Florence was stuck, she was actually stuck in her wedding dress, she gripped the hooks in the changing rooms trying to somehow ease herself out of it, she had been watching her weight not eating too many of the delicious samples proffered to her and now, a mere week before the biggest day of her life she was stuck in the most expensive dress she had ever worn.

"You okay in there madame?" Pearl, the attendant sounded concerned, this was a simple dress fitting and Florence had been struggling for ten minutes with her unrelenting dress, it didn't exactly feel tighter just a whole lot more stiff and unyielding.

She could have tugged harder but the gossamer layers were so delicate she was too scared that she would rip them one by one and end up paying thousands in damages.

"Actually I'm a bit stuck..."

Pearl's head came around the blue curtain put up for the privacy of customer's, she was a very prim and proper woman with her graying hair pulled back into a harsh bun and her makeup applied with a flawless hand and Florence's cheeks pinked at the fact that someone so put together was seeing her stuck in her made to measure wedding dress.

But to her surprise, and then relief Pearl merely laughed.

"I'm sorry Madame I was adjusting your dress before you came in, look here" she gestured to the line of pins across the back of the bodice.

"Lydia didn't tell me you were here for a fitting so I didn't take them out, don't worry you haven't suddenly inflated"

Florence joined in her laughter feeling incredibly relived, for a second there she'd been back in her bedroom with the zip on her skirt not going up.

Pearl carefully helped her out of the dress, took out the pins and left her to try it on again, Florence looked in the mirror, staring back at her was a girl who looked quite like her but suddenly more elegant, her kitten heels lifted her just that much higher from the floor and the dress fit her perfectly, exactly as it should have tight at the bodice and then sweeping the floor at the bottom.

The Florence in the mirror smiled nervously back at her and she felt her insides warm, it was strange but somehow comforting to know that she had her own approval, that she would never be alone as long as she loved the person who looked back at her in the mirror.

She walked out of the dressing room and saw Pearl's eyes light up, Pearl was a master needlewoman and Florence had her to thank for the delicate white flowers stitched at her waist.

"Well you just look lovely Miss Clarke"

But she wasn't listening to Pearl anymore, because she'd seen somebody behind her.

Not caring that she was in a wedding dress she walked past a smiling Pearl to where Cole was standing holding a black tie in his hand and looking like he'd been struck by lightning and couldn't quite move.

Ouch.

Why did this feel so much like that recurring dream of hers?

"Hey there stranger" she greeted him.

"Hi Florence, well wow don't you look what's the word they always use for brides, radiant?"

She nodded trying not to show her amusement at his attempts for small talk.

"What are you doing here then?"

Cole held up the tie.

"Well you did invite me to your wedding and I do need to dress for the occasion right?"

"Right"

"How's your plans going then for moving and all it must be busy for you..."

"Fairly busy, but its hard to know exactly what to take I've lived in Phillipson for three years now and I'm not quite sure what to take with me, actually I've been meaning to talk to you about arrangements for the flat, technically it still belongs to you I know you gave it to me but legally its still yours I know Andrew has his own flat but I want you to take it back after I go, there's no need for it to be rented out and it wouldn't feel right just to let a stranger in there..."

She agreed with every word, that flat meant something it wasn't just a way to line their own pockets.

"I'm sure I'll find a use for it, Andrews lease is actually ending in three months and we were going to look around for somewhere bigger after the wedding so I guess that we can use your flat until we find somewhere"

The dress seemed to be weighing her down as they surveyed each other wearily, she wasn't the same and he certainly wasn't the same.

"Can you wait here please, I really need to tell you something but I can't exactly waltz off in this old thing can I?"

She didn't know where the urge had come from but suddenly she wanted to confide in Cole, to tell him about Cooper's heartbreak and her own worries about whether bringing Sam was the right thing to do, she hadn't told Andrew because she knew that he would be logical, he would somehow put her off the idea because he'd have a good explanation as to why her grand plan wasn't a good idea.

Cole nodded.

"I'm not going anywhere" he replied.

She emerged back in her sundress, thanked a knowing looking Pearl and then walked up to Cole who held a bag containing the tie he had just bought, he was actually going to come, she couldn't imagine going to his wedding one day in the future let alone buying something nice to be wearing to it.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

They'd both left their cars way behind in the boutique's car park and headed for the surrounding hills, hills were the best place to work out a problem with their uneven slopes.

Cole's brown hair swept along in the wind and her own dress fanned out as a gust of air hit them.

