Best Woman

As they sat down for dinner, the three were laughing contently and talking about their days.
“So where has Ellie gone?” Annabelle asked, and Evan shrugged: “Some fashion thing with her friend, Sara…” Evan said, sounding uncertain. Annabelle smirked at him.

“You weren’t listening were you…” she teased, and Evan grinned: “The Sharks were winning…” and Annabelle and Eddie laughed at his cheekiness.

“So Evan, when have you and the lucky lady set the date?” Eddie asked him. Evan smiled and told him the date.

“Not too long then…” Eddie said, and Evan grinned: “She’d get married on the same day if she could.” He joked, and Annabelle felt like she’d been punched.

Eddie laughed: “Holly was like that…wanting to just get it over with. She didn’t even buy a new dress, said it was silly to spend so much money on a dress she’d only wear once.” Eddie said suddenly. He sounded sad as he spoke and Evan glanced at Annabelle, who suddenly lost her appetite.

“Well…” Evan started, feeling suddenly dampened. He adored Holly just as much as anybody else did. She always looked after him, a sweet woman who constantly fed him and was lovely to him.

“Holly was always sensible, I wish Ellie would see it that way. She wants to spend almost 3 grand on this designer dress…” Evan said, and Annabelle started choking on her potato.

“3000 bucks?” she gasped out, and Evan nodded, looking frustrated as he said it.

“She’s taking the money out of her savings and I tried to tell her she needed to save up for us to get a new place…” Evan explained.

“What’s wrong with the place you have now?” Annabelle asked confused, she adored Evan’s 2 bedroom apartment, which over looked the beach, it was prime location, great neighbourhood, what else could you want?

Evan coughed nervously, “Well…” he began, “Ellie wants us to get a new place, as a married couple…” he finished. Eddie smiled briefly, whereas Annabelle stopped eating.

“What about you though? You love that apartment…you even named it.” Annabelle stated, making Evan smile at the last comment.

“Gregory…” Evan sighed, the two friends grinned at one another. An old inside joke of one of

Annabelle’s past dates, who kissed like a frog and tried to punch Evan for apparently being too close with Annabelle.

Evan knocked him out and when he got his new place named it Gregory as a joke, saying that he and Gregory had always been best friends and it was meant to be.

“I don’t want to move but you’ve got to make sacrifices right?” Evan glanced at Eddie for backup, who nodded solemnly and smiled softly, trying to keep a light air.

“I’m sure you’ll make a wise decision Evan….” He added.

“Yeah but you already sacrificed your truck…your birthday night out and…” Annabelle faltered, and quickly muttered an apology. She was being rude about Ellie and it was something she’d never done before, unless Evan was already bitching about her.

“Chill Annie, it’s fine…” Evan assured her. Annabelle sighed glumly and picked at the potatoes, no longer hungry.

They finished up and Eddie took the plates in. “I’ll clean up, Dad…” Annabelle insisted and shooed him out of the kitchen. Evan and Annabelle cleaned the kitchen and table. Evan dried the wine glasses while Annabelle was wiping the counter tops down.

“Hey, you like Ellie right?” Evan asked her suddenly. He’d asked this question after they first met, his worried blue eyes, and wrinkled forehead with anxiety.

“Course I do…” Annabelle said warmly, she couldn’t help feel like a cheat, lying to herself.

“Good, because it’s important you do.” Evan said quietly, not looking at her.

Annabelle stopped what she was doing and looked to him: “Why?” she asked, slightly confused. Evan shrugged and caught her eyes, both staring at one another intensely.

“You mean a lot to me, I don’t think I could marry someone that you didn’t like.” Evan explained slowly, he was staring at her, more intense than usually. Annabelle felt her stomach flutter and the urge to kiss him grew, like it always did.

“Course you could…” Annabelle began, but Evan shook his head: “I couldn’t, you come first…” and
Annabelle stared at him, her lips parted.
She was desperate for his touch.

“Um…” Evan whispered, and they were somewhat closer. Evan wasn’t sure why or how, but he wanted to kiss her.

But like all parents, Eddie had a knack for timing and came back in, asking if the kettle could be switched on for tea.
--

“I spoke to Ellie, she wants you to go cake-tasting with her…” Evan said over the phone. Annabelle rolled her eyes, she was currently at the printers, printing out the family shoots she had done the other week and was ready to ship them to the addresses.

“I’m really busy…” she began, but Evan cut her off: “Don’t lie, I’m your only friend” he teased, knowing it wasn’t true.

Annabelle chuckled; he was too easy to give in too. In a way, it sickened Annabelle how quickly she gave in. How much she was love in with him.

“Where shall I meet her?” Annabelle asked, and Evan told her the address.

“Okay, I’ll be there for two, bye…” Annabelle hung up, and sighed heavily. The last she wanted to do was spend time with Evan’s fiancée.

At two o clock, Annabelle arrived just on time at the patisserie shop. The bell rang as she entered and she saw the smiling, beautiful face of Ellie.

“Annabelle!” she chirped and greeted her with a warm hug. With a sour taste in her mouth, Annabelle smiled as brightly as she could.

“Hi Ellie, you look great!” Annabelle replied, and Ellie grinned happily: “Aw thanks Annabelle, so do you…thank you for coming on such short notice, Evan is such a douche sometimes…” Ellie babbled and Annabelle nodded in agreement.

Soon enough the two women were sitting down and waiting some of the samples. Ellie checked her appearance in a compact mirror, which caused Annabelle to roll her eyes discreetly.

“So for the wedding, Evan told me instead of a best man, he was choosing you…” Ellie said lightly, although Annabelle detected sour tones.

Ignoring it, she nodded happily: “Yup, so you don’t have to worry about a bachelor night out with strippers or anything…” she half joked. Ellie smiled and nodded, unsure what to say.

Truth be told the two girls were complete opposites and had never really spent time alone without
Evan – and it was found to be profusely awkward without him.

Thankfully the cake arrived and they ate and commented: “I think the basic sponge with the blackberry and cream filling…” Ellie said, and Annabelle looked up, caught out.

She had been enjoying her chocolate cake, complete with white chocolate filling: “Oh…um yeah…” she said, falteringly.

Ellie nodded, confirmed and told the chef: Annabelle kept quiet, just like she always had – not bothering to give her opinion. Ellie didn’t want to hear it anyway.