Holly's Wishes (3 page)

“So, do you still live in Forest Hills?” Ben asked, bringing her attention back to the conversation.

“Hmm? Oh yes, I do,” she replied. “I’m a teacher at West Place Elementary.”

“No kidding! That’s where I went to school.”

“Did you? I was at East Place. We’ve got a few old geezers left at West. I’ll bet you know some of them. What about you? Are you still in town?” She was more curious to learn about his present status. They could always reminisce about old teachers later.

“Yup, I can’t seem to get away. I manage the plastics plant in the industrial park.”

“You don’t say. My dad worked there for years.”

“I know,” he said with a smile. “He’s the one who hired me as his replacement.”

Holly cocked her head and grinned. “Small world. Well, I have to warn you, he left because of the stress. His blood pressure was through the roof. He’s got a nice cushy desk job now.”

Ben nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“It’s funny I haven’t run into you all this time. You know, I still have that picture of us from the dance during our sophomore year.”

“Get out!” Laughing, she admitted, “So do I. Our outfits were something else, weren’t they?”

“I don’t know who had more ruffles, you or me.” He cringed in shame before breaking out in a belly laugh with her.

“They wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t pastel yellow. We looked like two sticks of butter … ruffled butter. Maybe we should destroy the evidence ASAP. You don’t suppose there are more copies floating around, do you?”

“I don’t know,” he said, “but I’m all for getting rid of them. I’ve got a shredder all ready to be fired up for those suckers.”

What’s it been—ten years since that dance?”

“Just about, yes.”

Taking a sip of her drink, Holly tried to think of something else to say. They’d reached the point of awkward silence after discussing high school, bad fashion, and what they currently did for a living. She’d purposely left out Jared. He wasn’t really worth talking about, especially after his behavior tonight. Scanning the room, she searched for him. He seemed to be missing. Maybe he’d already passed out in the lobby. Hopefully someone made sure he was on a chair or couch and not sprawled out across the floor.

Ben hadn’t brought up a significant other either. So what now? The weather? She watched the bubbles in her champagne while listening to the band.

“This kind of reminds me of that dance,” Ben said, breaking the silence between them. “… minus the bride and groom part, of course.”

She looked around at the crowd on the dance floor. “It kind of does,” she agreed. “With a lot less ruffles, thank goodness.”

The sophomore dance, the Soph Hop, was
the
big social event in tenth grade. Holly had been feeling depressed because no one had asked her to go. Specifically, Ben hadn’t asked her to go. After much prodding from Ava, she’d decided to invite him instead. It had taken every last ounce of courage to work up the nerve, but she finally did it, and had been thrilled when he said yes.

The night of the dance had been a dream come true for her. From start to finish it was like a fairytale. Then, at the stroke of midnight, her prince dropped her back home with a gentle kiss to her lips. She’d thought her life couldn’t possibly get any better than it was at that moment. Sadly, the next day he barely spoke to her, completely breaking her heart.

“I had a really good time with you that night. I … I wanted to ask you out after, but I was so painfully shy back then. I didn’t actually know how to act around girls. I hope you didn’t think it was because I didn’t like you or anything.”

She looked up at him in shock. All this time—she wished she had known. “You were my first kiss,” she said, smiling bashfully.

Gazing at her, he grinned. “You were my first kiss, too.”

She sat for a second, staring into his eyes. She’d always thought he had the most amazing eyes.
He still did.
“I’m glad you told me, and for the record, I would have gone out with you.”

“Damn,” he said, shaking his head.

“Talking about that dance sure does bring back a lot of memories. Hey, remember that girl who jumped on stage and started doing some weird dirty dancing impersonation? The football team was pretty bummed that the chaperones pulled her outside before her top came off. What was her name? Mindy?”

“Michelle,” he said.

“That’s right, Michelle. Michelle Floyd. Now I remember. She had quite a reputation through high school, didn’t she? I wonder what ever happened to her. Do you know?”

“Yeah,” he said. “She’s my girlfriend.”

Holly opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the lead singer of the band. “
If everyone could please take their seats, dinner is about to be served.”

