What He's Been Missing (15 page)

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Authors: Grace Octavia

BOOK: What He's Been Missing
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“That's fine, Mrs. Dupree,” Krista said. She turned to the bridesmaids standing up front to pick someone to stand in and walk down the aisle for Scarlet.
“No need to send someone from the front. Just let Rachel do it. Rachel can walk down the aisle!” Mrs. Dupree said with mock randomness in her tone.
“Me? No. I—I can't.” I shook my head. (No way!)
“Yes, you can!” Mrs. Dupree pushed.
“But I'm—I—”
“Nonsense. Let's do this. You girls already said we don't have a lot of time in here.” Mrs. Dupree took over. She went and stood next to Krista in the aisle, grabbed the iPad, ordered Scarlet to come and sit with her mother, and rushed my escort, the matron of honor, and the best man down the aisle with no music.
“I really don't think I'm the right person for this.” I tried to back out of the situation again just before Mr. Bloom took my arm.
“Oh, aren't you the most beautiful bride,” Mrs. Dupree said. “Isn't she beautiful, Ian? The perfect bride.” She looked at Mrs. Bloom and explained quickly and nonchalantly, “They're best friends. I always expected them to get married. All of this other stuff is really a surprise to me.”
“Let's hurry up and get this over with,” Krista said.
“No, wait. I need a picture!” Mrs. Dupree started snapping pictures.
There was a look of terror growing on Scarlet's face.
Krista cued the music anyway. It was just instrumental, but Mrs. Dupree started singing the words, serenading me as if I was the bride.
“Here comes the bride, all dressed in white. . . .”
Mr. Bloom started walking.
I was holding back, though, nearly pulling him back to the start.
“Sweetly, serenely in the soft glowing light,”
Mrs. Dupree sang on, clicking pictures with her phone simultaneously.
Ian was in his own world, smiling at me like Mrs. Dupree was. He couldn't see Scarlet about to run down the aisle and snatch me off of her father's arm.
“Lovely to see, marching to thee, sweet love united for eternity . . .”
“No!” Scarlet hollered after Mr. Bloom got me to take three steps down the aisle.
Everyone turned to her.
“No!” she repeated.
“No to what, baby?” Mrs. Dupree asked.
“I don't want Rachel to walk down the aisle. I want to do it.” Scarlet got up and started walking to the back of the atrium with her arms folded over her chest. She was turning back into the girl who'd fallen apart at the dress studio.
“But it's tradition—” Mrs. Dupree said.
“You can't,” Mrs. Bloom said.
“I don't care, Mami,” Scarlet said. “Esto no es correcto!”
“What?” Mrs. Dupree looked at Ian. “See, this is what I'm talking about. They don't like black people. They up in here speaking in different languages and stuff.”
“Mama, calm down!” Ian said.
“I don't want to walk down the aisle,” I said.
“Well, it's too late now. We've already started. It's bad luck to start and stop,” Mrs. Dupree said.
“Estrella, siéntese,” Mrs. Bloom ordered, seemingly annoyed.
“But I don't want her to walk down the aisle. I want to do it!”
“It'll be your turn tomorrow,” Mrs. Dupree said. “Let's go. We're running out of time.”
“Siéntese!” Mrs. Bloom stood and pointed at Scarlet.
Scarlet huffed and puffed and went back to her seat.
Mrs. Dupree went on singing and clicking her camera.
When Mr. Bloom and I got to the front of the church, Krista, who looked like there was a big red balloon about to burst in her head, showed him how to hand Scarlet off to Ian and showed him to his seat beside his wife.
Ian smiled and took my hand without Krista telling him what to do. I grinned back at him.
“Look at ya'll. Like you meant to be together. Get in closer for a picture!” Mrs. Dupree was laying it on so thick, Mrs. Bloom was finally catching on to her act.
Mrs. Bloom said something in Spanish to her husband, but Mrs. Dupree pretended not to hear her. She went on with her speech.
“Guess this is the last time you two will be together,” she said.
“Mom, Rachel and I will always be friends,” Ian said, looking into my eyes. “Best friends.”
“Let's finish,” Mrs. Bloom said.
“Are you rushing this rehearsal?” Mrs. Dupree turned to Mrs. Bloom with knives in her eyes.
“They said there's another event in here,” Mrs. Bloom said.
“I can stay in here as long as I please. My son, Dr. Ian Dupree, a professor at a top university, is getting married tomorrow—and I don't know why, but he's marrying someone who I ain't never met and who ain't got half of what he has.”
“Mama, stop it!” Ian said. “That's not right. Take that back.”
“Take it back? I meant every word. That wasn't to hurt anyone's feelings. Those are the facts.”
“My family has money,” Mrs. Bloom said. “We can afford to take care of our daughter.”
“Well, I hope you can do that for the rest of her life because Miss Star don't have no good plans but mooching off my son. Watch. She gonna get pregnant and lay her ass up for the rest of her life. I know the type.”
“Now, hold on. You can't talk about my daughter like that,” Mr. Bloom jumped in.
“You don't need to be jumping up in my wife's face like that!” Mr. Dupree got up and went to defend Mrs. Dupree.
It was about to turn into a full-scale circus.
All the while, Ian was still holding my hand. I looked at his hand. It looked just like it had when we were in Social Circle. I held on tighter and he looked at me for a second. It was like we went away together and came right back. I needed to talk to him. I needed to say what I'd been feeling.
“Can we talk later about—” I tried to whisper, but then the fighting with the parents got louder.
“You don't even know my daughter to talk about her like that,” Mrs. Bloom said.
“Maybe that's the problem,” Mrs. Dupree said.
The entire wedding party looked on with their mouths open.
“Esta mujer es un imbécil!” Mrs. Bloom shouted.
“Imbecile?!?” Mrs. Dupree said. “I got your imbecile!” She was about to take off her shoe, but Mr. Dupree stopped her.
“Ian, stop them!” Scarlet yelled at Ian.
Ian let go of my hand. “Mama, stop it. What are you doing? You're ruining everything. Everyone stop!” His voice shot through the atrium and everyone stopped talking. “Now, listen. We're going to get through this rehearsal like adults.”
“But I—” Mrs. Dupree tried to jump in.
“Mama, sit down!”
Mrs. Dupree sat with her husband and Ian pointed to Krista to begin again.
She moved me into my place with the bridesmaids and summarized what would happen with Scarlet and Ian during the ceremony. To avoid having another war break out, she and Uncle Cat demonstrated how the wedding party would leave the atrium after the ceremony was over.
 
