Elly In Bloom (32 page)

Elly’s vision spun, just as it had when Sunny showed her Aaron’s painting. Lucia’s face hovered right above hers, and Elly felt the walls closing in. She was fainting, she had lost control. She uncurled her palm slowly. Maybe on her way down, she could claw her face. She raised her hand, just as her knees began buckling.
Oh, let me smack her before I go……

“Elly?” Elly’s head jerked up. Isaac stood in the doorway, an Ada’s hot chocolate in his hand and his guitar strapped handsomely across his back. He eyed Lucia with disdain. “What’s going on? Elly, are you okay?”

He strode over to Elly and took her arm in his soft hands, pulling her away from Lucia. “You look upset.” He peered into her eyes. “Sweetie, are you about to faint? Your pupils are going crazy - what’s wrong?”

Thank you, God,
Elly thought,
for this incredibly naive, incredibly romantic and gorgeous man.
Isaac gathered Elly in his arms and circled defensively around her looking right at Lucia, who was staring, mouth open at his imposing presence.

“Why were you poking her? Who are you?”

Lucia’s bright red mouth gaped open like a fish. “Er, um, my Mom is waiting for me in the car.”

“Is she dropping you off at the mall?” Isaac laughed out loud and Lucia turned and fled, the bells clanking angrily behind her.

He gently trailed his finger down Elly’s cheek and kissed her chin. “Who was that girl? She looked like she was bullying you or something.” He pulled Elly into his shoulder, where she breathed in the cool, clean smell of his shirt. “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re pale and sweaty.”

In that moment, Elly had never appreciated Isaac more. His hair hung over his eyes, and his bright teeth curved up in a half smile. Here he was, her knight in shining armor. If Lucia was the hurricane ripping through her life, than Isaac was the calm breeze keeping the storm at sea. She wanted to disappear into his arms forever, and hide in the crook of his neck until this whole thing dissipated. Elly looked into his deep brown eyes.

“Elly…” he started. Her gratitude overwhelmed her, combining with a wave of anger towards Lucia. Together they hurtled Elly towards Isaac.

“I love you” she whispered. His face melted with happiness and he pressed his lips against hers. Her heart ached with guilt.
I’m sorry
, Elly whispered in her head,
but I need to believe that now
.

That afternoon after the consultation, after Lucia had stomped out the door, and after Elly had stopped Isaac’s attempts to grope her, she headed back up to her apartment. She was thoroughly wasted, so tired that she could feel it in her bones, her eyes. She swung open the door, ignoring Cadbury’s wildly swinging tail, and headed straight for her bedroom. Shutting her door behind her, Elly pulled off her blouse and had started to pull off her camisole when she heard an “Ummmm?” Elly screamed loudly and bolted for the door. It had locked behind her. She pulled at it frantically.
Oh God, oh God
…..

A figure rose up from the bed and moved towards her. Elly whimpered and banged on the door. There was a moment of silence, and Elly anticipated the feel of a knife being buried in her back.

“What the heck is your problem? I swear, sometimes I think you’re crazy. Why are you so jumpy?” Elly turned around, to see Snarky Teenager standing next to the bed. She had on some of Elly’s blue flannel pajamas, which hung loosely around her, giving her the appearance of an overgrown child. She spun around “Look! I had to find some ribbons to hold them up! They’re really cozy though. Wearing your pj’s is like wearing a blanket.”

Elly leaned back against the door, trying to calm her thundering heart which was threatening to burst out of her chest. “I forgot you were up here. Was it so hard to call out to me when I came in the door?”

Snarky Teenager rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I was sleeping. I didn’t feel good when I came up here.” She sat down on the bed. “That woman was awful.” she looked up at Elly. “Lucia is the devil.”

Elly nodded and sank down to the floor, sitting comfortably against the door. “I know. I’ll have to tell you about what happened when Sunny left.”

“Do you know what she told me? She told me that I would grow up to be trailer trash and that while I was pretty now, it was obvious that I wasn’t very smart.” Elly glanced up, surprised to see Snarky Teenager’s eyes fill with tears. “I thought that I would be a match for her. I mean, I’m pretty hot, and,” she gave Elly a devious grin, “I’m wicked sarcastic. But she was a different kind of mean. She wasn’t funny mean, she was cruel. One minute I was in there, totally chill and I felt like I had the upper hand, and the next moment I was getting screamed at, and I wanted to cry. I was so overwhelmed…” She looked down guiltily. “I’m sorry I left you alone. I was upset, but I should have stayed.”

Elly shook her head, stood and sat down on the bed next to her, wrapping her arm around Snarky Teenager’s shoulders. “No. This is my issue to deal with. People like Lucia, sadistic and devious people – there is no point in arguing with them. You should have never had to attempt it and it’s my fault for leaving you at the table with her. That was completely wrong of me. I thought I was about to lose control and I had to get away, but it wasn’t the right choice. Forgive me?”

Snarky Teenager nodded and then looked at Elly weirdly. “Why is your arm around my shoulders?”

Elly bit the inside of her cheek. “Get off of my bed. You still have half a workday to finish.”

“Can I wear your pj shirt as a dress? It’s kind of hip in like a retro, old person way.”

Elly pointed at the stairs. “Go. I can’t believe I paid you today to take a nap in my bed.”

Snarky Teenager grabbed her white knit dress and headed to the bathroom to change. “No. You paid me today to defend you from your ex-husband’s lover. If you ask me, I am being
drastically
underpaid.”

