Unfold

Chapter Twenty-Four (24)

If you didn't see my post earlier this week:
I love you guys so much. Truly, so much. You're making my dreams come true. I never expected so much encouragement and feedback. Jesus has truly blessed me with you guys. Thank you for giving my story a chance when it had just a few reads and you had no idea what it was about. You guys are the real MVP.
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Jean slipped on the light blue sundress she had settled on for the wedding. After trying on at least twenty dresses at the store, she finally settled on one so she wouldn't drive herself insane. Between factoring in the color of what Shawn would be wearing and not wanting to be too casual, but also not overdo it, she realized she was just nervous because Shawn was calling this a date.

Shawn had to be with Tyler early on, but he still insisted on picking her up and driving together, because even though he would be escorting another girl down the aisle, he still insisted that she was his date and they needed to do this right. She was excited, but she was also terrified. They were getting dangerously close to the line that separated them as friends and something more. As much as she tried to deny it, she knew that the crazy, impossible idea of Shawn somehow liking her may not be as impossible as she once thought.

With everything, the past couple weeks had not been easy. Things were finally settling down and it was the first time she felt like she could actually start to breathe again.

Brooke was more angry than Jean could have anticipated upon discovering that Donovan had taken a picture of Jean while she was at work. When Jean's shock of seeing the photo wore off and she realized that Donovan had, in fact, actually had deleted it, she found herself trying to calm Brooke down.

"He said he deleted it, and we were messing around," Jean said, mostly nervous for any retaliation on Donovan's end. "It was a super weird and creepy thing to do, but I think it's over."

"No," Brooke had said. "He's pulled crap like this before. He's getting suspended."

Jean didn't know how to feel about the whole ordeal, but hearing he had done something like this before made her feel less guilty about getting him suspended. He should have known better with how long he worked there. Regardless of the context, it was a shady thing for him to do.

"I'd fire him," Brooke said. "But unfortunately we need him."

Jackson tried to assure her it was fine. Donovan texted her right after the ordeal.

I said I deleted it. Really had to go to Brooke?

She deleted the message and put in out of her mind the best she could. However, he returned to work later that week and he acted like nothing had happened. She didn't know what his game was, but he seemed to have forgotten about the entire ordeal. Hopefully it was behind them.

Jean turned in the mirror, pushing her hair up under the roots. It felt nice to do her makeup the way she wanted to for once, not how Brooke suggested "men liked." She had given up on the false lashes after one week. It was too much torture.

Shawn knocked on the door as she finished putting her earrings in. For some reason, her heart started speeding up as she anticipated him. She opened her door and he stood with his suit jacket slung over shoulder.

"Wow," Jean said, feeling the heat rise to her face when she saw how utterly handsome he looked. She took a deep breath. "You look...really nice."

It was a hot day, and he had the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up, showing off the muscles in his forearms. He also had on brown leather suspenders- making him look even more sophisticated and handsome.

Why did suspenders make her so weak?

Jasmine had described Shawn as basically a J Crew model before, and today he could certainly pass for one. This wasn't helping with her nerves- now she was just downright intimidated.