The Way I Loved You

I woke up the next morning to someone pounding on the door.

"Brynn! Get up!" Jack yelled through the door.

I groaned and rolled out of bed. I landed on the floor with a thud and started to slowly stand up. Once I was standing, I walked out to the kitchen and saw that Lisa and Alex were here. They were dressed and ready to go.

"I'm going to go get ready then we can leave to go and view some venues," I said, starting to walk towards the bathroom. Lisa squealed with excitement while jumping into Alex's arms.

Once I got in the shower, I immediately let loose. Tears started rolling down my face and soft sobs escaped my lips. The strawberry smell entered my nose as I washed the shampoo out of my hair. My sobs and tears were slowly coming to a stop. When I was done getting washed up, I stepped out of the shower and shivered as the cold air hit my heated skin.

I got ready by letting my hair dry wavy and putting on my makeup. I got dressed in clothes I had left at Jack's and walked out of the bathroom to the kitchen.

"You guys ready to go?" I asked, looking between Alex, Lisa, and Jack.

"Y-Yeah," Alex stuttered out, quickly averting his eyes.

"Okay. I don't have my car here so if you want, you can drive me back to my house and I can grab my books. I'll drive," I said, walking towards the door. Lisa laughed at the demanding tone in my voice. I got in the backseat of Alex's car and tried not to look at there intertwined hands laying on the middle console.

"So, where's the first place you guys want to look at?" I said, trying to start up a conversation.

"Umm, I was thinking Valley Mansion. Do you think you can get in there?" Lisa asked.

"Can i get in there? Please, Lisa. Don't offend me," I said, laughing. She joined in and Alex just remained quiet for the whole ride.

As a wedding planner, it's my job to look at different places and be ready for any type of request. This being said, I had already had a dream wedding picked out for myself. Even though marriage is not in my future. My choice of venue would be Martin's West in Baltimore whereas Lisa's was right in Towson.

We got back to my house a few minutes later and I let Alex and Lisa into my house while I found my venue binder. I quickly flipped to Valley Mansion and made sure this was one she wanted to look at. She nodded and we headed out to my car. Lisa got into the passenger seat as Alex climbed in the back.

I picked up my cell phone and quickly called the venue to make sure it was okay that we stopped by. We got there in about fifteen minutes and started walking inside. Alex made a show of wrapping his arm around Lisa and smiled triumphantly when I looked at them. I turned my head away and walked straight into the building. I led them to the room where the wedding would be held and watched as Lisa walked around in awe.

"Wow. This place is so perfect. I don't think there's a need to look anywhere else. I love it," Lisa said.

"What do you think, Alex?" I asked.

"Whatever makes her happy makes me happy," he said, kissing her forehead.

I was almost sick to my stomach. This PDA was driving me crazy. He never used to do any of this with me when we were dating. Maybe he was truly in love this time.

"Okay. Well, follow me and I can show you to the reception area," I said, walking out the door and down the hall.

"Now, if you don't like the reception area, you can always do the reception elsewhere. You'll get a better deal though if you keep it at the same location," I explained. Lisa nodded and followed me into the reception hall. The room was big with lots of space for tables and dancing. Lisa smiled.

"I love it. I love the whole place," she said, gazing around the room.

"Great. We can go talk to the receptionist in the front. We can talk about decorations later and about guests. I think this venue can hold about 600 people max but I'll have to look into that. Do you guys have a date picked out yet?" I asked, taking notes in my other binder labeled Gaskarth-Ruocco.

"Umm yes. We were thinking August 18th," Alex said. I nodded and wrote it down on my paper.

"Okay. Well lets go to the receptionist. You'll have to put a down payment down but it's full refund in case you decide to change your mind or that weekend doesn't end up working," I said.

We walked to the main area and talked with the receptionist and the weekend was still free. Lisa, Alex, and I all signed the contract and Alex handed over his debit card to put down the down payment of 1500 dollars. When that was finished, we headed to my office that was a few blocks away. When we got there, we went into my office and sat down on the couch.

"Okay, so I'm assuming you guys want a DJ and not a live band, right?" I asked.

Alex nodded. "Although, I think we are going to play a song or two," he said.

"Okay. Well we probably need to talk and hopefully get a DJ locked into place soon. It's hard to get a good DJ," I said, reaching for my book full of DJ's numbers and past events.

"How extravagant of a DJ are you looking at?" I asked.

"Umm...this is more his section of concern," Lisa said.

I nodded.

"Do you mind if I walk down to that deli and get some lunch?" Lisa asked.

"Not at all. Do you want my car?" I asked.

"No. Do you guys want anything?" she asked.

"Yeah. Get me a turkey and cheese with lettuce, pepper, and onion and get Brynn chicken breast and cheese," Alex said, ordering for me. I stared at him in awe.

"That's what you get every time, right?" Alex said. I nodded.

"Okay. I'll be back in half an hourish?" She said, sounding skeptical. We nodded and started to go over DJ stuff.

"Brynn, can you please let me explain my side of the story?" he asked.

"Alex, it's irrelevant now. It's not going to make difference. I'm dating Connor and you're happy with Lisa," I said, turning away from him.

"You think I'm happy? I can't be happy when the woman I love is dating a douche! Yes, I love Lisa. But I'm not in love with her like I am with you. I can't believe you're so blind to see that. I still want to be with you. The only reason I proposed to Lisa was because she was becoming antsy and I thought it'd get her off my back! I know you hate me because of what happened on tour but you don't even know the story Brynn. I was wasted. I went outside to get some fresh air and to get away from the party. I ended up falling asleep on our bench. I felt someone kissing my neck to wake me up and I assumed it was you. I only fully opened my eyes when I heard you talking. You have no idea how sorry I am. I wish I would have opened my eyes and pushed that fucking slut off of me. I wish it was you I'm getting married to. I miss you and I still love you. I will leave Lisa if it'll make you happy. I just want you as my own," he said with tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"Alex, you can't leave Lisa. She deserves to be happy and you make her happy. You're going to go through with this wedding. I believe you though. I believe that that's truly what happened between you and Melanie and I'm sorry for not realizing it sooner, but I don't regret it. It's time to move on. I'm sorry," I said, standing up and walking towards my bathroom with tears streaming down my face.

I stood in the bathroom for a good five minutes and waited until I looked presentable. When I walked back out, Alex was still sitting on the couch, but Lisa had joined him.

"Oh, here's your sandwich, Brynn," Lisa said, handing it to me.

I smiled and sat down at my desk to eat it while pretending to look through papers.

Why did she have to leave us alone?