Page 31 of Except Emerson (Detroit ABCs #7)

“I got it. I got the wrong order,” she corrected.

“I should have checked inside the bags! I should have known that this one was way too light for normal-sized clothing but I was distracted because I was also dealing with my intern who had locked herself in the bathroom after she backed into our boss’s car, and it was raining and I was wearing my shirt that gets water-stained.

But I could have checked on Friday night, too, or all day yesterday!

I was…” She sniffed and looked at the napkin she held.

“What is this, chocolate? Why would I have put it in my purse?” She crumpled it. “At least yours is the right color.”

“My tux is bright purple, and I don’t know if I can pull that off,” Jeff replied. “But it fits. I can wear it if you don’t think your aunt and cousin will throw a fit. I don’t want to upset the bride.”

Levi took the tiny tuxedo to examine it while I got a piece of paper towel, a clean one, for Ava. “I can wear a suit instead,” he suggested. “I have suits and nice ties, too, for work.”

“Didn’t you hear what Jeff said?” she asked. “You know how Aunt Kellie and Britainy will react if you guys don’t follow the dress code. It was almost impossible to find the right gown to match that hex color list they sent out!”

“Why the hell would we care what Kellie says or does?” Jeff asked, and Levi and I nodded. I didn’t have any personal experience with her, but I was already predisposed to think she was a witch. After all, my role at this wedding was to mitigate her nastiness to Levi.

“I care! I care that she always looks down on my brother and treats him like crap,” she answered.

“She’s mom’s sister and they love each other in spite of everything, so we’re not going to be able to cut her out of our lives and I want to show her that she’s wrong!

And I don’t agree with all these wardrobe restrictions either but it’s what the bride wants, and she should have her day! ”

“According to Mom, she already had two days of a spa weekend, another four days in Vegas, and three bridal showers which probably add up to another day, if you count all the hours,” Levi answered, but then he put up his hands in surrender.

“I’ll wear whatever you want. Let me get dressed and then we’ll go shopping. ”

He disappeared into the bedroom and Ava went to the bathroom, and I figured that I should go, too.

“See you later,” I said to her husband. “I’m wearing an approved color and I’ve been doing a rinse on my hair to improve it, too.

” I was used to the pressure to look right, of course, and I would come through.

“Emerson, you don’t have to worry,” Jeff told me, but I did. Of course, because it was important.

“I’ve got it,” I assured him. “Make sure Ava knows.”

I spent hours getting ready, confirming that every detail was perfect—as perfect as I could get it.

I had learned a lot through online tutorials and by carefully observing other women at the events we’d attended, especially Vivienne.

I’d also learned to listen to Grant, because he had been right about most of the fashion advice he’d dispensed.

It hadn’t always been fun to hear, especially the comparisons between me and Vivi, but I couldn’t deny that he’d been correct.

I’d been thinking about him a lot lately.

Seeing him in that restaurant had set it off, and now I was getting ready for a party just like I had so many times when we were together.

I’d prevented myself from looking him up, although I’d wanted to.

I imagined what the app therapist would have said, if she hadn’t quit: he’s over you, obviously he is, and you’re only hurting yourself by hanging on.

I would have argued with her, though, by saying that I wasn’t doing that.

I was just curious. I wondered what was happening to the man who had been almost my entire life for five years—five years!

How was he getting by now? What was he doing with himself?

How had he been able to drop me so quickly and move on like all that time had been nothing?

I didn’t love him anymore and I was over him, no matter what other people thought… but I was curious.

“I’m not sure how to prove a negative,” I mentioned to Coral as I used the eyelash comb to carefully fan the outside corners of my lashes.

“I told the app therapist that I was over him. I told her about what happened right before the accident, when I saw that my relationship with him had to end. I think she put that down to the concussion, but it was real. Everything slowed down and I saw the wall coming and I saw five years behind me. I knew what I had to do, but I didn’t get the chance. ”

Coral was bored and left, and at that moment, I heard Levi’s car in the street.

