Free Chocolate Reality by Steena Holmes Page B

buy fake ones, but if they are nice enough, no one will mind.
    With these thoughts racing through my head, I catch a glimmer of what I would like my engagement party to look like. I allow the thought that I am doing this more for me than for Stacey and Jude to linger for just a second before I toss the idea out and stubbornly announce to myself that this has nothing to do with me personally. With that in mind I take a walk through my store, dusting this, touching that, doing anything I can to take my mind off my reasoning for doing this party.
    Things are a bit slow today in the store, so while Lily closes up, I’ll take my kitten’s home and introduce them to their new place. I can hear them meowing in my office, they are probably ready to get out of their carrier and run free. If this afternoon was any indication as to how my life as a new pet owner will be like, I don’t think I’ll have a quiet evening for a while. What was I ever thinking when I decided to get both kittens, I have no idea.
     

     
    Chapter 7
    After an evening of de-cluttering and kitty-proofing my home, I spend some quiet time going through some old bridal magazines trying to get ideas of what we can do for Jude and Stacey’s party.
    I used to hide my magazines from any guests that came through my door, until I realized that it is quite normal for single women to have any number of bridal magazines scattered throughout their homes, with sticky notes protruding out of various pages within the magazine. It might actually be considered quite odd if you didn’t find at least one or two of these magazines in any given single woman’s home. After all, let’s be honest. No matter our age, wedding filled dreams are a part of who we are.
    Every woman knows exactly what they want their wedding dress to look like, they have already picked out their music, the song they will walk down the aisle to and who will be in their wedding party. For some, the invitations have already been chosen; they are just waiting for the grooms name to appear on them. Some might call them fantasy dreams, but for those of us who are living this fantasy life, it’s our dream that they will one day become a reality.
    While reading ‘21 Ways to Fool Proof Your Wedding’, and ‘How to Create the Wedding of Your Dreams, Not Your Mother’s’, my phone rings. Not only does this startle me, as I was deeply engrossed within these articles, but it startled Cocoa and Jewel, who had finally fallen asleep after a bout of playtime with my afghan. In the midst of me trying to reach the phone, while not loosing my page and trying not to get scratched by the frightened kittens, I managed to spill my hot coffee that I had resting on the edge of my armrest. I answer the phone with a “hot hot hot – ouch,” and hear my mother’s voice protruding through the line.
    “Wynne, are you okay? What happened? Is this a bad time?”
    “No no, it’s a fine time Mother” I answered while skipping around the floor trying to untangle myself from the afghan I somehow got caught up in. While trying to avoid the ever-growing puddle of coffee that is beginning to surround my feet, I notice out of the corner of my eye the kittens running through the doorway heading to who knows where.
    “Well you don’t sound fine. What happened this time?” my mom asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice.
    “What do you mean by ‘this time’? It’s not like things happen to me a lot Mom. I just spilt some coffee on myself while trying to reach the phone” I answered in annoyance. The way my mom talks you would think I was a walking klutz.
    “Wynne, don’t take that tone with me. The last time I talked with you, your nose was bleeding because you fell out of bed. And before that you twisted your ankle while wearing your new dress shoes. Or what about the time you got that huge bump on your forehead by walking into a post while talking on your cell phone? Sometimes I think your head is up in ‘la-la