Torn (30 page)

 

“We were playing around and he grabbed it a little hard. It truly is nothing, okay? It is now all about you.
You should be telling ME this, not the other way around!”

“Alright, if you say so.” I could tell that she knew I was lying, but she was getting nervous about her
wedding, she seemed to let it go. “I was thinking of wearing my hair in waves. What do you think?” She
asked as she messed with her hair.

“I think you will look beautiful, do you need me to do it?” I asked as I began to mess with her hair.

 

“Please. I am all nervous and I don’t want to worry about burning myself.” She laughed.

 

“Alright. Let me go plug in your curling iron and you sit down and rest. Can I get you anything? Food?
Drink?”

 

“No, I’m actually still full from breakfast. I think I tried everything down there. I’m worried that my dress
is not going to fit me! Oh my god, Ryleigh, what if my dress doesn’t fit?” She said in a panic.

“Court, your dress will fit just fine. Don’t freak out. Even if it doesn’t, there are people in this hotel that
could MAKE it fit.” I said to her with a wink. “Look they are even making sure your husband looks good;
he didn’t want to look all wrinkled so he is going to find someone to press his suit! So I wouldn’t worry
about anything.” I headed into the bathroom to set up my makeup and plug in her curling iron and my
straightener.

I could see Courtney watching TV and finally calming herself down. I made sure I had everything that I
needed to get us both ready. I began to straighten my hair while I waited for her curling iron to heat up,
I only had a few strands that I needed to fully straighten out.

After making sure Courtney was fully satisfied with the way her hair was curled and her makeup was
totally perfect; we slipped her dress on. I was praying quietly that it went on without any problems. I
don’t think that her makeup would survive a full blown meltdown. It went on without any sort of
problems. I may have not wanted Court to cry, but when I saw her in full wedding attire, I could feel
tears come to my eyes. She looked absolutely gorgeous. Her dress had capped sleeves and a diamond
cutout in the back. It had a bit of lace from the belted area up in her midsection down to the bottom;
the top was like a satin material. It almost looked like it was something from the 1920’s.

“Courtney. You look… Beautiful.” I wiped my eyes careful not to smear my makeup.
“Thank you so much Ryleigh. Not just for that, but for everything. You really are my best friend and I
don’t know if I would be here without you. I love you!” Courtney embraced me into a hug and then
quickly pulled away. “I don’t want to ruin my makeup and you are going to make me cry! Now, hurry up
and get your dress on and let’s go. What time is it?” She grabbed her phone. “Shit it’s already 2:10! How
the hell do we lose track of time?” She then started messing with her phone while I dressed.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I looked over to see her texting and she had a smirk on her face.

 

“I guess I had a message that I missed and I am just replying.” She said giddily and kept her head down.

Was she replying to Caleb? Either way, I needed to hurry up and get dressed! I was going to be the one
getting us downstairs late when Jason was telling ME to make sure Court was the one that wouldn’t run
late. I reapplied my makeup and got us out the door. We quickly made a stop by my room so I could
throw all my stuff in there.

We hurried to the reception room to get there at 2:27.

 

“Nothing like cutting it close, huh?” I laughed and faced Courtney. “You ready?” I said smiling really big.

 

“Yes! Let’s do this!” Her smile couldn’t get any bigger if she tried. We opened the door to find Jason and
Liam waiting at the end of the aisle.

The casino manager, Stephanie, and her team really had gone above and beyond. They decorated the
room and had hired an onsite photographer for Courtney. Some friend I was, I didn’t even think to grab
my phone out to take pictures. I made a mental note to send Stephanie a really nice tip and maybe
some sort of gift basket.

The ceremony, for being a quick Vegas wedding, was actually incredible. No Elvis’ there to sing or escort
her down the aisle, but a piano player to play for Courtney when she came down the aisle and flowers
EVERYWHERE. I finally had a time to shed a few tears in between pictures. The photographer definitely
had captured some really great photos of the entire ceremony. I was so ecstatic the entire time.

After Jason and Court finally said their ‘I do’s’, we all got to sit down with the photographer and pic out
the pictures to keep. Each picture was stunning! He said that he would send all the pictures, with some
touch ups to their room in a few hours.

