Chapter Is Unedited

"Love is Blind" - Unknown

I wasn't sure what to do. I sat in my office so confused. How was I supposed to make it through the next three hours before lunch? My heart was beating so fast in my chest. Carter was in town. How long had he been in town? When did he show up? Did he come just to see me? A million questions rushed through my mind. How did my mother know he was here? How did she get him to come to see me? Carter and I haven't talked since high school had ended. He had gone away to California to study medicine and that was the last I had ever heard from him.

I hadn't realized how much I had actually missed Carter until the quenching of my heart became unbearable. I needed to distract myself. I left my office in a haste, faster than I had honestly meant to. I found myself in the lobby, plenty of customers buzzing around with their consultants. I tried to smile at as many people as possible but honestly, I couldn't force it. I swerved between people carrying new bagged dresses to the different dressing rooms. Searching through the crowds I struggled to find my mother.

The first person I saw was Clara. Grabbing her arm I quickly pulled her into the back storage room. Rushing through a couple bags of dresses I finally stopped to catch my breath. She looked confused and panicked.

"Are you helping a customer right now?" The words barely came out in a fit of breaths. She shook her head quickly glancing down at the watch on her wrist.

"Not for another thirty minutes why? What the hell has gotten into you?" She whispered her second question her eyes looking at me wildly.

"Carter is in town!" I shouted the words falling out of my mouth like an explosion. Slapping my hands over my lips to avoid any other outbursts. Clara's eyes lit up almost immediately. I knew she would understand.

"Like high school Carter? Like the kid you were best friends with while being secretly in love with him but oh wait you'd never admit that so I shouldn't actually technically know that?" Clara had almost just as much passion in her voice as I did, though hers filled with a different emotion.

I nodded my head vigorously as if I was scared I wasn't going to be able to nod my head fast enough. She covered her own mouth this time taking a step back. I was confused at the reaction.

"Well, how do you know he is here?" Clara looked a little calmer in this moment. Like she was thinking about things rationally. At least one of us was.

"I was sitting in my office honestly not really getting much done and my mother knocked on the door, said some weird things, and bam Carter was in my office." The words were more dramatic with the hand movements following each word I said.

"He just randomly showed up... uninvited?" Clara wasn't understanding what I was saying. I couldn't blame her. I was such a frantic mess that I wasn't even sure I understood the words coming out of my own mouth.

"No, no, no, my mother brought him here. She told me not to be mad and then he came into the room. This was a setup and now I have lunch with him in a couple of hours!" I tried to explain things the best I could.

"Well you were running out of time with the bet so maybe that was a good thing for her to do."

"God damn Clara, I am not in love with Carter," I shouted again.

She took a step back holding her hands up in defense. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself down a little bit. I was getting out of hand.

"Sorry Erin, we all know you used to have feelings for Carter. Maybe you should just see where this goes." Her words were soft and a little out of character for her.

Suddenly it hit me. I knew why she was acting so strange. This should have been a shock to her. The Clara I knew would have been jumping up and down screaming and shouting just as shocked as I was.

"You knew."

Clara's eyes got wide as soon as I had accused her. Suddenly I knew my answer. I shook my head.

"Why didn't you tell me my mother was planning on doing something like this?" I was a little hurt my best friend would hide something like that from me but honestly, I knew why she did it. I would have freaked out if I would have known that was happening. They hid this from me because it was the smartest thing they could do.

"Honestly, I didn't know that much about it. I'm just not shocked because your mother had mentioned it. I wasn't sure it would even happen." I felt my frustration and concern melting away. I couldn't be mad at the people who cared about me just for bringing someone back that I used to care so much about.

"Thank you." I reached forward grabbing Clara pulling her into an embrace. I could tell by the way she tensed up she wasn't sure what to think or how to respond. "Thank you for caring about me." I couldn't be mad. I didn't really have anything to be mad about. I had other things to worry about.

"Erin, you are basically my sister. I will always do whatever I can to help you and I will always do what I feel is best for you. Right now though, I really must get going so I'm not late to my appointment. Good luck with your lunch today. Find yourself something sexy to wear." She pulled away from the embrace before turning to leave. The dresses were so packed inside the storage room that she basically had to swim to make it out.

I followed behind her, pulling the dresses out of my way. I wasn't sure what to do. I still had a couple of hours before I was supposed to go meet Carter.

I thought about some of the dresses I had hidden away in the cupboard in my office. I'd have to look at what I had. I couldn't remember which dresses I had stashed away. Looking down at the short black dress that hugged my skin perfectly. I shrugged my shoulders. I was over thinking this.

Time seemed to be dragging on. I did whatever I could to distract myself. I helped brides put veils in their hair. I put dresses away and cleaned up messes left behind by large bridal groups. I helped pull dresses for the consultants who were slightly struggling. There was plenty to do but just literally nothing I wanted to do. I couldn't tell if I was excited about lunch. I knew my stomach was turning in a fit of emotions and honestly, none of them were very decipherable. I felt like I was going to be sick.

Client after client walked through the doors and an hour later they were gone. I hated doing the hour long appointments. I loved when people booked a long time with a consultant. It gave us a chance to really help a bride out. I waved goodbye as the last client I was helping walked out the door with a stunning dress of their dreams.

I saw the short brown haired woman I've been looking for all morning walk past. I called out her name quickly running up towards her.

"Hey, how long has Carter been in town?" My mother looked as if she wanted to run away. Like she wanted to do anything to remove herself from this conversation. I needed her to stay though. I needed her to distract me for the next twenty minutes.

"He just got here today." My mother seemed distant. Was I really the kind of person that would freak out over something so little?

"Do you know what he is doing here?"

