Chapter 12: That's The Thing About Love

"Huh?" Craig woke up from his trance someone was asking him a question but he hadn't a clue who it was from.

"Is that your sweetheart," An old guy with a gentlemanly disposition asked. Craig looked up and saw the old guy staring at him he was eccentrically dressed in a plaid green suit with a bow tie, a fedora and scraped up brown shoes that clashed with the whole ensemble. "Of course she is," The old man went on. "I can see from the look in your eyes not to mention it's written all over your face it's the look of a youngster in love." He smiled.

Craig was startled for a second and stood in a frozen position until he realized what the man was talking about and just as Craig was going to explain himself the man went on. "Do you mind?" He sat on the cushioned seat next to Craig and stared at the picture he was still holding. "She's a lovely girl you must be proud?"

"Uhhhh, you got it all wrong she's not my girl she's.." Craig stated but the old man interrupted him.

"Oh, don't tell me." The old man put his hand up. "I should've known, she's your fiancé,you're getting married aren't you?"

"Yeah," Craig replied. "I am but not too...Wait, how did you guess I was getting married?"

"I was married here to my beloved Nancy almost forty-nine years ago."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Is she here now?"

"No, unfortunately she's not." The old man lowered his head solemnly.

Craig felt as if he hit a nerve and he wanted to console him as best as he could. "I'm sorry." Craig whispered.

"For what?" The old man looked up.

"For your.."

"Oh," The old man exclaimed. He laughed a little before adding on. "You think Nancy is...Oh no, she's just in Florida visiting our son. No, we're still happily married."

"I feel dumb," Craig chuckled. "My names Craig by the way." He held out his hand expecting a friendly handshake from the older man.

"James." He shook Craig's hand. "I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea about Nancy a minute ago, I'm not as young as I use to be so it's understandable when people think the worse. I always get a little sad when my Nancy's away from me from sometime, she's the love of my life." James smiled, paused and continued on. "So why are you here?"

"Planning my wedding."

"Oh, that's great but between you and me planning a wedding can be exciting but a little boring, you know, woman's stuff."

"Yeah." Craig smiled.

"But as long as it makes her happy it's make you happy." James said. "You know I had my wedding here, lots of people do, it's can be really romantic place, sometimes. You see that bench over there." James pointed to a green wooden bench outside the hotel in the middle of a garden by a fountain filled with transparent clear water and decorated in the middle was a statute of Aphrodite inside of a clam.

"Yeah," Craig whispered I didn't even notice it until now but the whole garden is beautiful.

"Yes it is." James smiled. "It's really romantic but years ago it was rustic old bench and the fountain and garden didn't exist. We'll, back then years ago when this hotel was just opening it was a small convenient hotel not nearly as glamorous as it is now but anyway that's where I reunited with my Nancy so many years ago."

"Reunited?"

"We met a couple of years before one of my friends set me up on a blind date with her." James chuckled to himself. "Worse date I ever been on in my life, everything and I mean everything went wrong. I'm sure you've been on a date like that?" James asked Craig who smiled.

"We'll anyway to make a long story short we met two years later I sat on that bench I was visiting a friend in B.C.- I lived in States at the time- but anyway to waste time I read the newspaper. A girl asked could she sit next to me of course I was so engrossed into that newspaper a flying pig could have came by and I wouldn't have noticed but I did notice when she stood up the back of her pink dress was a bright green and I turned around and noticed my new suit also had the same bright green color as her dress and a Wet Paint sign plastered to my back. We laughed about it and I realized the girl who I shared a funny moment with was the same girl I met on that blind date two years back. We'll we talked for a couple of minutes, I noticed it was getting chilly and she looked uncomfortable so I lent her my coat, it was a good thing I took it off before I sat down so it wasn't covered with paint. We'll, she promised to give the coat back to me when she changed upstairs since she was staying at the hotel, she told me it was only going to take a few minutes and I could have my coat back but she must have forgotten because she never came back. Of course I was furious that was my favorite coat, my grandfather gave it to me before he died, it was a family heirloom.

James took a quick breather before finishing his story. "We'll I looked everywhere for her, I asked the clerks at the front desk but they weren't in the authority to give out such information about their guest even to a guest. I almost gave up until I remembered to call my friend who sat me up on that disastrous date with her. I called him but he wasn't there but his wife was she told me he was attending a wedding at yep you guessed it this hotel and the wedding he was attending was none other then Nancy's as the bride." James paused as if he were waiting for Craig to answer with a response of shock and amazement but before he could utter a word James was off again.

"I bet you're trying to figure out how she married me instead? We'll somehow I found a way to sneak into that ceremony without the ushers finding out I was a uninvited guest, wild horses couldn't keep me from getting my coat back but you know what a wild horse stampede would have stopped dead in their tracks if they saw how beautiful the bride was that day. She was a vision of pure beauty everyone in that room gasped at her loveliness." James stopped for a moment as if he was reminiscing on how beautiful Nancy was then. "She took my breath away."

"So how did you and Nancy marry if she was walking down the aisle about to marry someone else," Craig asked rapidly trying to get a word in edge wise without totally interrupting James story but he was secretly trying to hurry it along without being too rude.

"We'll the priest said those famous words Who so ever think these two shouldn't be joined in holy matrimony please speak now or forever hold your peace." James chuckled before finishing. "Even though my heart wanted me to leap up and shout No my mouth stayed shut, however Nancy was a different story, she picked up her dress, said she couldn't do it that she didn't love him and hoped he could understand before running out of the ceremony amongst the horror and shock of the invited guest." Just as Craig was finally getting into the story James looked up and paused."I guess I have to tell you the rest of this story later."

"What? Why," Craig asked before he realized what James was looking at, Ashley was asking for him at the front desk with Frances right behind her. "I guess some other time then."

"Yep," James got up from his seat along with Craig who seemed to be in quite a hurry to greet Ash anyone could tell by his body language he was preparing to run to her and expose himself but before he could do just that James uttered. "Young man."

"Yes,"

"Don't forget this." James handed Craig the magazine. "And.." He slowly handed the photos to Craig. "You might want to put this in a special place.

"Thanks." Craig slid the pictures into his jacket pocket. "You know..those photo's...it's not what you..."

"I know." James interrupted. "She's a lovely girl and-" James glanced at Ashley who had noticed Craig was talking to a older man. She waved and smiled at Craig before Frances rattled on about the perfect wedding selections. "-it's obvious to me who your heart is with, just make sure you know who it is before you take the big plunge." James smiled and winked before walking out of the waiting area and disappearing out of sight.

"Craig." Ashley ran to him with Frances scurrying behind her. "You have to see this." She grabbed Craig by his hand.

"What is it," Craig asked while Ashley pulled him along. He checked feverishly to make sure the photographs were tucked away safely in his pocket.

"Just wait." Ashley pulled Craig until they reached their destination. She put her hands over Craig's eyes.

"Hey," Craig playfully tried to move Ash's hands from his eyes.

"No, peeking." Ashley ordered. "We're almost there it's just that I need Frances to open the door. Okay Frances, you can open it now." Ashley waited patiently and after a moment of silence she realized Frances wasn't behind her. "Frances?" Ashley looked around. "Where did he go," she mumbled.

"What's going on," Craig asked trying desperately to peek so he could figure out what was taking the usually eager and compliant Frances so long.

"It's nothing, we might have lost him during the excitement."

"Sorry," Frances exclaimed as he ran towards the two. "I had something important to pick up but now.-" He opened up the door. "-you have my undivided attention."

Ashley removed her hands from Craig's eyes. "So what do you think?"