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BRANDON HADN'T BEEN ABLE to lookKimberly in the eye for days now.
His guilt was coiled tight, like vines, around his muscles and tongue, unable to let him fully relax or speak more than three words around his fiancee.
Luckily, Kimberly had been out all day today, trying to find a bridal dress shop that was up to her standards, and hadn't noticed Brandon's tenseness around her.
The worst part about it was that he wasn't sorry about the kiss, at least not in this moment.
In this specific moment, all Brandon was sorry about was any pain that he could cause Kimberly.
He still didn't know what had came over him to kiss Sunday like that.
They hadn't been in a room alone since before their breakup and the mixture of alcohol and Brandon being a bit overwhelmed by the sight of her had made him act reckless.
Brandon reclined onto his bed and lifted the hand that held his phone up to his face.
I wonder if I should call her.
Is her number even the same?
If I were to call would she pick up?
Brandon went to the contacts app and scrolled through the numbers until he reached one that started with the number '502', the only phone number that had a Louisville, Kentucky area code.
He had deleted the contact but the not the number after him and Kimberly had started to get serious, convinced that he and Sunday wouldn't see each other again.
Oh, how wrong he had been.
Brandon sighed as he stared up at the phone above his head.
Would she even wanna speak to me after what I did?
"Fuck." Brandon muttered to himself as he exited out of the contacts app and let the phone drop onto the comforter below him.
The door to the bedroom opened and Kimberly walked through, a huge grin on her face and a bag from a bridal shop in the area in her right hand.
"Hey, babe! So I was thinking," Kimberly put the bag down on the edge of the bed and then flipped it, letting new bridal magazines and sparkly plastic tiaras and silver crowns pile out on the duvet, "That we both wear crowns."
Brandon lifted his head a little to look at her, "What?"
Kimberly picked up a silver bejeweled crown wrapped in plastic and motioned for him to come closer.
Brandon gave Kimberly a wary look as he watched her unwrap the crown.
"Babe, come here." Kimberly continued.
Brandon shook his head but took the crown in his hands to placate her.
The fake jewels were all different colors, red, green and blue.
A few of them were scratched and one of the tips on the crown was rusted.
"What made you want crowns? Where'd you even get these?" Brandon replied.
"Well, I saw the tiaras in the bridal shop and I thought of you! I think matching at our wedding would be cute." Kimberly unwrapped a tiara and gently forced the tiara on top of her hair.
Brandon sat up, "Ion know, Kim. A crown doesn't seem like me."
Kimberly took the crown from his hands, "Just try it."
She gently placed the crown on top of his dark curls, tucking his hair underneath the object before gently pecking his lips, "Just look in the mirror real quick."
Brandon's guilt had accumulated from the kiss and the last thing that he wanted to do was look at himself in the mirror.
But there was an almost unreasonable amount of optimism on her face and Brandon was only able to tuck his lips in and then slowly rise from the bed.
The crown was a little tilted on his head, the metallic and light colors contrasting with his black hair.
Brandon wasn't convinced and he pursed his lips, "I don't know..."
"Just sleep on it? Don't make a decision right now." Kimberly requested as she put one hand out to take back the fake crown.
"Okay." Brandon said as he took it off of his skull and placed it in her hand.
Kimberly gave him a half smile then pecked his lips again before walking out of the bedroom.
Brandon put one hand to his forehead as he watched her go into the hallway and then down the spiral staircase.
Blowing out a breath, Brandon turned around to face the bed, his eyes on where his phone still resided.
It wouldn't hurt to try, right?
The worst that can happen is her not answering.
Brandon could hear old Taylor Swift playing from the kitchen, where their Alexa was located and Kimberly singing along at the top of her lungs.
Brandon closed the bedroom door then went into the bathroom and closed that too, to doubly ensure that he had enough privacy.
Brandon sat on the edge of the bath tub that was built into the wall, and scrolled through his contacts until he found Sunday's phone number once more.
Before he could lose his nerve, Brandon pressed the phone number and then held the phone up to his ear.
The phone rang and rang until Brandon was left with her voicemail, "Hey, this is Sunny Howard! Sorry that I'm unable to pick up the phone right now but if you leave a message, I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Bye!"
The beep signaled that it was time for Brandon to start leaving his message.
"Hey, uh, Sunny... I know I might be the last person that'd you wanna speak to right now, especially after what happened... But I think that you'd agree that we need to talk. No pressure... Just give me a call when you can. I-I'm sorry." Brandon spoke into the receiver.
Once he was finished, Brandon hung up and rested his forehead into the palm of his hand.
