Love Song

Amy

By October, Sean and I had managed to find ourselves an apartment. It was nicer than we’d expected to get. It was a nice little two bedroom with mainly young couples like us. The complex was small and peaceful with trees that normally would be covering the entire complex with its green leaves. But fall was beginning and the leaves were starting to brown and fall off their branches onto the ground. Even so, I was happy that the place was so quiet, the only sounds were from my shoes crunching down on the fallen leaves as I walked. I was so happy to be here with Sean and I knew he was happy too.

I’d transferred to a university closer to home right before Sean and I started moving in. I was much too lonely up in San Francisco. Even when Sean came up to stay with me, it was still sad being just the two of us. I was much happier back home with my friends and family. And, giving Jordan (and Aria) some stability wouldn’t hurt anything either.

I took a break from unpacking to talk to Jordan about my wedding dress. I’d planned to go look for one, considering we’d set the date months ago and I have yet to begin looking for one.

I called her cell phone and it took awhile before she answered and it almost went to voicemail by the time she answered, “Yeah?”

I heard her grunt, probably adjusting little Aria in her arms, “Uh, should I call later?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” she said, breathing heavily, “I had just gotten out of the shower and I had to grab the baby before I answered my phone. I’m fine.”

Somehow, I didn’t believe her whenever she said that, but I let it slide, “Listen, I was going to look for my dress today and I was hoping you would come with me.”

“Sure,” she said, “I wanted to get Aria a Halloween costume today. If you wouldn’t mind coming with us…”

“Of course!” I chuckled, “I love that kid.”

I pulled up Jordan’s driveway hearing the faint sound of yelling. I knew it was completely one sided. I’ve heard Jordan yell before. Then again, there were a lot of things Jordan used to do before Ryan came along.

I sighed as I got out of the car and moved closer to the yelling and raised my hand to ring their doorbell. As soon as I did, the shouting got louder and Aria began to cry.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Jordan exclaimed, “You can’t yell like that with the baby around!”

Jordan received a slap that even made me wince and seemed to make Aria cry even harder. Jordan herself let out a cry before she opened the door, trying her best to put on a smile for me.

“Let’s go,” she said. As Aria got farther away from the house and her father, she slowly calmed down. By the time she was strapped into her car seat and we were gone, she had stopped crying altogether.

Jordan bought her baby girl a little ladybug costume and we were on our way to find me a wedding dress. She brought me to the shop where she had gotten hers.

“Despite how hideous mine was, they did have really pretty ones there,” Jordan said, “I think you’re really going to like them.”

Jordan led me into the store, trying to hold her child and the diaper bag at the same time. The poor girl was so all over the place she couldn’t even hold a person and a bag at the same time. I grabbed the bag off her shoulder and put it on mine.

I looked through dresses, all different lengths and colors. Every time I mentioned the difference in color, however, Jordan would always scoff and say, “Those look like the same damn colors to me.” And then my heart would break just a little bit because that was just a brief moment when she returned to her normal self, the Jordan I used to know.

Jordan pulled one of the dresses out of the rack, “How about you just pick a bunch of your favorite dresses and try them all on to narrow it down.”

I nodded, grabbing the dress she’d picked out, “I’ll try this one first.”

I went into the dressing room and took a deep breath. I almost thought I wasn’t ready to see myself in a wedding dress yet. I still managed to slip into the strapless dress, the double bow tie details hugging my chest and waist nicely, almost like a glove. I loved the pleats that went down to the hem with the layers underneath. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I didn’t think I really needed to look at anymore.

“I think I found the one,” I said to Jordan, who was sitting right outside the door with Aria.

“Really? On the first dress?” Jordan said, “Are you sure?”

I stepped out and let her see what the dress looked like on me. Her jaw dropped as she looked at me up and down. It was quite honestly the first time I’d ever seen her so speechless. Her dropped jaw formed into a smile as her green eyes began to tear up.

“Amy…” she said, her voice cracking, “You look so amazing…I wish Sean could be here to see how beautiful you look right now.”

“You think so?” I grabbed the skirt and waved it back and forth in front of the mirror, “You really like it?”

“I love it,” she said, “I really do.”

I was home about an hour later. I dropped Jordan and Aria off at home, watching them walk up to the house with an aching heart. Especially with the way Jordan kissed her little girl’s cheek with such love and adoration. I knew she hated bringing her daughter back to that house.

I unlocked the front door of our apartment and found almost everything was already unpacked. Sean smiled at me as he took apart an empty box, “Did you find one?”

“I did,” I said, “But you didn’t have to do this all by yourself. I would’ve helped.”

“I didn’t want you coming home to a messy apartment,” he said, “I wanted you to get your dress stress free.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and placed a delicate kiss on my lips, “I can’t wait until April when I get to see you in it.”

“Six months is just too long,” I said softly.

“It’s almost cruel to wait six months to spend my life with you,” he whispered in my ear, moving my hair away from my ear, “I’ve never loved anyone as much as you Amy.”