Every face in every seat at the dinner in the Belle Suite after the rehearsal was streaked with “salt.” The whimsical, antique charm in the design of the room that was set up to seat twenty-two guests along either side of a long, Tudor-style dinner table was in direct contrast with the inhabitants. After what happened at the rehearsal, folks were picking sides, frowning, and sucking their teeth. While the dinner was supposed to be used to unify us, everyone there seemed so far apart, avoiding eye contact and rolling their eyes way far back in their heads. Things were just that tense.
Ironically, the only smiling face was that of Mrs. Dupree. She seemed to be getting what she'd wanted: the upper hand.
Scarlet's parents completely stopped speaking in English. They'd refused the food Mr. Dupree had paid for and were going to sit at the table plateless until Krista insisted they put in special orders with the chef.
Sitting between his mother and Scarlet, Ian looked like he was slowly suffocating. I knew I was running out of time, so I tried to make eye contact with him, hoping maybe I could speak to him, but he hardly looked in my direction. Just down and across the table. He'd smile flatly at someone. Accept a hug and a well wish.
The awful air latched onto the champagne toasts. As Krista selected people around the room to share a few words and well wishes with the couple, each speech seemed to focus only on one person. Mrs. Dupree's speech was about how much she loved Ian. The matron of honor's speech was about how much she loved Scarlet. After a while, it seemed like they were in a competition to see which one in the pair was the best. Scarlet's mother sounded like she'd started speaking in tongues in Spanish again when Uncle Cat alluded to Scarlet as having been “lucky” to have met a man as intelligent and strong minded as his nephew. Mr. Dupree looked like he was about to walk out when Scarlet's father seemed to suggest that he'd kill Ian if he cheated on his sweet, demure little flower of a daughter.
“This is falling apart. I need to say something to get these people together,” Krista whispered in my ear, holding the microphone she'd been giving to people behind her back.
“What?” I waved at Ian again, trying to get his eyes so I could ask him to come meet me outside, but he looked right past me.
“I have no idea what to say,” Krista said.
“I'll say something.” I reached for the microphone; if I wanted to get Ian's attention I had to do it right away.
“I don't think that's a good idea. Not after what just happened in the—”
I don't know what came over me, but I snatched the microphone.
“Hello everyone!” I started. I didn't know what I was about to say, but I was tired of being quiet. I looked at Ian.
He was smiling at me in his way.
Scarlet was right there on his arm. She'd produced a half-decent smile that looked a lot like a friendly grimace in case she was caught on camera. She looked so nervous. Had the tense air that I'd seen on so many brides I'd ushered into their new lives. I knew that this was also my job with her, but I couldn't think about her at that moment. I was two people—Ian's best friend, who was in love with him, and the wedding planner. In that moment, I could only satisfy the needs of one of those titles.
“What do we know about love? We know that it's hard to maintain. It's hard to control. It's hard to stop. It's hard to understand,” I said. “A wise man once told me that none of that matters one bit when you find love. And perhaps that's the reason love is so sacred to us: it's hard to find. But when you do find it, you hold onto it. You nurture it. You choose it every day. Abide by it. Invest in it. Protect it with all your heart. Ian, this is how I've felt since the first day I met you.” I looked right into Ian's eyes and locked in, ignoring all the interrogating looks around the room. “You're more than just my best friend. You're my heart. The love I found when I wasn't even looking.” Ian swallowed deeply and his Adam's apple seemed to stall as it rolled back into position. “And it's not always easy to love you. But I do. I choose to love you every day. Even when I don't know it, my heart chooses to love you all on its own. And I hope you'll choose me, too.” Krista had made her way to the other side of the room and was standing behind Ian rubbing her right ear, which was our internal distress signal for STOP!, but I couldn't. I had more to say. “Life is about choices. The choices we make and the risks we take.” I started hearing people mumbling and looked over at Mrs. Dupree, who was frozen in a state of amazement. Suddenly, I realized what I was saying. What I was doing?
Krista's attempt to stop me nonchalantly was out the window. She was cutting herself off at the neck to get me to wrap it up before a riot broke out and Scarlet stabbed me in the eye.
I looked back at Ian. He'd put his arm around Scarlet and was giving me a serviceable smile that openly detailed his desire for me to stop whatever I was doing.
“I know this sounds weird to everyone,” I said. “But I just wanted to let you know, Ian, that you're my best friend and I do love you. And because of that, I love Scarlet. And the three of us can have love now.” (Awkward? Yes!)
Uncle Cat started clapping and chuckling a little to suggest that his understanding of my statement was a little more intimate than I could've intended.
“And . . . we can choose . . . this . . .” I kept speaking, but all of my words after that were low and off-mic. Krista had found the receiver and unplugged the microphone adapter.

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