We stood around talking for a moment, I found myself trying to avoid Liam as much as possible. I mostly
talked to Courtney and laughed about how she is in total lockdown now that she is married.

 

I had seen a door open in the corner of my eye andI had seen Stephanie peek in. I had waved to her and
she had signaled for me to come over to her. I walked over to greet her.

“This was more than enough, thank you so much! Youreally made her day!” I said shaking her hand.
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that! I wanted to see if you all were ready for the cake. I know that usually cake
goes after dinner, but I made your reservations for 5:00 so you have a little time to kill.” Stephanie said
checking her watch. We did have about an hour and a half to kill.

“I think she would love some. I can’t deny cake to a pregnant lady!” I laughed.

“Oh and she is pregnant? In that case, I am not going to deny her either! I have 2 boys at home and I
know that cake is a must when you are pregnant. I’ll go get it now and I will be back in a bit. You all are
welcome to eat it in here, there aren’t any other weddings scheduled tonight.” She smiled and headed
away from the room. I could feel my stomach turn a little bit; the thought of cake for me was not
helping me at all.

“Courtney, I have a surprise for you! It’s on its way!” I smiled as I skipped back over to her.

 

“More surprises? I love getting married! Jason, sorry we have to keep doing this especially if I am going
to get spoiled like this!” She pinched his arm.

 

“Courtney, you are spoiled all the time! This is not something new!” I reminded her.

 

Stephanie reentered the room with a small two tiered cake, followed by a couple staff members carrying
in a table and four chairs.

 

Courtney gasped and began to tear up.

 

“Ryleigh! This is awesome!” She covered her mouth.

 

“Thank Stephanie; she was the one that made this all possible!” I said pointing over to Stephanie as she
was setting up the table.

 

Courtney walked over to her and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you so much! Please stay and enjoy some cake with us! I insist and I was told that today is about
me and I get my way.” Courtney joked. “But all joking aside, I would be honored if you stay and have a
slice with us.”

“I think I can do that. Thank you very much.” Stephanie said with a smile.

As everyone enjoyed the cake, I picked at mine to get some food down. I got to know that Stephanie a
little better. She had 2 boys; their father was in the military and was deployed overseas. He was to come
home in 3 months. They had lived in Vegas because her family was from there. She lived with her Mom
and Dad and even though she didn’t have to work, she loved having the extra cash on hand. She said it
was ‘just in case money’.

Liam had been chatting with Jason and Courtney while I talked to Stephanie; I had to make sure that the
both of them were not saying anything that I was going to hear later on tonight, things looked like they
were going well.
I checked the clock that was on the wall across the room and found that it was nearing dinner. I
definitely needed to eat something.

“Hey, are you guys ready to go and eat?” I asked.

 

“Do you really need to ask that?” Courtney responded with a smile.

 

“No, I don’t. Maybe I should have just said, ‘dinner time Court’ and rang a bell.” I laughed.

 

“You. Are. So. Funny.” She said sarcastically.

We headed out of the room, Stephanie said that they would hold the cake in the kitchen until they were
to check out and make sure that they were able to get it home. She led us to the Steakhouse down on
the other side of the hotel.

When we arrived we were introduced to the head chef and seated at a table that seemed quite
secluded from the rest of the restaurant. It lookedlike a banquet dining area, but it was decorated in
the same flowers that were in the reception hall.

We had the most delicious food, the steak was perfect- even to the boy’s standards- and the rest of the
food was just as amazing. The chef would come out before each course and suggest a wine pairing with
the food, but I passed mine off to Liam, letting him know I wanted to be able to have fun later and not
be drunk before the night began. I felt as if I were part of the rich and famous.

“Hey.” Liam whispered into my ear. “I really am truly sorry about your wrist. I don’t know what got into
me. I don’t want to continue not speaking for the rest of the night. I do love you.” He then kissed my
ear.

“I love you too. Don’t worry about it. No more silent treatment.” I rubbed my wrist underneath the table
and nonchalantly rubbed my abdomen.

We all sat around talking the rest of the meal. We enjoyed a dessert and I about reached for the wine
glass and brought up to my mouth, but realized what I was doing with the look that Court was giving me.
“Alright, so we are all going out tonight, for surethis time. Right?” I quickly asked placing the glass
down.