“I’m— I didn’t mean—” she managed to stammer before whirling out of her seat and running off. Seems Jared wasn’t the only one to make an ass out of himself that evening.

Chapter 5

“What is the matter with you?” Tessa asked, a snippy tone in her voice. “You’ve barely said two words since we started eating. I have to say, you haven’t been a very fun date. Are you still upset about Jared?”

“What?” Holly answered, too distracted to pay much attention to what her sister was saying. “No.”

As predicted, Jared never made it to dinner, although he wasn’t propped up on a chair somewhere in the lobby as originally planned. Instead, Max and Ava decided it was time to let him sleep it off in the honeymoon suite for a bit. He couldn’t get into any trouble in there … at least Holly hoped not.

“I’m okay. Embarrassed, but okay.” She felt bad her lousy mood was affecting Tessa.

She watched as Ava and Max glided across the dance floor. Did they ever have problems, or was their relationship always as perfect as it seemed to be?

“Oh, don’t worry about Jared.” Tessa wrapped her arm around Holly’s shoulder. “We’re all used to him. It’s part of his charm,” she said with a reassuring squeeze.

Holly furrowed her brow. Was she joking? It wasn’t
charming
at all
.
Anyway, her boyfriend had little to do with her state of embarrassment at the moment. Truth be told, as much as she hated his behavior, she was sadly used to it. That didn’t mean it was okay or
charming
, it just meant she wasn’t surprised by it anymore. She’d deal with him later. Right now she had other things on her mind.

“See that guy over there?” Holly asked, motioning to Ben’s table.

“The one who keeps staring at you? He’s a hottie.”

 “Don’t look at him! Pretend you’re eating. I know him from high school. We went to this dance together when I was in tenth grade, the Soph Hop. You probably don’t remember—you were just a little kid.”

“Oh yeah,” Tessa said, trying to adjust her body so she wasn’t directly facing him. “I do remember! You wore that crazy yellow dress with all the ruffles. I thought you were Lil Bo Peep’s long lost sister or something. Not a flattering choice. He looks different without the glasses and pimples.” She glanced over at him quickly. “I know I’m not supposed to be looking, but um, he’s headed this way.”

“What?” Holly squealed, sinking into her seat. “Oh crap.” She ducked down, her head under the table, pretending she’d dropped her napkin.

“Holly?” Ben asked. “Did you lose something?”

“Huh?” She bumped her head as she came up. “
Shit.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she muttered, trying to shake off both the physical pain and lingering humiliation from their earlier conversation. “Have you met my sister, Tessa?”

“Ah,” her sister said, “so this is the Soph Hop date.
Ow!”
She yelped in response to Holly’s kick under the table. “Nice to meet you,” she said, grinning through gritted teeth. “
Again.”

“Nice to see you again, too,” he said, a smile playing at the corner of his lips as he turned his attention back to Holly. “Would you like to dance?”

 “Oh. I don’t know if I …”

“Just go!” Tessa ordered, shoving Holly’s chair out with her foot, practically dumping her out of her seat in the process.

“Um, sure, thanks,” she said, glaring at her sister. Following him to the front of the room, she hoped the song the band chose to play wasn’t a long one.

Holly reached one hand up to his shoulder, allowing him to take her other in his. They stayed an awkward distance apart as they moved to the music. Even in heels, she was still considerably shorter than he was. She’d always been the shortest of the three sisters. Somewhere in the gene pool, she’d lost out in the height department. If she looked straight ahead, she’d be staring at his neck, so she decided to look off to the side instead.

“I’m sorry—” they both began at the same time.

“No …  you go,” they both continued. Their light chuckles seemed to be exactly what she needed to relax a little. Turning her head, she gazed up at him.

“Please,” Ben told her, “go ahead.”

“I just …” Holly began, closing her eyes for a moment. “I feel terrible about what I said, about Michelle. That was sixteen-year-old gossipy teenage me talking, not twenty-five-year-old mature adult me. To be honest, I didn’t know her at all in school, and it was a long time ago—I’m sure she’s a great girl. Besides, I’m not exactly one to pass judgment. My boyfriend is upstairs sleeping off his drinking binge. He was the guy on the dance floor who slid into the band earlier? Yeah. I’m going to pull my very large foot out of my mouth now.”

