We walk out of the hotel as the doorman nods at us—Brenda on my left and Jess on my right. I have a feeling we are about to do some serious damage… especially since Spencer got me that credit card and told me to buy anything I wanted or we needed. There's still a part of me that's the sensible girl from Greenville… it's hard to stomach the idea of spending so much money on material things… somehow I think being with Jess will make it a little easier.
It seems like Spencer's family was a little more well off than me growing up, but I don't think that has to do with how he spends his money. He doesn't really ever go around blowing it on things for himself… from what I've seen at least. It seems instead that Spencer enjoys buying me things and taking me places so that we can experience life together… which is amazing.
“Ms. Kendall?”
The man who just spoke is a driver standing next to the back door of a large and expensive looking German sedan.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Thomas… he arranged for me to take you anywhere you please.”
I smile and nod as he pulls the door open and we get in.
“So,” I say, once the three of us are in the back of the car, “where should we go?”
“I made a list,” Jess says.
“A list?”
“Yeah… there're certain things we need to buy.”
I raise an eyebrow. This should be good. The driver gets in the front of the car and turns his head to face us.
“Where to, Ms. Kendall?”
I glance at Jess and then Brenda. It's not even ten yet and I have a feeling nothing will be open yet.
“Breakfast?” I say, Jess and Brenda both nod. “Can you take us somewhere to eat?”
He nods and pulls away from the hotel. I sink into the seat and sigh. Even though I slept on the flight I'm still kind of tired… the time change is a bit crazy since it's still dark in Chicago right now.
“So,” I say, turning to Jess, “what kind of things do we need to buy?”
“Well, we need dresses… obviously. That's the most important thing.”
“Yeah… anything else?”
“We are going out tonight… so you need an outfit for that.”
“For dinner?”
“Yeah… but after dinner we are having a ladies’ night out.”
I raise an eyebrow. I know Jess had mentioned she wanted to throw my bachelorette party for me, but I just kind of assumed that went out the window when the wedding became a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.
“I didn’t realize that we were still doing that.”
“Of course we are… we already started to plan it while we were on the plane waiting for Spencer to bring you back.”
Brenda smiles and nods her head in agreement to what Jess just said. I’m glad she’s here. It’s a little sad when I think about how between Spencer and me only one of our parents will be attending the wedding. I’m glad Dex is here, though… because I don’t think I could go through with it if he wasn’t.
“I guess we’ve got a few places to stop,” I say.
The car comes to a stop and I look out the window as the driver gets out. He stopped in front of what has to be the most adorable little Irish café. There is a white and red pinstripe awning above the handful of tables that are crowding the sidewalk, all of which are already full. I nod at the driver as I get out and step aside.
“I’ll be waiting right here,” he says.
“Thanks.”
We head inside and find a table. Our server comes over within a few seconds with her order pad already out.
“What can I get ya?”
“We’re visiting,” Brenda says, “and none of us have ever been to Ireland. I was kind of thinking it would be nice to have something traditional.”
The girl nods and quickly jots something down on her pad.
“We have the best Irish Breakfast in all of Dublin.”
A smile crosses my face. I still can’t get over how great the Irish accent sounds.
“Great.”
She turns and walks back toward the kitchen. I have no clue what an Irish Breakfast entails, but I have to agree with Brenda—we should eat what they make best, it seems like the perfect way to experience a completely new culture. I’m certainly glad, however, that they speak English here because it makes everything that much easier for me. It’s not that I’m opposed to visiting a place where the language is different… I would just want more of a heads up so that I could at least try to learn a few words and phrases.
Our server is already back with a tray and three cups on it. She sets one down in front of each of us and flashes a quick smile before walking away.
“Tea?” I say.
“Yeah,” Brenda says, “I guess.”
“With milk already in it?”
“It looks like that.”
I shrug as I wrap my fingers around the handle of the cup closet to me. I’ve never been a huge tea drinker. My mom always drank tea when I was growing up, that’s what she had after dinner and on weekends… and I have a feeling that’s why I never much cared for it.
I lift the cup to my lips and take a small sip. I blink a few times and set it back down on the table.
“Well,” Jess says, as she sets her cup down, “that’ll certainly wake you up.”
“I know, right.”
It’s stronger than I imagined tea to be, but that’s probably why the milk is in it already… it might be undrinkable without it.
“So,” I say, “what should we shop for first?”
“We could do your dress first and work our way down from there,” Brenda says.
“I also want to stop into a jewelry store… and at least look.”
“For sure,” Jess says, “I have a feeling the shopping here is going to be significantly better than what I’m used to.”
