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Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale

Chapter 16 Wedding Woes

"

Ava had long ago quit believing in marriage. It was a few years after she'd discovered Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny didn't exist. Still, she did have occasional fantasies about a beautiful, romantic proposal and a giant over the top wedding.

In all of her wedding fantasies, her husband died tragically of a previously undiagnosed medical condition leaving her a bride and a widow on the same day. The drama and not having to go through the boredom and hell of marriage was what appealed to her. She didn't have anything against her make believe groom. She just didn't want to be married. She just wanted to wear the dress and have a great reception with lots of amazing food.

The British Royal family appealed to her princess fantasies. Princess Diana's dress had been a disaster. How was it that no one thought about the dress wrinkling? It was wedding dress designer malpractice. The creators of the dress should have known better. Her veil and the Spencer family tiara were breathtaking though. When the light hit the diamonds in her tiara, they sparkled almost like magic. Who knew that beautiful young bride would grow up into an independent woman who would stand up to her husband and the British Royal family?

When Catherine Middleton married Prince Willian, she looked flawless. Ava knew exactly what the dress would look like—it would have long sleeves and look a lot like Grace Kelly's only a little more modern. It was timeless and elegant.

The nicest thing Ava could say about Meghan Markle's dress was that it looked comfortable. It wouldn't have been so bad if it had been fitted to the waist and then flared out. Instead, it was a caftan with a boatneck. If the dress had been brown with a white rope belt, it could have passed for a monk's costume.

She imagined that she would wear a beautiful, custom designed wedding dress that would be the most beautiful wedding gown in history. Her reality fell far short of her dreams.

Her father could have at least given her money for a wedding gown. He told her that her allowance could easily stretch to buy something to wear on her wedding day noting that prison ceremonies didn't require wedding dresses.

It wasn't a real wedding anyway, Ava thought trying to console herself. She didn't have anyone to go dress shopping with her. She knew if she'd called her group of friends in Los Angeles, they would to with her dress shopping and tell her the dresses that looked the worst on her looked the best. They were that kind of friends. She'd long ago learned not to listen to them during shopping trips.

Her friends would gossip and make her feel even worse about marrying a convict. She didn't need anyone making her feel worse. She didn't think she could feel any worse. She knew that they might find out about her marriage, but they wouldn't find out from her.

If anyone who knew her found out she'd married an inmate, she was going to pretend she was wildly infatuated with him. When they divorced in three years, she'd tearfully confess that he'd played her with his convict skills.

Finally, she ordered some white dresses on the internet. There wasn't anywhere to dress shop in Charming and she didn't care much about the dress anyway. There was not going to be a fairytale wedding. No sparkling diamond tiara. There wouldn't even be a veil or hat.

She finally decided on a simple short sleeved white tea length fit and flare dress with a large ruffle around the bottom. She had added a black belt with a sparkly rhinestone slide that would add some style to her simple dress. She was going to wear her favorite comfortable black ballet flats to give her wedding outfit a little edge.

Ava didn't believe in wearing high heels. She believed them to be a form of toxic masculinity used to control women much like foot binding did back whenever they did it. The fashion industry encouraged women to torture their feet. It was looks over comfort. How many of the men who design high heels that torture feet wear them? That would be none. They hate women and take the hate out in footwear. It's just another way that society hurts women. Men sure as hell wouldn't wear shoes that painful. While high heels did make legs look longer and more slender, that was again encouraging women to value looks over comfort.

When Ava looked out the window on her wedding day, the weather accurately reflected her feelings on this big day in her life. The day was gray, overcast and raining.

Her father had allowed her to get a hair and make-up artist to make her look good on her wedding day. The hair stylist just dried her hair and then flat ironed it until it was a shiny wall of brownish-red hair. The make-up artist just did a simple black mascara and eyeliner look with a deep almost burgundy red lipstick. She fastened the diamond earrings her father had given her as a wedding present in her ears. The earrings looked good against her dark hair.

Sparing no expense, her father had even rented a limo to take them to the prison for the ceremony. Gemma was going with them, so he'd wanted to make sure there was plenty of room for everyone. She was surprised her father even wanted to come to her wedding. When she was little and she'd found her mother dead with a needle stuck in her arm, he'd sent his assistant. Now when she needed him the least, he was willing to give her some of his precious time.

Her father was waiting for her at the bottom of the staircase immaculately dressed in a dark charcoal suit with a burgundy tie.

"You look beautiful Ava," her father said. "Just enough of a bride."

"Thank you," she said politely.

"No flowers?"

"They don't allow them in prison," she said.

"Let's go. We have to pick Gemma up."

Ava quietly followed her father. She had no idea why he'd gotten the prison to allow him to bring Jax's mother to the wedding. Most of the time only one guest was allowed. She would have preferred that no one come to her wedding. The fewer that saw her at the lowest moment of her life, the easier it would be to forget it had ever happened.

