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Before: Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue


Ashley

Rochelle was painting my lips coral with a teeny tiny brush. My hair was in a great big knot with strands that hung in loose curls around my face. Kristin stood behind me, fastening the dress. "You look like a cloud," breathed Brian's girlfriend, Katie, who was a professional photographer, as her camera clicked, documenting the day.

"She really does," Rochelle smiled. She slipped a brush loaded with soft pink hues across my cheeks. Her warm brown eyes met mine. "You look way more gorgeous than you did last time," she whispered.

"I have a better make-up artist," I answered.

Rochelle's purple maid of honor dress swished as she put away her brushes and the palettes. Kristin had finished with the gown. Katie took pictures over my shoulder looking at myself in the three-way mirror as Rochelle fetched my veil. She stood on a stool beside me and lifted the tiara based veil up, slipped it onto my head, and secured it in my nest of red hair. Kristin squealed and Katie's camera flickered loudly.

Rochelle smiled at me in the mirror. "So he wrote vows for you," she said. "Are you scared they're gonna be all silly and boy-like?" She climbed off the stool.

"It's Nick, of course they'll be boy-like," Leigh chimed in from where she was sitting, holding my bouquet and a glass of carbonated apple juice.

I smiled, "I don't care even if they're boy-like," I said, "I know he's gonna say it from his heart whatever it is."

"What if you get up there and he's like roses are red, violets are blue, we're getting married, so I'll say I do?" Rochelle joked.

All of us laughed. "I could so see Nick pulling that," Kristin laughed.

None of them had seen romantic Nick, I thought. No...he wasn't gonna let me down, I knew he wouldn't. Not at this. I wondered if he was ready, if the boys were teasing him.

AJ fluttered into the room as if on cue. He had on a suit as purple as Rochelle's dress. She squealed and ran over to him. "LOOK AT HER," Rochelle cried, "Just look at her."

AJ let out a low whistle, lowered the frames of his glasses to stare at me, "You clean up good," he commented.

"Isn't she gorgeous?" Rochelle asked.

AJ nodded. "Like a dream." He walked over and stood in front of me. "I just want you to know, he's driving us all fucking insane over there."

I laughed, "He is?"

"He's like one of those little chihuahua dogs. He won't stop yapping." AJ looked around. His eyes landed on the plate of chocolate covered strawberries Leigh had brought along. "Why the hell do you guys get strawberries? We ain't got shit! Well the other guys got brandy, but you know. Me, I got a Red Bull." He grabbed a handful of the berries and wrapped them into a napkin. "I gotta get back over there. I just wanted to know if there's no groom at the alter it's because we killed him to make him shut the fuck up."

"Thanks AJ," I laughed.

Rochelle shooed him out of the room.

An hour later, we'd put flowers in my hair and Rochelle had wrestled Ava into her pretty purple dress and Zoey had been put into her dress and Patrick pushed open the door. A rose, dyed purple, on his lapel. He came over and spun his finger. "Turn around," he commanded. I turned so he was behind me and he reached around and slipped a necklace around my neck. I reached up and felt the charm. It was an old high school ring. "This was your mother's," he said. "Well it was mine, but I gave it to her and she wore it around her neck on this chain."

I put my hand around it.

"It belongs to you. And," he tilted it so I could see the gemstone - it was the color of the ocean on a clear day - "Rochelle told me you still needed your something blue."

I turned to face him. "Thank you," I whispered.

"You're entirely welcome," he said. He cleared his throat. "Nick is a good man, Ashley, and he loves you, and I know you love him. I am so proud of you, of everything you've overcome. I'm so happy and thankful that you found me in time that I could be here to witness this, your happily ever after."

I kissed his cheek.

"Don't make her cry!" Rochelle admonished, "I spent like three hours doing that make up!"

We all laughed.

Patrick held out the crook of his arm to me. And I slid my hand through it, and we made our way out of the room to the foyer. My throat felt tight with excitement. AJ stood by the doors that led into the church. "If you'd waited 'til May it would've been on a beach lined with shells," he said.

"This is perfect," I answered.

"You're ready then," he said.

I nodded.

AJ came over and hugged me, kissed my cheek, then said, "Thank you for making him this happy. He's my best friend --" Rochelle cleared her throat, "--besides Rochelle, I mean."

I smiled, "He makes me happy, too."