"You know my friend Cooper right? Well she has a daughter called Amberly and up till now she hadn't told me anything about her Father, he doesn't even know that he's a Dad but yesterday completely out of the blue she confessed his name to me and I managed to track him down and okay this might sound really dumb but I've asked him to come to the wedding because she loves him and he loves her and really they should just be together... right?"

Florence did hold a World Record for being a rambler, it was a fact her mouth just ran away and left her behind stumbling to remember what she'd said.

"So wait, does Cooper know you contacted her baby daddy or is this just a Florence Plan?"

"A Florence Plan?" she wrinkled her nose in conclusion.

"Yes a Florence Plan where you concoct an ending, write it up like it's one of your books and forget the fact that it's real lives your dealing with!"

Hold on, why was he angry? She thought they'd got past the anger.

"Well this isn't a Florence Plan because I haven't come up with a daydream, they love each other I could see it in my best friend's eyes and I heard it in Sam Franco's voice!"

"If you say so Flo, but if you already have your mind up why consult me?"

"Because I need you to support me Cole, because your important to me and everything is just out of my control right now except this one thing and I want to bring two people together against all the odds, because you should never, ever be parted from somebody that you love!"

"Wait a second..."

They'd stopped walking.

"This isn't just about Cooper and Sam, you think this is some kind of carbon copy of you and Chase, Flo I'm sorry but making them come together won't bring my brother back"

He took her hand and she didn't struggle, it just felt right.

"Talk Flo just talk to me about him, you try so hard to pretend your indifferent like you don't feel haunted by him everyday but I see it every time I talk to you, he left his mark on me but he stamped his mark on you forever, so just talk"

She sat down on the grass, more like collapsed on the grass wondering how a conversation about her friend's love life had turned into a therapy session, all she knew was that she wanted to talk, she'd been silent for far too long.

"Okay so let me just start from the beginning, when I arrived at Oakwood you would not have recognised me Cole, I had scars on my thighs and death in my heart, it wasn't even that Chase was the only person to show me a shred of kindness and dignity, it was that he was so real and just there, my literal knight in shining armor it kills me every single day that all the while he was keeping me alive while knowing that his time was soon.

The only thing that kept me alive after he left was the fact that not living would be betraying him so, so badly and letting him down and even now I find myself looking in the mirror and wondering what he would make of me today, because he will always be sixteen but I'm twenty and I've grown up, I've cut my hair and gone to university and kissed someone who wasn't him, I've skydived, I've gone to France and I've written two books and all without him witnessing any of it, it feels like I've had so much life when all he got was death, I sometimes just lie in bed and bargain with anyone listening, if I blink five hundred times in a row than I'll be taken instead of him and this wedding it feels like a cop out, everything feels like a cop out, I'm a wreck I cry all the time for no particular reason or for every reason under the sun because I can't love anyone with that same fierce first love I loved Chase with and that feels so wrong"

It was like she'd been rehearsing that little outburst for months when really it had all just come out now.

"There's more Florence, just let it all out you don't have to wear some mask, not now"

"I love Andrew honestly I do, he's funny and he's way too good to me and sometimes he makes my heart skip a beat, but only sometimes, with Chase my heart didn't even fit into my chest, its the same with Alex we weren't even together because I didn't want us to be together it all just felt too fake, I don't even know if I want this wedding or if this is just another tick in the New Florence checklist, one, become whole again, two, go to university and get your degree, three, fall in love with someone suitable and safe and four, get married and collect your happily ever after with no bumps on the road on the way"

Pent up emotions, today was their day to shine.

"So do you want to get married or not, its a simple question Flo, put everyone and everything else aside except from you, your not some character in a book who needs to follow the rules, you make the rules for your own game"

"Why do we have to be so doomed Cole? I've never spoken to anyone else as bluntly as I do to you but we're just never meant to be are we?"

"The selfish part of me wants you to dramatically cancel your wedding but the unselfish parts of me thinks you have pre-wedding jitters not helped by the constant appearance of me and the fact that I display everything you've lost by showing you what Chase would have looked like if he was alive, my face must be highly painful to see"

She wanted to reach out and tell him that his face was far from painful, but she wasn't going to because that would have been painful for both of them.

"I guess your right Cole, I think I'm going to go home and just relax, maybe write down some things, thanks for the talk it's helped more than you could know"

She got to her feet and held out a hand to pull him up after her.

Back at home she didn't write, or relax or try not to think about anything that had happened today.

She thought about it all rather too much.