by Jade Alyse
#
He rained her with kisses while they sat in the limousine, completely alone in the park parking lot, waiting for the guests to filter out and head for the Inn on Harper Creek Road for the reception. They would stay after so Maya could take pictures. Part of her then didn’t even want to go to the reception at all, although she’d spent so much time pouring herself over the seating chart, and the rose and votive centerpieces carefully constructed by Maya, making sure that Scotty’s disc jockeying equipment was set up accordingly, and making sure that Jo got the cake into one of the Inn’s kitchen freezers before the icing became melted and runny.
She’d savor the moment that they got to be alone, though her body lay exhausted, either from staying up the entire night before, or her panic attack in the hotel, which seemed light-years ago.
“I love you,” he whispered against her cheek.
She pressed her lips against his and breathed, “God, I love you too…”
“Let’s just start our honeymoon right now,” Brandon encouraged with a slight grin.
That sounded like such a good idea; lying with Brandon, starting their life just right…
But she took a deep breath…one of them had to think rationally…
“Baby, you know we can’t do that…”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “I know, I know…you’re right, you’re right…but it was a good idea, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, in theory…”
“Were you nervous?’
“That’s a stupid question…of course I was nervous…”
“Good…I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one,” he whispered, kissing her again. “I could barely breathe up there…”
“Same here…”
“My name is Natalie Greene,” she said, wincing at the thought of it. “Can you believe that?”
“I honestly can’t…but I like the sound of it…I really, really do…”
Ha, he finally got his wish. He’d finally received the relief he’d so long desired; loving Natalie caused him grief, caused him sleepless nights, made him angry. And there she was, kissing him as hard as he was kissing her, wearing the ring that he’d selected solely for her. She was his…
The way she looked in her dress startled him. Even at what she considered her worst her beauty still prevailed, so watching her twirl in that magnificent looking dress made his insides curl. The photographs that they took together by the willow tree that held so much feeling left him completely speechless. And it prompted him to think of being alone with her again…God, the things he planned to do to her…
Natalie had designed the event room at the Inn on Harper Creek with a perfect sense of simplistic extravagance. Each round table, arranged in three neat rows, where the guests sat were pleasantly understated, with a cluster of cream-colored votive candles, encircled by pink and yellow rose petals, place cards with each guests’ named on it (designed by Maya), and a series of disposable cameras, chocolates with his and Natalie’s names on them, provided too, by Maya. Each chair was tied with either a pink silk ribbon or yellow. The bridal party was seated at a long white-clothed table on the other side of the ten by twelve foot hardwood dancing floor in the center, and was elevated enough so they Natalie and Brandon could survey the entire crowd while they weren’t walking around. Scotty’s disc jockey table was set up off to the right of the bridal party’s table, and opposite that side sat a small square table where the cake sat.
Surely, he was proud of her and thought that she could add interior decorator to her repertoire. Uncle Martin was given the sole privilege of introducing the couple at the reception, and instead of getting straight to the point, Brandon and Natalie waited outside of the room while her uncle went on and on about how important Natalie was to him, about how he’d watched her grow, about how well-behaved she was as a child.
Blah, blah, blah…
Brandon only wanted to get on the inside, down a glass of champagne, see his friends and members of his family that did have the decency to show up, and forget about the fact that his parents were weak, and that he’d exhausted enough of his brain, worrying about their feelings. After all, Tallie was his wife now; he could care less what they thought of her now. He could also care less what they thought of him too. Part of him only hoped that they’d admire him some day, for his bravery, for standing up for what he believed in, for not giving a shit about what anyone else thought about his situation with Natalie…
They sat beside each other at the bridal party table, and watched Natalie nervously twirl her boney finger around the stem of her champagne glass, as Maya told embarrassing stories of her as a child during her speech. Natalie was always the nerd; while Maya painted, Natalie played doctor, or astronaut, or alien. Natalie was always the tattletale; Maya and Sidney rarely got away with things (including the time that they accidentally broke their mother’s favorite vase and tried to hide it) and resented her for that. He watched as she perked up when Maya said that Natalie was her best friend, that Natalie was a woman of her word, that Natalie was one of the most honest and caring people that she’d ever known. Natalie was there to defend her when the brothers that used to live on their street picked on her; Maya had a terrible fear of thunder and lightning, and Natalie was there to comfort her and tell her that it was nothing to be afraid of. The thunder was God beating his drum, and the lightning was God getting rid of all the “bad people” to protect them; Natalie was her dancing partner. Natalie was always the one to give her the best advice. Natalie could always make her laugh.
Maya then introduced the moment that she met him. It was a few weeks before their one-year anniversary, and Maya had driven up from Savannah to visit her for the weekend. She admitted that her first impression of him was that he was preppy and sort of snobbish, but all of that changed when she actually talked to him. “It was then that I concluded that Brandon had to have been one of the coolest white boys she’d ever met,” she told the guests. The guests laughed in return. She then said that she saw the way Natalie looked at him, and, as her sister, she immediately realized that Natalie was truly a girl in love, that she’d never seen her big sister look at anyone that way. And she knew that Brandon was the one for her.