I mimicked Hernán and ran to the window to watch him walk toward the building.

He had a large shopping bag in his hand which indicated that he’d probably found an outfit in the appropriate size for his height and width.

I meant to move before he saw me but he looked up suddenly and waved, and when he came in, he knocked on my door before going to his own apartment.

“Hi,” I said. “Did you get a tuxedo?”

“I got one and…woah!” he said, and whistled. “You did it up!”

“I don’t have the dress on yet, but I have this thing of putting a scarf over my head so it doesn’t ruin my hair.

Not a winter scarf but a silky one, and I put it around my neck when I do my makeup, too, so that I don’t get powder or anything else in the wrong places.

But today I’ll step into this dress and it won’t go over my head, which means that my hair won’t be an issue.

Unfortunately, we’ll go in your car and I know that could wrinkle… what?”

Because he was still staring at me, but no longer like he was impressed. Now he just seemed puzzled.

“I’ve never heard you say so much all at once, unless I was badgering you,” he told me.

“You don’t badger.”

“Unless I was strongly encouraging you, then. Are you nervous?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “I always get this way before an event. I don’t like being judged and I understand why my mother was so opposed to beauty pageants.

She wrote several articles about them.” She had been very beautiful, so it had always felt ironic when I’d considered that she would have come out on top every time if she had competed herself. “Let me see your tuxedo.”

He shook his head. “Do your scarf thing for your hair and come over. I’ll be ready by then.”

I already knew that he took almost a negative amount of time to get ready, and yes, he was fully dressed when I walked in through the door he’d left ajar.

“Wow,” he told me, his eyes wide. “Emerson, damn. Hot damn!”

“It’s ok?” I looked down at myself, and thought that it wasn’t bad.

“You look beautiful. Stunning. You’ll piss off my aunt so much.”

“Oh, no!” I said, alarmed. “I don’t want—”

“Because she’ll be jealous about you being the prettiest woman there. That’s how she is,” he soothed, and it was a nice thing to say. He didn’t have to go that far, but I appreciated it.

“Thank you,” I answered. “You’re also stunning.”

He laughed. “Better when I can fit myself into the pants,” he suggested.

I didn’t agree. I thought he would have been great without pants, but if he had to wear something, this tuxedo looked amazing. I couldn’t believe that he’d been able to find it.

“You’d be surprised what you can do when your sister is on a mission and says we’ll pay anything,” he answered when I expressed that thought. “Jeff’s all set, too.”

“Did you have to buy yours?” I asked. Had Ava actually said that they’d pay “anything?” Because that could have meant a whole lot.

“No, but my sister did. She insisted because she kept saying that it was her fault.” And he looked disturbed by that.

“I’ll pay her back. She and Jeff do fine, but I don’t want to take money away from my niece and nephews.

I wouldn’t have taken this at all except that she was having a breakdown since she thinks she made a mistake. ”

“It was the store’s mistake,” I answered. “And now the problem is solved, kind of miraculously, so it’s ok.”

“It’s not ok with her. She started crying when we finally found something to fit Jeff.”

“Is the new tux ugly, too?” I asked.

“I think it was relief. She was so worked up,” he told me, and now he seemed worried.

“Aves likes things to be perfect and she kept saying, ‘How could I do this? How could I do this?’ It was like she had blabbed the nuclear codes instead of picking up the wrong suits. We went back to their house before coming here and Jeff tried on the original tux. It was hysterically funny, but she almost started crying again. He doesn’t look so bad in purple.

” He checked his phone. “We should go. Are you all set?”

“Am I?” I looked down at my dress. “I’m ok, right? There’s nothing you see that I should fix or change?”

“Emerson, I wasn’t kidding before. You’re beautiful.” He nodded seriously at me. “I’m going to be the envy of every single guy there.”

He really didn’t have to say those things, but they were very, very nice to hear. “I’m ready.”

“Then here we go,” Levi told me, and we did.