Episode 819: Begin Again

“You really need to stop fidgeting.” Lila eyed Avalon in the mirror.

“I know. I’m trying.” She tried to concentrate on the comforts of home, on her cat, Shelby, curled up in her lap, purring contentedly. She ran her fingers through Shelby’s hair in an effort to calm down and ignore that sooner than later she’d have to leave the security of her bedroom for the uncertainty of the wedding altar.

Lila, and Mateo, the guy from the costume warehouse, arguing over how to style the bride’s hair was not even remotely calming, especially as their voices escalated and Adria and Justine had already left for the wedding site, so there was no one to mediate other than Avalon. She so didn’t want to get in the middle of it, her nerves were frayed enough.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ava snapped when their debate over hair up or down became too much. “It doesn’t matter about my hair or my shade of lipstick or if my eyelashes are fluttery enough. It’s nice of you both to fuss over me like this, but really, I think you should stop wasting your time, I mean, we don’t even know if this is happening.”

Lila rolled her eyes in the mirror. “We do know it’s happening.”

“Why wouldn’t it happen?” Mateo asked. “I already had my own love tragedy, chica, tell me my heart isn’t going to be breaking for you so soon, too.”

“Nobody’s heart is breaking,” Lila said, her exasperation evident. “Ava is just having irrational wedding jitters because her previous snake of a fiance-”

“He wasn’t a snake.”

“Maybe if you thought of him as a snake you wouldn’t still be so broken up over what he did to you.”

“What did he do?” Mateo asked sternly crossing his arms. “And where do I go to give him apiece of my mind? I am so tired of jerks who think they can just rip your heart out and have it for dinner.”

“The snake didn’t show up on their wedding day and no one has seen him since.”

“And you’re afraid the new guy will do the same?” Mateo took Ava’s hand. “Call him. Call your man right now, you’ll hear how excited he is to marry you and then you’ll know not to worry, you can put the past behind you and begin again. It’s what I’m trying to do, too.”

Episode 820: Up And Up