6. Nightmares
Chapter 6
Nightmares
Lila
Nine Years Ago
I arch my back, stretching in hopes of loosening the tight knot that seems to have formed at the base of my spine. That’s what I get for sitting in this position for the past three hours, looking through the catalogue of wedding dresses that I got from the bridal store.
I need to wrap this up before Seth gets out of the shower, because I know how he hates seeing me stressed, even if that stress is because of me planning our wedding. I feel so lucky and blessed to be getting married to him. There’s a slight change to the flow of the running water in the bathroom, giving me a heads up that it probably won’t be much longer till he’s out.
The last few months have been hectic, planning my wedding, but I’ve had a lot of help from my mom and sister, Joanne. Not to mention his family has also been as supportive as can be. I’d do it a hundred times over, if it means that I get to spend the rest of my life with the man of my dreams.
A silly smile stretches out on my lips as I twirl a lock of my hair around my fingertips. Everything about the wedding is already set. It certainly helps that his family is wealthy and paying for it, so there has been no delay. Almost as soon as he proposed, we had a wedding date picked out, and now, that day is only two weeks away. My big day.
I can’t believe I’m about to be Mrs. Seth Michaels! A little squeal of excitement makes its way past my lips, the grin almost splitting my face in half at this point. But I stop myself with a reminder that Seth is only a couple of feet away.
Mom is already here in Boston. She and Dad live in Florida but got here early to help with the wedding preparations, and since we’re in a time crunch, I can use all the help I can get. Especially from Mom. It’s almost as if it’s her wedding too, and I love being able to share this with her. My big sister, Joanne, lives here in Boston, so we basically shopped for everything together, along with Sue.
My smile falters as I go back to staring at the catalogue in my hand. Everything is coming along perfectly, except for the dress.
I can’t count how many bridal stores I’ve been to, how many dresses I’ve tried on, and how many catalogues like this one that I’ve looked through. I just haven’t found one that feels right. I haven’t found THE dress.
The struggle was cute at first. Mom said ever since I was a little girl I’ve been planning my wedding day. I was a huge Disney princess fan, and I wasn’t interested in anything that didn’t have a happily ever after. I guess I’m still looking for that perfect Cinderella dress.
Now though, this close to the wedding, it’s definitely not cute anymore. It’s stressful. I need to pick a dress, and fast. The lady at this bridal store whose catalogue I’m looking through told me I wouldn’t find any better designs than what’s in here, but halfway through it I’m already starting to lose hope.
“I really hope the other half surprises me,” I sigh.
Just as I set the catalogue down on my nightstand, my phone starts to ring. I sigh, pulling it out to see who it is calling so late.
“Mom, it’s after 9 P.M. Is everything okay?” I ask softly, stifling a yawn.
“Sorry, sweet pea, it’s important. So, you know how I’m supposed to go check out the flowers at the florist’s tomorrow morning?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“Well, the florist just called me. He’d like to confirm the quantity of roses and peonies that were on the order.” Apparently, the person that was in charge of your event quit, and there’s been a bunch of miscommunications with other customers, so he just wants to confirm that everything is as you requested.
“Mom, I don’t—I don’t know,” I sigh tiredly, dragging a hand across my gritty-feeling eyes.
“Seth and the wedding planner, Sophie, are the ones who have that information. He told me she sent him a list of everything we’d need for the decorations.”
“Well can you check with him? The florist needs an answer ASAP.”
“Ugh, Mom,” I sigh.
“Or do you know where he keeps a copy? Can you go find it?”
“He’s got it in his email. We were looking at it on his phone the other day. You know what? I’ll ask him and call you right back.”
“Okay, sweetheart. Thank you.”
I hang up and call out to Seth.
“Seth?” I call out to him, hoping he can hear me from the bathroom as the water seemed to have stopped running. No response. I sigh, contemplating getting up to go ask him, but I’m too tired to do so.
“Hey, babe?” I try again. “Do you know how many roses and peonies Sophie mentioned were being ordered?”
“Huh?” he responds, his voice muffled by the door in between us.
“The florist needs to reconfirm the floral arrangements. I need to know how many were ordered,” I try again. He mutters an incomprehensible response to me, and I roll my eyes. I contemplate walking over to him again but decide against it. Instead, I reach for his phone beside me on the bed.
No password is needed, so I open his email app and scroll through looking for the ones with the wedding planner. All I want is to give Mom the info so I can finally get a good night’s sleep.
Jeez, who even gets so many emails? I swear he got that confirmation email not more than two weeks ago. I groan as I scroll through what feels like a never-ending list.
“Finally,” I mutter when I come across Sophie’s name.
I open the thread, expecting to see a conversation on floral arrangements. It’s probably the last thing she sent to him.
But…that’s not what I see.
My eyes are staring at the words, but they might just as well have been in another language, because I can’t make sense of anything that I’m seeing.
I blink numbly, my throat suddenly dry enough that it hurts when I try to swallow. I try to form words, make a sound, anything. But only a desperate croak slips past my numb lips.
My cold fingers clutch the slim metal of his phone, trembling slightly.
Seth and Sophie? It can’t be. This entire time, they—
I scroll through the emails, my mind struggling to process what my eyes are seeing. Emails going back and forth between them for months, professing their love for each other and how even when we get married, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t continue to do their favorite…I stop reading as my heart starts to pump at an unnatural rate.
He was going to get married to me in two weeks, and he’s cheating on me?
I force my stiff fingers to scroll to the end to get a better idea of when it began. Not like it’s going to make anything better, but—I need to know.
I decide to do a search under her name and come across an email a year ago from when she’d planned a Christmas party for his parents, and he’d given her his contact information.
My heart constricts as I read through the flirtatious emails and realize that the same night he’d proposed to me, he was planning on hooking up with her.
All I can do is sit there staring glassy eyed, until it registers through the haze that there will be no happily ever after for me.
The man I thought was in love with me was just an illusion.
A pained whimper slips past my lips and I press a fist to my chest as I feel my heart shattering into a million pieces.
It cracks.
The first teardrop slips.
The bathroom door opens and Seth steps out with a towel wrapped around his waist, ripped abs and chest on display.
“Babe, what were you saying?” he asks innocently, ruffling his wet hair with a towel. His eyes finally meet mine, taking in my tear-stained face, and then slither down to his phone in my hands.
By the time his eyes make it back up to mine, I know he knows just as much as I do that it’s over.
There isn’t going to be a wedding anymore.