"You look beautiful."
If she did it was all thanks to Penny, Bernadette, and Cecile insisting her hair and makeup be done to perfection. They'd convinced her to wear contacts—and what a battle putting them in had been—and essentially banned her from voicing any opinion on her hair and makeup until they were done. Amy would have been offended except she knew they wanted only the best for her and, to be perfectly honest, she could not have envisioned their result anyways. Best to turn over makeover duties to the beauty queen.
All dressed up and eager, she no longer felt the hangover from her bachelorette party the night before. It took Penny and Bernadette much convincing to get her to choose the dress with capped sleeves that were scandalously short as far as she was concerned but was downright modest according to Penny. In the end she was glad her friends talked her into the dress; they were right; it was made for her.
"Thanks mother," she said, aware of how seldom her mother complimented anything about her, be it her career, her personal life, or her looks, that she was going to bask in the joy of proving her mother wrong by saying 'Look! I am getting married even if you never thought I would'. Of course, she knew her mother always wanted the best for her, the reason they once had an agreement for her to date once a year in exchange for her mother's silence on the matter. Now things were different. She wanted to date because she wanted a special someone in her life, and now she was going to marry him.
"My daughter is a princess," her father said proudly.
"Thanks dad." She knew her parents were obligated to tell her she was beautiful, today of all days, but she enjoyed the compliments all the same. By some small miracle, she managed to set aside her differences with her mother for the wedding. Whether the peace would last or not was less certain, but while her mother behaved herself Amy would do nothing to rock the boat.
"Dave won't know what hit him." That time it was Penny, her bestie and her maid of honor. She was Amy's best friend even if Amy was Bernadette's maid of honor. Bernadette and Cecile were her bridesmaids. And to think she had friends at her wedding. Who ever would have known that a socially awkward child who never once had a friend until her late twenties would have two best friends and a close cousin who wanted to be part of her wedding party, not just because they were blood relations and were obligated to be there.
"You think so?" Amy asked. She was certain of her decision yet she could not contain her nerves. Perhaps it would have been easier to feel calm if the caterer had not called her only the previous day to say there was a shortage of Cornish game hen and to ask what she would like as a substitute. Or earlier that morning when the florist delivered the wrong order. Thankfully for her sanity, Penny descended on the florist in a frenzy and corrected the mistake, but it was still stressful having something go wrong the day of.
Everything was fine. She was in her dress with her hair and makeup done, everything was set and she and Dave successfully escaped the rehearsal dinner unscathed. If they could survive that they could survive anything together.
"When I get married I want to be as beautiful as you are, Auntie Amy," Jenna, her flower girl, declared. When Amy asked Jenna to be her flower girl, Mark became jealous. Once it turned out Dave's more distant relatives would be unable to attend the wedding given the long distance and expense, Mark was more than happy to fill in as the ring bearer in place of one of Dave's distant relations.
"I'm sure you will be," Amy said affectionately. Over the past year she and Cecile became closer, now Cecile was no longer blindly trying to irritate and insult her and Amy was calmer and better able to see eye-to-eye with her bubbly, light-headed cousin. Touring Jenna around her lab also worked in her favor. The result of that was she saw her niece and nephew more frequently, and she could not be happier. They were great kids and she was proud to have them both participate in her wedding.
Before she knew it, Penny, Bernadette, and Cecile were lined up next to her as her father escorted her down the aisle. She distantly registered all the faces in the small park turn to look at her but her eyes were only for the man at the end of the aisle who was watching her even more intently than the rest of the audience. She beamed with excitement at the intensity of his gaze.
This was it. She did not feel the least bit afraid as her father placed her hands into Dave's waiting ones and went to take his seat beside her mother in the front row. She beamed up at Dave, barely registering a the words Leonard spoke and content to simply look at Dave. He was handsome in his tux. His tall and lithe figure was built for formal wear and it highlighted his pronounced lines well.
They recited their vows to each other, and Amy barely registered her bridesmaids and mother crying profusely by the time the vows were exchanged. Not one for displaying affection in public, Dave kept their kiss short and sweet. There was no need for nauseating passion. There would be plenty of that come the evening once they were finally alone as newly weds.
Dave's three best friends flew in from England to be his best man and groomsmen, and after the ceremony they piled into the limo that would take them to the hotel for the celebration.
