Chapter 10 ~ The Wedding

The next thing they both knew, they were kneeling, surrounded in candles, on the room's balcony. Jessie was in her gorgeous new dress and James was in a brand new tuxedo. Their hands were clasped and they gazed into each other's eyes. James began the recitation of vows.

"I, James, take thee, Jessica."

"I, Jessica, take thee, James."

"For richer or for poorer."

"In sickness and in health."

"To love and to honor."

"To hold and to keep."

"From each sun to each moon."

"From tomorrow to tomorrow."

"From now to forever."

"'Til death do us part."

Meowth carried the two piece pen set over to Jessie and James. They each picked up one.

"With this ring," James recited, slipping a pen between Jessie's fingers, "I thee wed."

"With this ring," Jessie repeated, reciprocating the actions of James's hand, "I thee wed."

"You're now man an' wife," Meowth proclaimed. He looked at James. "You may kiss the bride."

James leaned forward slightly and their lips met.

'Finally,' thought Jessie, 'The most anticipated moment of my life.' She smiled and the kiss was broken. "We're married!" she cried and embrace James.

As James hugged her back, he grinned happily. 'At last! There is no way I can be forced to marry Jessiebelle now! I'm already married to my true love,' he thought.

They let go of each other and stood up. Meowth blew bubbles at them as they walked over to the kitchen area of their room. In the mini-refrigerator was a bottle of champagne and a small wedding cake. They poured glasses of champagne for each other and cut the cake, while Meowth took pictures. When they all had glasses and slices in front of them and were seated around the tiny table, Meowth raised his glass.

"Seeing as I'm your only weddin' guest and therefore da default Best Man, I hafta make a toast. I've known youse guys for a long time and, all dat time I knew ya was in love. But neither of ya admitted to it. Now ya finally did and look where it brought ya! So I wish youse two joy, luck, happiness, wealth, friendship, and love in all your years to come. To you!"

"To us!" Jessie and James agreed. They all drank a sip of the champagne.

When they put down their glasses, James picked up a slice of the cake in his hand, "Hey Jess," he said.

Jessie turned to him and asked, "What, Ja-"

Before she could finish her sentence, James shoved the cake into her mouth. Well, into her mouth and all over her face.

"Why you!" Jessie screamed after swallowing. She picked up another piece of cake and hurled it at James's head.

A food fight ensued and, afterward, James and Jessie were covered in chocolate cake bits and white frosting.

Jessie looked down at herself. "This is 'Dry Clean Only' too!" She sighed. "I have to get changed."

"Me too!" James said, glancing at his tux, then at Jessie. Their thoughts connected and they smiled slowly and raced into their section of the room, slamming the partition shut behind them.

Meowth trudged over to the sofa and, grinning, fell asleep.

***

The next day, they all slept in and ended up eating breakfast at one o'clock in the afternoon.

"Shouldn't this technically be considered lunch?" questioned Jessie.

James thought for a moment. "No, because it's the first meal of the day. We'll have lunch later."

"Okay," Jessie responded, then sank into a thoughtful silence. A few minutes later, she spoke up again. "Our wedding. It wasn't exactly my dream one, you know? There was no priest, no guests, no DJ, no big fancy party… It didn't even take all eight vacation days to plan!" She looked up at James, placed a hand on his, and smiled. "But it was wonderful. Even though it wasn't my dream, it was perfect."

James smiled too.

After breakfast, Jessie went to watch TV while James read the paper. Meowth went out.

Jessie wiped her brow. "This hotel is so hot! I can't live another day without air conditioning."

James looked up from the paper. "Says tomorrow's gonna be hotter."

"Hotter?!" Jessie looked faint.

"Like yesterday," James explained.

"Yesterday?" Jessie came to sit beside James. "Yesterday you said you'd call Sears."

James shrugged, "I'll call today."

"You'll call now," Jessie demanded.

Looking up powerfully, James agreed, "I'll call now." He walked over to the hotel room phone and dialed the 1-800 Sears number. He did not, however, use a dial-out prefix.

A girl answered the phone. "Hello?" She was very loud.

"Hi, I'd like a Sears air conditioner for my room."

"What?" screamed the girl.

"An air conditioner," James repeated, "A Sears one."

The girl sarcastically replied, "Yeah, and I want a Kohl's air conditioner."

"Chael's air conditioner?" James was confused.

"Haha! Yes! Chael's air conditioner!" the girl giggled.

"Who's Chael?" asked James.

"Duh! Michael Sneddon!" The girl sighed. "He was Tony in West Side Story in my school. I named my Neopet 'Michael Sneddon' after him. It was a Gelert, but I got a Magical Meerca Plushie and now he's a Meerca! I'm very upset. You know what else made me upset. The gingerbread cookie! They were so mean to it! It made me cry! And then-"

"Look, is this Sears or not?" interrupted James.

The girl laughed. "Sears?! Why would this be Sears? This is hotel room 180 of the Cinnabar Island Red Roof Inn!"

"Oh. Oh!" James slapped himself in the head. "I forgot the dial-out prefix!" He hung up the phone on the still-babbling girl. "Forget Sears." He looked at Jessie, who was fanning herself with her hand, and suddenly smiled. "We're going somewhere." He grabbed a black sheet and pushed Jessie out the door.

It wasn't until they were in the Meowth balloon and lifting off that Jessie asked, "Where are we going?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" James whispered. At Jessie's questioning look, he added, "It's a secret." He picked up the black cloth. "This is to add the element of surprise." He tied it around her eyes as a blindfold.

Jessie giggled, "A surprise? I can't wait!"

As they floated over Kanto, the couple chatted amiably about whatever couples chat about. Several hours were spent drifting in the balloon. Finally, they arrived at James's chosen location at exactly the time he wanted to be there – sunset.

He landed the balloon in a forest clearing and climbed out, helping Jessie since she was blindfolded. Holding her hand, he led her out onto a wooden bridge. James lifted her hands so they were resting on the railing facing the water. Then, he took off her blindfold.

Jessie immediately gasped at the collection of colors laid out in front of her. "Oh, James," she whispered, her eyes welling with tears. She turned to face him, her hair blowing around him, surrounding him. "It's so beautiful!" Changing her tone, she added, "Thank you." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him like she had that night when she first confessed her love. It seemed like ages ago, but it was, in fact, only a few days. She drew back to look into his deep emerald eyes, then hugged him. "I love you."

"I love you too," James responded. They both turned to watch the sun glint its last rays of the day. Jessie snuggled up next to James and, as the orange-red orb sank disappeared into the sea, she smiled and said, "I hope tomorrow is sunny too."

.THE END.