My Butterfly

“Ready.”
    “About time, loser,” he said, as he turned on his heels in the doorway again. “The fish have probably all hibernated or frozen in the time it took you to do that.”
    I smiled and shuffled toward the bedroom door. But on my way, I took one, last glance at the business card staring back at me from the chest. It forced me to suck in another big breath of air.
    “Girl, the things you make me do,” I mumbled in my next exhale.

Chapter Twenty-Nine
    Wedding
     
     
    “W ill, I’ve been looking for you.”
    I turned around in the bench to see a young woman, dressed from head to toe in white, and immediately, it made me smile.
    “Hey, Mona, do you need something?” I asked her.
    Mona had always been like a little sister to me, and now, she seemed all grown up all of a sudden.
    “No, no,” she said, laughing. “I just saw you talking to that girl over there.”
    “What girl? When?” I asked.
    “Taylor,” Mona said. “The petite girl, auburn hair, you know? She’s a friend from college.”
    “Oh,” I said, habitually rubbing the back of my neck.
    “Uh, yeah, she’s requesting a song,” I said.
    Mona flashed me a mischievous grin.
    “She asked if I would dance with her when it plays,” I continued.
    “And you said?” she asked.
    “I said I would, but it’s just a dance, Mona,” I said.
    She shook her head.
    “She’s the one,” she said, pointing at me. “Taylor’s a really nice girl, Will.”
    “I just met her, Mona,” I said, through a patient smile.
    “She’s the one,” she said again.
    I gave her a disbelieving look.
    “Just give her a chance, Will, for your little cousin on her wedding day,” she said, with a pleading smile.
    “Mona, Taylor’s the one…,” I started but stopped short, as my eyes caught a familiar silhouette and my heart momentarily took a break from its beating.
    “Julia,” I said, quickly sitting up.
    “Hi, Will,” she said.
    Jules planted her eyes in my gaze for a moment and then turned her attention to Mona.
    “Hi, Mona,” she said. “You look beautiful.”
    Mona shot me a suspicious look and then set her eyes on Julia. I, in the meantime, tried to relax my shoulders and to not look so obvious.
    “Thanks, Julia. I’m so glad you made it,” Mona said, wrapping Jules into a big embrace. “And we’ll have to catch up, but right now, I’ve got to find the groom. They’re making us take more pictures, and this guy’s been holding me up,” she said, pulling away from Julia and gesturing toward me.
    I sent Mona a puzzled look, but it didn’t seem to faze her as she hurried off to somewhere else and left Jules and me alone.
    I took a second before I spoke.
    “I wasn’t sure you’d be here,” I said.
    “I wasn’t either,” she replied.
    She smiled and caught my stare.
    The shock of my heart suddenly stopping moments ago was starting to fade, and my smile was returning.
    “How long are you here?” I asked.
    “Just tonight,” she said.
    I glanced around.
    “You here with anyone?” I asked.
    “No,” she said, shaking her head.
    I cocked my head to the side.
    “No,” she quickly said again, seeming to read my mind. “Brady had to work.”
    “Oh,” I said. “You two still...”
    I couldn’t even finish the sentence, damn it. I felt my mood changing fast. I tried to hide what I was sure was obvious disdain, as she nodded her head in confirmation.
    Of course.
    I sucked in an audible breath and then sat back.
    “How is everything?” she asked.
    I met her eyes again. Did she want me to be honest?
    “It’s fine,” I lied.
    She nodded her head again as her lips went back to a straight position on her face. But she held her eyes in mine. I could tell she was thinking something, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
    Then, I watched her carefully slide off her shoes and then tiptoe over the grass toward the bench I was sitting on and take a seat.
    I glanced at the space in between us. It wasn’t the close I was used to associating with Jules, but it was a couple thousand miles closer than I got these days. So, in the end, the ten inches that separated us made me smile again.
    “You look nice,” I said.
    She looked up at me, and I watched as her lips broke into a sweet, sideways smile.
    “Thanks,” she said. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
    I felt my grin growing wider, and suddenly, it didn’t matter that she was leaving again the next day. At least I had tonight.
    I thought of something then—something I