Beca was perched on the end of her too-white, too-plushy hotel bed, staring at herself in the mirror. It was a scorching September morning in LA. A warm push of air made it's way through her open windows, helping to bring down her frenzied thoughts to a quieter simmer. She glanced at digital alarm clock on the bedside table, then down at her own iPhone to double check the time.
Two minuets.
A pang of something ran through her chest. She had two minuets to put herself on a socially required level of excitement. Not that Beca wasn't excited, she honestly really was. She just wasn't one of those girls to jump wildly up and down and scream in such a high pitch that only dogs could hear. Her friends were though.
One minuet now.
Beca ran into the bathroom to quickly brush her teeth and splash water on her face in an attempted to ground her in her reality. It was just a normal day. A normal day plus a church. A church and a clean, kind of too puffy white dress. A white dress and an aisle and an alter and a-
The rapping a the door draws Beca from her spiralling train of thoughts.
She jogs over to the door and takes a moment to breathe in, focus, and brace for impact.
She opens the door, and as if on cue, the squealing starts. She gets hugged-tackled by the two tall, jumpy bodies.
"You know it's me getting married today, right guys?" Beca chuckles through a sizeable grin, hugging the two girls back.
"Oh I know!" voices Emily, who is still squeezing Beca and Stacie with everything she has, "I'm just so excited for you!".
"Yeah, you and lover boy have been together for what, almost five- six, years? It's about damn time." Stacie adds on. "We can be excited too."
"I think everyone is excited" A voice adds from the back.
Beca peeked around the two taller women still standing in the doorway to see her step mom, Sheila and her younger half sister Harper. She invites them in with a slightly awkward hug for Sheila, then picking up and spinning around her flower girl. "Jeez, H, you're almost as tall as me now."
"Like that's a hard accomplishment" Stacie snorted from the desk chair she's dropped herself in, spreading out makeup on the table.
"Hey! Isn't there some rule that you have to be nice to the bride on her wedding day?" Beca questions, putting down Harper.
"I think she's right, Stace" Emily chimes from across the room where Beca's dress is hanging up, not breaking her eye contact with it while she looks it up and down, admiring it.
"It's okay Beca," Harper starts "Ms. Mayer says I'm very tall for my age anyways. The tallest 3rd grader she's ever had!" And Beca can't help but believe that's true. The height gene was definitely not one that she and her sister shared.
"Alright girls, I thinks it time to get ready! We have to make sure Beca's at the church by one!"
…
Chloe studied the side of her van. Her eyes traced over the swirly navy and yellow lettering that spelled out "Life is a Flower". She had always wondered if she had made the right decision for the name of her shop. Was it too long? Too wordy? Too overt? Would people get the reference? One of her best friends, Aubrey, of course, adored the the reference. Her other best friend, and sometimes highly incompetent employee, Amy, thought it was a stupid idea because "The only people who still listen to Ace Of Base are dead". Chloe had to point out the holes in her logic on that one. Amy, of course, had insisted that her point still stood. And maybe she was right about the Ace of Base thing, (people not getting the reference, not Amy's 'dead' theory) but she couldn't help but admire the name. Life was like a flower. Beautiful, delicate, unexpected, and cliche. Something she quickly learned from the obscene amount of weddings she had done flowers for in the past four year.
An "Oy! Chloe!" Rang out from behind her, so loud and abrupt, it jolted Chloe back to her senses, causing her to almost drop the final centrepiece she was loading in her van.
"What, Amy?"
"Do you think you're going to be back to the shop by 5?"
"I don't know, why?"
"Well ya see, I have a date tonight and I was hoping you'd be back earlier enough to go home and get ready, because this time the guy is actually hot and isn't a convicted criminal so I'm going to need at least three to five hours to get ready and-"
"Amy!"
"Oh don't worry Chloe, next time you have a date I'll close up shop for you."
"Ha. Very funny." She deadpanned.
"Hey, we'll find you a girl soon. Between now and the time since the last girl you dated, it's got to be a statistical fact that you have to met someone anytime now, or like, the world will implode."
"Wouldn't that be nice."
…
Chloe arrived to the church ground about a half an hour before the wedding is supposed to start. When she was there the day before to set up the flowers in the chapel, she couldn't help but notice what a chruchy-church this was. It was like the Notre Dame in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. The fact that she was indeed, still in L.A was only reaffirmed by the tall, reflective office building next to which said Superior Court in the upper lefthand corner.
She needed to find someone to point her in the direction of the courtyard where the reception was being held to set up the centrepieces. These centrepieces where probably some of the most cliche ones she had done to date. Stout glass bowls with wide mouths that compacted in a mix of red roses and violets so not a single flower petal more could fit in.
She approached two men, both in dark grey, fitted three piece suits, and matching maroon ties and crisp white shirts. One had light brown bushy hair and a child like expression on his face, which was scanning the people gathering in front of the church. The other had his chocolate brown hair pushed back, big, warm brown eyes, and a kind smile.
"Excuse me? Could one of you point me to the direction of the courtyard?"
"Of course," The one with the kind smiled replied "But can I ask why? I mean, most wedding crashers wait until the reception starts to crash it."
"Oh, I'm uh, Chloe, the florist, and I'm here to set up the centrepieces."
"It's fine, I'm just messing with you Chloe. I'm Jesse, and this is Benji"
The other man gave a quick wave and a smile, then went back on his toes to scan the crowd.
Then it clicked for Chloe who she was talking to.
"Oh so you're Jesse, the groom, right?"
"The one and only, I hope." He said with a small chuckle, then turned to Benji. "The flowers in the chapel look amazing by the way, don't they, Benji?"
"Yeah, yeah, great" He said, clearly still concentrated on looking for someone.
"Benji, your shoes are on fire."
"Yeah, really excellent." he droned.
Jesse then grabbed his arm and laughed, "Buddy, you're not going to get to see Emily until the wedding starts, calm down a bit okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay. You're right."
"Always am," He said with a smile, then Jesse turned his attention back to Chloe. "Anyways, yeah, Beca was actually pretty excited about the flowers, she really liked my roses and violets idea, and it's not the kind of thing she get's excited over, like, ever so you clearly did a pretty spot on job."
"Well thank you, I-"
"Jesse! Jesse!" a small voice sounded, cutting off Chloe.
"Hey! How's my favourite girl today?" Jesse asked the child, ruffling her hair as she hugged his hip. She couldn't be more than eight or nine years old, Chloe guessed.
"I'm great, but, before you go marry my sister, I do have a question." she chided, holding out the 'o' in 'do'.
"Alright, shoot."
"What happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object?"
Jesse stood there, jaw opened, for a moment in silent contemplation before he spoke; "I have no damn idea, H."
Before anyone could say anything else, Chloe chimed in, "Well, actually it's kind of a trick question. If you have a unstoppable force, that means there's nothing in the entire world that exist that can't be moved- and vice vera."
Everyone was quiet for a moment before H broke the silence. "I like you. And you red hair. will you sit with me?"