The Way Your Heart Sounds

When Matt said his wedding was coming up soon, Lauren had no idea he meant soon as in next week. She started to panic a bit because she really didn’t have anything formal enough to wear. So a few days later after she got out of work, she and Jimmy decided to go find her a dress.

“Sorry to drag you out and make you do something so boring,” she apologized as they pulled up to the dress store.

“Don’t be sorry. I get to see you try on pretty dresses. What do I have to complain about?” he smiled. She smiled in return as she took the keys out of the ignition and opened the door.
Upon walking into the store, they were greeted by one of the employees.

“How can I help you?” she asked.

“I got invited to a wedding, it’s next week. I need an emergency dress, preferably one that doesn’t need to be tailored,” Lauren laughed. The employee nodded with a smile and led them to a dressing room towards the back of the store. She told them to wait there a minute while she gathered collection of dresses around Lauren’s size for her to try on.

“Do you need to pick up anything from your place on the way back?” Jimmy asked. They were sitting on a couch, his arm draped over her shoulder.

“Nope, I think I’m fine,” she answered.

She wanted to keep it a secret, but she had already started the process of moving out of her old home. One of her friends from work is married to a real-estate agent who’s been helping get her house on the market for sale. He told her it shouldn’t take long to sell, because there’s a ton of people looking for houses in their area. Even so, she wanted to wait until everything was finalized to tell Jimmy the good news.

The employee finally arrived, dragging along a rolling clothes rack with some dresses hung on it.

“Here you are. If you need any help feel free to ask, and let me know if you find the right one,” she said. Lauren thanked her and smiled, picking up the first dress she saw, which was a dark blue gown.

After trying on each dress, she would walk out to show Jimmy and gauge his reaction. He probably wasn’t the best person to bring, because he seemed to like every single dress she stepped out in.

She put on dress number five and immediately knew it was the one. It was a deep velvety red, floor length, and had a flattering cut. Classic, for sure.

“I think this is the one,” she hummed as she walked out of the dressing room.

“God damn. I think so too,” he grinned, looking her up and down. With Jimmy’s seal of approval, she went back to change into her regular clothes. When she took the dress off and hung it over the dressing room door, it suddenly disappeared.

“I just wanna look at it,” Jimmy said through the door, before she could ask where the dress went. Lauren told him it was fine and finished getting dressed. Once she had all of her things together, she walked back outside but didn’t see Jimmy anywhere. She called his name, and was almost scared half to death when he popped around the corner.

He handed her a bag and she looked inside to see her dress was already in there.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

“Yeah, I have to pay for this though,” she responded, opening her purse to get her wallet.

“Nope. Already taken care of,” he said. She smiled and closed her bag.

“Thank you, Jimmy. You really didn’t have to do that,” she said before hugging him.

“My pleasure.”

As soon as they arrived back at Jimmy’s house, Lauren hung the new dress up in the closet to prevent it from getting wrinkled. Walking out to the living room, she heard Jimmy on the phone with someone. He smiled when he saw her and told the person on the other line he’d see them later before he hung up.

“Do you mind if Brian and his girlfriend come over for dinner?” he asked.

“It’s your house, babe. You can have anyone you want over,” she paused for a second. “Wait, did you say girlfriend? Are they back together?”

“Yep, the engagement is back on too,” he nodded.

“Well, that’s good,” Lauren said. She pulled a glass out of the cabinet and filled it up with water from the sink. Sometimes at work, she hardly had the chance to drink water, and usually felt dehydrated by the time she got home. “Wonder why they broke up in the first place,” she added, thinking aloud.

Jimmy shrugged and plopped down into a kitchen chair.

“Who knows. You bet I’m going to find out, though. Also, I don’t feel like cooking so I’m going to order pizza,” he said, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

Lauren nodded and finished gulping down the glass of water. As she poured another glass, she heard Jimmy order three large pizzas and wondered how much he thought the four of them could possibly eat.

“Alright, pizza will be here in a half hour,” he said.

“Sounds good. I’m going to go shower,” she replied after finishing her second glass of water.

Jimmy stood up and let his hands rest on her waist before he leaned down to kiss her. She smiled into the kiss, suddenly wishing that they had the rest of the night to themselves. It took a while for both of them to break the kiss, obviously wanting something more.

“I missed you today,” he mumbled into her ear.

“How much?” she teased, which caused him to smirk.

“Wait until later and I’ll show you how much,” his voice was a low growl. He kissed the side of her neck before walking away from her, knowing she’d never get the chance to shower if he stayed there any longer.

