Page 71 of Hypothetical Heart
“You look good too,” she says, fixing my bowtie before smoothing her hands down my suit jacket.
“Thank you, honey.”
The two of us walk over to my house, where the rest of the group and all of our parents are waiting for pictures.Winnie was going to meet me over there once she got ready, but I told her not to.
I wanted this moment for us, the one where I get to contemplate how the hell I let my mom talk us into thisagain,and how I’m not even mad about it.
Genevieve and Eloise are the first to greet us at the front door, both of them done up just like Winnie. Genevieve’s dress is a periwinkle blue color, and Eloise’s is a dark purple.
Jameson and Genevieve are going together as a couple, and Eloise and Luke are going as friends, just like Winnie and I. It feels like homecoming all over again.
Taking pictures is much easier this go around than they were during homecoming. The only bickering we hear from Jameson and Genevieve is clearly out of love, and no one gets stabbed with a boutonniere.
“Good job, Genova, no bodily harm,” Jameson pretends to praise her when she properly pins the flower.
“Want me to try again?” she seethes. “You are wearing white this time.”
“God, you two, get a grip,” I joke as Winnie attempts to pin my boutonniere on.
“You better watch what you say, man,” Jameson warns, eyeing the way Winnie is still trying to pin the flower, making us all laugh.
A little while later, after everyone’s boutonnieres and corsages are safely placed, we all stand in front of the pond, getting our separate pictures taken while our parents shout instructions from all different directions.
Winnie and I even get a few pictures with Suzie standing between us.
Everyone is moving around, positioning themselves indifferent locations, when Winnie takes a step back, her foot slipping and causing her to stumble.
Everyone gasps as I go to grab her, and I’m able to catch her for the most part, except for the fact her feet are fully submerged in the water of the pond, along with the bottom part of her dress.
“Sweetheart,” I sigh, looking at her pitiful expression.
She has a deer-in-headlights look on her face, like she doesn’t know what to do or where to go. I pull her out by under her arms and set her on the grass.
“Oh my gosh.” She looks down at her soaked dress before looking back up at me, tears in her eyes. “Oh my gosh,” she repeats.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I tell her quickly. “We’ll get it figured out. We still have a few hours until the dance.”
I can tell she’s embarrassed, trying not to die of mortification. I grab her hand, pulling her toward the house and away from the onlooking crowd. “We’ll be back!” I yell.
“Logan, what am I going to do?” she asks as we step into the house.
“Let’s go to the bathroom.” I direct her down the hall and into my parents’ master bathroom with my hand resting on her lower back.
She sits on the toilet seat while I rummage through the linen closet, finally finding what I was looking for her.
“A hair dryer?” Winnie asks, not looking impressed.
“Yeah, we’re going to dry you off.” Thankfully, the pond is man-made with a filtration system, so we only have to worry about drying the dress and not the possibility of it being ruined by dirty pond water.
“Logan, that’s going to take forever.”
“Well good thing my mom has two of them.” I pull a second one out. “Do you have one at your house?”
She nods, and I pull my phone out of my suit pocket to call Genevieve and ask her to run next door and grab Winnie’s hair dryer.
Winnie puts her head in her hands, clearly upset about the situation, as I plug in the hair dryers.
“Hey,” I grab her chin, pulling her face up to look up at me. “You can’t cry and mess up your makeup because I won’t know how to fix that.”
