Life at Best

Chapter Seven

As long as I can keep producing multiple chapters a week to stay ahead of myself I will continue to update twice a week for you guys - Mondays and Thursdays.  As of right now I am writing one chapter for each one I'm posting and keeping myself ahead by about eight chapters which works out great in case I hit a writer's block!

Chapter Seven

Julie felt absolutely horrible; guilt overrode every other emotion she felt at that moment. She hadn't exactly lied to her best friend about Martin's role in her wedding; more simply she omitted the truth from her.

And the only reason she had done that was because she didn't want Brynne to freak out too bad, she wanted to be able to ease her in to the idea.  But thinking back on it now, if she were in Brynne's shoes, she would have wanted a simple heads up just so she could prepare herself.

They were walking through downtown Charlotte window shopping at some of the bridal boutiques, but had yet to step foot into any of the stores and actually take a close up look at any of the dresses they saw, or look at any other dresses for that matter.  Mostly because Julie was preoccupied with how horrible she felt for not letting Brynne know ahead of time that Martin was the best man.

But honestly, who did she expect Junior to pick to be his best man?

"I have to break the silence..."

Brynne's head shot up and she eyed her best friend, "Hmm?"

"Please don't be mad at me."

"Mad at you for what?" Brynne asked.

Julie hung her head, "For not telling you that Martin was Junior's best man. I didn't do it on purpose, I swear! I just figured that we'd get you down to North Carolina and settled in for a couple weeks and break the news gently; I wasn't expecting Martin to show up on my doorstep within the first couple of days and practically force himself back in to your life like that..."

"Julie, I'm not mad at you. I should have expected it to be Martin; I mean who else would it have been? He is Junior's best friend after all.  Believing it be anyone else would have just been foolish on my behalf, and if I'm being honest I kind of had a feeling before coming to North Carolina that Martin would have a big part of the wedding."

"You're really not mad?" Julie asked, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Nope, not mad. But I am a little overwhelmed, I can't exactly say I woke up this morning with the thought that I would come face to face with the one person I may have been dreading seeing (and secretly wanting to see) the most. Not that it was a bad conversation, the ice needed to be broken especially if we are going to work out plans for this wedding together and be in the same town for the next couple months, but nevertheless I am feeling overwhelmed."

"That's understandable. But doesn't it feel better for you now that you've seen him and spoken to him? You knew it was going to happen eventually, and at least now the anticipation of it isn't going to kill you waiting for it to happen..."

"Very true," Brynne nodded, "I never really thought of it that way..."

Brynne abruptly stopped, causing Julie to halt her steps just as quickly and look at her best friend. "Why did you stop?"

"I think we should go in and you should try on that dress," Brynne said, pointing to one of the display dresses in the window of the little boutique they were standing outside of.

"You think so?" Julie asked.

"Well, isn't that what we came here for? Because I distinctly remember you saying you wanted to try on some dresses! Might as well start now, we're just wasting time!"

Julie looked at Brynne with a slight smile on her face, "You sure you want to do it today?  It's been one of those days and I know you said you were overwhelmed..."

"If I didn't want you to try it on or I didn't think I could handle it, I wouldn't have suggested it..."

A giggle erupted from Julie, "Well then, let's go try on some wedding dresses!"

*

The girls walked back into the house a few hours later with a couple bags full of various wedding decorations and plenty of ideas!

They had ended up deciding on what the colors of the wedding were going to be, and Julie was almost sure she had decided on the style of wedding dress she wanted, so one good thing had come out of their trip out; now they just had to look around and find the perfect one!

"I'd call that a successful trip," Brynne sighed once they had gotten the bags in and Julie had put them away in 'a safe place' otherwise known as somwhere Junior wouldn't find them and they were relaxing on the stools in the kitchen.

"I agree!" Julie chirped, "And now that I know what I want, we can narrow down the options, and the next time we go looking, I'll know exactly what to tell the girls working at the boutique!"

"We could go next week once you get back from the track this weekend if you wanted, that way we could get it taken care of as quickly as possible, I know you guys are supposed to leave tomorrow."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Julie asked.

"I hadn't really even thought about it..." Brynne said.

"Please?" Julie whined, knowing just the right buttons to push with her best friend, "I need my best friend there, plus maybe we could go shopping when we're there this weekend! Who knows, maybe I'll find my dress somewhere other than Charlotte and I need you there when I try on wedding dresses!  The other ladies are great and all, but they're not you..."

Brynne knew Julie was reeling her in, but she shrugged anyway, not really putting too much thought into the answer, "I guess I could go and just stay in a hotel near the track..."

"Absolutely not! You will stay in the coach with us. There's plenty of room, plus everyone else will be so excited to see you back around!  I can hear all the ladies now!"

"Alright," Brynne agreed, "You convinced me..."

Julie grinned, "Well that didn't take much... I figured I'd have to beg you or something."

"No, no begging necessary," Brynne said.  She rubbed her temples gently, trying to relieve the tension that was building  throughout her body beginning in her head, "I think I'm going to go lay down and relax and try to get rid of this headache I woke up with this morning."

