Spark

Chapter 15: Rehearsal Dinner and Hunches

I can't believe in just a day I'll officially be Mrs. Sofia Martine Anderson. It's so surreal. I look at the man getting dressed in a grey three-piece suit with a light blue shirt and dark blue paisley tie. His hair was pulled back in its usual bun and he shaved. He was trying his brown dress shoes and he looked at me. "Are you okay, love you're barely even dressed we're leaving in forty-five minutes."

I didn't want to tell him, but I had a hunch something bad was going to happen. And the scary thing about my hunches is that I'm never wrong. I did my makeup and curled my hair and swooping and clipping it to the side. I got ready in my blue sleeveless tulle  knee-length dress that matched Eric's shirt and slipped on my white colored Jimmy Choo heels. I grabbed my purse and put my phone in it. I wish I could take separate cars, but what would that look like?

Eric comes over and hugs me. "You're overthinking and when you're overthinking that means you have hunch. What is it? Talk to me." "Nothing. I'm fine. I'll prove it to you later I promise." He goes to my jewelry box and takes out the blue heart necklace and puts it around my neck. "That looks better." I smiled and it did make me feel good about myself.  "Don't overthink and don't get cold feet. Tomorrow I'm officially your husband and you're officially my wife."

I hugged him for a good while. "Don't worry, Mrs. Anderson everything will work out for the best." I am going to be his wife. I shouldn't worry. We got into the car and he held my hand the entire time on the way to the restaurant. My heart was beating out of my chest. Everything was perfect. Everyone was perfect. "Oh, honey you look gorgeous!" I smiled and hugged my mother. "I knew we did well when we created her, Frankie." I shake my head and hugged my dad. "Dad, how is everything." "He's a free man. I won the case." I hugged my dad again. "Daddy, that's such great news." "We're Alessandro's, we don't fail, we win."

We all sat around the table. Eric was at the head of the table and I was on his right. Zoe, Justin, Chloe and the rest of my friends looked gorgeous and so far the only bad thing was Chloe brought Lyle whoss idea of formal wear was a T-shirt with a print of a tuxedo on it. "What an interesting guy." Eric mumbled to me. "I wonder how long the evening will last before Justin kills him?" "Justin's a good man, he'll wait till after the night is over."

After the waiters poured everyone champagne Eric stood up with his glass in his hand. "I want to say something. Yes, I've watched this beautiful woman sitting next to me grow up. Yes, we have quite the age gap, but I promise, Robbie that she will be taken care of. She means the world to me. I can't think of anyone else. Yes, we all have ways of finding love some of us here just have a more unorthodox way of finding it. Like me practically raising the girl. But, as long as their of age love is love and it shouldn't matter. I love Sofia with every fiber of my being. That's never ever going to change. Thanks to everyone witnessing our love being shared in a ceremony tomorrow. And thank you, Sofie for choosing me."

I wanted to cry. "I wouldn't want anybody else." I replied. We shared a quick kiss and everyone applauded. They stood up with their glasses and Austin said, "To lifelong happiness. Cheers to the happy couple." We all clinked our glasses and sat down. I love this man.

My father was telling everyone the good news about winning the case. Mrs. Spitz was drinking champagne like it's water. "In your condition should you be drinking like that?" Her husband asked. "For shit's sake, Frank I'm going through menopause I'm not pregnant. God, it's so hot in here." She lets out a loud belch and went on  to drinking her water. "Mom, I'm pretty sure there's more to the story." Chloe says taking a sip of her drink. "Oh, Chloe there's a lot of things wrong and I'm not bringing it up on their night." "Please, Mrs. Spitz I'm sure we'd all love it hear it." Austin says. Austin who was lucky enough to have his sister and his girlfriend sitting next to him both punched him in the arm. "Ow!" "Shut up, dip shit." Georgiana says. "Oh, don't act like you're not curious." "Even I'm curious." Eric says taking a bite of his caprese salad. "All right, we all want to know." I said.

Mrs. Spitz sighed. "It's not me. Ask Chloe. By God, Chloe Allison Spitz I could kill you." "What's wrong?" "I'm pregnant!" Lyle started choking on his food that he was pretending to like, Zoe wanted to say something but didn't know what. And everyone else was just silent. "He's going to leave her." Austin says in a singsong voice. For once no one disagreed with him. Hearing that she was pregnant wasn't happy news for Lyle. In fact, he looked pissed.

He wiped his mouth and stood up. "I'm going to go. I have band practice." "At 8:30 at night?" Chloe asked. "You know how I told you Garrett gets. Practice time is anytime." "But, it's your baby." "All right fuck this. I told you I didn't want kids. I told you to get on birth control, I also told you that I wanted no commitments. And now you're knocked up. I don't have a job and what am I supposed to do with it?" "I don't know help me?" "Help yourself. I'm outta here."

Chloe went after Lyle. "Is it the wrong time to say that I was right?" The girls and I went after her. She was going into the restroom. "Zoe and I will talk to her." Zoe and I dashed to the bathroom. We tried to talk to her and calm her down, but she just cried. "How could I have been so stupid? I thought he was the one." "Sweetie, you find mistakes before you find the one." "You didn't, you found Mr. Perfect in one date."

Chloe didn't say anything and neither did I. She did wind up calming down and she came out of the stall. "I'm sorry, Sofie I didn't mean to ruin your night." "It's not a problem. You tried, he was just a douchebag." "What do I do about the baby?" "We'll help you it. You have Auntie Zoe and the Fairy Godmother right here." She hugged us in a group hug. "Let's go. I need to apologize to everyone."

My hunch came as soon as we left the restroom. "Well, well, well." I gasped. The signature red lipstick, this time in a sparkly black minidress, hair in a low bun, Christian Louboutin heels on her feet. It was Lucinda. "You know I think no matter how much you try to dress yourself up you still look like an insolent child. I still don't get what Eric sees in you. I mean look at me. I'm gorgeous, I can cater to every one of his needs. I'm a woman."

I couldn't take this anymore. "You're not a woman, you're a frigid bitch. The reason Eric doesn't like you is because you're cruel, selfish, heartless and most of all pathetic. You may come from money, but money isn't everything. And the last I heard you were cut off. So, you really have nothing. Oh, and see this?" I showed her my ring on my finger. "This is a real engagement ring. I didn't have to buy it myself and claimed that he got for me. He got for me with his own money, which represents that I captured his heart. This time tomorrow I will be his wife. I will have a future. We will have children along with our puppies, we will have a home, and I will have his last—"

I screamed as she smashed her wineglass over my head. "Oh my God, Sofia! Chloe, go get Eric!" Zoe tried to pull her off of me, but she couldn't. The last thing I saw was waiters coming to take her off of me. The last voice I heard before blacking out was Eric's. He was crying and trying to get me to wake up. Maybe I can't go through with this after all.