“That’s your boyfriend?” He laughed, and then cleared his throat. “Sorry. No, I was going to apologize, too. I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that. I know I caught you off-guard. Like you said, it was a long time ago. When I first met her, I didn’t even realize it was the same person until we got to talking.”

“So you two haven’t been together since high school?” Holly asked. She didn’t remember Michelle having a steady boyfriend back then. She preferred to … move around.

“No. We didn’t even know each other in high school. Not really. I mean I knew who she was, but we never dated or anything. We actually only met this past summer.”

“You don’t say.” Holly glanced around, more interested in Michelle’s current whereabouts and less interested in the story of how they met. From what she could tell, Ben had come to the wedding alone. “So, is Michelle here?”

“She’s on a business trip. She’s the Director of Marketing for her company. They’re based out of Manhattan.”

“Does she travel a lot?”

“Not too often. These days, most of her work can be done remotely, but every now and again they want to see a human. The timing isn’t always the best.”

Holly couldn’t tell if he sounded sad or annoyed, but she could tell Michelle’s schedule did not make him happy.

The music ended, but Ben still held on to Holly, staring down at her. She thought she saw something in his eyes, a spark maybe. Perhaps she was imagining things.

She caught sight of her family standing in front of the bridal table. “I, um, I should be getting back. Looks like Ava’s getting ready to throw the bouquet. She promised to aim it at me. It was great seeing you again. Thanks for the dance.”

“Same here,” he said, his hand lingering at her waist a few seconds longer before slowly letting her go. He began to head toward his table, but turned back around. “Hey, good luck,” he added.

“Good luck?”

“Yes,” he said, motioning to the crowd of women starting to surround the bride. “With the bouquet catching, I mean.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

Chapter 6

“Honestly, Jared! At my own sister’s wedding!” Holly paced their bedroom, fuming, pausing to slam dresser drawers, as she changed out of her gown and into a sweatshirt and yoga pants.

“Could you tone it down a little, Hol? My head is pounding.” He lay curled on the bed, looking like hell.

“I’ll bet,” she said, struggling to pull the sweatshirt over her head. Her hair was still in its fancy up-do from the wedding. “You’re lucky Jenna’s asleep in the next room, otherwise I’d really be making some noise.” As far as she was concerned, he’d earned every ounce of misery he was feeling now. She placed the silk gown into the garment bag, hanging it in her closet, and began the painstaking process of removing the fifty or so bobby pins that had held her hair perfectly in place all evening.

“You’re doing a pretty good job already,” he mumbled, before jumping up and racing to the bathroom.

As the reception started to wind down, Max and Holly went up to the honeymoon suite to check on Jared. Kick him out was more like it, since Max kind of wanted to use it for Ava and himself at that point. They’d expected to find Jared fast asleep. Instead, they found him hunched over the toilet getting sick. Max helped him get cleaned up while Holly went back downstairs to get Jenna and say good-bye. She was looking forward to spending quality time with her niece while Ava and Max took a short honeymoon before returning to California.

He stumbled back over to the bed, appearing a bit green, but unapologetic. “It was a party, and they had an open bar. They wanted people to drink.”

“They wanted people to have a
few
drinks each,” she said, “not drink enough to pass out before the food was served.”

“So I drank a little too much, what’s the big deal?”

Why didn’t he care? Did he enjoy feeling this way?
She didn’t understand.

“You always drink too much. This happens every time we go out, Jared. Every. Time. You do realize that, don’t you?” Even after all of the hairpins were out, her hair stayed in perfect formation on top of her head. She attempted to run her brush through it to separate the strands. After the third attempt, her long blonde hair fell over her shoulders. A good shampoo would remove whatever hairspray remained.

 Picking up the bouquet she’d caught at Ava’s wedding, she twirled it between her fingers. “I don’t know why I thought tonight would be any different. I guess I’m the idiot who thought
maybe
this time you’d be a little more mature since it was my sister’s wedding—a wedding that might even have some sort of effect on you—
maybe
get you thinking. Apparently, the only thing you were thinking about was how much fun you could have.”