“ do you think?”

“It’s beautiful. I love the detail on the skirt.” Jordan touched the delicate lace on the white dress Shelly was trying on. Her fingers ran across the beading and sequins and she glanced up to see her friend smiling down at her.

“Should we buy your dress while we’re here?” she asked.

“Absolutely not. There’s been quite enough talk this year about my attempt to get married. We are focussing one hundred percent on you today. When I have a ring on my finger, we’ll think about my dress. Do you want to try another?”

Shelly giggled as she stepped off the podium. “I want to try every damn dress in this store!”

“You shall have your wish, then,” Jordan laughed as the sales assistant stepped forward to start the long task of unbuttoning the fifty tiny buttons that held the dress tightly closed.

“How about this one? They have it in your size.” Emily carried a beautiful dress with a full tulle skirt over for her perusal. “Size ten,” she said wistfully. “I wish I was a size ten.”

“You’re a twelve, Emily—that’s so much better than being a perfect ten. It’s off the charts, babe.” Andrea joked from her seat on the lounge. She hadn’t joined in the dress selection, saying too many cooks would spoil the dish. Jordan suspected she was saving her strongest opinions for the bridesmaid dresses, and she hoped they would agree on the right one, when the time came. Disagreeing with Andrea when her heart was set on something was always bad.

Shelly slipped into the dressing room and talked to them through the door. “Do you girls want to bring dates to the wedding?”

“Not me,” Emily said. “Cooper and I didn’t work out, so I’m planning to snag a groomsman. Tell me there’s one that’s single.”

Shelly laughed as she slipped the next dress over her head. “Boyd has chosen his support team, and I can confirm that two of them are single. Hopefully they still will be by October.”

“That’s me done, then.” Emily turned to Jordan as she rifled through the dress rack. “How about you? I know it could be different by then, but if you chose right now, who would you bring?”

“I wouldn’t bring anyone. Bridesmaids are meant to hang out at the bridal table. A date would feel weird sitting at a table with people they don’t know.”

“You could bring Luke. He knows all of us.”

Jordan turned and gave her a frown before going back to the dresses in front of her. “Luke and I are just friends. Inviting him to a wedding gives the wrong impression.”

“Well, maybe Andrea could ask him as her date.” Another frown from Jordan had Emily smirking to herself as she turned away and rolled her eyes at Andrea. “How about it, Andrea? You’re not taken. Get Luke to come with you, and we can have the pleasure of his company.” Andrea sat up straight and cleared her throat. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her awkward stance had Emily narrowing her eyes. “Oh, ladies, I think Andrea Hilton has something to share with us all.”

Jordan turned around and looked at her, waiting for the announcement. Shelly stepped out of the changing room and motioned for Emily to zip up her dress. They all watched Andrea, waiting.

She looked awkward, like her words had caught in her throat. It wasn’t like her to be lost for words, and suddenly she had their full attention. Even the shop assistant had an ear cocked in their direction, although she pretended she was adding up figures on a calculator.

“Out with it, girlie,” Emily said quietly, and Andrea closed her eyes for a second.

“I won’t be bringing a boyfriend to the wedding,” she announced, and by the look on her face, she hoped that would be the end of it. She knew better, of course, and when the silence stretched out into seconds, she stumbled on. “I want to bring my friend, Lori.”

“Lori wants to come to Shelly’s wedding? Won’t she be bored there, like Luke would be, since she doesn’t know anyone?” Emily asked.

“Well, I guess she could be.” Andrea’s face was pale, and Jordan crossed the room to sit next to her on the couch.

“Did Emily miss a vital part of this announcement, Andrea? Are you and Lori Byrd together?”

“We are.” She looked like she might cry—behaviour very unlike Andrea.

“Oh man,” Emily shrieked. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” She rushed to the couch and pulled Andrea up so she could hug her. Shelly hiked up her thick skirt and stepped into the hug, too. Jordan stood and wrapped her arms around the three of them as they all talked and laughed at once.

“I’m sorry, you guys. I didn’t know what to say.” Andrea grinned at them when they finally pulled apart. “I’ve wanted to tell you for a while. I was hoping you’d just notice and I wouldn’t have to say a word.”

“Well, we might have noticed, if you’d ever brought her out with us. I’m so happy for you.” Jordan hugged her again, careful not to step on Shelly’s long dress.

“Thanks. I’m glad the secret is out.”

Shelly laughed as she took sliding steps back to the mirror, still clutching the layers of tulle. “What a secret it is!”

