Chapter 44 Ripley
Ripley
It’s finale filming day. I should be excited, and I am, but just so it can all be done and over with.
Garrick will pick his ‘perfect match’, and Mom will be ready to launch her new dating app, with unprecedented hype for her company and a very happy investor.
It all worked out exactly how I planned it. So, why do I want to throw up?
I could blame my healing scar and the pain medication, but I know that’s not it.
Garrick’s choice won’t be real. I know this.
He knows this. I’m pretty sure everyone on set knows this – the girls included.
But it doesn’t make the dread in my stomach disappear.
He didn’t want me. I was too much or too little.
Either way, we ended like all love stories do that aren’t written for a fairytale – unhappily, in one way or another.
Melika and Nathan are here, trying to cheer me up.
They arrive with snacks and an oversized floral arrangement complete with balloon animals.
Mom let them leave set early to help nurse me back to health.
So, they’re no good in the gossip department.
Logically, pretending the reality show doesn’t exist and moving on with my life might be the better strategy.
But my brain will only rest when it has all the available data.
Whether that data is gut-wrenching or not, my brain doesn’t care.
I send Mom a string of texts throughout the day, trying to get her to tell me who he chose. Once I know, I can close this terrible chapter in the book of my life and move on to more important things.
However, Mom gives me nothing but radio silence – other than to ask if I took my meds and drank enough water. She said if I wanted to know the show’s outcome, I’d have to attend the finale party with everyone else. I don’t know what I did to deserve this cruel and unusual punishment.
‘No way.’ I lean back on the couch. ‘I’m recovering. I doubt the doctor would want me partying.’
Melika perches on the arm of the sofa. ‘One, your definition of a party and the doctor’s are probably not the same.’
‘Yeah, my grandma stays on the dance floor longer than you,’ Nathan adds, organizing my snacks on the coffee table.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, my eyes tired from looking at my phone all day, waiting for some news. ‘Your grandma was an amateur tango champion!’
Nathan grins. ‘She was. That woman knows how to bring a dance floor to its knees.’
‘So, yeah. Still not going.’ They stare me down, so I continue. ‘And even if I was considering it – which I am not – I have nothing to wear. None of my dresses will work with the surgery bandage.’
It’s not like I was planning to show up dressed to the nines just to prove to Garrick what he’s missing. He saw me lying in the hospital bed post-surgery. That’s not exactly an image I can override any time soon, no matter how sparkly the gown.
Melika stands, going back to the front door. ‘I knew you’d say that,’ she calls from the other room. ‘So I got you covered.’ She returns carrying a garment bag.
‘What’s that?’ I ask, even though it’s pretty clear. But perhaps she just brought me a fluffy robe I can burrow myself into while we watch a comfort show on repeat …
Her face lights up in the way only fashion can make it do. ‘Some of my favorite vintage finds. These dresses will all work with your bandage. I made sure.’
‘She did.’ Nathan nods. ‘She made me try them on with a bandage as a test.’
‘I call them Post-op Chic. Now move, we got a ball to get to.’
‘Finale live-watch party, and it’s tomorrow,’ I correct.
‘Same dif.’ She grabs my arm to help me stand. ‘Come on, I have to check if they need alteration anywhere.’
‘Melika, I don’t even know if I’m going.’ I dip my chin, biting my lip to stop crying again. I’ve been doing it way too much the last few days for my liking.
Nathan takes my other arm. ‘At least try them on.’
I sigh, knowing that even my barely stitched wound isn’t going to stop them.
I appreciate they’re trying – really. But I don’t know if the party is the right place for me.
The idea of seeing Garrick again so soon makes my chest ache.
I probably won’t be able to avoid him forever since we go to the same school.
But since our gym class has ended, and I rarely saw him at school before that, my odds are pretty great I can go the rest of my life Garrick-free.
That thought just makes my heart hurt more.
Ugh. Stupid feelings.
‘I’m not going to look good in anything,’ I argue as Melika and Nathan drag me into my bedroom. I don’t know when she rolled a rack in here, but she unzips the bag and hangs the dresses with a dramatic flurry. ‘Plus, is a gown really the vibe for this? I thought it was more just a cocktail hour.’
‘One can never be overdressed.’ Melika is too busy grabbing gowns off the rack and handing them to Nathan to pay me much mind. ‘If you want to show that knight that you’re doing just fine without his trifling self, then you must dress to kill.’
I spilled my guts to them yesterday about what happened with Garrick. It feels more real now that I’ve said it out loud. I hate to picture what it was like when they ran into him on set.
I do appreciate the venom in her voice regarding Garrick, but the thing is, I don’t hate Garrick as much as I wish I could.
I get why he did what he did, and maybe given enough time I would’ve done it to him.
He would’ve been the one left at home sulking – even though it’s kind of hard to imagine Garrick sulking.
I collapse on my bed and hold my hands over my stomach protectively. The pain pills are doing their job, but it still hurts when I move too much. The last forty-eight hours have mostly been me moving from one soft surface to another. I’ve slept more than I have probably in my entire life.
But these two are not willing to let me rest.
Nathan takes my hand and guides me back to standing. I groan impatiently. ‘I know, I know,’ he coos. ‘But if you don’t humor us, we’ll never go away. Like a bad smell.’
‘You both smell amazing, and you know it.’
‘I know, I really do.’ Nathan smiles. ‘Now, try this one first.’
They help me get into a deep-purple gown with a star constellation pattern across the velvet fabric. The dress has an empire waist, so it’s loose around where my bandages are. You can’t even tell that they’re there.
‘I feel like I should be in Bridgerton.’ I spin in front of the full-length mirror on the back of my door.
‘Be still my heart. If only.’ Melika stares at me in the reflection of the glass. ‘What do you think?’
I run my hands over the soft fabric. ‘It’s pretty, obviously. I didn’t expect you to pick anything that wasn’t. But I’m still not going.’
She takes my hand and leads me back toward the other dresses. ‘Then it’s not the right dress. I want to put you in an outfit so killer that you know you just have to show off.’
We try a short, light-blue cocktail dress that looks like it would’ve been perfect in the 1980s but is not my style.
Next, there’s a nude one with lots of gauzy fabric that makes me feel like I should be in the Fairytale Gardens story, dancing among the princes and princesses I’ve seen splashed across the theme park merch.
I was never one of those girls who wanted to be the fairytale princess. Or if I was, it was so long ago I’ve forgotten. But trying on these gowns, even with my scratchy bandage, my heart flutters as I imagine what it must be like to grow up with this as your everyday life, like the Waltons.
We’re getting down to the last of the dresses, the rack looking slimmer with each selection being nixed. But one keeps catching my eye. It is a deep emerald green.
Melika gives me a sly smile. ‘Don’t worry, I saved the best for last.’
The underlayer of the dress is green silk, with hand-sewn lace over the top.
The high neckline goes up halfway on my throat, while sheer lace panels cover the long sleeves that are tight around the wrist, billowing out on the arm.
It’s not tight-fitting per se, but it hugs the bust and drapes out from there in a gentle flow to the bottom.
It looks a little 1960s or 70s in shape, but with an elegant classic feel in the fabric – the perfect juxtaposition of styles. Melika knows I love it.
A warm flush covers my body as butterflies zoom around my stomach when I imagine walking into the party wearing this. There’s absolutely no way I can leave this dress hidden in my house for only me to see.
I sigh, knowing that they won. ‘Well, I guess we’re going to a ball.’