Cassie wanted her fiancé to give her the exact clothes she had fell in love with weeks earlier as a birthday present. Her future mother-in-law, on the other hand, came into the room wearing it. What happened was horrible, and it also showed her a terrible truth that made her doubt everything about the man she was going to marry.
Everyone I cared about came to the apartment that Sean and I shared to celebrate my birthday.
Mom prepared me a chocolate cake with so much frosting that it hurt my teeth to eat it. My sister had put up lights that sparkled.
Sean winked at me from across the room, and it was the kind of wink that used to make my knees weak. I was still awake, but it felt different tonight. Charged. Like he knew something was going to happen.
He had been acting weird all week, avoiding inquiries about my party and giving me smug smiles.
I believed he was about to do something big.
I had been trying not to get my hopes up, but I had a feeling that he would give me the outfit I had wanted for two months as a birthday gift.
At that point, the door opened.
“I’m sorry I’m late!” Someone I know said something. “I had to look for a place to park.”
I couldn’t finish saying hello when I saw that Sean’s mom was wearing the clothes of my fantasies.
I couldn’t move; I just watched Linda stroll through the crowd.
Sean didn’t even want to go into the store when I first saw the outfit.
He said, “Why look at things we can’t buy?”
Still, I let him in without thinking about how soon his remarks would come back to haunt him.
I said, “This is the one,” as I stared in the mirror in the dressing room and ran my hands over the soft, baby blue cloth.
He responded, “You look great,” but then he said, “Darling, it costs $200.” Do you recall that we’re working on a budget?
I felt a little melancholy as I put the garment back on the rack. We were saving up for the wedding, after all.
But that didn’t stop me from thinking about it.
In the last three weeks, I sent Sean a lot of wedding photographs I saw online.
“I want it so badly,” I would also remark.
He would always smile and say yes. “Yes, the dress is nice.”
I thought he was just acting harsh and that he was going to give me the clothes as a birthday gift, but then… I didn’t know who to believe.
When I got closer to Sean’s mom, I gasped, “Oh my God.” “That’s the dress I wanted!”
I didn’t mean for the words to sound so loud. Linda was going to hug me, but then she stopped smiling.
“Oh, really?” Her voice shook when she uttered it. “I didn’t know, dear.”
She looked at Sean, who was walking toward us with the same smile he had all night.
She said, “Last week, Sean gave it to me.” “He said I had to wear it to your birthday because I deserved it.”
I felt like I was in the water. People were talking all around me, but I felt like I was cut off from everything.
“Time to get a gift!” “Happy birthday, babe,” Sean murmured as he stood next to me with a little, wrapped gift.
He had a big, bright smile on his face, the type you get when you think you’ve done something really smart.
My fingers were numb when I took up the parcel.
There was a $50 gift card for Sephora buried behind some tissue paper.
I adore makeup, but I couldn’t fake a grin while I stood there looking at that gift card while Sean’s mom talked to my family in my dream outfit.
What’s happening? What have I missed? Those questions kept coming back to me as I walked to the corner of the room.
I sat in the old armchair that Sean and I had bought at a thrift store when we first moved in together and watched the party for my birthday go on around me. I attempted to figure out what had just happened, but the more I thought about it, the more puzzled I got.
At one point, my sister came up to me and seemed worried. “Are you all right? You seem a little pale.
I lied and grinned so much that my face seemed like it might break in half. I said, “I’m just tired.”
The remainder of the night passed by very quickly. People began to play charades and eat cake. Linda asked Dad about his new job and informed my sister how wonderful the decorations were.
It was almost midnight by the time the last guest left and we had piled the dishes in our small sink.
Sean was in a good mood as he sang and cleaned the counters.
“Wasn’t that a great party?” he asked. “I think everyone had a great time.”
I couldn’t handle it. He wanted to talk about how fantastic the party was, but I was upset and didn’t understand. Who?
“Why did you give my dress to your mom?”
He didn’t think about it. “Because I wanted you to feel small.”
The words really hurt me. “What?”
He grinned at me again and remarked, “You were so into that dress.” “I thought it would be a good test for us to see how you act when things don’t go your way before we get married.”
“A test?” I couldn’t believe what I had just heard!
I didn’t pay attention when he started to explain why. I walked right past him on my way to our room.
Sean came in via the door. He observed me folding things, but it wasn’t until I started putting everything in my old college duffel bag that he seemed to get that I was leaving.
“Really?” he asked. “Are you going?”
“Yes,” I answered without looking back. “Looks like your test didn’t go as planned, huh?”
That’s all there was. I drove to my sister’s house, closed the door behind me, and slept on her couch for a week.
My phone rang exactly one week after I thought everything was done. Linda’s name was on the screen.
She said, “I need to talk to you,” in a trembling voice. “It’s about the dress and the party.”
We met at a metropolitan coffee cafe. Linda looked smaller than she had at my birthday celebration, and she seemed to be carrying a shadow of remorse with her. She picked a table in the corner, far away from the other diners.
“Sweetheart,” she whispered, bending forward and staring at me with a serious face. “I’m sorry.”
I held my coffee cup with my hands. “You don’t have to say you’re sorry. Sean did this.
“He did, and I’m sorry to say it’s worse than you think.” She took a big breath. Sean said you chose the dress for me. He said you wanted me to wear it to your party because you saw it and thought it would look great on me.
My heart raced. “What?”
“He said you told him to give it to me as a surprise.” With each syllable she spoke, her voice went quieter. “I knew something was wrong when I saw the look on your face that night and you claimed it was the attire you wanted. You looked so heartbroken and lost. So I asked him what the truth was.
She stopped and dried her tears with a tissue from her purse.
“He said he had lied,” she said. He said, “To keep you grounded.” What he said. I can’t believe that the child I reared would do that to you. For both of us. I don’t want to say that he’s my son.
The coffee shop seemed too little all of a sudden. It’s way too hot.
Linda added, “I brought you something,” and she took a bag of groceries out from behind the table.
When I opened the bag, I was shocked. The dress was well folded, pressed, and cleaned inside, and it had a bow made of ribbon on top.
Firmly, She said, “I don’t want it.” “You own it.” You were always meant to have it.
My eyes suddenly filled with tears, as if they had been waiting for this time.
“I wish I had known about this stupid plan of his. I would have stopped him. She clenched her jaw and stared me in the eye. Linda said, “I already think of you as a daughter, so it hurts me to say this, but you shouldn’t go back to Sean.” “He doesn’t deserve you or any other woman.”
Those words hurt me deeply.
Not just what she said made me feel this way; it was the manner she said it—with love, passion, and the kind of fierce protectiveness I believed only family could show.
I reached across the table to hold her hand and said, “I won’t go back to him,” but that didn’t mean we couldn’t talk.
I swear Linda’s eyes were watery as she smiled.
She answered, “I’d like that,” and then she clasped my palm gently.