Nothing Is Forever [COMPLETE]

Chapter 96: The Wrong Feeling

POV: Ryan

I laid out my clothes for the evening, and went over to help Courtney. Strewn on the bed was a pair of denim washed ripped skinny jeans, and a Vans t-shirt.

"Which color looks best?"

She held up a pair of red converse in one hand, and a pair of white ones in the other.

"Uh, White I guess—"

She leaned in and gave me a kiss.

"This is why I love you. You're sweet, you go shopping with me, and you have great fashion sense—"

"Yeah, I'm so glad that's the reason you love me," I laughed, "It's just like having a gay best friend!"

She playfully pushed my arm and smiled.

"You know that's not what I meant..."

I took her other pair of shoes back to the closet and set them down on the floor.

"Hey, we decided to go somewhere fancy for dinner tonight. It'll probably be around six when we leave—"

"Sounds great, where are we going?"

I sifted through all of the clothes she had already hung up in the closet, in search of something for her to wear to 'dinner' tonight.

"Uhh," I stalled and tried to come up with a place out of thin air, but couldn't think of anything believable enough, "It's a surprise..."

I turned around to face her, and saw that she was staring back at me with a look of suspicion.

"Well, if we're going somewhere fancy, I didn't really bring the best clothes. I just assumed we were all going to meet at your parents house or something... How fancy do I need to look?"

"You need to be beauty and the beast fancy," I insisted.

"Really?"

"Heck yeah!" I said enthusiastically, "We need to show up and show out babe!"

She gazed into the closet, and then back to me.

"That's not happening Ryan—"

"I'll buy you a dress... As a matter of fact, I'll go do that right now!"

I walked out of the bedroom and into the living room to search for my keys. I located them on the coffee table in front of the couch and headed for the door.

"Wait Ryan!"

"What?" I asked, turning around in the middle of the doorway, preparing to exit.

"Please DON'T spend too much money..."

"No promises," I smiled, walking out and closing the door behind me.

I knew it was supposedly bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her wedding dress before the ceremony, but no one ever said anything about the groom picking out the dress. I hopped in my rental car and drove to the nearest formal wear shop I could find. When I finally reached my destination, I walked inside and saw Tony browsing through a clothing rack on the wall.

"Tony!" I shouted, walking over to him.

"Ryan, hey—"

"What are you doing here? I didn't know you were into... that, " I smirked, pointing at the dress draped over his arm.

Tony rolled his eyes and smiled.

"It's not for me, it's for Savannah... I came here to get a descent tux."

I did a double take and frowned.

"Yeah, um... That's a negative Tony," I insisted, grabbing the dress and putting it back on the rack.

"What are you doing?" He asked defensively, "I know how to dress a woman—"

"Yeah, but I know how to dress Savannah..."

Tony folded his arms across his chest and glared at me.

"See, the problem is, you think you know what looks good, but in reality you've never really asked what she likes... Savannah only wears certain things," I claimed, gesturing for Tony to walk with me, "She doesn't like frilly things... She's more laid back—"

"I know, I was just trying to speed up the process," he insisted, pulling a dress from the new section.

"Put it back..."

He shot me an angry look, and hung the dress back up.

"You also need to think about her body—"

"You do that often I assume?" He retorted.

"Don't get sassy," I laughed, "What I do during my free time is besides the point... Savannah doesn't like dresses that squeeze certain areas of her body... Like those mermaid type dresses for example— Absolutely hideous on her!"

"Okay," he sighed, taking a moment to actually look at the dresses before grabbing a new one, "What do you think about this one?"

I smiled and patted him on the back.

"Learn from the best!"

"Sure," he chuckled, trying to hold back his laugh, "I obviously didn't miss much in your relationship—"

"Shut up," I joked.

I said goodbye to Tony, and spent a couple more minutes looking for the perfect dress for Courtney. I picked out something elegant, but not so elegant that she would realize it's for a wedding where she was the bride.

While I was standing at the register, I couldn't help but think about how beautiful Savannah was going to look in her dress, and how I could just as easily have been marrying her tonight... I always told myself I would never settle in another relationship again – not that I was – but Courtney was definitely my second option if I had to pick between the two.

Yes she was great with the kids, smart, kind, and extremely beautiful... but so was Savannah. No matter what happened in my life, whether we moved even further away, or had more kids together, my heart would always be just a little bit happier in another woman's arms, and I couldn't help but feel wrong about our whole relationship on some levels.

The cashier snapped me out of my thoughts when she asked me to swipe my card. I did as she told, the machine accepted my number, and she handed the dress to me along with my receipt.

"Thank you sir! Have a nice day, and good luck!"

"Thank you ma'am!"

I waved goodbye and walked out of the store to go back to my car. I situated the dress in the back seat and pulled out of the parking lot, destined for the hotel. I hadn't realized how late it had gotten until I looked at the clock on my dashboard.

I only had a little over an hour to get back to the hotel, and finish putting on my clothes, before it would be time to met my parents. I pulled into the parking lot and zoomed inside the hotel with her dress in hand. Once I made it up to the room, I swung open the door and announced my arrival.