Julie reached up and pulled her best friend into a hug, a huge smile on her face, "Thanks for this Brynne. I know how hard this all probably is for you, but I appreciate everything you are doing for me and mine and Dale's special day, and I love you for it all!  Now go lay down and rest and I'm going to look up some boutiques and shops near the track and see if there's anything we can stop by and check out!"

*

Junior was sitting at his desk signing a stack of pictures that would be used at a promotional event over the weekend when Martin strolled through the door and sat down in the chair across from him with a little sigh.

"Whatcha doin'?" Martin asked.

"Signing shit for this promotional event I got going on this weekend. What's up with you?"

Martin leaned back and casually crossed his arms over his chest, "You never told me Brynne was staying at your house..."

Junior choked on the sip of water he had just taken and quickly looked up at Martin through big eyes, "You weren't supposed to know that dude..."

"Yeah well," Martin shrugged, "I showed up at your house this morning trying to talk to Julie about some shit for the wedding and low and behold the door opens and there's Brynne on the other side of the door..."

"She needed a place to stay... It only made sense for her to stay with us, seeing as the whole reason she is here is to help Julie plan the wedding."

"I agree," Martin nodded, "I'm just saying a heads up would have been nice, so I could have prepared myself and not been surprised and maybe I would have texted Julie instead of just stopping over at the house expecting her to be there by herself."

"Well Julie and I didn't really want you to know nor did we necessarily think it was our business to tell you to be honest with you MT, we wanted to give Brynne some time to settle in before she had to deal with the circumstances of your breakup and what happened the last time she was here."

"A heads up still would have been nice..."

"Yeah well, a heads up that Kaleen was pregnant would have been nice too, but that didn't happen so I didn't exactly see that it was necessary we tell you about Brynne's every move."

Martin sighed, "I get it, I get it. I fucked up; I know I did. I don't need you to spell it out for me, I realize it every single day of my life, trust me."

"Well then what are you going to do about it man?" Junior asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, now that she's back in North Carolina you surely have to have some idea of what you're going to do to get her back... We all know you love the hell out of her, and she feels the same way about you whether she's currently showing it or not, so what are you going to do to prove to her you ain't gonna fuck around again? That you're in this to stay and you aren't going to lie to her again and you're done with Kaleen?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out myself," Martin sighed, "It's got to be something good though... I have to show her exactly how I feel about her."

*

Julie left the chicken she had been marinating on the countertop to go answer the door, wondering who would be knocking on her door at this time of day. When she saw the delivery man holding the flowers on the doorstep, she giggled a little wondering what Junior's excuse would be for the spontaneous flower delivery this time.  But who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth?

"Brynne Matthews?" the delivery man asked, causing Julie's eyebrows to lift.

"She's my roommate," Julie supplied, "Can I sign for them?"

"Whatever you want, ma'am..."

Once she signed for them and closed the door, she headed back to the kitchen, pausing at the bottom of the stairs and yelling up for Brynne, who had gone upstairs to rest and hopefully get rid of her headache.

"Brynne!"

"Yeah?"

"Come down here for a minute! I'm in the kitchen!"

She heard footsteps come down the stairs before Brynne popped her head around the doorway into the kitchen, "What's up?" Brynne smiled a little when she saw the flowers on the table, "Aw, did Junior send you flowers? That's so cute!"

"Actually they're for you..."

"What?" Brynne asked, taken aback, "For me?"

"That's what the card says! Open it and read it, see who it's from," Julie encouraged, though she could bet money she knew exactly who they were from. At least that was who she hoped they were from him!

Brynne slowly walked across the kitchen and grabbed the card attached to the vase of roses, daisies and other mixed flowers, pulling the envelope open and taking the card out slowly.

Julie watched excitedly as a slight smile came to Brynne's face; something she hadn't seen from her friend in a long time, too long. "Whose it from Brynne?"

Meet me for lunch tomorrow? I'll text you tomorrow with details and I won't take no for an answer!

She sighed and rolled her eyes at Julie playfully, "Who do you think they're from Julie?"

"I mean I have a hunch, but I don't want to get ahead of myself thinking the boy realizes he has some kissing up to do to get back in your good graces."

Brynne laughed.  A laugh, that was all she gave Julie.

"So... are they from him?"

"Yes... the flowers are from Martin, Julie..."

"And..."

"And they're beautiful."

"That's not what I mean Brynne and you know it!  What the hell does the card say?  You can't keep me waiting like this for much longer!"

"Wow, dramatic much?" Brynne asked, "He wants me to meet him for lunch tomorrow.  Says he won't take no for an answer."

"So are you going to meet him them?" Julie questioned.

Brynne sighed and stared at Martin's scrawling print on the card, "Yes I think I will meet him for lunch tomorrow.  It's just lunch, right?"

Julie laughed, "Yeah, it's just lunch."

***

We may finally be getting somewhere... maybe!!  Would love to know what you all think... going to post the soundtrack right after I post this chapter to!