The next morning Sadie and Naomi were rudely awakened by an unpleasant 7am alarm. The two girls had shared Naomi's bed the night before as the airbed had to be removed to make room for Aiden's travel cot. They spent a few minutes nudging each other trying to get the other to turn the alarm off before Sadie relented and hit snooze. She glanced over to see that Aiden was still fast asleep, lying sideways in the cot then she slumped back into the bed, rubbing her stinging eyes. Naomi was starting to softly snore again forcing Sadie to give her a shake.
"Wake up!" She hissed. Naomi merely groaned.
"Naomi!" She said sternly. The blonde grunted. Sighing heavily Sadie rolled over closer to the blonde.
"Get the hell up!" She yelled directly into her ear. She jumped up startled.
"Good morning." Sadie smiled sarcastically; her voice was hoarse and deeper than usual given the early hour.
"No it's not." Naomi pouted.
"You know...Aiden makes a face shockingly similar to that one you're wearing right now." She mused. "Although Aiden actually is two." She teased. Naomi glared at her.
The alarm blared again, telling them their five minutes of snoozing were over, and Aiden's eyes snapped open. She looked around her taking in her surroundings for a second before attempting to get up. Sadie reached across the hush the alarm again.
"Mammy up!" She looked up at her mother with her big blue eyes.
"Good morning button." Sadie said brightly picking her up out of the cot and pulled her into bed beside her and Naomi. Naomi gave the child a wary look.
"What's it going to take to get you out of bed?" She addressed the surly blonde again.
"Coffee." She groaned. "Copious amounts of coffee...and if I'm to get though this wedding with my sanity you best make it an Irish coffee!" She finally pushed herself into an upright position in the bed.
"I'll go get some coffee then." Sadie said throwing her legs out from the blanket. "Keep an eye on her for a second." She requested and left the room.
"Sadie! Wait." Naomi called after her in fear.
"What?" She poked her head around the door.
"You can't leave her with me. I'm terrible with kids!" Sadie rolled her eyes.
"You'll be fine, just make sure she doesn't fall off the bed or jump out the window...I'll only be five minutes!" She shook her head at the blonde girl's ridiculousness. "Be good." She warned her daughter before leaving again.
Naomi reached for her phone in a blind panic and dialled Emily's number. The red head's phone rang under her pillow, the fine young cannibals she drives me crazy playing let her know it was Naomi calling. Feeling for it blindly she pressed the answer button.
"Hello." She croaked.
"Help me!"
"What time is it?" She rasped, glancing over at Katie's bed. For once she was actually asleep in it, so Emily had to try not to wake her up.
"About quarter past 7." Naomi sighed hurriedly. "Ems, you have to help me!" She said urgently.
"What? What's wrong?" Emily felt herself waking up now and she started to worry.
"Sadie has left me alone with Aiden!"
"What?" She demanded. She was a bit angry; she had feared it was something serious.
"I don't know what to do!"
"Where has Sadie gone?" Emily wondered.
"Downstairs getting coffee."
"Naomi you cannot be serious!" Emily groaned. She had woke her up for this. The other line remained silent, letting her know Naomi was in fact serious. "Well is she crying or something?" She asked, though she couldn't hear anything on the line.
"No."
"What's she doing?"
"She's just lying in bed beside me...looking at me." She was slightly unnerved. Naomi nodded and smiled at the tot.
"She's two and capable of conversation Naomi, not an alien or a bomb, just talk to her or entertain her. At the very least just make sure she isn't injured before Sadie gets back."
"But..."
"I'm going back to bed." Emily interrupted her. "I'll see you later at the wedding. I love you."
Naomi looked at her phone; Emily had hung up and hadn't been very helpful at all. She looked at Aiden who was looking back at her clueless with her massive blue eyes and cute smile.
"Hello." Naomi said, as though she were an awkward stranger. Aiden just looked at her.
"Naomi." She smiled at her minder.
"That's right." Naomi couldn't help but smile. She relaxed very slightly.
"Was that Emily on the phone?" She asked, as clear as day, shocking Naomi.
"Yes, you're right it was." She stared at the toddler in mild amazement. She narrowed her eyes at her. "You're very clever aren't you?"
The toddler just looked at her blankly.
"Are you looking forward to the wedding?" Naomi asked, unable to believe she was making small talk with a baby at early o'clock on the morning of her mother's wedding.
"Yeah." She squealed excitedly.
"Are you going to walk down the aisle nicely for...Auntie Gina?" The term Auntie Gina felt foreign in her mouth.
"With you?" Aiden asked.
"Um...if you want." She shrugged.
"Everyone still alive in here?" Sadie called as she entered the room with her hands full.
"We're fine!" Naomi said with a smile, proud of the fact she'd managed to keep the little girl amused for all of five minutes.
"It's nice to see you two getting along." Sadie chuckled and handed Naomi a cup of coffee and Aiden her bottle of milk.