“Yes! I just want to get out of this dress, even though I feel beautiful and would rock it out, I just don’t
know if I can totally dance in this.” Court said asshe began to stand up.

 

“Alright, how about we all go upstairs and change and then meet by the elevators in 15 minutes?” I
looked at my phone for the time.

 

“Can we make it 30 minutes?” Jason asked with a devilish smile on his face. I couldn’t help but bust out
laughing.

 

“Yeah, I think we can manage to delay going out.” Iraised my water glass, “To the beautiful couple Mr.
and Mrs. Goodson!”

 

Everyone raised their glasses and we drank to that.

We all set down our glasses and we started towards the elevators to get ready. I had felt great all
evening but my stomach was starting to feel a little unsettled. I was praying to god that I wasn’t going to
lose it.

As we got upstairs, we waved each other off and I saw the couple run to their room.

We got to our room and Liam headed over to his suitcase and began to pull out his nice slacks and his
blue striped shirt. I always enjoyed seeing him in blue. Earlier was completely uncalled for, I was still
complete shock, but I just wanted to make this night about Courtney. We were going to have a great
time at the club! I always enjoyed going out dancing, it was my one of my favorite things to do.

I walked up to Liam and gave him a sweet kiss. He returned the kiss but then went back to getting ready.

 

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just feel bad for earlier and I don’t deserve your sweet kisses right now. I think that we should
go out and have some fun and then come back here and let me make it up to you.” He said as he
buttoned up his shirt.

“Oh. Okay. Well, I am going to go reapply my makeup real quick and then get dressed. Want to make us
a drink before we go?” I asked heading into the bathroom. As soon as I got into the bathroom, I lost it.

 

“Ryleigh? Are you okay?” Liam asked concerned, knocking at the door.

 

“Yeah, I just think that I ate way too much and it sat very heavy.” I lied flushing the toilet. I got up and
quickly rinsed my mouth and opened the door.

 

“I was going to make me a drink, do you want a drink?” He asked as he looked in the mini bar. “We have
just about everything here.”

 

“Just a ginger ale or something like it, please.” I shut the bathroom door feeling a bit better. I finally got
around to my missed call and realized I had a voicemail as well.

 

“Hey Ryleigh. It’s me. I hope you are having a great time out there. Lunch definitely next week. I
will talk to you later. Be safe.”

 

Caleb. I felt my stomach turn a little more, but itwas in a good way. I missed him so much, but I had no
idea how I was going to tell him.

 

I quickly finished my makeup and got my hot pink dress on. I was going to have a great time tonight. I
needed just forget all that has happened. Even if it were for a few hours.

30 minutes never seemed like long enough, but I wasso anxious to go out to the club; it seemed like it
lasted forever.
When we met up with Court and Jason at the elevator they looked like they both had that ‘we just had
amazing sex’ glow. I had to say I was kind of jealous.

“You guys ready?” I said holding onto Liam’s hand, smiling.

 

“Yep, let’s go party! I guess if we needed a D.D. I guess I would be it.” Courtney said glumly.

“Come on, Court. It will still be fun! I will take you out after the baby is born and I will totally be your
designated driver, I promise!” I said as I grabbed her arm. She was dressed in a bright red halter dress
with black stilettos on. She looked very hot.

“Okay, I’m going to hold you to that!” She said with a smile and we entered the elevator to head down
to the night club. She knew just as well as I did, we would have to wait a bit longer.
It didn’t surprise me how busy it was in the club, it was a Saturday night. We were escorted to our table
and it was right next to the dance floor. We even had a little space that if we wanted to just stay by the
table and dance we could.

“I’m so excited! We’re going to have so much fun!” Courtney screamed over the music.

 

“If I could hear you, we’d have a lot more fun!” I laughed.

We sat down at our table and were greeted by a young waitress; she asked if she could make us a drink.
There was an array of bottles set on ice in front of our table. I shook my head and said not yet, she gave
me the craziest of looks, who comes to a club with full bottle service and not have a drink? I thought the
waitress was going to question Courtney, when she asked for a soda, but Court grabbed her belly and
the waitress then winked, knowing exactly what she meant. The men both had Vodka and Red Bulls
made up for them at the table.