I Won't Give Up

"Can you see yourself walking down the aisle in this one?" Donna Kane asked me hopefully as she and my bridal party watched me closely. I examined myself and spun around in the mirror, taking in all aspects of the dress.

I sighed loudly and wrapped my arms around my waist, shaking my head no.

"Don't worry honey, it's normal, you want it to be perfect, we all understand. Go try on the other ones!" Donna urged, as she saw the apparent frustration playing on my features.

I smiled weakly at the girls, this would be dress number 12, "I'm sorry guys."

"Don't be, now go see the other dresses!" Abby smiled reassuringly. I smiled and made my way back to the dressing room. It's not that the dresses didn't look good or that they weren't beautiful - because they were - it's just that when Donna asked her signature question "Is this the dress you see yourself walking down the aisle in." I couldn't do it, I couldn't see myself walking down the aisle in any of them.

I was walking back to the dressing room when the most beautiful -dress- stopped me in my tracks. My stomach got butterflies just looking at it. I excitedly looked around for a worker to help see if they had my size.

"Miss Watson, do you need help?"

I smiled as the worker, Marcy, who was in charge of our party walked up to me.

"This is the one." http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kpF6393DOiY/UOHn1RY7RsI/AAAAAAAASyY/vvQt4oeUFaQ/s1600/galia-lahav-wedding-dresses-4707.jpg

"Oh Ella!" Donna ran to me as I came out to show everyone the dress. I smiled as Marcy placed a veil on my head, to give it the full effect.

"You like it?" I spun around nervously. Donnas approval meant everything to me, she was my mother figure through out this.

"It's stunning." Donna hugged me as the other girls ran up to me to give me their approval and compliments.

________________

“Just look at it. It’s burnt there, and then here it’s not even cooked,” I jabbed at the meat with my spatula. Suddenly, I frowned and looked desperately at Jessica. “What if he hates it? I don’t want to poison him after he works hard at practice all day. What if he spits it right back out?”

“"Ell, you worry too much,” Jess answered as I poked despondently at the hamburger with the tip of my spatula. “One, Pat loves your cooking. The kid’s crazy, I swear, because your cooking can get pretty…gross to say the least, sometimes. But he point blank refuses to hate your cooking. Two, he would never spit your food back out. To conserve your feelings, he’d chew it and swallow it and pretend that it tasted delicious. Then, when you weren’t looking, he’d feed it to Bear.”

“He feeds my cooking to Bear?” I gasped, stopping my prodding completely to look around at Jess with wide eyes. Bear was Dayna and Brent Seabrooks dog who we were 'babysitting' when Dayna was visiting her mom and Brent was to busy to watch during the season.

“No, but Erica and Jackie and I do sometimes,” Jess answered with a small grin. “Like last week, when you made those mashed potatoes but didn’t put enough milk into it? It was so hard I couldn’t force my fork through it. It was like a chunk of potato concrete. But Bear sure liked it.”

"You bitches." I couldn't help but giggle as I continued cooking the burger.

"Well good evening Martha Stewart, but what did you do to my fiancé?" I smiled as I placed the spatula down and turned to face Patrick.

"Hungry?" I smiled.

"When am I not?" He placed a soft kiss on my lips before retreating to his room to change, messing with Jessicas hair on the way.

"So guess what?" I smiled as Patrick took a seat at the table along with me and Jess.

"Hm?" He asked through a mouthful of his cheeseburger.

"Bridesmaids dresses and wedding dress are checked off of our to - do list!"

"Babe that's awesome." Patrick smiled as he reached over and squeezed my hand.

"I hate couples." Jess groaned as she got up to put her plate in the sink before retreating to the couch.

"Can I see the dress?"

I stared at Patrick, amused at how oblivious he was about weddings. "Sure, in about 2 months."