Wedding Bells | ✔

01

Wedding Bells

Chapter 1

The boxes were piling up. I could feel the stress taking over my body. The thoughts of having to move everything back to the apartment was exhausting. I turned to look at Clara, I was so grateful she was here to help, and I was thankful that Andrew had paid for a moving team.

I took a step back to take in the scene around me. Everything was moving so quickly. I shook my head turning to look at Andrew. He stood in the corner like a sad child. His eyes casted towards the floor boards, avoiding eye contact with everyone.

A part of me wanted to walk over to him to comfort him. To show him that things were going to be okay, but the voice in the back of my head told me that I shouldn’t. That things would get even more complicated.

Carter walked up behind me. His arms tightly on my shoulder. He was there for moral support, and it was the worst thing we had ever done. Andrew knew something was up, he knew we had kissed, but what he didn’t know was the two weeks ago Carter had proposed.

I shook my head turning to look at the rest of the group, pulling my shoulders away from Carters grip. Andrew looked up, his eyes boring into me, like I was the fire that burned in the depths of hell, the fire that has taken everything away from him.

“Are you almost ready to go?” My mother smiles, her hands taking the place that Carter’s once were. I turned to look at her. Nodding my head. The anxiety that was filling the room was almost drowning.

It'd been two weeks since Carter had shown up in New York. The thought of picking up my stuff had scared me away form this very moment. To the point where I was going to just let Andrew keep it all. Carter had suggested he would come with, for moral support and I realize now I should have said no. This wasn't fair. This wasn't right for Andrew. I turned to look at my friends. The people who had supported me so much in the last few years.

"Can I have a minute alone with Andrew?" I asked, the face of the man I was supposed to marry lightens as he finally makes eye contact with myself. I felt unusual under his gaze. So many memories were held behind those soft eyes that now captured mine. So many that I had destroyed and ruined for the rest of our lives.

He would always remember me as the girl who left, who walked away from our marriage. Who had to go on vacation and kissed her best friend, the guy she should have chosen in the first place. What he didn’t know what that he had proposed.

I glanced at the spot where the ring should have been on  my finger. Saying no to Carter was the hardest thing I had ever done, but it just didn’t feel right accepting a proposal so soon after being engaged. The trip to California had shown me things that I would have never seen without it. It was both a blessing and a curse and I was ready to start the healing process. I needed to be back at my shop.

“Sure,” Clara was the first to speak. Carter glares at Andrew, his eyes softening as he looks at me. I knew he would have reservations of leaving me along with Andrew. Unfortunately it wasn’t his choice if I did or didn’t. I tried my best to smile, showing him that everything was going to be okay.

“We will be outside, you know where to find us if you need anything,” Carter mumbled, picking up a box as he started towards the door. Everything had been piled up in the corridor of the entrance. We were almost done fully moving everything. I felt sad leaving the staff. The ones I had met and worked with, the ones that felt like they needed me around.

“How are you doing?” I leaned forward, taking a deep breath as I placed my hand on Andrew’s shoulder. He looked up at me, his eyes covered in a teary haze. He pulled away from me, leaning against one of the many pillars that rose from the floor to the ceiling.