Eden

 

“Prom is tomorrow, Eden.”

“Geez, Allie, news flash. I already knew that.” She was on her bed. I’d just gotten off work and was going to stay the night at her house with plans of spending the evening getting her stuff ready for tomorrow night. Right now, I was polishing her toenails. Something she was only allowing because the stunning heels we’d found to go with her dress had a peep toe.

“Hmm. Just thought I’d remind you since you haven’t done a thing for yourself to get ready for tomorrow.”

“Don’t wiggle your toes,” I admonished as I blew on the wet polish. “We’ve been over this. I’m not going.”

The girl was persistent. “You have to go! You can go with Connor and me. We can pick you up just before dinner.”

“No. Absolutely not. There is no way I’m crashing your date with Connor.” I shook my head. “Ew. No. It’s bad enough on a regular day. Being a third wheel to you two on a romantic dinner is just- no. Not happening.”

“I still can’t believe Dylan didn’t ask you to go,” Allie mused as she sorted through my collection of rhinestone jewelry. Don’t ask why I have it since I haven’t been to a school dance in ages. I just can’t get enough of the stuff.

“Dylan is a grown man. The last thing he wants to do is go Prom.” I wasn’t even sure he’d gone to his own Senior Prom. No- wait. He did. I remember. He went with that girl, what was her name? Bethany Wells. That was it. They’d doubled with Josh and his date. Who come to think of it, I couldn’t picture right now. Anyway, I think I’d hidden on the stairs while Mom took pictures before they left.

“He may not want to go to Prom, but I think he wants you.” Allie wiggled her brows over her eyes as she held a pair of teardrop dangle earrings up to her lobes. “How bout these?”

I scrutinized the choice for a second before digging through the pile. “Try these.” I handed her a pair.

“Oh, yeah. Those are perfect.” She admired them in the mirror we’d propped on her desk. “And you aren’t going to blow me off.”

Holding back the desire to roll my eyes, I replaced the cap to the nail polish. “It doesn’t matter. I haven’t even seen him in days. Now that he’s moved out of his parents’ house, he’s been busy, and I don’t just run into him.”

I wasn’t going to tell her that we texted almost every day and that I thought Dylan was just trying to give me some space. After we left the park last weekend, he told me again that he was sorry about the letter he’d send from basic. The one that had broken my heart and further broken my trust in guys. It had happened to soon after Marshall.

“Well, are you guys a thing now? Are you going out?” Allie had been beyond curious after I told her about my date with Dylan. She was determined it was the beginning of something amazing.

I wished.

Didn’t I?

“I don’t know, Al,” I admitted honestly.

“You do love him, though, don’t you?” She stopped fussing with the jewelry to focus on me.

“I don’t know.” I sighed. “I haven’t ever been able to get over him. No matter what, I still always want him.”

Allie grinned, self-satisfied. “I knew it! Just tell him for heaven’s sake. What’s holding you back?”

“Ugh. Allie, he crushed me! I don’t know if I can survive that again.”

“Who says you have to?”

“Are you kidding? Have you seen him lately? He’s even better looking than he was after he graduated. He acts oblivious but when we were out the other night, more than a couple girls, women, were checking him out.” I blew a breath that made my long bangs flutter. “What chance do I really have with him?”

Allie sat forward and took my hands in hers. “Eden, are you crazy? Not only do you have his attention now, you had it back then.”

I scoffed. She had no idea what she was talking about.

“No. Think about it. He risked a lot to kiss you before he left. He spent all his spare time before he left in your parent’s basement hanging out with you. He wrote you letters! Who does that?”

I shook my head. “He had to write letters. He didn’t have internet access.”

Allie narrowed her eyes at me. “You are being deliberately obtuse about this. If you can’t see that guy is head over heels for you, then there’s no hope for you.” She dropped my hands and crossed her arms over her stomach. “But if you ask me, you’re pushing him away on purpose because you’re scared.”

Maybe I was scared. I had good reason to be.

“You are going to throw away the best man for you because you’re afraid of losing him? Just ask yourself this- Is it going to hurt any less if you lose him later than if you lose him now because you pushed him away?”

I didn’t answer because I couldn’t. It wasn’t that Allie’s question was something new. It was all I’d been thinking about for the last few weeks. And I wasn’t any closer to discovering the answer.

 

“I don’t know how you talked me into this,” I whined the next night, tugging at the bodice of my sequined mermaid dress.

“Because you are my best friend and you weren’t going to leave me to go to Prom alone.” Allie’s smile was bright as we walked into the large banquet room at the same hotel as the last dance I’d gone to- our junior year Homecoming. I wondered that she didn’t hate this place since it was the exact spot she’d stood and watched Kayla, Connor’s last girlfriend, kiss him right in front of her.

“You are hardly alone,” I pointed out, glaring at Connor on her other side.

“Hey, don’t drag me into this. I’m glad you decided to show up though, Eden. Save me a dance.” Connor winked as he gripped Allie’s elbow and led her to the dancefloor.

I fought the resentment at the sight of their happiness. I was glad for Allie. I truly was. She was my best friend, and nothing could make me happier than the joy Allie had finally found with Connor last year.

Watching them, I longed for Dylan. I had wondered myself if he would ask to take me to Prom. He knew it was tonight, had asked me about it. I’d told him about shopping for dresses with Allie and that I’d planned to help her get ready.

It was during the helping her get ready part of today that Allie, with the help of Judy, had convinced me to come tonight. Once Judy had tamed Allie’s pale hair into a stunning mass of curls adorned with pearls and rhinestones, she’d insisted on doing mine. I had no intention of going to the dance still but loved up-do’s and couldn’t resist the pull of the stylist’s chair.

