Impact

Chapter Twenty-Three

"These would look good wouldn't they, Babe?" Stacey asked, holding up two champagne glasses as she stood at the kitchen table, its surface covered in samples of fabric, silverware and cakes. 

Tommy looked at them with lackluster in his eyes. Honestly, for whatever reason, he wasn't mentally there. His mind was wandering somewhere else. He wasn't sure where it was going, and he wasn't sure of the reason. Maybe he just didn't care all that much. It was a strange feeling to have. 

Especially about your own wedding. 

"Yeah." He replied. "Yeah, they'll be fine." 

It had been months now since his run in with Nate; since he had seen him. Tommy had reached out to Wendy, since every message or phone call he sent to Nate was never returned. She told him that Nate had met someone and seemed to be doing alright these last few months. He wasn't sure what he had done to offend the nerd, but he was kind of sorry for whatever it was. And he was happy that Nate had found someone. At the same time, there was something else. Like the feeling of a popcorn kernel stuck in your teeth, it bothered him. 

When he had proposed to Stacey the previous month, he was sure that as time marched forward and he got involved in helping with the plans, he would come to find a comfortable stability in the relationship. Now here he was, a month away from his own wedding, and he felt no different. Stacey had insisted that they marry as soon as they could saying she was that madly in love with him, but something still felt off between them, like there was a secret neither one of them was discussing.

"We could do these, with the white lace napkins and my mom has all of her silver. We don't even need to rent a place." Stacey was continuing. 

They had also decided to move back to Stacey's hometown in Rhode Island. Funny enough, it was around the same area that Nate was from. Maybe he would be able to stop by and check on the nerd. Maybe ask him why he had been ignoring him and even rag on him a little bit about it. He kind of wanted to meet this new person Nate was supposedly seeing too, just to make sure the guy was kosher. 

"Yeah, I think that would work really well." He said. 

"Are you okay?" She asked him, setting the glass down and moving to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

"Hmm?" Tommy finally shook himself of the funk.

"You seem distracted. Like you're not even really here."

"Oh. No, I'm alright. Sorry, Babe. Was just thinking." He gave her a small smile. 

"About the wedding and the rest of our lives together."

Nope. He thought. 

"Yeah, of course. Just ready to take the next step and put it behind us." 

"Put it behind us? You make it sound like a root canal." She chuckled. 

"I didn't mean it like that. You know I didn't" He said, pulling her into his lap. "Come on, we're going to have a great life."

"You betcha." She replied, giving him a kiss. 

"You know, I was thinking about getting back into architecture." 

"Architecture?" The look she gave him was almost judgmental.

"Yeah. I've  always liked it. Won some competitions in high school before my old man pushed me more toward a football career. Is that a bad thing?"

"Um....no. Just surprising is all." She ruffled his hair. 

"We both know footballs over. Even with the physical therapy and stuff, I'll never be a hot shot quarterback again and this is something that could really support us. I mean, eventually, you wouldn't have to work and you could buy anything your heart desired."