One True Love

Chapter 19

Feeling the plane start to take off and my stomach turn flips as it did, I barely noticed as my head was consumed with thoughts of New York. Why had I not realized this sooner? Now it was obvious to me, Scotty would never let me pick out my wedding dress without my mom by my side. Was this all he had planned? Had I already figured it all out? As much as I wanted to believe that, something told me there was still something else.

The flight went pretty smoothly which was great seeing as how I probably would have had a mini spaz attack if we had encountered any turbulence. There was plenty of conversation to engage in once I realized where we going, although Ashley still wasn't giving much away. The other girls had became excited too and wanted to make sure that we visited some essential places while we were in New York....Central Park, Rockefeller Center, and the Statue of Liberty. It was even mentioned once that we could try to make it to a Broadway show. Laughing quietly to myself, I already knew that this weekend was going to go by entirely too fast and it hadn't even started.

After what seemed like forever, we were finally landing at the JFK airport, I couldn't wait to see what New York had to offer. Stepping out of the plane, we went to the luggage claim area and waited for our bags to circle through the conveyor belt. Once we found them, we started making our way to the front of the airport where I assumed we would spend the next thirty minutes trying to hail a cab. Garner wasn't a big town and well this was just something that I knew none of us was use to, I had to admit I wasn't looking forward to standing in the cold attempting to get a cab driver to notice us.

As we stepped outside, I realized there was no need to worry because standing right outside the door was a tall older man in a tailored black tuxedo and small black hat standing in front of a black stretch limousine. In his hands, he held a small sign that read..."Miss Gabi Dugal."

Looking at Ashley, she smiled and shrugged her shoulders as we made our way towards the car. Stepping closer, the tall older man began to speak...."Hello, Miss Dugal?," he asked, extending his hand towards mine.

Reaching towards it, I shook his hand and smiled...."Yes sir."

He smiled in return, "I'm pleased to see you arrived in New York safely," he said as he opened the door and then continued..."My name is Walter and I will be your personal chauffeur over this weekend. I truly hope that you will take advantage of all that is New York City."

Looking back towards Ashley and the other girls, I obviously had a sense of bewilderment on my face because they all smiled and motioned for me to get in to the car. Not wanting to wait any longer, I decided to step inside as did the others and Walter gently closed the door behind us.

This one was just as nice as the one we had rode to the Raleigh airport in....Black leather seats and a mini bar but the one thing that was different about this one....It had a sunroof! Not being able to resist, I pressed the button and allowed the sunroof to open as we emerged into the busy traffic that was part of the culture in NYC. Standing up on the seat, I pushed myself through the sunroof and let the wind to blow through my hair. Moments later, Ashley joined me. Wrapping her arms around me, she hugged me tightly and smiled as she pushed her hair back away from her face and then threw her arms in the air, obviously already enjoying herself.

Driving down West 34th street, we passed all of the places I had only seen on TV during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade....Macy's, H&M, Sephora...all places that I thought I would never see in real life, but places that had been on my bucket list since I watched my first parade on TV with my family. It didn't seem real that I was actually here, and not just for one day, but for one entire weekend.

Turning on to West 20th street, I saw the one shop that was every girl's dream when shopping for that perfect dress....Kleinfeld! I only hoped that we would go inside there before we left, we just had to, that's all there was to it. Knowing that the only way any one got inside the doors was to have an appointment, I felt a little discouraged but I knew there had to be a way. Scotty wouldn't bring me to New York with all of my bridesmaids, my mom and his mom if he didn't have some idea that I would want to go inside that store.