The Less Than Perfect Wedding (17 page)

*

"Mom!" I screamed, as my mother raised her fist as she crouched on top of my momentarily stunned father. Behind us, Blossom, still only halfway up the steps of the altar towards us, let out a piteous wail.

Most of the rest of us were stunned, frozen in place. Alex, however, somehow managed to avoid the paralysis that afflicted the rest of us, and he darted forward, grabbing my mother's hand before she could sock my father in the face. With a grunt, he hauled her back, lifting her bodily off of my father and depositing her roughly on her feet.

"Stop it!" he bellowed. "What is wrong with you? Are you really this bad at self-control that you can't go a single day without attacking your ex-husband in some way?"

We all stared at Alex as he shouted, but I felt more shocked than anyone else. This was the first time that I had really seen his facade really crack, had seen him get angry over the irrationality of my family. His face flushed, he loomed over my mother as he yelled.

Moving forward, Judy pulled my father back to his feet as Blossom arrived. Bryan was a half step behind, although I wasn't sure what he was planning to contribute. For a split second, I feared that Blossom, after seeing this attack against her lover, would attempt to retaliate by striking my mother. One smoldering glare from Alex dissuaded her from this idea, however, his fury managing to penetrate her inebriated state.

Alex took a deep, shuddering breath, closing his eyes and rubbing one hand over his face and through his hair. The passage of his hand left his hair in odd tufts, but nobody laughed; this wasn't the time for hilarity. After slowly exhaling, Alex turned to Sally. "Are we done with this rehearsal?" he asked.

Sally nodded quickly. "I need to talk to you and Danielle about the reception, but the rehearsal here is over," she volunteered.

My fiance nodded. "Good. Everybody but Sally and Danielle, get out. Show up on time tomorrow, be on your best behavior, or so help me, I will not let you be a part of this wedding." He swung around, his finger pointed out at us. The other groomsmen just stared at him - they hadn't done anything wrong, and their wide eyes showed that they weren't used to seeing this side of Alex. But my family members leaned back from that pointed finger like it was a loaded gun.

"You will not be a part of this wedding," Alex repeated. "You will not be allowed into the wedding ceremony, you will be turned away at the reception, and you will be removed from every guest list." Speech done, he lowered his finger, glaring around at the group to drive his point home.

Without a word, the rest of the wedding party filed out of the church, nobody making eye contact as they shuffled up the aisle. Alex, Sally, and I watched them go. With a slight sigh, I noticed that, although he hadn't spoken a word, Danny was following close behind my sister, and his eyes appeared to be locked onto her ass swinging back and forth in her jeans. Despite Alex's speech, I suspected that their worthless excuses for short-term memories would lead to them getting into trouble very soon.

Finally, after the door had closed on them, Sally turned to us. "I, um, I just need to go over the order of announcements at the reception," she said. "The limo should take you two from the church to the banquet hall for the reception, and then everyone else will join shortly as they drive over. We'll have a short period, about twenty minutes, of appetizers while the guests arrive, where they can move around, socialize, and find their seats. After the appetizer and before the main course, we'll have your parents give their toasts. After dinner, the two of you will have your first dance, and then we'll have a short period while the staff clears tables. After that, I'll come let the two of you know when it's time to cut the cake."

It must have been clear that all of these instructions were blending together in my mind. Sally reached out and patted my arm. "Don't worry, I'll be by your side to let you know what to do next," she comforted me. "Just follow the instructions and everything will be fine." I fervently hoped so.

Sally, Alex and I made our way out of the church, the three of us all blinking as we emerged into the bright sunlight outside. Alex still looked quite angry, more so than I had ever seen before. To be honest, it scared me a little. Was all this craziness finally starting to be too much for him?

We were all headed off to different places; Sally had to go check on the many plans that she was juggling in the air, Alex had a lunch with his groomsmen for some reason, and I was taking my car back to the apartment to lay out my clothes for the next day, pack up anything that I might possibly need on the morning of my wedding so that it would be close at hand, and try not to think of all the different ways that this could go wrong.

As I got into the car, however, my thoughts were on my husband-to-be, hopefully. I could count on one hand the number of times he had raised his voice in anger. These fits of rage had never been directed towards me, and I was certain that, if I was in his situation, I would have reached my breaking point far sooner. Still, I felt worried, nervous about that anger, always there but usually hidden so far below the surface.

The Wedding, Part I

*

The morning of my wedding was the brightest part of the day.

The alarm went off early, at just after five in the morning, but I couldn't even muster the energy to reach over and turn it off. It's my wedding day, I thought to myself, but even this didn't fill me with happiness. All I felt was dread, and an overwhelming temptation to merely lay in bed, in the comfort and warmth of my blankets, and let the whole day pass me by. Maybe I could try again in a year. Or maybe Alex and I could just run off to Vegas one of these days and elope. That would be so much easier, and I wouldn't have to deal with writing thank you notes.

Something nudged aside the sheets covering my face, however. I felt warm wetness gently press against my cheek. "Rise and shine, honey," Alex murmured, kissing me again. "We're getting married today, and you have to get ready. Time to wake up - you're going to be my wife!"

I groaned, reaching out and swatting ineffectually at my man's muscled chest. "Can't you just do all of it?" I asked. "You could totally play both parts."