Gemma had on her best black spandex pants and a gray, blue and black paisley printed top. She had gotten her hair recently striped with blonde making her hair look a little like the fur of an exotic zoo animal.

"Don't you look nice," Gemma said brightly to Ava.

Ava wasn't fooled by Gemma's tone of voice. She could hear the undercurrent of venom in it. Ava ignored Gemma and put on her dark sunglasses.

Now, she regretted not eating breakfast. Her stomach was rumbling unhappily. If she'd eaten, she might throw up and she had two great targets to aim at in her father and Gemma.

"Wedding feast is on me," Gemma said with a laugh. "I've got a ton of crisp singles for the vending machines."

"That's very considerate of you, Gemma," her father said without a trace of irony in his voice.

All Ava could think about was how there would be no elegant reception with six or seven courses of the most expensive best tasting food ever served at a wedding. They would be eating vending machine food. She doubted that any of it would even be organic.

"I'm going to meditate," Ava said. She didn't want to talk to anyone. Each mile brought her closer to marriage and the closer she got, the more it looked like she was going to have to go through with it.

To her shock and complete horror, her father and Gemma were getting flirty on the car ride to prison. Ava wondered what the hell was wrong with her father.

This could be good news. He might have early onset dementia and she could go to court and get his new will set aside based on his lacking the mental capacity to make the will changes. She'd listened to him drone on enough about his legal cases that she'd picked up a few things.

Ava went through the security procedures quickly. She'd been through them enough that it was automatic. Once they were through security, they were escorted to the prison's chapel. Guests were seated on one side. The women getting married sat on the other side. The grooms hadn't been brought in yet.

It was just one more horror. She thought she and Jax would be the only ones getting married. There were three other brides. Finally, the grooms were brought into the chapel. Perhaps because this was a special day, the men were unshackled before entering the chapel.

"You came," Jax said grinning and feigning surprise. "You look beautiful Ava."

"Thanks. Wouldn't they at least let you wear something different on your wedding day?"

"I got clean orange clothes for the ceremony. That's about as good as it gets in here."

They sat down together. Ava's nausea at the idea of marriage had only increased. The other women getting married hadn't made much effort with their appearance. Two had on jeans with T-shirts and the other had on white pants and a pink flowered top. She couldn't even take any pleasure in the fact that she was the chicest bride in the chapel.

"The guard told me if I slip him a few bills, he'll make sure we get five minutes alone in the bathroom," Jax whispered into Ava's ear.

His breath was hot on her neck causing her body to experience unwanted tingles. It was just a normal reaction to his toxic masculinity.

"And why would I want five minutes alone with you?"

"So we could consummate our marriage."

Jax was doing that hot breath on her neck thing again and it was really stirring up unpleasantly warm sensations in her.

"Never going to happen," Ava said.

"Uh-huh," Jax said grinning. He had a feeling if she knew he was going to be getting out of prison in a few months, she wouldn't go through with the wedding. Wait until he was out and she discovered that he expected her to be a real wife to him in every sense of the word. There were going to be some good times ahead.

"Just give yourself a hand and pretend it's me," Ava whispered in his ear. "That's as close to having sex with me as you're going to get."

"And how are you going to spend our wedding night?"

"With a new sex toy and a fresh package of batteries."

"The first thing I'm going to do when I get out is toss out all your sex toys. You won't need them with me."

Ava laughed.

"Keep dreaming."

A ceremony had just finished and the man bent his now wife over in a big, wet messy kiss with lots of tongue.

"Disgusting," Ava said watching this tacky display.

A guard broke up the kiss before it could get anymore out of control. Some of the audience booed.

"The guy was just excited about being married. He wanted to show his love."

"I swear to God if you try to shove your tongue in my mouth, I will bite you," Ava said whispering fiercely in Jax's ear.

"Come on," Jax said with a wide grin. "We're next."

Ava barely listened to the minister's words. What she didn't hear, she wouldn't remember. There was nothing she ever wanted to remember about getting married. The only good thing about her marriage was Jax being locked up in prison.

When the minister said the part that if anyone knew why this man and woman shouldn't be joined in holy matrimony let him speak now or forever hold his piece, Ava made eye contact with her father. He didn't say anything. She couldn't believe it. He was actually going to let her marry a convict. She'd been clinging to a tiny hope that he'd stop her wedding.

The next thing she knew, the minister pronounced them husband and wife. Second only to finding her mother dead with a needle stuck in her arm, this was the worst day of her life.

"

Random musings of a troubled mind: If Gemma finds out about Clay and Ellie Lowen, could she hook up with Ava's father? How would Ava feel about that if it happened?