A Broken Connection Romance: Could Planning Their Friend’s Wedding Give Them a Second Chance?

The day before the wedding

Was she staring again? Damn it. Stella trained her wandering eyes on the brown fluffy carpet. She rubbed her feet in it and sighed softly. Now that was better use of her time. Staring at his fingers and remembering how incredibly skilled he was certainly wasn’t.

This was their last meeting; surely she had not survived two months of meeting every weekend to fumble everything at the eleventh hour. The wedding was tomorrow. The committee would effectively be disbanded once the last guest left the venue. She could hold it together for a few hours.

Wedding day – Evening party

She looked up from the makeshift dance floor and found Isaac’s eyes on her, them really, a huge smile on his face. The lyrics she and the bridesmaids were screaming into the night caught in her throat. She’d felt his eyes on her all day long, and she did not like it one bit. The way he’d held her gaze as they witnessed the giving of the vows. How he’d stepped closer when they’d taken pictures as members of the committee. How good he smelled, damn.

Speaking of things she wanted to distance herself from, she needed to take these heels off. Thank God she had flats in the car.

“Hey.”

Stella turned, startled, hand flying to her chest.

“Sorry,” Isaac said.

She turned and kept heading for her car.

“I’m sorry.”

She stopped and turned to face him. “It’s fine.”

“Can we talk, please?”

“No. We’ve been doing great so far; don’t ruin a good thing.”

“I’m trying to unruin the good thing we had.”

“No such word. No such thing.”

“Stella-”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I’m sorry.”

She scoffed. “About what exactly?”

“Everything. I should-”

“Stop it. Whatever the hell this is, stop it.”

He took a step closer to her. She took a step back and stepped on the hem of the long dress. He grabbed her, his arms tight around her biceps, steadying her before she was even properly panicking.

“You okay?” Isaac asked, his concerned eyes boring into hers in a way that was so familiar it pissed her off.

She shrugged off his hold, picked up the hem of the dress and kept heading for the car. She took deep breaths, trying to control her breathing. The near fall, his firm touch, his delicious scent were wreaking havoc on her breathing.

“Two months, we’ve been on this committee, you didn’t say a word. Now all of a sudden you want to talk?”

“Stella-”

“If it’s a wedding hook-up you want, the dance floor is lit; go there.”

“I’m not looking for a hook-up, and the reason I didn’t say anything is that I didn’t want to mess up the committee’s work. I didn’t want to risk pissing you off. You have to know these last three months apart have been the worst.”

They’d been horrible for her, too, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “Well, you’re pissing me off now. Or does it not matter because there’s no risk of ruining the wedding?”

“Stella, come on.” He shook his head. “I need you to know I was wrong. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just left without talking to you. I’ve regretted it every day since.”

She bit her lip to keep from screaming at him. She pulled the door open and sat in the back seat. She leaned over and grabbed the sandals she had behind the shotgun seat. She bit back the sigh as she pulled off the wedges. She should have taken them off after the reception.

“Slide in,” he said. Then her foot was in his hand, and he was applying gentle pressure.

She bit back the moan. She was going to embarrass herself.

“Isaac,” she protested, willing herself to pull her foot back. She did not.

“Slide in. It’s just a massage.”

She slid in against her better judgment, and he followed after her, pulling her foot on his lap. He’d taken classes when they were together because nurses were always on their feet and she always complained. That was how they’d spent their evenings – watching TV as he did magical things to her sore feet – before he’d decided to upend their lives.

The muted light around them, the confines of the car and her feet on his lap were teetering towards more than she could handle.

“You have any oil I can use?”

She reached into a bag behind the passenger seat and pulled out some baby oil.

“Perfect,” he said, already taken by his task.

She bit her lip to keep the indecent sounds she usually made firmly in her throat. Had he gotten better, or had she just gone too long without his touch? They’d only been apart three months. There was no reason to be this dramatic. She schooled her expression and bit her lip. She was not going to embarrass herself over a massage.

“All done,” he said in lieu of the usual way he let her know they were done, a kiss on each foot.

She felt the loss like a lance in her chest.

“Nothing’s changed, Isaac. I’m still the boring, controlling nurse who doesn’t want to spend her weekends hiking and rappelling across raging rivers.

“You’re not boring or controlling. It just felt like you didn’t want to spend time with me, and I panicked. I was sure you were just waiting for the right time to end things. I know it’s dumb, I just… It felt like you were pulling away… Maybe I was wrong…. But Stella…”

“You were not.”

“You were going to break up with me.” It was a statement, his tone flat.

“It felt like I wasn’t what you wanted. You want someone who can go on these adventures and hikes with you, and I just want to stay on the couch after a long-ass week. I figured it was just a matter of time.”

Her heart sank with the memory. That feeling of knowing she wasn’t enough. It was the worst.

They sat in silence.

“That’s what my travelling crew is for; we don’t have to do everything together.”

“Come on, you asked me almost every week to join you in some activity.”

He squeezed her foot, his touch gentle. “Only because I wanted to hang out with you, and I also wanted to go out. It wasn’t because I need you to do those things. I just want to be with you, Stella.”

She shook her head. She couldn’t go through this again. “I don’t want to be some girl you settle for, Isaac.”

“I like you. I want you. You are all I want-”

“Isaac-”

“I love you.”

Her breath caught. She loved him, too. But would love be enough to transcend all their differences?

“I don’t need you to hike with me. All I need is you in my life. I want to massage your feet and watch TV after a long-ass day. I can hike with any number of people; I want to share my life with you, Stella.”

“Maybe we’re too different, Isaac. Did you ever consider that?”

“We’re not. We’re just different, and that’s normal. It’s not a bad thing.”

He reached for her hand, and she closed hers around his, heart racing. She’d missed this.

“Tell me you’ve missed me, missed us.”

She stared at him. Was she that obvious or did he just feel the same?

“Isaac, we still have so much to work through.”

“I know, and I want to work through it all with you.”

They sat in silence.

“Okay.”

He exhaled heavily, his relief palpable. “Thank you.”

“And yeah, I missed you too.”

He leaned closer to her, eyes sparkling as he smiled. “Can I kiss you, please?”