To Amy's dismay, Jenna insisted on sitting right next to her aunt and playing games in the car. Normally happy to indulge her, Amy wished for a brief moment that she could quietly talk to Dave. However, he seemed happy chatting with the friends he rarely saw since he moved and she was just as happy to sit back and watch them interact. It was fascinating. When they started dating, he was a bit of a loner, having a nonexistent social life compared to her. Then again, her social life was all because of Penny, not anything she herself had done. As they became more serious she started including Dave into her friend group. However, as she was more often than not with Penny and Bernadette without the guys, Dave found being the only male in the group a bit tedious and more often than not declined her invitations.
It was nice to see him with friends of his own.
When they arrived at the hotel Amy briefly excused herself upstairs to change her dress. Penny followed her to assist her with the removal process; it was a gorgeous dress but the tiny buttons down the back would be impossible for her to undo on her own, to say nothing of the tightly laced corset and layer upon layer of petticoats underneath that gave the dress its princess-like appeal. In retrospect, she wondered why she'd chosen a historically accurate dress.
Amy did not realize how ravenous she was as she waited for dinner to be served. With her nerves aflutter all day, she had not been able to tolerate more than a few bites of food throughout the day, but now the ceremony was over and she could relax, she felt the hunger hit her full force.
She felt on display at the center table, but this was her day and she was going to enjoy it.
"Ready for our dance?" Dave whispered to her once it appeared all the guests were done eating.
She put her hand in his and followed him onto the dance floor. The DJ made and announcement and she put one hand on Dave's shoulders just like she learned in the dance lessons they took to prepare for this moment.
"I love you," she said, in case she had not said it enough already. Dave returned the sentiment. The concentration required to perform the dance to perfection kept them from conversing heavily, but she was content to simply dance with him. The DJ called out to other couples to join them in decreasing length of marriage, but Amy hardly noticed as in small groups couples joined them on the dance floor. They could have been all alone for the amount of notice she paid to anyone else.
"I'm not wearing underwear," she whispered into his ear, thankful it was a slow dance that allowed them to be close together.
"Bloody hell," Dave breathed out, and she saw his face darken with his desire. "You actually did it. Why?" he asked.
Unclear if he was asking why she told him that or why she wasn't wearing underwear, she decided to answer the later.
"You only asked for two things today: me and no underwear. Here I am."
"The things you do to me, love." It was not a complaint. Not by a long shot. She could feel evidence of his growing arousal pressed up against her.
"Just wait till tonight," she purred. She did not know where flirtatious Amy came from but she liked her. From Dave's reaction he liked her too. "We have a socially approved night of copulation to look forward too and I'm a creative woman."
"Bloody hell. Are you trying to kill me?"
Then it was time for the father daughter dance, a much more relaxed dance.
"I'm proud of you, Amy. Not just for your choice of husband, who is a very good man, but for your success in your career and your passion. You're the best daughter I could have asked for."
"Thank you," Amy said sincerely, "I might not thank you enough, but thank you for everything dad. Now stop talking before you make me cry."
They both laughed at that and the rest of their conversation was more trivial.
Throughout the rest of the evening, Amy had no lack of dance partners, male and female, all eager to dance with the new bride, though aside from the first two dances, her favorite came when Jenna and Mark, hyped up on Shirley Temples from the open bar, insisted on dancing wildly on the floor.
At the end she was exhausted, and said her goodbye's to her closest friends and relatives before sneaking away with Dave.
"Help me with my back?" she said and turned her back to Dave. He fumbled for awhile with the tiny buttons, and once he was done she turned and gave him a peck on the lips.
"That's it?" he asked.
She winked at him. "Hardly. But Penny would never forgive me if I didn't wear the lingerie she insisted I buy for tonight."
"By all means, entice me," Dave waved grandly to the bathroom, and with a blush, Amy picked up her small bag and made her way into the bathroom. She took a deep breath as she slipped on the scandalous teddy. There was no way she would walk out of the bathroom and be seen in it, even if it was only for Dave's sight alone. Even if he'd already seen her completely naked. That seemed more modest than the skimpy, see-through garment even though she knew it wasn't.
You can do this, Amy, she silently encouraged herself. Go on and knock him out.
AN: A few comments about responses to the last chapter:
No, Dave is not too perfect. He has flaws, but the narration is told from Amy's point of view and she is still in the new relationship phase and can't see them yet. I have, however, started to hint at those flaws.
Sheldon was not out of character. When he is surprised with news, he massively overreacts, and without Jim Parsons delivery and the rest of the cast's indulgently annoyed reaction, it comes across as mean and rude instead of clueless. Only 7% of communication is verbal. Most communication is body language and tone of voice, but without either, perception of the dialogue is very skewed.