"I called him and asked him if he would come."

I had a hard time comprehending the information given to me. The only reason Carter was here in New York was that my mother had just up and called him? My head felt like it was spinning.

"You called him? Why?"

"You guys were really good friends, the best of friends I had ever seen in my life. I felt it would be something good for you. You've met too many people the last few months and all of them lacking in the friendship department. You need more than just Clara and I." My mother was making sense. The last few months had been date after date and honestly, none of them had gone anywhere. Andrew hadn't called me back yet. Granted it hadn't been that long since our first date, but he hadn't reached out yet.

"Thank you mother." Thanking both Clara and my mother hadn't felt so weird until they both had the same reaction. I was excited to see Carter and my mother was the reason that was possible. She seemed as shocked as Clara had been back in the storage room. I suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"You better hurry on up before you are late for your lunch date." My mother smiled, flipping through some of the papers in her hands. I nodded over towards a clock realizing she was right. My heart jumped in my chest again.

"Oh yes, you are right! Thank you again. I will see you guys in an hour." I smiled heading for the offices to get my wallet. Quickly making my way back down the stairs I waved to Clara a sympathetic smile.

Heading out onto the busy streets I weaved my way through people until I was able to get where I needed to go. The cafe Carter and I would hang out at while we were still going to school. I can't remember how many classes we had skipped out on.

The smell, the look, even the people all felt the same when I walked in the front door of that same old cafe I had spent so many hours in. I walked straight to the back corner, to the booth where Carter and I used to sit and watch the people walking by, thinking we couldn't be seen. Something about sitting behind some glass made you feel invincible.

I took the same seat I had sat in a million times. The cushion was still ripped in the spot where my buttons on a pair of jeans had hooked it. When Carter and I finally decided to leave I had tried sliding out of the booth only to nearly rip my pants off all in the process of ripping the red seat. I traced my fingers over it.

"Erin you sure do look beautiful." A familiar voice broke me out of my trance. I removed myself from the booth careful to not snag my dress on anything before wrapping my arms around Carter's neck again. I couldn't help but smile.

"You don't look half bad yourself." I took my seat again, a waitress dropping off a few menus right in front of us after taking our drink orders she was gone.

"I'm going to choose to take that as a compliment." Carter winked.

"Well, you chose correctly."

"So you're still just running the shop like the Erin Rose everybody knew back in high school?" He leaned forward placing his hands into a fist on the table. I nodded my head shooting him a friendly glare.

"Oh, you know it, little ole me never changing." I pretended to act offended.

"No really, what are you doing now?" I thought for a moment. Should I tell him about the deal with my mother? Does he already know?

"Better yet... What are you doing back in New York, didn't you swear you would never come back to this place after you left for California." The waitress brought us our drinks. Carter watched me carefully. I knew I had hit him with a question he probably didn't want to answer. I just knew I didn't have an answer to his question. The conversation became like a tennis match. Bouncing questions back and forth.

"I had some business I needed to attend to out here." There's the Carter I knew. Throwing answers to questions that really doesn't answer the question.

"Funny, that's what I'm doing in new York too." I mocked his answer in a playful way. Carter threw his head back in a slight chuckle. Looking at the menu I focused in on his eyes scanning the food items, I knew what he was going to order. He knew what he was going to order. So what was he thinking?

"Yeah yeah, I get it. Nothing has changed and you don't want to admit it." I knew Carter was just messing with me but it made me a little embarrassed. I hadn't seen him in forever and I was hoping he would be more proud of what I was doing. The work I had done to make sure the shop was the same.

Carter ordered for both of us when the waitress showed up. It was exactly what I had wanted. I smiled at the waitress as she took our menus and left. Carter hadn't changed, he was still very much the gentleman I had known way back when.

"I'm just messing with you Erin, I know your mother and father would be proud of you." My heart fluttered when he mentioned my father. Carter was there for me when he had passed away. He was there for me when I first took over the shop and had no clue what I was actually doing.

"Why did you leave?" I realized I shouldn't have asked the question but after he had mentioned my father the pain had just taken over my body. Carter had been there for everything but then he just left. He hardly told anyone. Carter had just decided it wasn't worth being here in New York. We have medical colleges here, he didn't have to leave.

"What?" He looked taken aback. That made my heart hurt even more. Suddenly the feelings of abandonment were rushing back. I had been so excited that he was here that I hadn't realized how badly I actually felt.

"You left Carter, you just up and left. You could have gone to school here. You could have stayed, we needed you here. Why was California so important?" I felt my breath getting short. My eyes began to burn. My body was losing control but I tried to fight it back as hard as I could.

"Erin, you couldn't have asked me to change my entire life plans. I had been dreaming about going to this school in California for most of my life. My mother went to that school, my parents met at that school. I wanted the same thing. I couldn't find anyone as amazing as you Erin and I'm sorry I left you but it was something I had to do."

I wasn't sure how to answer his response. I wasn't even sure if I had taken it the wrong way. What did he mean he hadn't found someone as amazing as me? My brain was rushing but he reached his hand out and grabbed mine in him. I could feel a sense of calmness traveling up my arm as soon as he touched me.

"Hey, I'm here now. Let's make the most of that before I have to go back." The smile he gave me stopped me in my tracks. It was the best friend I had so dearly missed again.

"I'm glad you are back." A single tear threatened to fall, but I pushed it back with a smile. I shouldn't waste this moment crying. My best friend was back. The Friend has been there for the most of my life.

The waitress quickly set our food down, Carter releasing my hand as she did so. "Y'all are a really cute couple." She said in a slight southern accent. Carter and I instantly looked towards each other.

"Cute couple?" We both whispered at the same time. Our eyes meeting.