Choices

Part 4: Always Be There for Others

Later that night, Chelsea sits in her car, drumming her annoyed fingers across the steering wheel. After the day she has been having, who can blame her. After the fight with the bride, Chelsea ended up spilling water down her shirt, popped three balloons while hanging them up, fell of a ladder, and to top it all off her partner for the wedding procession wasn't there. At this point she is all for going back to bed, and waking up to start the day over again, but she knows what that meant. Just as she knows what walking into this building means. For the second time in twenty-four hours she sits in the restaurant parking lot, debating on ditching the evening, but she knows Kristine is angry at her, and she doesn't want to make it worse. She gets out of her car and shuts the door, in a slightly frustrated slam, though only a few people were outside to hear it. She takes a deep breath and follows those few people, people she barely recognizes into the main doors. The last thing she wants is to be recognized by the staff, but most of all by the one person she hopes to avoid for the whole evening. She knows he will be there.

It is after Chelsea is seated at one end of the table, do they begin to order. She realizes they have the same waitress she had the night before. She curses in her head. Kristine keeps glancing her way, and then glancing around the room. Doubtfully waiting for Bryce to make his appearance. Chelsea's phone rings suddenly, causing her to jump slightly in her chair. Several of the other guests at the table glance at her in curiosity. She answers the phone quickly when she sees who the caller is. She glances at Kristine, who is looking at her with curiosity, probably thinking it is Bryce who is on the phone. "Hey, Justin." Chelsea returns with a chuckle back to the voice in the phone, still looking at Kristine, who grimaces slightly at the name. Chelsea ignores her, looking away, and focusing in on what he is saying. Justin Shazenski is a childhood friend that always seemed to be that small one in the background, trying to get into the main group. Her three friends had often laughed at his expense. In the last few years, Chelsea has become good friends with Justin and his romantic and professional partner, Matt. "Right now?" Chelsea sighs, knowing the routine ahead, and grabs her purse from under her chair. Chelsea knows the matter is of the utmost emergency, and Justin knew the rehearsal dinner was tonight. He apologizes repeatedly for interrupting. "Of course, Justin. Don't worry about it. I am on my way. Meet me there in twenty minutes." She hangs up the phone and stands up, looking at Kristine. "I'm sorry, I got to go."

"What?" Her friend questions, shocked at the sudden act. "We are in the middle of dinner, can't it wait?" She is trying to stall, Chelsea with excuses.

"If it could, I would certainly wait, but it can't, so I got to go. I'm sorry. I will explain later, but I can't right now." With that, Chelsea turns and leaves, knowing that this is only making matters worse with the bride. She makes her way through people on the dance floor, and bumps into someone, but she doesn't stop to see who it is. She just sends a quick apology their way, and keeps going, slightly happy to be escaping but knowing the long night ahead of her. If this is what it takes to not see Bryce, then she will take it.

Bryce, however, definitely saw Chelsea. In fact, as she bumps into him, he tries to reach out to grab her arm, but she is too quick. She is gone, again. He stands there for a moment, even more confused, and then runs after her. He isn't going to let her get away again, not when he can stop her. He races out to the parking lot, just in time to see her pull away and leave on the highway. His heart sinks, and he kicks at a few of the rocks in the gravel parking lot. What is happening? Why does she keep running away from him? God isn't about to make this easy apparently.

After a few minutes, he heads back inside, defeated and his pride and ego hurting. Instantly, he is approached by the young clerk at the front desk named Havier. "Sir, you are wanted upstairs in the office." Bryce nods, and then heads that way. It must be his parents. They must want to finalize details for Kristine's wedding. He almost welcomed the distraction from constantly thinking of Chelsea. Almost. When he arrives, however, he notices three people, and they definitely aren't his parents.

"Alright, spill." One of them hisses in annoyance. He isn't sure, but he thinks her name is Katarina.

"What do you mean?" He questions, glancing at Kristine. He doesn't like being cornered in his own office.

"She obviously doesn't want to see you, so spill. What happened? What did you do?" Kristine answers back, earning his attention now.

"Why wouldn't she want to see me?" He asks, frowning in confusion again.

"That is what we are trying to find out!" The other one responded. He is sure her name is Cheyenne. So many friends, so many names.

"I don't know. Everything went great." Bryce beams, racking his brain to find something wrong, but he can't seem to find any. "We ate dinner, and danced. Then she fell asleep, and next thing I knew I was waking up and she was nowhere in sight."

"And you guys didn't..." Katarina hints toward something and it takes a second to realize what it must have looked like to them, with Chelsea sleeping over with him.

"No, no definitely not." He declares, knowing that he would never force her into anything.

"That is good." Kristine adds, but she notices Bryce's small look of curiosity he sends her. "Chelsea made the pledge to remain pure until her marriage. I would have hated it if she had broken it. It is so important to her. She was so young when she made the promise, and we thought she was insane for doing so, but she never gave in."

"Are you sure she didn't seem panicky?" The Cheyenne woman asks him, and Bryce shakes his head no. "Damn. She told us she panicked, and that was why she left without telling you.

"Why would she panic?" He asks, still not understanding why she would leave. Surely she felt she could talk to him, right?

"I don't know. If everything went fine, we wouldn't be here right now discussing this. Something went wrong. She doesn't want to date anymore, not now not ever. She blames her job, but that is a lie. Something scared her. We thought you would know what it was." Kristine admits and Bryce can see how genuinely worried she is.

He shrug, feeling defeated again. "I'm sorry, I don't know. I want to know though."

"So you like her?" Katarina asks, sending him a smile.

Bryce knows he couldn't deny it, not that he wants to. He figured it was written all over his face, so it takes him a minute to answer the question. "Yes, very much." He knows he is smiling like an idiot at the moment, but he doesn't care. He likes her. He fell under her spell the moment he laid eyes on her.

"Good." Kristine smiles for a second, content with his answer but then bites her lip and frowns, thinking hard on a plan. "We can work with that. Don't worry, Bryce. We will figure this out." Kristine vows. Then they all leave, back to the party downstairs. He is left alone to his thoughts, wondering what in the world could have scared Chelsea.