“At least you don’t have to worry about me stealing your wedding thunder,” she nodded toward Jordan, who rolled her eyes. “I can’t legally get married in Australia, so it’s off the table.”

“That sucks. But now we all have a valid reason to go to the next marriage equality march in the city,” Emily mused as she watched Shelly in the mirror. “I look great in rainbow colours.”

They all laughed at her never-ending vanity before returning their full attention to Shelly and her search for a dress.

 

***

 

weeks later, Jordan arrived for dinner to discover that her friends had ganged up on her.

“We’ve called you here for an intervention.”

“An intervention? What the hell for?”

“We think you’re cheating a bit.” Emily took a sip of her drink and raised her eyebrows at Jordan. “You’re not sticking to the list.”

“Yes, I am. I cheated a bit at the start on Tinder, but that’s because those guys were all gross. I’ve been out with everyone who’s asked me out, and it’s been exhausting, actually. I should be allowed to cheat more!” She glared at her three friends as they sat opposite her at the table. They’d angled themselves into an us versus them configuration, which she had definitely noticed. She almost felt like she was at a job interview, the way they were cross-examining her.

Shelly spoke up next, “It’s June, Jordan. If you’re getting married before the end of this year, you have to lift your game. The rules said you had to go on two decent dates a month, and you haven’t.”

“Oh, for God’s sake. I made the rules, so I can change them. I’ve been out with loads of men.”

“Yes, but you went out with Richard several times and then you counted that as a date. That wasn’t in the original assignment, young lady.” Andrea nodded, as though the rules were an important feature on the scale of national security.

“So, if I meet someone and it becomes serious, I have to keep dating all the other guys, too? This is becoming stupid.”

“No, you have to put a bit of pressure on him to see if it’s going to be serious. If not, you need to ditch him and start from scratch. Time is running out to get a rock on your finger.”

She pressed her lips into a tight line and sipped her drink. “I don’t want to pressure him. We text every day, and I think it’s serious, but I have only been out with him three times in person—and one of those times, he did that thing that must never be spoken of.”

They all laughed at that. It had been the talking point of their group, until she’d begged them to never mention it again. Since then, they only made only veiled references to that night in the bar.

“Alright, so don’t pressure him, but don’t stop looking for Mr Right, either. We don’t think Richard is the one.”

“You could be right. Where am I going to start looking next, though?”

“I’ll take you out,” the waiter filling their glasses interrupted as they all looked up at him with looks of surprise. “What? Is that too forward?”

Jordan was the first to recover. She was getting good at handling awkward dating moments. “It’s not too forward. I have a resolution to say yes to all invitations, so where will we go?”

He grinned and continued pouring their drinks. “I didn’t think you’d say yes—that made my day. Write your number down, and I’ll call you after work to make a date. My name’s Geoffrey.” His eyes sparkled, and it seemed that, finally, this was it: a normal, everyday guy that she could get to know. She handed him her number, and he almost skipped away from the table.

“Well, you made his day,” Emily repeated. “I’ve never seen someone go from bored to thrilled in such a short space of time.”

“He could be fun,” Shelly mused. “In the meantime, though, you need to jump on eHarmony and see if you can book three extra dates in quick succession. I’m starting to worry that I’ll be the only one in this group who ever gets married.” Shelly looked at them each in turn before her eyes settled on Andrea. “You’re off the hook, honey, since your marriage isn’t legal, yet.” She smiled, and Andrea raised her glass in salute. “The rest of you better get on it, though. Jordan, here, is proving that it takes a lot more than an app, a list, and a desire not to fail at life’s biggest challenge!”

They all raised their glasses and clinked them. Jordan took the biggest sip and pushed her drink to the side. “Okay, now that that’s out of the way, can we get to what I thought we really came here for? We have a wedding to plan, ladies!”

 

***

 

As soon as she got home, Jordan did what the girls had suggested: she pulled the dating site up on her computer and logged on to find love… again.

She scrolled through the profiles that the site said matched with hers and selected three potential men, messaged each of them, and made a date. What no one needed to know was that she made the dates for September and October, so that hopefully by then, she wouldn’t even need them and could cancel.

She banged the laptop lid shut and then went to bed. Rex jumped up and snuggled in behind her knees before he commenced his usual snoring. As she lay awake in the dark, she thought about Richard and what to do about him. When she finally nodded off to sleep, she was no closer to making a decision.

I’ll run it by Luke tomorrow. He’ll know what to do.