.
If he did, it was long before I ever saw them together. But he loves her.
“Maybe that’s what I get to have one day—garden-variety romance. Not a full-blown English cottage garden of love.”
“Stop it!” Noelle says in an uncharacteristic outburst. “You are not getting garden variety anything. And if you go out with Bill, I will personally …”
“What?” Steph asks.
“I’ll … I’ll … I don’t know,” Noelle shrugs and huffs.
“But I’ll do something. You are not going to settle.
Do you hear me? You’re worth a man falling head over heels for you.
If Bill made your heart skip a beat, I’d be your biggest cheerleader.
You could happily fill out spreadsheets together for the rest of your love-filled lives.
But if he’s not ticking the boxes, I’m going to stage a protest.”
“What’s wrong with spreadsheets?” Jennifer asks, nearly under her breath.
“Nothing, hun,” Steph says. She chuckles to herself and adds, “If you want to date Bill, we can make that happen.”
Steph’s obviously joking.
Jennifer pauses, looking at Steph. Jen’s brows scrunch together and she tucks her lips in. “He doesn’t know I exist.”
Every eye at the table turns to Jennifer.
“Not saying I want him to …”
“Jen!” Alyssa exclaims. “You and Bill?”
“No.” Jen straightens her napkin in her lap. “Anyway, back to Tori.”
“Jen?” I look across the table at her.
“It’s nothing. Just a schoolgirl crush that won’t seem to die. It’s really nothing.”
“He wore a pocket protector in high school,” Stephanie says. Her tone isn’t condemning. It’s more baffled than anything.
“Not everyone wants to date a jock, Steph. He’s kind. Thoughtful. Always dresses as if he owns an iron and knows how to use it. I don’t know.”
“Jen!” Noelle exclaims. Then she looks around the table. “We have to make this happen.”
“You will not make this happen.” Jennifer points her finger at each one of us in turn. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t need to be fixed up or set up or any other form of meddling. Do you hear me?”
“Ditto. And double for me,” I add. “Singleness isn’t a disease we need to recover from. We’ve got amazing lives. I have all of you. We’re happy. Leave us be.”
Steph says, “Speak for yourselves, girls.” Then she winks.
“Kidding! I’m happy with my life too. I’ve been privileged to be a witness to you two finding your men,” she looks at Noelle and Alyssa.
“… and I’m thrilled for you. But I don’t know.
I see way more couples fighting and miserable than I do those walking into the sunset with stars in their eyes.
We all know couples who seem resigned to a life of surviving the mundane daily grind.
I don’t believe in chronic bliss. Call me gun shy. Or maybe I’m just a realist.”
“You just need to find the right one,” Noelle explains. “The right one makes all the difference.”
“Maybe,” Steph concedes, but I can tell she’s not convinced.
I’m right there with her. Noelle’s the easiest person to love. What man wouldn’t find her attractive? And Alyssa’s a barrel of laughs. She’s also spirited and passionate. Carson might not have seen her coming, but I watched it all unfold. He couldn’t help but fall for her.
I’m not like either of them.
“You guys really think a perfect match is out there for everyone?” I ask.
“Oh, he’s out there,” Noelle says with finality. “And he might just be someone you already know.”
“I doubt it.”
I consider the men I know. I’ve already dismissed most of them. They’re either too out of my league, not my type, or emotionally unavailable.
Like Gage.
If being flustered around someone is a sign, he definitely makes me flustered. Is there an eyelash on my face? Who asks that as an actual greeting?
But he flusters me because he’s so impenetrable, not because I’d ever consider dating him. Looking at me like I’m his first meal after a fast? More like looking at me like I’m the bones on his plate and he’s got some scraping to do.
Gage is definitely not my porch prince. But maybe Noelle and Alyssa are right. A good man might still come knocking—maybe even one who sweeps me off my feet and looks at me like I’m someone special.