Our server comes back, balancing three plates between her hands and sets one down in front of each of us.
“Irish Breakfast… sausages, rashers, white and black pudding, an egg and tomato. Anything else I can get ya?”
“No… I think we’re fine, thanks.”
I look down at the plate and pick up my fork. Even though she explained it all, I’m still not sure what it is. Obviously I recognize the grilled tomato, the egg and the sausages, but the rest… I’ve got no idea what rashers or what the black and white pudding is. It certainly doesn’t look like any pudding I’ve ever seen… it looks more like chopped up meat that has been formed into a circle.
“Does anyone know what we’re eating?” I say.
“Yes,” Brenda says, “but I would recommend just eating it and enjoying it, because it’s going to be delicious.”
I know Brenda is right. We did ask to have a traditional breakfast that the Irish people eat… and that’s exactly what we got. I guess there’s no turning back now. I glance over at Jess and she’s already cutting into one of the sausages.
I pick up my knife, cut a piece of sausage and slowly chew it while I try to figure out what the pudding could be. I give up as I finish the sausage and lift a bite of egg to my mouth. The rashers, whatever that is, kind of looks a little like bacon… which is what I decide to try next. It tastes just like bacon... so the only mystery left is the pudding.
I decide to try the white one first. I take a deep breath and close my eyes as I put a small piece into my mouth and start to chew. My eyes shoot open and I start to nod—not bad actually. It reminds me a little of a sausage, but there’s some kind of starchy filler in it that’s changing the texture.
“This white pudding is good,” I say, “whatever white pudding is.”
“Did you try the black one?” Jess says.
I look over and see that she’s eaten a small bite of her black pudding already.
“No… how is it?”
“It’s… strong.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just try it… trust me.”
I raise an eyebrow and cut a smaller bite of the black one than I dared try of the white. I bite down on it and start to chew. She wasn’t wrong… the flavor is way more intense… but I’m not sure what’s making it so different. The texture is pretty similar to the white one, so my guess is that whatever is turning it the dark color is the culprit for the stronger flavor.
“Does Spencer have a plan for where the actual ceremony is going to be?”
“Amy,” Jess says, “what do you think?”
I shake my head and smile. She rolls her eyes playfully. Jess knows exactly what I was trying to do.
“It was worth a shot,” I say.
“Yeah… nice try.”
“So, he told you both all about it?”
“Yes,” Brenda says, “he told me about it on the flight to pick up Jess and Logan… then he filled them in on the way to Chicago.”
“Kind of a crazy, roundabout way of getting to Chicago.”
“It’s still a private flight… and it was good to spend some time with my son, since I have a feeling he’s going to have his hands full from now on.”
I can feel my cheeks turning red. She winks at me and I look down, shaking my head. Jess elbows me and starts to laugh.
“I like her,” Jess says, whispering into my ear.
I nod in response. I really like Brenda, too. It’s one of those funny things in life… people always talk about the dreaded mother-in-law, but I love Brenda… she’s awesome in so many ways. I guess it’s maybe a little strange, but I would rather she is a part of my life because at this point I’m still mad enough at my own mom that I can’t imagine ever speaking to her again.
“More tea?”
I look up to see our server standing over the table with a wide smile on her face. It seems like such a long time ago that I was waiting on tables… when in reality it wasn’t even a year ago. Sometimes it’s still hard to believe how quickly my life has moved in that time. I guess so much has happened and that’s why it feels like it was ages ago.
“I’m OK,” I say.
Brenda and Jess both nod and smile at her. I’m sure our server thinks the tea is normal… I imagine every single Irish person drinks their tea like this, but it’s obvious by our nearly full cups that we aren’t used to it at all.
I make it about two-thirds of the way through my Irish Breakfast before I set down my knife and fork. I’m sure I could force myself to finish it, I’m still a bit hungry… but I just realized that I’m about to go try on wedding dresses and the last thing I need is to feel full.
“That was… different,” I say, “but really good… I’m glad we tried an Irish Breakfast.”
“Me too,” Jess says.
“What was the pudding made out of?”
“Are you sure you want to know?” Brenda says.
“Yeah… I’m done eating it now.”
“The black one… it has blood in it. It’s blood sausage.”
I wasn’t expecting that. I wrinkle my nose as I reach for my cup of tea… which is going to seem mild compared to the image I have in my mind right now.
“You OK?”
“Yeah,” I say, setting my empty cup down, “I… I just didn’t expect to be eating blood for breakfast.”
Jess is doing her best not to laugh as our server walks back over to the table and clears our dishes. She comes back with our check, which I pay using the credit card Spencer gave me.