“I wish them nothing but happiness,” Maya said, raising her glass. “Cheers…”
“Cheers,” the guests repeated. A series clinking glasses followed.
Scotty stood up next, adjusted his tuxedo jacket and cleared his throat. His best friend started talking about Natalie first, about how much fun he has whenever he’s around her, about how cool she was, about how smart she was. “Everybody knew that if you needed help on your homework, you went to Natalie…”
And the guests chuckled.
He then talked about the memories that he had of her; running around the house on Trent Road with Brandon’s red jacket on, baking them things on a regular basis, cooking them things, making them clean up their messes, watching television with them. He then mentioned how he knew Brandon, how their friendship developed and how grateful he felt that their friendship had lasted this long. “I’m honored to be his best man,” Scotty told the guests. “I’m honored to be a part of this ceremony…between two of my closest friends…watching the two of them makes me believe that that kind of love is possible for anyone…with a little hard work and dedication…which never hurt anybody…to Brandon and Natalie, my brother and my sister…may you grow old together…”
“To Brandon and Natalie,” the guests repeated. The sound a clinking glasses rose again.
#
The sadness had disappeared from her eyes, and what had replaced them was unspoken peace, completion, satisfaction…or at least that’s what he read in them as they danced their first number as husband and wife on the hardwood flooring, with the light shining down on them.
No one else existed. He was only aware of the person that stood before him, whose hand he held, whose eyes he studied, whose smell intoxicated him, and impelled him to deal with the urge to anticip
ate things to come…
Tallie pulled him closer smoothly, and after she kissed the side of his face, she rested her cheek against his and a trace of warm breath escaped her parted lips and tickled his ear.
Brandon closed his eyes. The moment was almost more than he could take, which explained why he gently whispered, “I cannot wait to get you out of here,” against the side of her face. He would assume that she agreed with him, because not long after he said that, she pulled away from him, examined his face with her eyes, and pressed her lips against his just once, just long enough for him to taste every centimeter of the surface of her lips.
“May we cut in?”
Brandon and Natalie parted from each other. He was sure that he looked awkward, looking at his father that way, but his shock had left him completely speechless, so long that he barely budged when he reached for Natalie’s hands and pulled her away from him.
Jack Greene only winked at him, twirling Natalie in a small circle as the song changed.
Helen Chandler pulled him out of his trance. “May I?”
Brandon adjusted his tuxedo jacket, cleared his throat and took the Evil Mother’s hands into his own.
They danced awkwardly together for several moments before Helen Chandler cleared her throat and said, “You look very handsome, Boy…”
“Thank you, Ms. Chandler…”
“I can finally see what my daughter sees in you,” Evil Mother said. “You clean up nicely…”
His body was tense, but he hoped she couldn’t sense it. This moment was too weird for words and he thought it best to keep his to a minimum to keep from upsetting her. Yet, he still wondered why she was there, what made her change her mind, and when she was going to apologize to Natalie for saying all of those nasty things about him and about her. Perhaps he shouldn’t even wait on it. Perhaps what he should focus on at that moment was not stepping on his mother-in-law’s toes, or saying something to her that he would ultimately regret. After all, he had Natalie now, and the woman would just have to accept it, wouldn’t she? Yes, he reminded himself then that he shouldn’t give a damn about anyone else and what he or she thought…his main focus, for the time being, would be Natalie…
Then Evil Mother surprised him. “I’m sorry, Brandon,” she said quietly, as if she weren’t accustomed to apologizing to anyone. “I’m sorry for treating you the way I did this past year…I just had a hard time accepting that one of my daughters was actually getting married…”
He didn’t say a word. He only nodded.
“I only wanted what was best for Nattie,” she told him. “And if you’re it, then I have to accept that, don’t I?”
He nodded again.
“Good, good,” she said. “I know you’re a good person, Brandon…but…please, please…please treat my daughter right…can you promise me that?”
“I intend to…”
He’d encouraged her to call him “Dad”. She told him she’d try it, though it had been some time since she’d referred to anyone as that in a long time. Proclaiming that she had a father figure in her life again seemed strange to her…
“You look absolutely stunning,” Jack Greene told her, twirling her round once more. The other guests started to arrive on the dance floor as the song changed again.
“Thank you,” she responded politely, bowing her head.
She looked over at Brandon. He matched her gaze. She tried to sense what he was feeling seeing his father there.
Earlier, Jack Greene had apologized for Martha Greene’s absence. “I’m afraid my wife simply isn’t ready,” Mr. Greene admitted. “On the contrary, I couldn’t miss my son’s wedding for the world…”
Natalie was appreciative. She was sure that Brandon, although he’d been angry with his father, was quite elated that his father had decided to show up, though he was rather late.
