Disclaimer: These are borrowed characters, but the story line is totally mine.
A/N: This is just one of the new stories I'm posting this week. Let me know what you think! Honestly, if it sucks let me know! Oh, and if you have any title ideas I'd appreciate it.
A brunette girl of medium height studied herself in the mirror. "But Mom," she complained, "I look fat."
"Nonsense," Summer Cohen replied, smiling bitterly at her daughter and checking her diamond studded watch. "You decided on this dress. It's too late to back out now."
"But—"
"Brianna Rose!" Summer snapped, "Do you want this wedding or not? Vera was nice enough to custom design your dress. But if you don't want to wear it, you can tell her yourself."
"It's not that, Mom," Brianna pulled at the strapless couture confection she was wearing.
"What is it?" Summer asked, checking her diamond-studded watch again. She was going to be late for a meeting with her staff if Brianna didn't hurry.
"What if Brandon and I aren't meant to be together? What if we're horrible together? I don't want to end up like you and Dad!" Brianna wailed.
Summer bit her lip. "Your dad and I made a mistake. We got married too soon and didn't take the time to see if we were meant for each other. You're not like that. You and Brandon are perfect together."
Brianna padded over, the train of her dress trailing behind her, and hugged her mother. "I love you Mom."
"I love you, sweetheart."
Summer held her daughter, her daughter, she was getting married in less than a week. After a moment, Summer felt tears welling up in her eyes. Brianna reminded her of Seth so much, it was the last piece of him she could hold on to. Now that Brianna was starting a new life…
"I'm going to miss you, Bri," Summer whispered into Brianna's dark hair.
"Mrs. Cohen?" Ingrid, the wedding planner's assistant, timidly approached Summer.
"It's Ms. Cohen," Summer corrected the blond girl, who paled.
"Sorry," Ingrid squeaked. "I just wanted to let you know, we still haven't gotten…" she consulted her PalmPilot, "…Seth Cohen's response card. Now, I know it's really late but we just realized it now."
"I'll call him," Summer said immediately. Much as she was dreading talking to Seth, all the more so she wanted to hear his voice.
"Are you sure?" Ingrid asked. "Because I can call him if you're busy…"
"No, I'll call him," Summer told Ingrid. "And I'll let Lena know later."
Summer exited the building and got into her red Porsche Boxster, an engagement present from her longtime boyfriend, Lucas Thompson. They weren't planning on marrying for a few more months, but he'd proposed and it was pretty much set in stone.
She flipped open her cell phone and held down the 1 until number 1 on her speed dial showed up.
Seth Cohen.
"Hello?"
"Cohen," Summer greeted her ex-husband, "Are you coming to our daughter's wedding?"
"Wedding?" Seth asked, confused. He held up a finger to his business partners, Dave and Michael, whom he was lunching with at The Four Seasons. "What wedding? Bri's getting married?"
"I sent you multiple invitations, Seth," Summer pursed her lips.
"When is this wedding?"
"Saturday," she replied tersely.
"This Saturday?"
"This Saturday, Seth. The twelfth."
"Well…"
"Seth Cohen! You can't not be there for your daughter's wedding. You have to walk her down the aisle, you are her father, unfortunately. Unless you want my fiancé to walk her. Luke's been great with Brianna. She loves him." Summer placed her words where she knew they'd sting.
"Luke?" Seth said slowly. "He's your fiancé?"
"My fianc's name is Luke, so, yeah." Summer rolled her eyes. If she was going to get Seth to come by jealousy, and leading him on…so be it. He didn't have to know that this was not water polo Luke who had dated two out of three Cooper women.
"I'll be there," Seth said. "Are Ryan and Sandy invited?"
"Of course Ryan's invited, do you really think I'd forget about Coop and Chino? Coop's my best friend and Chino's…well, he's Chino."
"And my dad?"
"He can come. Your mom can come. They can all come. I don't care. Just get your bony ass on a plane to New York as soon as possible." She snapped her cell phone shut, leaving Seth in bewilderment.