“Ready?”
The other two women nod and we get up from the table. The driver is waiting in the car, but he quickly jumps out and opens the door for us before we even reach him.
“How was your breakfast?” he says.
“It was… an experience, thank you.”
“Where to next?” he says, once he’s back in the front.
“Do you have any recommendations? I need to buy a wedding gown and they need dresses.”
“There is a place not far from here… it’s supposed to be the best in all of Dublin.”
“Great.”
He smiles and turns back around. My phone chirps just as the cars pulls away from the café. I frown and fish it out of my purse… I didn’t think it would even work here. I assume it must be Spencer, trying to get a hold of me for some reason. No… it’s a text from a number I don’t recognize. I open it and shake my head as I read it.
Amy, it’s mom. Listen… I have some wonderful, big news that I want to share with you. I know you’re probably still upset with me, but I want to talk to you. I think if you’ll just hear me out then you’ll understand. I’ve changed… I realize that I made mistakes in the past and I just want the chance to make it up to you.
I drop my phone back in my purse. There might come a day when I’m ready to talk to her again, but it’s certainly not today. I hate how things went down between us—no matter what, even when she goes on to try and apologize, it’s all about her. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we’re related… I kind of wish my parents had found me in a cabbage patch or something because I think I would sleep easier knowing I didn’t share any DNA with her.
“What’s wrong?” Brenda says.
“Huh?”
“You’re scowling.”
“Oh,” I say, turning to her. “I was just thinking… it’s nothing major.”
I want to be happy… I’m getting married tomorrow and there’s no need to even talk about my mom.
“So,” Jess says, “do you have a specific color you want us to wear?”
“No… it’s not some crazy formal wedding with a bunch of people… as far as I know.”
“Yeah… Spencer said it would just be the six of us.”
“Then wear whatever you want,” I say.
“I want a gorgeous dress… so you better pick out the most expensive gown because obviously I don’t want to outshine you,” Jess says, jokingly.
I shake my head and roll my eyes. She’s ridiculous. Even though we spent a little time together in Aspen this is really the first time since I left Salem that I’ve gotten to have real time with her, away from Logan. I missed her terribly.
The car comes to stop before I can say anything in response. Spencer clearly knows me well enough that I would consider paying less for a gown if I thought I was getting a good deal… or that I was worried about spending too much of his money.
“Here we are.”
The driver gets out and opens the door for us. I glance up at the gold sign above the door, Mystique. It even sounds fancy. I pull on the door, but it doesn’t open. I frown and read the small sign to the left on the door.
Please ring the bell to be admitted. By appointment only.
“Ugh… they are by appointment only.”
“Let me see your credit card,” Jess says.
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
I take it out of my purse and hand it to her. She presses the buzzer to the left of the door. There is a speaker in the wall and what looks like a camera a few inches above it. This place doesn’t mess around. I try to look through the glass door as we wait, but they are so tinted that I really can’t see more than a few feet inside the store.
“Yes?” a woman says, her voice coming through the speaker.
“We want to buy a gown,” Jess says, “and some dresses.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but….”
“Read the sign,” she says, cutting Jess off.
Jess holds the credit up in front of the camera. There's a few second delay, but there is a buzzing sound and we hear the lock on the door disengage. Jess smiles at me as she hands the card back. I put it in my purse as we walk inside.
An elegant looking woman with flowing brown hair and wearing a long black dress walks toward us as we enter the store. It’s not a wide building, but it goes back at least a hundred feet and the walls are lined with gowns.
“Welcome to Mystique,” she says, “I’m… sorry about that… we get a fair bit of people coming in off the street to look at what we offer.”
It’s amazing how money can literally open doors. If we were anywhere else I would be irritated by what the woman had done, but I’m already so distracted by everything in the shop that I don’t even care. There are racks of bridesmaids dresses in every imaginable color and a few wedding gowns on display that truly look like they belong in a museum.
“It’s fine,” Jess says, realizing I’m too distracted to answer the woman.
“My name is Orla… and I would be more than happy to assist you in finding exactly what you need.”
“Thank you,” I say.
“What are you looking for?”
“Well, I need a wedding gown and I guess we need a dress for each of them.”
“Wonderful. And when is the wedding?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“That’s… we will make it work.”
I have a feeling she was going to protest the time frame, but she remembered the black credit card that’s in my purse.
“Good.”
“Do you have any particular style… or designer in mind?”
“No… sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Orla says, smiling. “Please follow me… and we will get started.”
We follow her toward the back of the store and through an opening in the wall. The next room is more open and there are only a handful of dresses on display. One wall is covered by mirrors and there is a large half-circle couch in the middle of the room.