"That's the best damn part!" AJ said. "Okay. I'll go let them know." His eyes twinkled with excitement. "Oh shit man this is the best part. Here we go." He pulled the doors open, Patrick and I standing to the side, out of view, and galloped inside. The organ began to play and I gripped Patrick's hand. Leigh handed me the bouquet. "You're gonna need this," she said, winking.

Rochelle knelt down. "Go throw the flowers, Ava," she said, handing Ava a basket with petals in it.

"Flowers."

"Yes, sweetie, go throw them."

Ava toddled through the doors of the church, grabbing handfuls of flower petals and tossing them. I heard everyone inside awww as she made her way along.

"Time to go," Rochelle waved at Kristin, and Leigh, and the three of them started forward. She looked at me, grinned. "Oh God this is so Days of Our Lives good!" She scrambled after the other three, pausing at the doors after seeing everything and mouthed, "Nick looks fucking hot as hell!" then disappeared.

Patrick smiled down at me. "You ready?" he whispered.

The music changed to Here Comes the Bride. My heart beating hard in my chest. I nodded. "I've been waiting for this day since I was eight years old."

"Then let's go."

He led me gently forward, and I clutched him, my mind rushing forward. It felt surreal, it felt like a dream. I stepped around the corner of the doors and the people in the pews stood up and turned to look and AJ was literally bouncing foot to foot, Ava on his hip. All eyes were on me and Patrick as we stepped through the doors.

But the only eyes I saw were Nick's.

The grin that covered his face... it was the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen. It danced in his eyes, his cheeks dimpled. He took a deep breath and I saw him whisper wow under his breath.

And I knew there was nothing in the entire world that would ever top this memory of him.

Ever.

Click.

I turned and saw Katie had captured it with her camera.

Thank God.




Nick

Ava toddled down the aisle, chucking handfuls of petals on the floor. She toddled over to AJ and poured the last of her petals out of her basket onto the carpet at his feet. "Flowers," she said.

AJ picked her up.

Kristin and Leigh came down the aisle next. Rochelle hovered in the doorway a moment, turned to one side, then hurried to catch up, her bright red lips locked in a grin. She looked over at AJ and Ava and waved, wiggling the tips of her fingers at them. Then looked at me and winked as she turned stood to the side, turning to look at the doors.

The music changed, the people stood up.

And there she was.

Ashley floated down the aisle beside Patrick, whose eyes were wet with tears. I could hardly contain myself. AJ was bouncing foot to foot beside me. My insides were doing the same thing. I couldn't tear my eyes from her. She looked so fluffing beautiful.

They reached the front of the church, and Patrick took Ashley's hand and lifted it, sliding it into mine. He stepped back and sat down in the front row. I held Ashley's hands in front of me, swinging them happily between us.

She stared up at me, her eyes bright and sparkling.

I heard the pastor talking, but he sounded far away like one of those teachers in the Charlie Brown cartoons. I was too busy staring at her. He cleared his throat. I looked up at the guy. "Your vows," AJ hissed.

"Oh...fluff," I said. "I got distracted. Sorry." Ashley laughed. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the folded sheet of notebook paper I'd written my vows on. I shook it opened and took deep breath, staring down at the chicken scratch writing I'd done. It was like I couldn't read. I looked up at her. I swallowed. "Okay so I had this stuff I wanted to say, but like I dunno... it's like it doesn't matter what I was gonna say anymore cos... like... your eyes kinda made it all seem stupid or something, like there's no words I can say that're as perfect as your eyes are." I chewed my lip. "I can't tell you I wanna spend forever with you 'cos it's already there in your eyes, and I can't thank you for being beautiful 'cos like beautiful isn't even the right word..." I shook my head. "I dunno. I'm just really... happy. Thank you."

I said thank you like a person ending a speech.

I was pretty sure I'd sounded real dumb, but Ashley didn't look like she thought it was dumb.

"I'm sorry that came out all dumb," I said.

Ashley smiled, "No it was perfect."

I smiled back at her. "I'm glad I didn't mess up."

She laughed.

"It's your turn," I said.

Ashley nodded. She reached into the bodice at her dress by her arm and pulled out a folded piece of pink paper. She held it up, hands shaking. "Nick," she read, her voice trembling, "I knew I'd get in front of you and lose all my words so I wrote some down just incase I looked at you and couldn't breathe and every fragment of my vocabulary evaporated. Luckily, there's really only one word I need to tell you to say it all right now." She paused, looked up at me, her eyes burning right into mine...

The pause seemed to last forever. A thousand universes and eternities could've passed. I would've been fine just existing right there forever.

"Oliver."

I kissed her.