Elly in Love. Colleen Oakes

leapt out of her chair and started circling the table. “This is it! The idea to win this thing! Her colors are hot pink and navy and pinstripes.”

      Kim made a disgusted face. “Seriously?”

      Elly grimaced. “I know, right? Oh, famous people….”

      “You say that like you know so many.”

      Elly ignored her and began scribbling on a napkin. “We cover the floor with pale-pink rose petals and then make a gorgeous table to match. It will blow them away. Sure, the other florists will do gorgeous work as well, but if we put ourselves forward as a company that will make our celebrity feel like she is walking on rose petals, they will pick us, right? It’s almost too over the top—it teeters on the edge of ridiculous. For a normal bride, it would be. But not a famous one.”

      Kim snapped her fingers. “And that is how you will distinguish yourself from the other two florists. It will be such a big impact, color-wise, that they won’t be able to shake the vision from their minds.”

      Elly then drew a giant happy face over the entire drawing. “And then we will be on BlissBride!”

      “Next up, world domination.” Both women started clapping. Annoyed restaurant patrons looked over at them.

      “My friend is going to be on TV!” Kim smiled, showing her perfectly white teeth. The elderly couple smiled back, won over by Kim’s radiant beauty. Elly rolled her eyes before sitting back down and taking a long sip of water. “Kim, I can do this. I can get us onto BlissBride. I know it.”

      Kim grabbed her hand. “Absolutely. I’m afraid I won’t be much help, but I’ll keep my schedule as open as I can. I have a baby who keeps me pretty busy with things like poop schedules. Depressing, but true.”

      “Oh, right. I forgot you have a baby. Poor Hadley. Two drinks in and we forget about him.” Elly raised her glass and Kim followed. “To walking on rose petals. And to Hadley. May we never forget about him again.” They both giggled.

      “Hey, how’s Keith?” Kim asked, slyly changing the subject while wiggling her eyebrows. “Did you guys say the big ‘I love you’ yet?”

      Elly blushed. “No, not yet. It might be soon, though. Oh Kim, I’m so over the moon about him.”

      Kim smiled. “Well, it doesn’t have to be him that says it. This is the twenty-first century, you know. I’m sure it won’t be long. You are so deep into each other that it makes Sean and me feel like we are the most-boring people on Earth.”

      Elly shot Kim an exasperated look. “Right. Tell me, when is he whisking you off to Paris again?”

      “I know, I know. But you and Keith are made for each other. Every time he looks at you, I can see his heart growing larger.”

      Elly took a bite of her enchilada, tomatillo salsa spilling out from the sides. So good. Everything, so good. She took a deep breath. “Is it weird that I bounce between being extremely happy and worrying that it will all fade? Everything seems so perfect right now.” She felt a familiar twinge in her heart, a deep hurt. There was a bruise there that would never go away.

      Kim frowned. “No, I guess I don’t understand.”

      Elly took a breath and wiped her mouth, methodically folding her napkin. “The last time I felt that life was perfect, I came home and found my husband being straddled.” She shook her head, hoping to rattle the image lose. “I could care less about Aaron now, but this feeling of things being so sure, so steady, it’s nerve-racking. Whenever I really feel ready to go all in with Keith, I get anxious, as if I can’t fully enjoy it because I’m just waiting for the chips to fall. Its neurotic and it’s ridiculous, and it is all me, letting a healed wound infect my body. I have to work on it. I don’t know that I’m completely ready to give myself over to this….” She smiled and sighed. “This totally amazing man. Am I crazy?”

      Kim’s face said yes.

      “And I know it’s Keith, Keith in all his perfection. He would never hurt me. I shouldn’t be afraid.” Was she already in love with him? Did he love her?

      “Elly, that’s totally okay. You should only say it when you’re ready, completely ready. I don’t see Keith being a man who would push you into that. You’ve been through a lot with men and in a relationship this important, you want to take it slow. Keep your heart light and unjaded. I have a feeling that bitterness grows when you are pushed too fast into something.”

      Elly bit her lip. She didn’t feel jaded. She felt only joy with Keith, a lightness of spirit. There was a freedom with him, an abandonment of all the fears and insecurities that she felt about herself. For the first time in a relationship, she felt honored. Yet, in all this bliss, when “I love you” was on the tip on her tongue, a thorn twisted in her heart and made her words fall away into a whirling vortex, a vortex made up of past memories that had no bearing on her current life. She was afraid. She might love Keith, yes, but she was nowhere near being able to say it. Her eyes watered a bit. “So I have trust issues. That’s not anything new. I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Elly mumbled, before taking a bite of Kim’s flan.

      “That’s what I thought,” Kim replied. “You have no idea how to handle this, do you?”

      Elly wiped her eyes. “You’re super nosy, you know that, right?”

      Kim put her hand on Elly’s. “Only about people that I love.”

      Elly’s eyes narrowed as they filled with tears. “I get your point. Now, can we please talk more about Hadley? I’m dying to know. Tell me about my godson.”

      Kim’s eyes widened with unabashed obsession. “Well, if you must know, he’s developed a habit of putting his toes in his mouth. I want to think it’s disgusting every single time, but when he does it I just grab the camera and take a million pictures, and then I can’t help but cover him with kisses….”

      The night ended earlier than it should have.

      Elly slowly walked up the dark stairwell to her apartment, humming happily to herself, visions of pink rose petals dancing in her head. She couldn’t believe this was really happening. Chubby little Elly from Peachtree, Georgia might be appearing on BlissBride, on national television! She couldn’t wait to call Keith when she got in. Something about her conversation with Kim made her long to press her lips against his. Maybe he could come over for tea and kissing. That sounded pretty fabulous. At the top of the stairs, Elly fumbled with her keys in the dark, dropping them on the ground. Groaning, she bent over to pick them up and stopped short, her breath catching in her throat. There was something in the doorway. Had Keith left her something? Man, he was impressive. Elly grabbed the keys and flipped on the hallway light, the sterile light washing over her. Then she stood frozen, cold fingers trailing up her arm and rippling up her suddenly tight spine. In front of her door was a dirty backpack. It was neon orange, covered with stains, and a ripped zipper showed the frayed seaming on the inside. It wasn’t the backpack itself that made her hyperventilate and lean against the door. It was that she had seen that backpack earlier that day—on the strange teenager who had so unnerved her and forgotten his flowers. The one who had stared at her with such fervent, deep curiosity. He had been here, at her door, at her home. Was he watching her right now? From inside her apartment, Cadbury began to bark frantically and adrenaline mixed with fear shot through her veins. She silently reached for the phone inside her pocket and began dialing Keith’s number.

      Chapter Six

      Elly woke up the next morning, tangled in her sheets. Her eyes were sore, and she felt them sinking back into her skull with a lack of sleep. After pulling on her comfy reindeer PJ pants and checking her appearance in the mirror (which brought a thoroughly disappointed sigh), she wandered into the living