Seth arrived at LAX bedraggled and in desperate need of caffeine. He was staying at Ryan and Marissa's house in Beverly Hills. Sandy, Kirsten, and Ryan were supposed to meet him at the airport.
He scanned the crowd, which was quite easy, given his six foot four frame. Sure enough, the graying eyebrows and sandy blonde hair were spotted before long, and Seth made his way over to his father and brother.
"Hey." Ryan greeted his brother with a man-hug.
"Hey. Where's mom?" Seth shook his father's hand, then broke out into a grin and hugged his father.
Sandy smiled as his son embraced him tightly. "She's in the bathroom. We're supposed to meet her at the Starbucks."
"Perfect."
They made their way through the throngs of travelers, tourists mostly, and over to the Starbucks. Kirsten was waiting there with an anxious look on her face. She brightened at the sight of her husband and two sons walking towards her.
"Seth!" Kirsten ran as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast, given the fact that she was wearing Jimmy Choo stilettos, to envelop her curly haired son in a warm embrace. "I missed you so much, baby."
"Mother!" Seth chided, "I'm not twelve years old anymore…although whether or not I look like it remains a mystery."
Ignoring Seth's complaints, Kirsten kissed him on his forehead, a big, slobbery kiss that left Seth retching dramatically.
"I'll be back in a sec," Seth announced to his family, "Bathroom break."
Still a bit dazed and jet-lagged from his flight, Seth ambled into the bathroom. Soon after, a loud scream jarred him from his dream-like state.
"Get out of here, you perv!" A young woman who looked to be about twenty-three was standing by the sinks, a horrified expression on her face. Seth looked around.
Yep. He was in the women's bathroom.
This day was going great.
"Sorry…err…I'll…just be on my way…didn't mean…" Seth quickly backed out of the bathroom, the young woman still eyeing him warily.
So much for the bathroom. Seth hurried back to Starbucks, where his parents and Ryan were sitting around a small green table.
"So Summer's engaged to Luke, huh?" Sandy said to Seth when he rejoined them at the table. "I never would've seen that coming." He turned to Ryan. "Marissa's okay with this?"
Ryan shrugged and looked confusedly at his father. "I wasn't aware of it until just now. I don't think Marissa's upset, because she hasn't said anything to me…and we all know how well Marissa is at hiding her feelings."
Seth laughed. Sandy said, "She's not very good now, is she?"
"Dad." Seth rolled his eyes. "So I got you and Mom invited to Bri's wedding."
"We were invited."
"You were invited? And didn't say anything to me?" Seth asked.
"We assumed you were invited too," Kirsten answered.
"Well assume makes an ass out of you and me," Seth pointed out.
"Don't say 'ass', Seth." Seth began to protest but Kirsten cut in. "Sweetie, how long has it been since you've seen Brianna?"
Kirsten herself only saw Brianna occasionally; while Seth and Ryan were in their junior year of college, a fire had mostly destroyed the Cohen home. She and Sandy had decided to relocate to Berkeley, which was, unfortunately, hours away from Newport, and from Summer and Brianna.
"I think it's been at least four years. No…it was definitely three, because when Summer went to New York on business, Brianna and I met up for frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity," Seth said.
"Seth," Kirsten admonished, "Don't you think you ought to visit her more often?"
"I would," Seth said, "If it weren't for her…mothe—Summer."
"She's that bad, huh?" Sandy asked.
"No," Seth said quickly. "I mean…yeah. I guess so. I don't know."
"It will be good to catch up, I guess," Ryan said. "I haven't heard from Luke in a few years, either. I know Marissa will be thrilled to plan the wedding with Summer."
"Yeah," Seth smiled weakly. Just thinking about Summer made his heart tremble. And now, she was getting married. To his former friend. What had gone wrong in their marriage? He'd thought they were meant for each other.
Just then Seth's cell phone, not known well for its reliability, began to buzz with The Hokey Pokey. He flipped open the phone and a message popped up. Apparently he'd missed a call.
Seth looked up and saw his parents and Ryan staring at him strangely. "What? I missed a call."
