A/N: From an idea by Quitting Time. Divorcees Tori and Jade had been invited to their son's wedding without knowing about the other. Will they make peace or ruin the happy occasion?
Today's my birthday and it's not the best of days right now. Working all day, coming down with a cold, etc. At least I got to do one of my favorite things today: writing stories for all of you.
Anthony West-Vega walked on the chilly streets of Chicago. He huddled inside his jacket from the unforgiving wind as the blue federal mailbox entered his sights. Reaching into his jacket, Anthony pulled out two envelopes. He stared at the one address to New York City and kissed it.
"Please come, mom" he said aloud before depositing it in the open chute.
Anthony then regarded the second envelope. This one was addressed to Los Angeles.
"It won't be the same without you, mama."
With another kiss, he mailed the envelope. He tapped the metal box, hoping that he was doing the right thing.
"You're getting married?" exclaimed a fiercely-pacing Tori Vega. "Why? When? I...I haven't even met the girl..."
"Mama, please" Anthony pleaded. "Her name is Hannah. She's very nice and really wants to meet you."
The half Latina sighed heavily and tea. "So what do the groom's parents do, exactly?"
"Um," Anthony trailed off and the sound of flipping through pages could be heard. "Flowers, photographer, rehearsal dinner..."
"Slow down, slow down" interrupted Tori as she quickly put her mug down and scrambled for a pen and paper. "I'll start making some calls. I'll take care of these things."
"Okay, mama" Anthony said. "Thank you so much for not being mad."
Tori looked out the window.
"I couldn't be mad at my Papi. I love you."
"I love you, too" he replied.
"Bye."
"Bye,"
THREE MONTHS LATER
Tori arrived as discreetly as possible (she only had to sign 11 autographs) to O'Hare where a car waited to take her to the Hotel Palomar in downtown Chicago.
"Tori!" a man's voice shouted as the famed singer entered the grand ballroom. "You've outdone yourself." The man smiled at her, just as Tori recognized him as Scott Palmer, Hanna's father.
"It was nothing," Tori said, brushing back her hair.
"You've got to be kidding because this place is huge and it looks so nice..."
"Oh my god" said a girl running up to Tori. "I'm Hannah. I can't believe I'm meeting you right now. I was skeptical at first when he told me who is mom was but here you are." She held out her hand and Tori warmly accepted it. "It's strange that we haven't met before today."
Tori gave kind of a sad expression. "I suppose Anthony had his reasons for..." Her melancholy visage melted away and it soon turned to suppressed rage. Her eyes narrowed as it focus across the room at one of the tables where Anthony was seated. He focus was on who he was talking to. "Excuse me," she said walking past the father and daughter.
Once she finally got close enough to the table, she folded her arms crossly.
"What are you doing here?"
Jade West smirked and sipped her third cup of coffee that morning.
"Well, well, well" she sighed. "If it isn't the songbird herself."
"Jade..." Tori warned.
"What?" the dark-haired woman asked indignantly as she stood. "Can't a mother dote on her only son at his own wedding?"
"He's my son too, Jade" Tori growled. "Don't do that shit again."
"Mom?" Anthony asked Jade. "What is she talking about?"
Tori looked at Anthony. "It seems that on recent press junkets Jade has been talking about her son with no mention of his other mother."
"Oh, Tori" Jade scoffed. "What actor discusses their divorcee on Craig Ferguson or Jimmy Fallon?"
"We may be separated..."
"Divorced!" Jade corrected her.
"You didn't sign any papers," Tori added.
Jade blew a strand of hair from her face. "Because you have to be present when I do and I very much don't care to be in the same room with you."
"This is so fucking typical," Tori pointed at Jade. "Badass Jade West can't stop being a super bitch for one day. One!"
"STOP IT!"
Anthony's voice carried through the banquet hall. Everyone looked over at the table if the raised voices from the two women didn't already do it. Hannah looked at her fiancee wide-eyed who looked back at her.
"I'm sorry," he said. "But I thought that maybe this could have been one time you could put aside your bullshit..."
"Antonio!" Tori protested her son using such language at her.
"But if you two can't get along for the most important day of my life," he sighed. "Then I don't want you to come."
Jade's face looked sad as she reached out for her boy's hand but he snatched it away.
"You're both very important to me. You two may have changed your names after the separation but I stayed West-Vega because I was raised by two moms, not one. And I'm proud of both of them. At least I was. Maybe I'll take Hannah's name."
He stormed out of the room with Hannah chasing after. Scott Palmer looked back at the two woman, bemused.
Jade was reading a script her agent gave to her moments before she trotted off to the Midwest. It was written by Charlie Kaufman so naturally, she was absolutely engaged. It provided a good distraction from the disaster earlier today.
A knock came on her hotel room door and Jade dogeared her page and set the screenplay down on the bed. She walked over and looked through the peephole. It was Tori. She promptly opened the door.
"Hey," Jade said.
"Hey,"
"What do you want, Tori? It's..." Jade checked the alarm clock. "Two in the morning."
Tori rubbed her hands together, like she always did when she was nervous.
"We need to talk."
Jade nodded, "Yeah, I guess so. Come in."
"Jade," she said as she closed the door. "We really messed up today."
"I know," Jade replied looking at the floor.
The two ex wives sat on the bed beside one another.
"What happened to us?" Jade asked.
"What do you mean?" Tori queried.
"Us! When did we fall out of love. I mean, back in the day I used to really hate your guts."
Tori smiled as she looked back fondly to their formative years at Hollywood Arts.