Elly heard the door slam. She would apologize later, she decided. Finally alone, Elly closed her eyes and lay down on her bed. She saw Lucia leaning over her, her long fingernail poking into Elly’s chest. Her eyes. Her eyes were filled with such rage, such unrelenting hatred. Elly had expected the smugness, the superiority. She had not expected Lucia’s billowing anger, big enough to fill a city block. It was hard to believe that same face, those same fingers were kissed and loved by Aaron. How could he love someone like that, someone so harsh? Had Aaron ever really loved her, his wife? How could he, if he could love someone like Lucia?

Or,
she thought tearfully
, was I just his meal ticket? A woman who gave him a warm home, who cooked for him, and made love to him in the hot afternoons? Was my entire life with him a lie?

Elly groaned and buried herself under the covers with Cadbury, giving herself over to every drop of despair; the tears and the anger, the shock and the jealously, the betrayal and the disappointment. She let them all in, and they wrapped around her like a cocoon. There was strange comfort in letting the pain take over and she let herself slide into it, thought after destructive thought.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

It was the end of October, and Elly believed she was sweating to death. One in the morning was not an attractive time for Elly on a normal day, but with the added sweat, frustration, and the fact that she was half-naked, it became a nightmare of epic proportions. Her pajama shorts sat bunched at her side, and her tank top lay damp against her skin. The back of the store wasn’t air conditioned and without it, the design area and back storage closet became infernos, even in colder weather. That, unfortunately, was where Elly was counting out crystal dangles.

It had been a few weeks since Lucia’s disastrous consultation, and Elly was tinkering this particular evening on the edge of madness. No one had informed her that beading and counting 1,500 dangling Swarovski crystals would take hours upon hours, and that while the light reflecting off the crystals made the room a sparkling wonderland, it made it very hard to count.

“750, 751…” Elly pulled out each crystal, inspected it, and hung it on a hanger. The studio, while being under her actual home, had become her only home. In the last few weeks, Elly had done nothing but take meticulous detailed steps planning the Kepke wedding. Aaron’s wedding. Earlier that week, Elly spent the entire day ordering flowers, and then buckets to hold all those flowers. She had done some large weddings before, but there was still something about writing “500 White Phalenopsis Orchids Stems” that gave her cold sweats. Her massive order placed (five pages of flowers, two pages of floral supplies, and one full page of glassware), she moved on to making sure that her order was shipped in the right time frame. Greenery was being delivered the Wednesday of the wedding, orchids and tropicals on Thursday and the bridal party’s flowers arrived Friday. Getting such a behemoth delivery all at once would cripple the store, and leave them all to die, buried by imposing piles of parrot tulips and gardenias.

The flower shipments had all been arranged to fly in – rather than refrigerated trucks – to ensure that the flowers would be as fresh as possible. After the order was completed, and a bottle of wine had been drunk, Elly had started ordering the endless stream of accessories that would bedeck the wedding: granite and ceramic urns, natural wooden branches, beaded linens (dropped off at the caterer’s early this morning, who gave Elly a exhausted look filled with empathy), ivory taper candles, monogram stencils and gold filigree napkin rings.

Then there were the glass vases. Bud vases, cylinder vases, flute vases, and pedestal vases, tapered vases and Pilsner vases, all to be filled with lush arrangements. When Elly walked out of the glass wholesaler, pressing her temples in an effort to quell the pounding headache caused by spending three thousand dollars on glassware, the owner – a large and smelly German man – picked her up in a boisterous hug, mumbling something about his children’s Christmas. In addition to Elly’s two delivery vans, Anthony’s SUV and Keith’s sandwich delivery truck, Elly had rented three vans for the delivery and had hired five laborers Keith had recommended to help them set up the wedding. That put the total at nine people – herself, Kim, Anthony, Snarky Teenager and the five hired hands. If she considered it honestly, she could see that this was a somewhat shabby team for task assigned. There was no other way to say it: she was screwed.

Back in the studio, Elly wiped a line of sweat off her forehead, and laughed goofily as she looked down beside her. She had long ago forsaken the use of her bra. How long until everything came off? She chuckled to herself.
I’m delirious tired. It’s time for bed.
It was almost two in the morning, and Elly was still counting out crystals for the wedding, making sure they were all there and accounted for.
What was she doing??

1237, 1248…

The dim lights in the back studio made the floor shimmer with their reflection, and Elly felt a little bit like she was high, like she was sitting on a sea of diamonds. She had been at it now for three hours, singing along to The Carpenters, and enjoying the solitude of a quiet night. Elly sighed as she hung up a couple more crystals, and then yelped as the plastic shelf they were sitting on came crashing down around her, buckling under their weight. Crystals fell from the shelf, showering Elly like heavy raindrops. One nicked her cheek on the way down, and Elly felt a small trickle on blood run down her face. She groaned and looked down at the scattered crystals. This wedding was going to be the death of her. Literally.

After her face had been washed and a bandage put on her cheek, she leaned back against the studio cooler and let her thoughts rest pleasantly on Isaac’s face. Those brown eyes, so deep, like chocolate wax. Sporadically through the night, Elly had forced herself to think of Isaac’s features, not only as a way of passing the time, but also as a way or reassurance. He was a glorious, wild thing, and the way he had come to her defense with Lucia had made her want to meld herself to him permanently. His crooked smile splashed across her mind as Elly plodded back into the sweltering room of shimmer.

1486, 1487
…

Elly was close to finishing counting the crystals when she heard a knock at the shop door. Cadbury let out a low growl. She quickly stood and pulled on her pants. Who would be knocking at 2 am? Through the glass window, she could see the shape of a man holding a bag. Isaac. She breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door. Keith’s blue eyes gazed up at her from under an old frumpy Ascot cap.