Lauren scurried off down the hallway, smiling to herself like a schoolgirl. She couldn’t believe how such a brief interaction with him could have her heart pounding so much. Knowing that Brian and his girlfriend would be here any minute, she made the shower quick. Right before she turned the blow dryer on to dry her hair a little bit, the doorbell rang. She dried her hair just enough so it wasn’t dripping and tied it into a bun. She also threw on a casual dress, then made her way into the living room. Jimmy, Brian, and Brian’s girlfriend all looked over at her.

“Oh, there you are, Lauren,” Brian said. He seemed to be much more cheerful than he had been lately, and the blonde girl by his side who looked like Val was likely the reason. The girl smiled and held a hand out to Lauren.

“Hi, I’m Michelle. I’ve heard so much about you,” she said, smiling. Lauren shook her hand.

“Nice to finally meet you. I’m glad you guys could come over for dinner,” Lauren replied.

The doorbell rang again, and Jimmy announced that dinner was here before he darted off towards the front door. Lauren invited Brian and Michelle into the kitchen, where she grabbed some plates and cups for everyone. Jimmy made his way into the kitchen, balancing all of the pizzas on one arm.

“That’s a lot of pizza,” Michelle commented.

“Well, you know Brian and I could probably finish all this just between the two of us,” Jimmy laughed. Lauren set the plates down on the counter and told everyone to help themselves to how ever many pieces they wanted. She also left a bottle of soda on the table with some glasses.

“I have to ask,” Jimmy mumbled as he stuffed pizza into his mouth, “what the heck has been going on with you guys lately?”

Michelle and Brian exchanged glances. Jimmy certainly was getting right down to business as usual, no beating around the bush.

“We got into a fight is all. But then we realized that no matter what, we still love each other and want to be together,” Michelle explained, taking a bite of her food.

“I was so upset when Bri told me you broke up. I love both of you guys so much individually, but together, you’re just perfect!” Jimmy said. Michelle smiled and nodded.

“I was upset too. But it’s all good now,” she looked over at Brian, who was just eating his pizza and not saying much.

Lauren answered the usual questions that she got from any of Jimmy’s friends the first time she met them: what do you do for a living? How did you meet Jimmy? Brian and Jimmy started talking about random things.

“So when’s the wedding?” Jimmy asked both of them.

“We’ve planned for January, hopefully that works out,” Michelle said.

“So, when’s your wedding?” Brian smirked, wanting to see Jimmy’s reaction. Lauren almost choked on her soda, wondering if Brian knew something she didn’t.
Jimmy playfully rolled his eyes and put an arm over Lauren’s shoulder.

“I dunno. What do you think, honeybun? Should we get married right now? Brian can be the priest,” he joked. Lauren smiled and shook her head.

“Brian? Priest? That’s a good one,” she laughed.

“What? Why couldn’t I be a priest?” Brian asked, pretending to be insulted. Jimmy ignored his question.

“Tell you what, when we decide to get married, you’ll be the first person I call. Even before my mother,” Jimmy said.

“Oh man,” Brian mumbled, taking a bite of pizza, “I don’t want Barbara to kill me.”

“She won’t kill you if you keep your mouth shut about it,” Jimmy smiled deviously.

Lauren could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks as she listened to them talk. It was insane for her to think about marrying Jimmy already, but at the same time it sounded so right. She knew in her heart that she could never love anyone else the way that she loves him. He seemed to notice that she was lost in thought, because he put his hand over hers and smiled reassuringly.

“You guys are too fucking cute,” Brian mumbled, his mouth full.

Once they had polished off all of the pizza, Brian groaned and stretched his arms over his head.

“We should probably get going, not to be rude or anything,” he said.

“It was great to see you guys. We should do this more often,” Jimmy said before giving Brian and Michelle a hug at the same time. Michelle told Lauren again that it was nice to meet her, before she linked arms with Brian and they were out the door.

Once Jimmy closed the door, he looked over at Lauren.

“Did I scare you a little bit with the marriage talk?” he asked. Either she was very obvious about her thoughts, or he was very intuitive.

“Am I that easy to read?” she laughed. “I’m not going to lie and say it’s not a little scary, but it’s not like I haven’t thought about it…” she paused and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his narrow waist. “I am madly in love with you. Can’t imagine being with anyone else.”

“Same here, angel,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. His sweet smile turned into a devilish one as he picked her up bridal style.

“Now that they’re gone…” he mumbled. She giggled as he carried her down the hall, pressing gentle kisses all over her face.

Notes

I have been writing for this story like a mad-woman!! I'm up to around 35 chapters now. I originally had a sequel planned, but decided on keeping it all within the same story. Hope you are all enjoying!