"The Hokey Pokey, Seth?" all three said at once. They exchanged glances and broke out in hysterics.
Seth rolled his eyes and dialed his voice mail number. The message was from Summer. It was so good to hear her voice, although hearing it brought back all the memories he'd had with her, both good and bad.
Quickly he held down the '1' on his cell phone, Summer was still number one on his speed dial, even after all these years.
"Summer Cohen." She was still Summer Cohen? A tiny flame of joy leapt up and danced in Seth's heart. But…of course she was Summer Cohen. Summer had made a name for herself in the fashion industry, and she couldn't very well change it now. She was known as Summer Cohen.
"It's Seth."
"What do you want?" Summer replied curtly. "Are you in California yet? Because I need to get your measurements."
"For what?"
Summer sighed dramatically. "For your tuxedo, for your daughter's wedding. Or did you forget you had a daughter?"
"No need to get nasty," Seth said. "Tell me the time and place, and I'll be there."
"Tomorrow. Eleven-thirty. My house. Ryan or Marissa can give you directions."
"Wait," Seth said, before Summer could hang up. "Is Brianna there? I want to talk to her."
"Hold on." Summer covered the mouthpiece with her hand and turned to her daughter. "It's your father."
Brianna wrinkled her nose. "What does he want?"
"To talk to you." Summer rolled her eyes. She'd taught Brianna well. Seth was a bastard, a lousy father. And a lousy husband. She bit her lip mercilessly as unexpected tears sprung to her eyes. What…why?
Crossing her arms defiantly, Brianna had never reminded Summer of herself more. "I don't want to talk to him."
Summer sighed. She wasn't even going to argue with her daughter over this. It just wasn't worth it. Seth wasn't worth it. She bit her lip harder. Why was she close to tears? She wasn't…it was just allergies, Summer told herself. But it was hard to lie to your heart.
"She doesn't want to talk to you right now." Blunt as ever, Seth observed.
"Fine. Will I see her tomorrow?"
"I don't know, Seth. I've got to go."
Summer quickly hung up the phone and grabbed her purse off her desk. "Bri, you finish up here, okay? I'm leaving for the rest of the day." Her daughter offered her cheek and Summer kissed it. "Love you."
"Love you, mom."
Once Summer was safely in her Porsche, she sped off to her spacious home in Newport Beach. Her office was just in Huntington Beach, so it didn't take her long at all to get home.
She parked the car in the six car garage and ran upstairs into her bedroom. Trembling fingers flicked on the closet light. Summer's five-carat diamond engagement ring reflected the bright lights of her closet, but the sight that normally brought happiness and pride made Summer nauseous today.
On tiptoes, Summer reached the top shelf and began to blindly fumble around. Once her hands grasped around a box, Summer pulled it down. She sat down on the floor of her large closet, took a deep, steadying breath, and opened the box.
With the first picture came the tears Summer had suppressed at work. For the first picture was of she and Seth, looking so radiant, so in love. And naturally, too, because it was a picture taken on their wedding day.
Summer remembered Seth reassuring her, holding back her hair. Kirsten soothing her, planning the wedding in less than a month and saying it would pass for a honeymoon baby.
Had they taken the plunge too soon? Summer knew Seth had married her because of the small bulge in her stomach, the bulge which would become their daughter, Brianna. But she was so sure they would have married, baby or not, because Summer was in love.
In the years after her marriage had fallen apart, however, Summer wasn't so sure that they would have. Oh, she wished it were so, because God knows she loved Seth with all her heart, no…still loved Seth with all her heart. But Seth didn't seem to feel the same way…especially not with the suddenness in which he'd divorced Summer, and the lack of interest in his daughter's life.
Wait. Did she still love Seth?
No, Summer told herself, she was engaged.
She'd moved on ages ago.
She was happy with Luke, really, she was.
Summer let the tears flow more freely now.
It was no use lying to herself.
Seeing Seth was definitely going to bring back old memories--and feelings, as if she hadn't neatly tucked them away in a corner of her mind for more than a decade.