Speak Now | Shawn Mendes

1.2

[dedicated to dyenahjane for being such a wonderful supporter!]

Grace giggled to herself as she walks over to the couch as she hugged the thick bridal magazines to her chest. She bit her bottom lip innocently and plopped them down on the light brown coffee table and then sat down on the couch. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled from ear to ear and she had such a shine to her. She was so incredibly happy, and I couldn't help but think that I agreed to hurt her.

"Tina, I want to see you more. I want more of what happened last night."

"We'll make it work."

"You really weren't lying when you said you ordered a box full." I comment.

"I have three months to plan this. It's literally just me and my mom." Grace replies.

"Shawn's mom isn't helping out?" I ask while we both lean over and grab two magazines.

"She's lukewarm with me. I don't think she'll want to help plan it."

"Okay, how did you get that to happen anyways? We have the whole night - spill!" I say.

"So his parents walk in, right? And Shawn's looking at me, his parents are looking at me, and I call each of them out in front of each other. I was so angry and I was just tired of the constant tension. I called his mom out and honestly Tina, her face gave me such a high!" Grace says.

"What!?" I laugh.
"Yes! You should have seen it!" She replies.

I flip open a magazine and begin to look at the pages while listening to Grace's story. I would have never guessed that shy, over-thinking Grace would do such a ballsy thing like confronting her future in-laws.

"She didn't really give me an answer that I was looking for as to why she didn't like me or avoided me. But I just, I've always wanted to know why Shawn still kept me around if he knew that she didn't like me." Grace says. If only she knew. "You must really have to be in love with a girl to keep her around even when your mom doesn't like her."

"Does it still bother you?" I ask her.

Grace shrugs. "Sometimes. But I really try not to think about it."

"Have you two talked about kids already?"

"We spoke with my doctor." She says. "We won't be able to try for a while. The birth control made it hard, and now since I'm getting off of it, it's going to take about a few months for us to try."

"How's Shawn taking it?"

"He's..different. He blames me and I'm starting to blame myself, too."

"Don't. Grace, don't blame yourself for anything you're not at fault for. You weren't ready to give up your career for a child. Put it this way, you've been dancing for how many years? Seventeen? You can't just put something you've done for almost twenty years to have a child. It takes so much planning, and sometimes a baby doesn't happen right away." I tell her.

"But you wanted to have one with Olivier."

"Olivier isn't some incredibly famous singer that can't take long breaks. Shawn can't just put his whole career on timeout because there is a baby. How long will he take off? A month? Three, tops?"

"Damn, I hate when you're right." Grace says, and it reminds me of when Shawn told me the same thing back at the loft. I crack a smile and we being looking at the magazines.

For nearly two hours, we talk about the magazines and the wedding, and Grace tells me about her Post-It color scheme. "Light pink are for cakes. Blue are for dresses. And green are for flowers." A part of my mind forgot about last nights guilty sex, but the mention of Shawn reminds me all about it.