“Please take a seat.”
We sit down on the couch just as a young woman walks into the room with a tray bearing three Champagne flutes. She hands a glass to each of us and quickly disappears.
“I will go pick out several gowns.”
Orla walks out of the room and I turn to Jess with a smile on my face. She’s already halfway through her Champagne.
“This is nuts,” I say, “I wasn’t expecting this at all.”
I glance over at Brenda, who has been oddly quiet today. I really hope that my relationship with Jess hasn’t made her feel like she’s a third wheel or something like that.
“Are you OK?” I say, to Brenda.
“Oh… yeah… I’m fine.”
She smiles and takes a drink of Champagne. I decide to take a sip as well… it’s delicious and probably fairly dangerous because it goes down without any effort.
“Thank you for being here,” I say, “it… it means a lot to me. Whether or not you know it, I think of you almost like a mother.”
Brenda smiles and puts her arm around me.
“Good… because I think of you as being family… and pretty soon you’re going to be just that.”
“I’m excited to be Amy Thomas.”
“Are you going to change your last name?” Jess says.
“Yeah… why?”
“No reason… it just seems like a lot of Hollywood people don’t when they get married.”
“That’s me… bucking Hollywood trends left and right.”
Brenda and Jess both laugh as I drink some more of my Champagne. Changing my last name wasn’t even something I had thought about… I kind of figured it was a given. I wouldn’t have even thought about it until Jess mentioned it, but she’s right… a lot of people in Hollywood don’t change their last names. I’m sure it has something to do with name recognition when it comes to their work… or maybe it’s just because no one expects Hollywood marriages to last. I couldn’t care less about my name being identified with my acting… and I know our love will last forever. As far as I see it, changing my name is just that much more distance I can put between myself and my mom.
Orla walks back into the room and holds her hand out as if to guide the woman behind her into the room. A slim woman with light brown hair walks by Orla… and she’s wearing a beautiful gown.
“I’ve picked out five gowns that I think you will like. This is the first one.”
The woman walks up to us and slowly turns before walking back to Orla. She stops and slowly spins around so that we can get a good look at the gown from every possible angle.
“What do you think?”
“It’s gorgeous,” I say, “but maybe a little conventional.”
There’s not really anything wrong with it… it just seems very formal and from what little Spencer told me it didn’t seem like that was the kind of wedding we were going to have.
Orla nods and follows the woman out of the room.
“I agree with you,” Brenda says, “it would be a lovely dress if you were having a traditional wedding in a church… but you’re young… you should have something that suits your personality a little more.”
The girl who brought us the Champagne walks into the room with a bottle in her hands and she swiftly fills our glasses back up. I need to pace myself… it’s early in the day and we still have a lot to do. Brenda seems to be on the same page as me, but Jess is sucking it down like there’s no tomorrow.
Orla comes back in with the same model, but this time she’s wearing a gown that actually causes me to lean forward as I study it. It’s a tea gown with a high collar and most of the top is intricate lace. The dress is white, but the gown comes to life as some kind of metallic fiber woven into it moves as she walks toward us.
“It’s perfect,” I say.
It really is. When I was a little girl I would sometimes dream of getting married someday… and this was pretty much what I imagined my dress would look like.
The model walks over to us and spins around. The more I look at the gown, the more I fall in love with it. She walks away and stands next to Orla.
“Do you wish to see the other three I picked out?” Orla says.
I glance at Jess and then Brenda, but neither of them seem to have a thought either way.
“No,” I say, “I think that’s the one.”
“Wonderful… if you’d follow me.”
“How much is it?”
Jess elbows me in the side as I stand up. I couldn’t help myself. I know Spencer said it doesn’t matter, but I’m still curious to know what it’s going to cost Spencer. It must be the practical part of me rearing its head… because I can’t help thinking about how expensive all of this is. The jet… the hotel… the clothes… it’s adding up quickly.
“Twenty.”
I choke on my Champagne and barely manage to not spit it across the room.
“Twenty thousand dollars?”
“No… Euro.”
“Amy,” Brenda says, “just go try it on.”
I shake my head in disbelief as I walk toward Orla and the model. I follow them out of the room and down a short hallway to a dressing room. The three of us go in and I shield my eyes as the model strips down right in front of me. It must be a European thing. I open my eyes just in time to see her putting on a bathrobe and walking out of the room.
Orla smiles and nods… I guess she understands that I’m a little more modest than the girl working for her. I expect her to leave the room so that I can change in privacy, but instead she just turns her back to me. All right then.