"Well since you're both such good friends now I'm sure you won't mind keeping an eye on her while I have a shower." Sadie smiled. Naomi's eyes widened; looking after her while Sadie ran downstairs was one thing, minding her for however long it took Sadie to shower was another. Sadie laughed at the look of panic that flashed in the blonde's eyes.
"Your mum is downstairs, take her down with you and she has agreed to feed her." Sadie rolled her eyes. "Thanks I just want to get showered before all the madness kicks off."
"Do you want to go down for breakfast?" Naomi asked, amazed at how she could talk to her like a grown up.
"Coco pops?" She asked excitedly.
"If you want." Naomi shrugged. Aiden held her arms up for the older girl to lift her. Naomi took a deep breath and nervously picked the toddler up. Sadie smiled at her, and headed towards the bathroom. Naomi carefully placed one arm around Aiden's legs and used her other hand to cradle her head. She held her close to her body as she descended the stairs. Aiden wondered why she was carrying her like that but didn't care very much considering the alternative was walking. Gina laughed when she seen her daughter approach with Aiden.
"What?" She asked defensively.
"Nothing." Gina bit her lips. "Good morning Aiden." She smiled.
"Mornin!" She sounded so much like Kieran when she said that Gina had to laugh. She took the child from her daughter and placed her on a chair. Naomi had filled the child a bowl of coco pops before she even realised what she was doing. Maybe she wasn't completely devoid of maternal instinct after all. She sat down beside the child and picked up the spoon to feed her.
"I do it!" Aiden shouted at her and took the spoon from her hand. Naomi looked to her mother for guidance, Gina just shrugged.
"If she's anything like you when you were her age trying to feed her will only result in coco pops on the floor." She said wisely. They watched as the toddler struggled, but still managed to feed herself her breakfast. By the end of it all her face and Peppa Pig pyjamas were covered in chocolate milk and rice puffs.
"Oh my God! I didn't even think there was that many coco pops in the bowl." Naomi gasped when she seen the filthy baby. Her whole face and hands were stained brown and her hair stuck together in clumps where the sugar filled milk had covered it.
"You're going to need a bath." Gina shook her head at the girl who looked quite pleased with the idea. Gina put the plug in the sink and began to fill it with warm water.
"I'll go see if Sadie's out of the shower." Naomi offered.
"No need I'll give her a quick dip in the sink."
"What? Can you do that?" Naomi wasn't entirely sure that was allowed.
"Of course." Gina chuckled. "I used to bath you in the sink all the time."
Naomi looked shocked.
"You would come in from the garden covered head to toe in mud and it was the only option." She shrugged. "Besides we don't have time to wait on Sadie finishing then running a bath. We're on a schedule." She nodded towards a small pile of white printer paper on the bench.
Naomi moved to examine them as Gina began removing the chocolate covered clothing from Aiden. The schedules looked vaguely familiar; it was a format Gina used regularly when organising protests, and it was a tight schedule. There wasn't really time for any of them to breath between hairdressers arriving and helping Gina get dressed then the photographer...weddings were chaotic.
-
The doorbell rang as Sadie stepped out of the shower. She wrapped a towel around herself and headed towards Naomi's room to change.
"Have you seen this?" Naomi asked when she stormed into the room five minutes later holding up one of the schedules. Sadie laughed. Gina had given her a copy when she had been down getting coffee.
"Yeah...it's a bit full on!"
"A bit?" She sighed melodramatically. "I just hope I don't have to go to the toilet before 9.15 because that's the next time I'm scheduled for a bathroom break at!"
"I take it that was the hairdresser at the door then given that its 8.45." She laughed. Naomi didn't really see the funny side. "I suppose I should go remove my daughter from the middle of it all. She's probably not helping things run smoothly. You better hurry Naomi its 8.47 and you're supposed to be in the shower." She smirked, tapping the page in the younger girl's hands. Naomi couldn't be angry anymore, the ridiculousness of it all broke her and she smirked too.
"Best get moving then, hadn't I?"
Sadie made her way downstairs, her hair still dripping around her shoulders. When she reached the living room she saw her daughter perched on Gina's lap while the hairdresser blow dried her damp red curls.
"What's going on?" Sadie asked with a smile, wondering how the child had pulled this one.
"I hope you don't mind. She made a bit of a mess at breakfast so I had to wash her down in the sink. She seems to like getting her hair done." Gina looked apologetic, thinking she probably should have asked Sadie's permission before having the child's hair done.
"No it's fine. It's just...it's your wedding day you shouldn't be pampering her." Sadie felt a little guilty. "Which she will let you do all day if you're willing so be careful."
"Don't be silly! It's fine." Gina smiled. She was enjoying having Sadie and Diarmuid around and having Aiden in the house was so refreshing.
"She's almost done anyway." The hairdresser, who was introduced as Leanne, informed her. "She's got such gorgeous hair."
Leanne tied the now perfect curls into two pigtails with purple ribbon and secured it with clips. Sadie hoped to God it would still be sitting so nicely by the time the wedding started.
"You look beautiful." Gina cooed. Aiden lapped it up, grinning widely at her. Aiden slid off Gina's knee and raced to her mother.