"I am amazing, but not quite that amazing," Alex acknowledged. "I can do many things, but I cannot play both parts in a wedding. I need you for that. Otherwise, I'd totally just do it all so this stupid thing could be over!" I briefly frowned at that comment, but then he started kissing me again, his stubble tickling my neck and cheeks.

Finally, with a laugh, I pushed him away and sat up, the covers falling away from my chest and exposing me to the cool air of our bedroom. "Ugh," I groaned. "I have to get up, go get my hair done, makeup applied, get into my dress, and then have all of my bridesmaids fuss over me because everything might not be completely perfect."

"That does sound like a lot of work," Alex agreed, and his muscled arm reached up and roped around my shoulders. With a tug, he pulled me back down to the bed. I let out a brief but delighted squeal as he tightened his grip around me, once again nuzzling at the neck. "Maybe," he suggested, "you could take a few minutes before you head off for all of that work?"

His fingers were everywhere, probing and tickling, and I couldn't say no. I rolled over on top of him, kissing him, as he effortlessly slid me out of my skimpy pajamas. As he expertly stripped me down, our bare skin brushed together, sending all sorts of amazing sensations coursing through my body. By the time he was slipping a couple fingers into my panties and working them off, I was on top of him, pinning him down. I grinned, feeling like a lioness on top of her prey. Her smiling, handsy, very sexy prey.

Twenty minutes later, I finally extracted myself from the sheets again, the covers now in a tangled pile around us. The bedroom air was still cool, but I was filled with warmth from our exertions, and didn't even notice the cold. As I stood up and began limping down towards the bathroom, Alex let out a silly, piteous cry behind me. "Save some for our wedding night!" I called out over my shoulder at him, eliciting a groan in response before I disappeared into the bathroom.

I had been concerned about my man in the last couple of days, all of it coming to a head the previous day when he had his outburst at the rehearsal. The man seemed calm and collected, now totally at ease, but that outburst still worried me. I knew that Alex had a tendency to hold things in, containing his feelings until they eventually overwhelmed him and came bursting out, often with devastating results. Yesterday's shouting seemed to have let off some steam, but was he on the brink of having another meltdown?

The hot, steaming water from the shower head helped relax me, however, and I did my best to push such dark thoughts out of my mind. I just had to make it through today, I told myself. Just this one last ceremony and reception, and then it would all be done. After that, Alex and I would be married, we'd be wishing farewell to all of my family members, and I would be done with what I now truly believed was going to be the hardest day of my life. I could make it twelve hours - no problem. I tried to let the steaming water pouring from my showerhead wash away the fears that insisted on hanging around the back of my mind.

Out of the shower, I barely had time to pull on some clothes before Sally was knocking at our door. "Time to go, time to go!" she shouted at me as soon as I opened it. I noticed that she was once again wearing that ridiculous headset. Before I could speak, however, she grabbed me by the shoulders and began marching me out. "We can't be late for your hair appointment!" she said when I tried to open my mouth to protest the rough handling.

"Breakfast?" I managed to get out.

"We'll get it on the way!" she responded. "It's your day, you can make someone bring you whatever you want! But you will just have to do it later - there's a wedding going on, and you have to get ready!"

Despite Sally's worries, however, we made it to the salon where I had booked an appointment with plenty of time to spare, and the ladies working there assured my frantic wedding planner that there would be more than enough time to style my hair. "We've got this under control!" they insisted multiple times.

Finally, Sally had to head outside to answer some phone calls. I caught a glimpse of her through the front window as I was escorted back to one of the salon chairs, holding her phone in one hand and her headset with the other as she shouted into the microphone.

True to the stylist's word, my hair was looking perfectly styled and fabulous in less than an hour and a half, and by the time that Sally came back inside to check on my progress, they were finishing up work on my nails, letting the final clear coat dry. "Good, good," Sally acknowledged. "Danielle, you look great. Now, just stop frowning! I have this all under control."

I wanted to tell my wedding planner about the pit that had been settling slowly in my stomach over the last week, but she had already turned away as her phone began ringing again. Instead, I kept the dark thoughts to myself, leaning back and closing my eyes as I gently waved my fingernails back and forth.

*

By the time that I arrived at the church, I was beginning to feel more than a little worried about my wedding planner. Throughout my hair and makeup appointments, Sally had been constantly on the phone, and although she would step outside so that she wouldn't disturb the stylists, I could get glimpses of her every now and then through the window, yelling into her headset. As the morning went on, I could have sworn that the frown lines on her face seemed to deepen into valleys.

"Sally, is everything going all right?" I asked, finally, as we rode towards the church. I had been instructed to sit perfectly upright in the seat so that my hair wouldn't touch the headrest, and my hands were held straight up in the air above my lap, so that nothing would smudge the fresh paint on my nails. I felt as though I was made of glass, with the care that people were insisting I take.

"Oh, yes, fine," Sally commented, staring down at her phone. "It will all be resolved by the time you walk down the aisle, don't worry."

"What will be resolved?" I probed. Sally was trying to be reassuring, but I still felt out of the loop.

"Nothing, nothing," she insisted. "Oh, look, we're here."

Indeed, we had just pulled up outside of the church. I could see that the parking lot was already filled with cars, which reassured me that at least most of the guests had managed to arrive successfully. There was nobody outside, though, and Sally took the opportunity to hurry me out of the car and rush me inside the church through a side entrance.