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The Bride Who Stopped Waiting 10
A year later I went back to my old city for Chloe's wedding.She hadn't invited Adrian.I ran into him at the hotel entrance anyway.He was much thinner, in a plain dark coat, with no flowers and no gift in his hands."I'm not here to hound you," he explained before I could say anything."I work nearby. I heard you were back and I wanted to see you."I nodded."Well, now you have."He looked at me as though there were a great deal he wanted to say.In the end he only asked, "Are you doing all right?""Very well.""Are you leaving again?""As soon as the wedding's over."His fingertips curled. "Your parents miss you."Serena moved away. She works in sales at a clothing store. She asked me to tell you she won't take anything of yours again."I smiled."That's good."His eyes reddened slowly. "Do you really feel nothing at all for us anymore?"The hotel doors opened.Bright light spilled across the steps.I looked at him, the person who had stood beside me for seven years and hurt me more
The Bride Who Stopped Waiting 9
The night before I left, Adrian waited outside the shop for four hours.As I pulled the shutter down, he held out a paper box.Inside was a very small white tulle dress.The stitching ran crooked and the waistline wasn't even."I made it from one of your old sketches."I had no idea a dress was this hard."Band-Aids covered his fingers.I didn't take it."Is that a client's sketch?""No. It's the one you drew for yourself back in college."I had no experience making wedding dresses then.I drew the simplest dress I could. Beside it, I wrote, "On my wedding day, I want him to see me the moment he looks up."Adrian had kept that old sketch all this time. "Nora, I used to think a wedding was only a formality."As long as we ended up married, I convinced myself that being late once or hurting you one more time didn't matter."It's only now that I understand you weren't waiting for a ceremony."You were waiting for me to walk toward you without hesitating."The night wind stirred the edge o
The Bride Who Stopped Waiting 8
A month later, Serena called me.She said our mother had been admitted to the hospital and told me to come right away.When I got there, I found it was only high blood pressure and she was being kept for observation.Besides my parents, Adrian was in the room.A new cake sat on the table.It had only my name on it.Margaret took my hand. "Nora, let's do your birthday over."Adrian spent a long time getting this ready."I looked out the window.It had been more than forty days since my birthday.Serena stood on the other side of the bed, looking worn down.She had lost all her former polish, and a few overdue notices lay beside her.After the studio closed, she owed compensation on every order she had taken on her own.Adrian wasn't covering her bills anymore.My parents had sold their car and still couldn't close the gap.When I gave no reaction, Margaret pushed the cake closer. "Serena knows she was wrong too."Let's have a meal together as a family and let the past be the past."Sere
The Bride Who Stopped Waiting 7
My parents wouldn't go.Margaret sat down outside the shop and cried, telling everyone who passed that I had called off my own wedding and then stolen my sister's business.More and more people stopped to watch.Richard pointed at my sign. "You agree today, or we don't leave."Chloe was ready to call the police.I stopped her, carried out a chair, and sat down in the doorway. "Since you want other people to judge this, let's lay the whole thing out."I opened my phone and pulled up years of transfer records."Once I started working, I gave the family twelve hundred dollars a month."When the studio turned a profit, I helped you move into a better home and put down a hundred and forty thousand dollars."When Serena quit her job, I covered eight months of her car payments."The onlookers started talking among themselves.Richard's face went ugly. "Why keep such careful accounts of family money?""Because you never once treated me as family."Then I pulled out a copy of the hospital birth
The Bride Who Stopped Waiting 6
I rented a small storefront on the south side of the city.It was barely four hundred square feet, and it had been a shoe repair shop before.The walls were yellowed and two of the lights were dead.I spent a week clearing it out and moved in my own sewing machine and worktable.There was no grand name over the door.I stopped taking full bridal commissions and did alterations, restoration work on old clothes, and small custom runs.Opening day brought flowers.Dana, the client whose gown Serena had cut open, arrived with a bouquet.She sent three friends my way as well.Chloe quit her old job and came to help me.Once the days filled up, I rarely thought about Adrian.He came every single day, though.Sometimes he brought breakfast. Sometimes he just stood across the street.I didn't take anything from him and I didn't let him inside.So he sat quietly in his car and waited until I closed up before he drove off.On the ninth day, he brought a box. "Your things."Inside were the gemsto
The Bride Who Stopped Waiting 5
I held the microphone steady, my voice level. "No one can go through life without getting hurt."There are just some kinds of pain I refused to admit to before."Today's wedding is cancelled."A wave of noise went through the hall.Margaret rushed to the edge of the stage, hissing at me to come down.I didn't stop."Every wedding gift will be returned to the person who sent it. I'll cover my share of the losses on the banquet and the venue."As of today, I'm leaving White Veil."I'll contact every client whose order I was handling, and either hand the work over or refund it."It was raining when I walked out of the hotel.Chloe was waiting at the door with an umbrella.I got into her car, shut off my phone, and went back to the studio with her.That night I sorted every unfinished order into three groups.I would finish every gown for the clients who still wanted me to make theirs.For clients who wanted to stay with the old studio, I returned all their files.For those who requested r
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