"But that day you pulled me into the janitor's closet and kissed me on the mouth for the first time changed everything. I mean, how could it not? After that it was like I needed you just as much as I needed air."
"I felt the same way, Jade" Tori looked at her with sad eyes. "Every day. We had our troubles, especially in the beginning, but we got over them. So what made us..."
"Stop fighting to keep it together?"
"Right," Tori nodded.
"I don't know," Jade sighed as she laid down on the bed. Tori looked behind her so the two could maintain eye contact. "We didn't just love each other. We had each others' backs. Remember the time when Nicki Minaj stole one of your songs and lied about it?"
Tori smiled. "You went on every news outlet you could to show the evidence that I wrote it years ago and that she was given a bootleg by one of the engineers."
"He got fired because of that," smirked Jade smugly. "And the backlash against her was huge. Who knew artists were as nasty as comedians when it came to theft."
"And I distinctly remember you being offered a part in an upcoming Terrence Malick movie," Tori said. "And I convinced you to turn it down. You were mad because they gave your part to Chloe Moretz. Then the movie premiered and she found out most of her scenes were cut and whenever she appeared in the movie, you couldn't hear her dialogue."
Jade chuckled. "She was fuckin' mad."
Tori couldn't help but join in the laughter. It was very freeing. It was the most she had laughed in a long while and to think it was along with her ex-wife.
"Can I just say something?" Tori asked.
"Okay."
"I never stopped loving you," she said.
Jade sat up like a shot. "Seriously?"
Tori nodded.
"Then why were you all...well, like I was in high school?"
Tori stood up and walked around the room.
"Truth?"
Jade nodded.
"I thought you hated me."
"What made you think that?" Jade asked.
Tori took a deep breath and eventually released it, gathering the courage to say how she felt.
"When your career took off, I tried to support you all the way but when we started having a family I thought you were gonna take it easy. Have more time between projects."
"I know," Jade said. "But you know how fickle this industry is. One minute you're on top, the next you can't even get work in commercials."
"Hello? I was in music. Don't tell me about flashes in the pan."
"I don't think we deprived Anthony, did we?" Jade asked. "I took him to sets and you took him on tours. He got to see so much of the world before ten than most people see in a lifetime."
"Damn it, Jade" Tori said, kicking the wall. "We did mess up. We were both hot with our careers and neither one of us wanted to quit. His whole life, Anthony has had private tutors - he never went to school, made friends, got into trouble. All the normal kid stuff."
Jade began to cry, realizing Tori was right. They were worried about the financial aspect of trying to secure their family's future that they forgot about the stuff that was more important than money. Tori saw her ex-wife falling apart in front of her and ran over to hug her tightly.
"Tori," she sobbed. "How are we gonna make it up to him? We can't, can we?"
"There is one way," Tori replied.
She wiped a tear from Jade's eye. "Give him exactly what he wants. A happy day."
Wedding day.
The guests arrived just seconds after the last of the flowers did so everyone got to experience how wonderful they smelled.
Anthony was adjusting his tie as he stepped up the altar to take his place. He looked down at the front row and smiled when he saw his two moms sitting together holding their cameras at the ready.
The music started and everybody rose for the entrance of the bride.
Hannah looked gorgeous and when she approached the altar and held hands with Anthony, both mothers on the groom's side lost it. The vows were beautiful and both Tori and Jade found themselves looking fondly at the other as they were being recited.
After the formal ceremony, everybody were led to the ballroom at the hotel where they could mingle, take pictures and eat some terrific food. While everyone was seated, eating their fish or chicken; a ringing sound echoed through the great room. All guests turned at the source and there stood Tori Vega and Jade West, both holding their respective wine glasses and tapping them with their salad forks.
"Excuse me," Jade said. "We have something we would like to say to the newlyweds."
"Anthony," Tori began. "People say life is short but its long. Very long. So you want to make sure that you have made the right decisions. And when I saw the looks on your faces when you met before the padre, I knew it was the best decision anyone could make."
The sentiment was met with aw's and light clapping among the crowd. Hannah looked a little embarrassed and Anthony held her close.
"It won't be perfect all the time. Love can be fun and joy but it's also a lot of hard work. Because when you love someone, you have to love them beyond the common things like looks. Even when things get bad, you need to remind yourselves that if you have that other person you can take on the world."
"You will argue but don't let it get past the point of what can be fixed," Tori added.
"And never, ever, dump coffee on the one you love" Jade looked at Tori while that last point was met with laughter. "Kind of learned that the hard way."
While the young bride and groom waved, Jade grabbed Tori's hand and the two retreated away from the party.
"Jade," Tori said. "Where are you taking us?"
"We'll be back," Jade smiled sounding out of breath.
"But why-"
Tori's words were broken by Jade's lips crashing on hers.
"I missed you," Jade grinned.
"Maybe I can stop over at your room again tonight," Tori winked.
"I'd like that."
Tori cleared her throat. "Although I might not look very good these days."
"What makes you say that?" Jade asked.
"I've put on a few pounds since the breakup."
Jade looked behind Tori.
"Well, I didn't want to say nothing but...your ass has never looked better."
"Or bigger," Tori added.
"On you, it looks amazing" Jade said before they kissed again.
After about ten minutes, Jade and Tori returned to the reception just in time to watch the first dance of Anthony and Hannah as husband and wife.
"Look at them," Jade sighed, teary-eyed.
"Our son," Tori beamed.
Jade squeezed the half Latina's hand tightly.
"Yes, he is."
