Just Friends, Right?

Champagne Gold.

Jada~

"Welcome to Malibu," I tell Lizzie as I drive onto the Pacific Coast Highway with her and Camille after I picked them up from LAX.

"It is so much better than the pictures."

I turn onto our road and drive up the hill to the driveway as Christian and some of his friends are working out. They move out of the way so I can park in the garage.

We get out and the boys get back to working out. I take Camille's suitcase, "I can get my own suitcase."

"Don't fight me on this."

She looks at Christian, "Hey, pretty boy, your fiancé is super stubborn."

He's out of breath after getting done with sprints up and down the driveway. He looks at us, "Camille, tell me something I don't know."

We go inside and Camille walks to one of the guest bedrooms as Lizzie stares out at the view of the backyard. "Why would you ever want to come back to Wisconsin when you can look out of these windows every day?"

"Well, I do enjoy being with Christian when he's out there."

"You know I'm not going to want to leave?"

"Well, as much as I love you, you do have to go back to school and I don't want to hear from your mom how I'm keeping you here."

"She wouldn't mind."

"You must not know your mother very well."

I take her back to the other guest bedroom, "I stocked the bathroom too. You should have everything you could need in there."

"Thank you."

"So, tomorrow, I would like to leave by 9:15. We have to pick up his mom and she lives 25 minutes from here. I scheduled three appointments but I don't know if we'll need to stop at all three."

"Okay."

"I'll be out there if you need anything. Do you want something specific for dinner?"

"Anything is fine. I'm just happy to be here."

"Okay."

I walk out of her room to go talk to Camille. I knock on the closed door and don't get a response. I walk in to see her sleeping on the bed. I move her suitcase against the wall and go into the closet all while staying quiet. I take one of the blankets and unfold it to drape it across her. I close the curtains before closing the door behind me.

I pull out a lacey dress from the rack and stare at it before putting it back. I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but I do know that I want to look and feel good.

We've spread out around the shop, looking at all dress styles possible. "Jada," Camille says.

I look over at her as she holds out a ball gown dress. I shake my head vigorously, "No."

"I figured, just had to make sure."

Alecia walks up to me, "Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah."

"I appreciate you having me here."

"I didn't want you to miss it."

She continues to look with me until I know we have a good stack to start with.

I look through the dresses picked out by Lizzie, Alecia, Camille, and myself. "Are there any you don't want to try on? Any that you feel you know you wouldn't like?" a young woman asks as she's been helping me since we got here.