"Who's my gorgeous girl?" Sadie smiled at her. "You better come with me though; Auntie Gina has a schedule to stick too."
The rest of the morning ran like clockwork. At 8.50 Leanne and a girl called Amy startled doing Gina's hair and makeup. Sadie headed upstairs to dry and curl her own hair, while Aiden played in her travel cot. At 9.17 Naomi was called to have her hair and makeup done while Sadie got dressed. She pulled a teal and black, taffeta style dress on and finished her makeup. She then dressed Aiden in the little white tutu dress she had picked out for her. With her slight frame and the ribbons in her curly hair she really did look like a fairy. The doorbell rang at 9.25 and Sadie took Aiden downstairs to answer it.
"Hi, I'm Maria...the photographer." A woman with a blonde pixie hair cut in her late 20's smiled and tapped the bag of equipment. "This is Helen my assistant." She motioned towards the younger girl with black, shoulder length hair behind her with yet more photography equipment.
"I'm Sadie, niece of the groom." She introduced herself and held the door open for them. "Come on in."
"Thanks! And who's this little cutie?" She asked smiling at Aiden.
"Tell her your name." Sadie encouraged as she opened the door to the living room.
"Aiden Best!" She said matter-of-factly.
"It's nice to meet you. Maybe you'll let me take some pretty pictures of you later?"
"I don't think that will be a problem...she's a bit of a poser." Sadie informed her.
"Oh hello Maria, Helen you're here!" Gina seemed a bit shocked; they were 5 minutes ahead of schedule after all. Gina and the photographers moved aside to discuss things.
"Wow Naomi! Don't you scrub up well?" Sadie raised her eyebrows at the girl. "I swear if Ii wasn't with Effy and you weren't about to become my...step cousin Emily would have some competition." She teased.
"Shut up!" Naomi huffed. Her cheeks flushing, she hated having people look at her appraisingly.
"I'm only teasing. You look beautiful." She smiled sincerely. "Emily's gonna have to fight to keep her hands off you...well once you put your dress on that is." Sadie referred to Naomi's current attire of a baggy t-shirt and shorts.
"Thanks, you clean up pretty good yourself." She said admiring the dress Sadie was wearing.
"And me." Aiden chimed, causing them both to laugh.
"And you sweetheart."
"You look so pretty." Naomi said exaggeratedly. She was starting to get the hang of talking to Aiden. "Where did you get such a pretty dress?"
"Mammy buy it." She informed the blonde.
"Mummy has good taste, doesn't she?" Naomi chuckled. She then had to rush upstairs to get dressed, so she could then have her picture taken helping Gina into her dress. It was right around this time that things got a bit crazy. Gina's dress was a beautiful off-shite satin number with embroidery on the bust and about a thousand buttons up the back; at least that's how many Naomi and Sadie counted when they were trying to button them up.
"Why couldn't they just put normal buttons on the damn dress?" Sadie asked in frustration as she tried to pass the tiny elastic loop button hole over the equally tiny ivory coloured button.
"Better yet why couldn't you have just bought a dress that wasn't so difficult?" Naomi grunted as she succeeded with button number 17.
"I'm sorry! I never had all the buttons done up before." Gina shrugged.
"Well I tell you something our Kieran's not going to piss about undoing all these buttons tonight; he'll probably just rip the damn thing off."
"Sadie!" Naomi moaned in disgust. She did not, ever, want to head about her mother and Kieran having mad, passionate sex. It was bad enough she'd walked in on them once.
"Buttons flying everywhere!" Sadie added, poking her tongue out at Naomi whose face was wrinkled in horror at the idea.
"Number 20 done!" Naomi called, deleting the conversation from her memory.
"And 21! Dear Lord I think we're finished." Sadie announced with a sigh, dropping on the bed in exhaustion. Naomi fell down beside her. Gina turned to face them for the first time completely dressed. She looked radiant, Naomi welled up a little when she seen her.
"You look stunning." Sadie said, grinning with watery eyes.
"Mum you're beautiful." Naomi choked. She jumped up to hug her mum.
"Pretty." Aiden, who had been playing on the floor, gave her thoughts.
"Thanks." Gina smiled, holding back tears. "For all your help and for letting Aiden be in the wedding." Her voice was strained with emotion as she hugged Sadie.
"Welcome to the family." A single tear escaped Sadie's eye. "Now let's pull ourselves together, we wouldn't want to ruin our makeup now would we?" She chuckled.
The doorbell rang again and a tall man in a tuxedo stood on the doorstep. A black stretch limo awaited them at the bottom of the driveway.
"Taxi's here!" Sadie shouted when she answered the door. Naomi laughed as carried Gina's train down the drive. Sadie scooped Aiden up in her arms and followed them.
"Now you remember what we talked about." She whispered in her ear as they walked. "Walk slowly and nicely. No running and/or jumping, ok?"
"Ok Mammy." She smiled.
"You're going to be great! Everyone is going to love you." She smiled lovingly at the little girl.