2
Jacbo
I headed to the hospital where I had two more shifts left before the wedding and vacation. It felt like an eternity, frankly, and it was making me irritable. There was something about this wedding. I had a need for it. It had become my greatest desire and I’m not even sure where that feeling came from. When I first met Jackie, I was a different guy. I'd just gotten over my divorce, and life merely consisted of shuffling between work and home. Wake up, work my shift, return home, repeat.
Outside of my usual workouts, I didn’t have much happening. Going through the motions and pretty unsure of my next move, but definitely sure it wasn’t meeting the love of my life. Who was in a coma at the time. I chuckled to myself on my walk to the hospital, thinking about how crazy it all was. Just over a year ago, I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the beautiful stranger in the emergency room, and now we were just a few short days away from being married.
When she woke up, it was love at first sight for me. Truth be told, looking back, it was probably love from the minute she rolled into the hospital. She had an energy about her I couldn't shake, and the fact that we called her Snow White before we knew her name made me want to be her Prince Charming.
I still worked nights and hated to be away from her, but every afternoon when I woke up, I took my coffee downstairs to her flower shop, Enchanted Flowers, and we spent a little time together before I went to work. I lived for the weekends with her. I never knew how happy I could be with someone. Certainly, I didn't think I’d ever marry again. Jackie didn’t care at all that I’d been married before, and when we talked about it, she said it was just a stepping stone on my journey to finding her. She always said things like that. She was full of romance, and it made me a more romantic man.
My shift by went uneventfully and when I checked in on Jackie, she hadn’t stayed too late in the flower shop, which made me feel better. I hated when she stayed late by herself. Ever since her poisoning, even though I didn’t know her then, I worried about her. It never sat right with me that an unusual pesticide would still be on fruit that came in a fruit basket, and we never found out where the basket came from.
When I got home early the next morning, Jackie was waiting up for me like usual and she seemed upset.
“What’s wrong, babe?” I could see by the distressed look on her face that something wasn’t right.
“Well, it’s... it’s nothing.” She turned away.
“It’s clearly not nothing. Talk to me?” I pulled her toward me, noticing tears forming in her eyes. “What happened? Are you okay?” On instinct, I started to look for medical signs that something might be wrong. Being a doctor didn't stop when I left the hospital.
“Oh, yes. I’m fine. I’m fine. But my dress…” She trailed off.
“Your dress?” I was so confused.
She nodded.
“What’s wrong with your dress? What dress?” Then it occurred to me. “Your wedding dress?”
She nodded and a small tear rolled down her cheek. “It’s gone.”
“What do you mean, it’s gone?” She wasn’t making any sense.
“My dress is gone.” She began to sniffle, trying to hold back the tears.
“Where did it go?” How does a dress go missing?
“Mrs. Fields says that someone came to pick it up for me, but I didn’t send anyone to pick it up. So, it’s gone.” She ran her hand through her beautiful black hair and started to pace.
“Wait, so someone stole your wedding dress?”
“I mean, she didn’t say that. She thought that I sent someone to pick it up. She was finishing up the last of the alterations and I was supposed to pick it up last night. That’s why I didn’t work late. But when I went to her shop, she was surprised to see me and said it was gone, and that my friend picked it up.”
“What friend?” I asked. None of what she was saying made any sense at all. I mean, who would steal a wedding dress?
“I have no idea. She didn’t even ask. She just assumed that I sent someone over to get it. I mean, someone took it on purpose. They told her that I sent them.” She stopped pacing and folded her arms across her chest. “Some woman stole my dress, but why would someone do that to me?”
“I don’t understand how something like this could happen. Did she recognize the person? Did she get a name?”
“No, Mrs. Fields had no idea who it was, but I mean, wedding dress theft isn’t exactly a common crime, so she didn’t assume anything was wrong. I can’t be mad at her about it, she thought she was doing the right thing.” Her frustration was evident, and I was flabbergasted by the whole thing. Our wedding was in four days. A missing wedding dress, while not a huge deal to me, was certainly a huge deal to my bride, and I couldn’t imagine it was easy to find another one this close to the big day. I didn’t say it out loud, but I was already trying to figure out how to solve this dilemma before it caused Jackie any more distress.
“Okay, well, I’m not entirely sure what to say because I’ve never heard of such a thing in my life. But what do you want to do about it?” I asked her, wanting her to take the lead on where we were going here.
“Well, I am aware that it’s just a dress,” she said.
“It’s not just a dress, baby.”
She sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. “It is just a dress. I’ll just have to get something else to wear for Saturday. That’s all. No big deal.”