Once she was finished, I was so in love with the look, it was easy for Allie to talk me into picking up my dress on the way to her house where I was going to do her makeup and help her dress. In fact, I’d done her makeup while wearing the thing. While Allie dressed, I added embellishment to my own face as well as earrings and a necklace from the collection still in a container on Allies desk.

“Oh, you look gorgeous,” Allie had exclaimed wide-eyed.

I had to admit, the dress looked good.

“Allie! Connor’s here,” Mrs. Brown called up the stairs.

My friend’s face split into a happy grin. “Am I okay,” she asked, glancing down at herself.

“You look amazing. Now go get your man.” I pushed her toward the door.

“You’re coming, too. I want Mom to take some pictures of us.” Allie tossed a pair of shoes at me.

Frowning, I glanced down at them. “Where’d you get these?”

“Oh. Remember you tried those on when we got mine? I went back and got them. They were destined for that dress.” Allie grinned mischievously.

I narrowed my gaze on her. “Why would you do that?”

“Just put them on. I really do want to get a few pictures of us in all our Prom glory.” She grabbed the shoes from my hand and set them on the floor. “Come on. I’m anxious to get a look at Connor.” She waggled her brows suggestively.

I couldn’t blame her.

A brief vision of Dylan in a tux flitted across my mind.

Downstairs, Connor whistled as we made our way toward him, but he only had eyes for Allie. As it should be.

“I’ll be the luckiest guy at the ball tonight,” he teased, kissing Allie briefly on the lips before turning to me. “With two beautiful dates.” He held out two boxed corsages.

“What? No.” I shook my head and took a step back, shooting a betrayed look to Allie who just shrugged, a non-repentant grin tugging her lips.

Connor opened one of the boxes after handing the second to Allie’s mom to hold onto for him. With a tender smile, he slipped the gorgeous flowers onto her wrist.

“Thank you.” Allie reached up to kiss his cheek. Connor wasn’t going to let her get away with that and kissed her lips quickly before turning back to me.

I shook my head as he advanced having retrieved the second box. “I’m not going with you guys, Connor.”

Connor removed the exotic lilies from their tissue paper bed and held it out to me. It was the most beautiful corsage I’d ever seen and looked as though it had been made just for me, and I supposed it had been. I eyed Connor cautiously. He winked and slid the flowers on the wrist I hadn’t even realized I’d extended.

He leaned forward to whisper. “Allie wants you to come, Eden. Please.”

Sighing, I glanced over Connor’s shoulder to find Allie smiling. She nodded eagerly, and I knew I’d been well and truly trapped.

“Oh, fine.”

Connor smiled, and Allie squealed with delight. “Yay! Hurry and take pictures, Mom, so we don’t miss our reservation.”

Mrs. Brown had taken our pictures and sent us on our way. Dinner had been lovely. Connor and Allie tried their best to include me in their conversations and were better than usual at accomplishing it even for their obvious infatuation with each other.

I’d had butterflies, enough to choke me, as we walked into the dance. I shouldn’t have let Allie talk me into this. Now, I would spend the whole evening watching from the sidelines, like I was now, as couples danced around me.

Ding!

My phone chimed from the clutch purse I held in my hand. Shrugging, I decided I didn’t have anything better to do, so I retrieved it and opened the message.

My breath caught in my throat. I glanced at the picture in the message from Dylan then frantically around the room before studying the picture more closely.

It was him. A selfie no less. Dylan smiling that sexy smirk of his, dressed to the nines in a black tuxedo. Was he taunting me?

 

Dylan: Turn around. The far door.

 

Heart thundering, I slowly swiveled on my high heel. My eyes searched for the entrance to the large room, past the laughing couples and tables with battery operated candles glowing on them.

My eyes met his just as my phone dinged again in my hand. Dragging my eyes from the vision he made, I read the new text.

 

Dylan: May I have this dance?

Dylan: And all the rest?

 

My fingers trembled too violently to respond via text. Instead, I lifted my head and, catching his gaze once more, nodded.

A broad smile curved his lips as he made his way toward me. I stood still, waiting. I watched as he wove between tables and people, my thoughts consumed with my feelings for him. Gone was my hatred of his appealing good looks. Gone was my loathing of the crooked smile forever curving his lush lips that begged for my kiss. Gone was the dislike of his disheveled dark hair. Instead, all I felt was love. Admiration. Hope.

“You look beautiful, Eden.” Eden. Not Ed.

I opened my mouth to thank him, but the words abandoned me. I smiled.

Dylan glanced down at my hand. “You got your flowers. Do you like them?”

Gasping, I lifted my wrist to examine them anew. “You?”

Dylan’s smile turned sly. “You didn’t think Connor picked those for you, did you?”

Come to think of it. No. But having no other explanation, I’d accepted what appeared to be true.

“But how?”

Dylan lifted his chin. I looked behind me to see Allie and Connor both grinning from ear to ear. Of course.

“Allie set this up?” It all made sense now. The hair. Makeup. Tricking me into my dress and shoes.

“Allie helped.”

I lifted a brow.

“Okay, I helped. Allie orchestrated. Connor obeyed orders,” Dylan conceded with a grin. “Are you mad,” he asked, slipping his arms around my waist.

Was I? I lifted my hands to his arms just above his elbows. It wasn’t enough. Running them up his biceps and over his shoulders, I linked them behind his neck. I could have told him no. That I wasn’t upset. But I decided to show him instead.

Growling deep in his throat, Dylan accepted my kiss and took it over. His powerful arms held me close as his lips passed over mine again and again.

Whimpering as he pulled away, I rose on my toes to keep the connection. His lips curved into a smile. He kissed me once more. Softly. Slowly.

And then we danced.