Stuck in the in-between.

Here comes the bride.

A few weeks passed, and every week that passed A.J became less and less on my mind, the idea of him was replaced by my wedding. Today was the day that my mother, close friends, and I are going wedding dress shopping. A day I thought about since I was little.

"C'mon let's get this show on the road!" My lifetime long friend Susie shouted from the window of the limo as it pulled up to my parent's multi-million dollar mansion. My parents had tons of money but it was never something I liked to brag about.

A limo....seriously mama? I said walking out and closing the door behind me.

"You're my first baby bee to get married, nothing but the best for you! We ride in style everywhere!" I rolled my eyes and we walked to the limo together. When I got into the limo all of my closet people were there. Susie my best friend since I was a child, Teresa my high School best friend, My cousin Brianna and my Aunt Lisa. Noah's mother Linda, and his sisters Maggie, and Rachel.

"Woah! Now it's a party in here!"Susie said handing me a Champagne glass. I smiled and took the glass from her as we pulled out of my parent's house gates.

"Thank you all so much for being here to help me today, it means a lot..... and nobody cries today" As I side-eye my mom, she looks over at me.

"What?, you now I can't help the waterworks," My mom said stuffing a handkerchief into her purse. The whole limo laughed.

We pulled up to the wedding dress shop which was in the cutest part of Greenwich CT. We all huddled out of the limo and walked into the store. A warehouse full of wedding dresses filled my eyes, a feeling of overwhelming stress came over me, Susie walked up right next to me.

"That would be a whole lot of wedding dresses.... But that's fine cause you got me, and I won't tell you, you look good if you didn't" I looked at her and smiled, she nudged me and smiled.

"Now who is the bride here?" and women with the name tag Lilly approached our group. I raised my hand halfway as my cousin pushed me to the front of the group.

"Yay!" she said jumpingly she took my hand and asked me to follow her I looked behind me at my group smiling.

After trying on wedding dress after wedding dress, and losing hope after trying on everyone I finally found the one. A beautiful hip-hugging sparkling wedding dress. I went out to show my family. I stood in front of the mirror as they admired how beautiful I looked, Susie was comforting my mom as she was crying.

"Beautiful Vic, absolutely stunning" Noah's mom said while holding her daughter Maggie's hand.

"Noah will find you stunning" Rachel her other daughter said smiling. Lilly put the vail on top of my loose curly black hair.

"There, the perfect bride," She said stepping back to look at me. "Well, Is this the one," she said crossing her fingers. I smiled and tilted my head to the side.

"Yes, this is the one" My whole family clapped and cheered, I turned my head smiling and looked out the store window when something caught my eye. A.J was passing by the store. My smile dropped and I turned around to look at myself in the mirror. Is he stalking me? I thought to myself. We left the store and made lunch reservations at this cute place called the Tasty Table in the same complex as the bridal store. I looked around outside to see if I could see A.J.

"Hey, are you coming?" My aunt asked me as my group walked ahead.

"Yeah, of course, I'll be right there, I just left my purse in the limo, I wanna go get that," I said standing outside the store.

"Oh yeah of course! I'll let the others know, and I'll meet you inside" she said walking towards the group and away from me.

"Yeah okay," I said smiling and walking towards the limo. I grabbed my bag from the limo and turned around to walk in the direction of the restaurant. Head down struggling to find my chapstick in my bag, I bumped into someone and dropped my purse.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to," I said bending down to pick up all the stuff that fell out of my bag.

"Gosh, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," A man's voice said helping me pick up my stuff. I looked up at the man and saw that it was A.J, we locked eyes.

"You?!" I said stuffing everything back in my bag and standing up. "What are you doing here? Are you stalking me or something?" I said

"Stalking you?" He said picking up his bag he dropped. "No, this is where my mom does her dry cleaning and I went to go drop some clothes off for her while she's at work, what are you doing here? Are you stalking me?

"No, I...." I paused and looked into his raw green eyes, they get me every time. "I tried on wedding dresses today and now I'm going out to lunch with my mom and a few other people that came with me"

"Did you find your dress?" He said throwing the empty bag over his shoulder like a sack.

"Yeah, I did" Everything that I said to him was choppy and unemotional.

"Well, I'm sure you looked great," he said unlocking his car door from where we were standing. "I'm guessing the limo belongs to you," he said squinting his eyes and looking at it as the sun hit his face.

"Yep"

"Moms idea right?" he said

"Yep," I said looking at the limo with him.

"Yeah that has your mom written all over it" he chuckled and look back at me. "Vic? Is there any reason why we can't be friends or at least just catch up?" He said. I looked back at him and held my hand to my forehead like a visor blocking the sun.

"No, I don't think so," I said

"Ok, cool, well would you want to catch up one night, we could go to Joe's one night." He said

"Yeah, I guess, just text me," I said dropping my hand and staring at him. I reached in my bag and took a card that had my cell phone number written on it and handed it to him. He took it from my hand and put it in his back pocket.

"I will," he said staring into my eyes.

"I got to get to the lunch, they are probably wondering where I am," I said throwing my purse up over my shoulder.

"Yeah okay, I'll see you around" he stepped out of my way to let me pass. I smiled and walked towards the restaurant, I got to the door and turned around to look back at him. He was staring at me, he bit his lip and I walked into the restaurant.