Page 28 of Pretty and Loco

I swung around, ready to snap like the Bridezilla I was slowly becoming.

“Didn’t I say-” My words trailed off as I realized that it was Daya. If anyone was in my space, it might as well be her.

“I’m so damn nervous. I’m glad it’s you. For some reason, my body is in shambles right now. I feel like I want to shit and throw up all at the same time.” I laughed. But she didn’t.

Her eyes were wide, and I couldn’t quite read the sympathetic look in them.

“Leah, I have something I need to show you.” The tone of her voice made my lunch rise to my throat. I immediately expected the worst.

“Is everyone okay?” I shot back.

“Yeah… Have a seat for me.”

“No. I’m already nervous. Daya, if you don’t talk, I swear to God.” I threatened, leaving the back of the threat open-ended because I literally couldn’t do anything but wait for her to tell me.

“I’m only showing you this because I am confused as fuck and I need you to clarify things for me.”

“DAYARI, SPIT IT THE FUCK OUT!” I screamed. I was stressed and already agitated, and here she was talking in code.

Whatever it was, it had to be bad, because she didn’t seem the least bit fazed by my response. Instead, she still took her time handing me down the information.

She reached into her bra and then pulled out the phone that I had given her, and she handed it to me. What I saw didn’t shake me the way she thought it would.

As soon as I unlocked the screen, I saw a social media post of Brandon and another woman. Veronica. The woman that he said he had just broken up with before he moved back. The caption read “You can’t break what you didn’t build.”

There was an arsenal of them, old and new.

Then I went to the comments.

Secret commented: Girl, I love this for you. Congratulations.

To which she replied: Thank you so much, friend. This love story has been six years in the making. We’ve come too far to turn back now.

My response? I posted photos of us on her wall. My caption was “I ain’t sorry. Cheers, bitch.”

A knock came at my door, and I was too busy posting even to shoo them away, but Daya did it for me. There was so much to process, and I didn’t know what the hell to do.

When Brandon moved back to our hometown a few years ago, I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I ran into him at the gym, and we reconnected. He was handsome, and it felt so good to see a familiar face. I didn’t know he was in a relationship; in fact, he told me his breakup led him to move back.

The information Daya showed me wasn’t new. I found out about Veronica a couple of months ago. Only then did it cross my mind that Brandon might have been living a double life.

“Leah, you’re quiet. I’m sorry.” Daya said, wiping a lone tear from her eye.

“This is not for you to apologize for. Can you give me a minute and let me pull myself together? I can’t walk down the aisle like this.”

I could see the shock all over her face.

“What? You’re still going through with this?” she asked.

“Daya. Our daddy bust his ass on trucks for months, day in and day out, so that he could give me money toward my dream wedding. I did so many baby showers that I can’t smell pasta and meatballs without gagging. Today is the fucking day.” I sniffed.

She looked at me sympathetically.

Then my shoulders dropped, and my tone showed just how defeated I actually felt.

“And… I love him.” I admitted. I was mad; I was hurt beyond belief, but still. The naïve twenty-three-year-old me thought that there could be a bright side to this. That he proposed to me in a third of the time when they had been together for six years unmarried.

That didn’t take away the hurt I felt, but it damn sure rationalized it.