Natalie danced with the father another round, before Mark and Jo Greene cut in. The Greene brother spun her around what seemed a dozen times, making her laugh. Somehow, in the midst of this, she’d lost sight of Brandon in the crowd of Chandlers and Greenes, who, despite amazing cultural differences, harmonized a lot more than she ever could have anticipated, and the more men that approached her, asking for a dance, the less she thought about finding him. Besides, they had a whole two weeks in the Caribbean to be together. One or two hours wouldn’t devastate her.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed or what time it was, but by the time Scotty left the DJ table and asked for a dance number, she’d danced with each Greene brother more than once, had danced with her cousins Michael and Cory and Marcus, and all three of her uncles.
“Finally, I get to dance with you,” Scotty told her, reaching at her waist. “I wasn’t sure I’d get to see you again…”
“Scotty, hush,” she told him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. “I’m here now…I’ve been waiting all night to dance with you…”
“Good, good…”
“Thank you for the music…”
“Of course…”
“And the speech…”
“I practiced it three times for you…”
“Did you?”
“No,” Scotty chuckled jokingly. “I completely made it up as I went along…”
“Either way,” Natalie said, rolling her eyes. “It was beautiful…”
“I’m glad that you liked it…”
The song changed, the music slowed, and their pace slowed.
“Thank you,” Natalie said, seizing the opportunity.
“For what?” he asked her, visibly confused.
“For earlier today,” she told him. “Thank you…”
“Oh, please,” he said, rolling his eyes. “It’s been forgotten…”
Natalie allowed herself to smile. “I could have really hurt him, couldn’t I have?”
Scotty huffed and hesitantly nodded. “I can honestly venture to guess that he would’ve been devastated…”
“So, I did the right thing, didn’t I?”
“Nat, either way, you would’ve been following your heart,” Scotty advised. “Brandon would have been pissed, surely, but eventually he would have come to understand that what you did felt like the right thing for you…”
Natalie fell silent for a moment and pursed her lips. Then she looked into her friend’s eyes again.
“I think I made the right decision…”
Scotty smiled warmly. “I think you did too…I just wasn’t going to pressure you into going through with something that you didn’t want to do…”
“And that’s what a good friend is for,” she replied, punching his arm lightly.
“I’m glad you married him,” Scotty told her, twirling her around slowly. “Not to sound completely trite…but…he seriously would have been lost without you…”
“Like he is now…”
“Come again?”
“He disappeared and I have no idea where he went,” Natalie said, glancing over his shoulder. “It’s getting late and I don’t want him to miss anything before we leave…”
“Hmm,” Scotty began, turning his eyes into search mode. “Last time I saw him, he was dancing with Asha…no wait…the last time that I saw him he was talking to his father…”
“His father?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Scotty said. “And the conversation didn’t seem to be going well…”
“Oh, Lord,” Natalie said with a heavy sigh. “Well, I think it’s time that I go looking for him…”
“Good luck…I should go back and man the DJ table…”
She started her search for her missing husband, but got distracted when Maya wanted her to pose with a group of ladies from her church for a picture, or when Asha wanted to know where the guests should put their presents, or when Granny Marie wanted a hug, or when Joanna wanted to give her sex advice in the middle of the dance floor. She did manage, however, to ask each of them if they’d seen Brandon and all of them had given her the same answer: he’d walked a
way with his father.
She was en route to the event room’s exit when her mama crossed her path and stopped her cold.
“We need to talk,” her mother advised.
Natalie agreed, but she wasn’t sure that she wanted to talk about it then. She wasn’t sure that she could deal with all of her mother’s emotional baggage that night (her special night). She only wanted to rescue her husband at the moment, wherever he was, and she surprised herself when she leaned into her mother, kissed her cheek and said, “Not now, Mama,” and continued about her way.
#
He wasn’t sure if he bought his father’s apology, but he enjoyed that vision of watching his father squirm, of watching his father in a state of humility. They stood in the lobby of the Inn and Brandon had his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He clenched his teeth tightly, to keep from saying something that he’d regret, all while Jack Barrett Greene reminded him of how important he was, how all of his sons were important, and how he didn’t mean for any of it to get as out of control as it did. He told him that he appreciated his level-headedness, his vigor, and that Natalie was a great girl, blah, blah, blah. He even tried to apologize for his mother’s words, for his mother’s reaction to the situation, to the terrible things she’d said to Natalie’s mother about their financial situation. His father stood back and did nothing! Not a goddamn thing!
He wasn’t as willing to forgive his father as easily as Natalie had forgiven her mother. It would take some time, perhaps on the honeymoon, where he could relax, collect his thoughts, be away from anything and everything that brought him stress.
When his father started to move into the conversation about his future with Natalie (i.e. finances, living situations, etc.), he became increasingly uneasy, until he felt something grab at his arm.
Natalie had found him, had returned to his side, and he allowed himself to breathe again.
“There you are,” she told him, smiling at his father. “Mr. Greene…”
“Natalie,” his father said to his bride. He then looked in Brandon’s direction and sighed. “Son, we’ll talk about this later…”
Brandon nodded compliantly. Of course they would; when he had all of his thoughts sorted out, when he could articulate his feelings and tell his parents about how much they’d hurt him and Natalie over the past year.
