Bells Ringing in the Summer Haze

The ball echoed off the ground, and the net swished as the ball made contact. Brian dribbled the ball, got past Isaac and scored another point.

“Man, what’s with you today? You usually kick my ass.”

“Just got a lot on my mind, sorry.”

“What are you thinking about?”

Isaac shot him a look and shot the ball. “Miss Nora Hughes by any chance?”

“The one and only.”

“Well what happened?”

“In so many words, after our lunch meeting said we wouldn’t be hanging out if you and Val weren’t getting married. Which I guess is true, but ouch.”

“So wait, she said if we weren’t getting married you two would never hang out?”

Isaac nodded and shrugged at Brian. “Yeah, but she’s right. We are nothing alike, I like to party, she rather work or read. I’m dangerous, she’s safe.”

Brian put the ball against his hip and looked at his best friend. “I know you’re only saying that to make yourself believe it.” He shot the winning point and smiled. “And, my friend you are wrong.”

------

“I think the light yellow would be perfect,” Val said flipping through the color book. Nora grinned.

They were sitting on the new dark hardwood floor of the store. They had paint sample books scattered around them in a circle. Nora’s laptop rested open, design websites were bookmarked online.

“I agree,” Nora said. “Considering I think I want to name the store, Sunflower. It could be really cute. I was thinking the dressing rooms could look like the garden, and have an outdoor feeling.”

“Oh Nora, I love it. Can I help when you start picking out the clothes?” Nora nodded and took a sip of her wine.

“Of course, your fashion sense is what got me motivated.”

“Aw Nor, I love you.”

“I love you too Val.”

The girls flipped through more colors and Val finally sat up. “Look, I know you say you don’t like Isaac,” and she covered her cousin’s mouth before she interrupted. “But you two have been spending a lot of time together lately.”

“Only because he needed help picking out Brian’s gift, now that it’s settled I doubt we’ll hang out.”

“Is that what you really want Nora?” Val asked with an eyebrow raised.

Nora was starting to get used to Isaac. He usually complemented her, and made her laugh. When they would talk, she would forget about the growing list of wedding must-dos and whatever fiasco the store was under.

They recently met to get his tux fitted, he completely forgot to bring the swatch for his tie and handkerchief.

He grinned when she entered the store, she blushed as he hugged her.

“Of course it is.” She told Valerie nodding.

------

“Nora! Wake up!” Her eyes popped open and she groaned.

“Val, when I gave you a key I didn’t mean for you to use it at 6 a.m.” She rolled over and closed her eyes. The mattress next to her dipped and she ignored her cousin.

“I know, but I have a wedding crisis.” Nora opened her eyes and glared.

“What is it, and if it’s not good enough I will hit you.”

“The flower arrangements have been canceled, and now I have to go to the florists and pick new flowers today.” Val’s eyes were big and Nora could sense her cousin was on the verge of a breakdown.

Nora sat up and rubbed her eyes, nodding. “Will you make the coffee and I’ll be out in a minute?”

Val’s eyes lit up, her mouth pulled into a smile. “You’re a lifesaver.” Nora mumbled and slid out of her bed.

Pulling out a dress, cowboy boots, and a cardigan she threw it all on, brushed her hair, grabbed her coffee and they headed out the door before 7 a.m.

------

“Well what about these?” The salesperson, named Fiona asked. Val scrunched her nose and shook her head.

“What about sunflowers?” Nora asked. She picked up the long stemmed flower and began walking around. “We can match them with some daisy’s, then have twine around the stems. We can have the stems long enough to carry, and for the guys have one single sunflower, and our flowers can be all sunflowers, but shorter.”

“Do you think they’ll clash with your dresses?”

“Well our dresses are dark purple and the boots are dark brown. So no, I think it will look good.”

Val smiled and nodded quickly. “Let’s do it.”

-------

“So you asked Braden to be the ring bearer right?” Val nodded and grabbed her notebook. She opened it on the dinning room table and she flipped pages.

“Yeah, he has his tux, Steph has her dress and we need to get her boots. The flowers are now fixed, thanks to you. The cake is done, the location is set, food is picked out, we need to do the table location place cards, the plates, music, the aisle decorations, the guest book,” she looked up and took a breathe.

“We only have two months Nor, how are we going to get this done?” Nora grabbed her cousin’s hands.

“Look at me, breath. We will get it done. When I’m not at the store, I’m here. Trust me.” Together they took deep breathes, then exhaled.

“Thank you. For everything.”

Nora smiled, “Of course.” She took the notebook and started writing down dates. “Here’s what we’ll do…”