The alarm on Gina's phone started blaring way too early. She groaned, reaching over to silence the offending noise and get just a few more minutes rest.
But sadly, that wasn't meant to be as she heard the door to her room crash open and felt Ashlyn land on her bed.
"GINA! IT'S HAPPENING. TODAY, I'M MRS. BIG RED."
She couldn't help but laugh at her friend's excitement. If anyone deserved to be this happy, it was her sweet best friend. Who'd saved her so many times. Despite her best efforts, she felt herself welling up.
"Gi, are you crying?"
"I'm just so happy for you!" She cried, throwing her arms around Ashlyn.
"Love's made you soft," Ashlyn joked, but tears spilled onto her cheeks, as well.
Her mom appeared in the doorway. "Ashlyn, honey… aw, my girls!" she said, her own tears building.
Ashlyn's dad walked by, taking note of all three crying women.
"Right, gonna be that kind of day," he noted dryly. "Who wants coffee?"
The day went by in a blur of hair spray and champagne. Nini arrived, looking both impossibly chic and completely down to earth at the same time. Over lunch, she regaled them with stories about the glamorous and decidedly unglamorous elements of life as pop's it girl, and tried unsuccessfully to appear casual when asking about Ricky. Ashlyn's college roommate, who'd missed the bachelorette because of school stuff, tried to play it cool around an international superstar, but eventually blurted out, "I'm sorry, am I really hanging out with Nina Salazar?! Is it so uncool to ask for a selfie?!" An entire crew of hair and makeup people arrived, including someone who specialized in natural texture that Ashlyn had thoughtfully booked for Kourtney and Gina. Photographers captured them through the whole process, including lacing Ashlyn into her amazing wedding gown. "Is Big Red ready for this?", Kourtney asked. "Does someone know CPR, just in case? Cuz girl, you a walking heart attack."
In what felt like a flash, they were loading into the limo, laughing the whole way. In between snapping selfies, Gina checked her texts quick.
"EJ blowing up your phone?" Kourtney teased.
"He respects girl code, today is all about Ashlyn."
"Awww…" the girls crowed in unison.
"I still feel like I missed something," Nini said. "Since when are you and EJ back on?"
"Since I had to throw them out of the rehearsal dinner to resolve three years of sexual tension?" Ashlyn supplied.
"Hey, that's my nephew and surrogate daughter you're talking about," Ashlyn's dad chimed in.
"Sorry, Dad," Ashlyn said. "But it's true," she stage whispered to Nini, causing Gina to blush and everyone else to burst out laughing again.
They pulled up the hotel, and Gina threw her arm around Ashlyn.
"This is it, girl. Let's go get you married."
The ceremony was held in the outdoor courtyard of the hotel, under a perfectly cloudless Salt Lake sky. Gina was the last to walk up the aisle before Ashlyn's big entrance. She kissed Ashlyn's cheek, gave her hand a squeeze and made her way, eyes shining. She scanned the crowd and met EJ's eyes, who was looking at her like she was something wonderful and rare. She looked ahead to Big Red, who looked… well, a little green, if she was honest. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile, and moved to the side, turning back to watch Ashlyn and her dad make their entrance.
The crowd stood as the music changed, and Ashlyn and her dad rounded the corner out of the hallway. Gina smiled as she recognized the music the quartet has switched to, "Beauty and the Beast."
Since she'd been marveling at how amazing Ashlyn looked all afternoon, Gina took the opportunity to watch Big Red watching her. She was near tears again as she watched all the anxiety in his face melt away, not seeing anything in the world but her. She didn't know if she'd ever seen a look so full of love, and it literally made her heart ache in wonder.
Gina wasn't an emotional girl. She prided herself on being practical, self assured, steady. But something in the air that day tugged at her emotions in ways she didn't expect. She had a fleeting thought, wondering if anyone would ever look at her like that. Glancing over at EJ, she thought, just maybe, she might.
After the ceremony was roughly eight thousand photos. Gina couldn't remember the last time she laughed as hard as she did at Big Red and Ricky trying to act natural for the cameras. She kept trying to make her way to EJ, but every time one of them got a break, the other was called for another of an endless array of various groupings of family and friends. FINALLY, after the official East High group shot, the photographers released them to hit the cocktail hour for a quick drink before the introductions, while they grabbed a few more shots of just Big Red and Ashlyn. Gina grabbed EJ's hand as the group made its way to the bar.
They stood a bit apart from the crowd, sipping their drinks and EJ pointing out who was who in the giant mess of Caswells. With his arm casually draped across her back, Gina leaned in and rested her head lightly on EJ's shoulder.
"You're weirdly sentimental today, Gi," EJ noted. "I haven't seen you this misty since I showed you Carlos's birthday video."
"Very funny, Caswell. How can you not cry at how beautiful today was? They're so happy! Have you ever seen anything like the way he looked at her?"
EJ ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "Seen it? No. But I recognize it. Pretty sure that's exactly how I look at you when I think you're not paying attention."
"You're actually trying to kill me, aren't you? That's the most romantic thing you've ever said."
"Well, now that I gave that away, going to have to come up with something better when it's our shot to do this."
Gina's heart nearly beat out of her chest. Was he implying what she thought? They'd been back together for two days!
"I know," he said, reading her thoughts. "WAY too early for wedding talk. But a guy can dream, right?"
"Fine by me," she smiled, leaning her head back onto his shoulder.
"Can we talk about this dress, by the way? How the hell do you make polyester satin sexy?"
"Bridesmaids dresses aren't exactly known for being high fashion."
"You make it work."
"Why thank you. You don't look so bad yourself."
"I clean up ok, right?"
"You know, it's really not fair that the groomsmen have to walk around in rented tuxes with adjustable pants while you get to show up in a custom fitted suit that looks this good" she said, shaking her head while running her fingertips lightly down his dark grey lapels.
"This is the burden I carry," he quipped.
"Gi! We need to get ready for intros!" Kourtney called from the doorway.
Gina leaned in close to EJ and whispered in his ear "It'll look even better on the floor of my room later."
With a wicked smile, she turned and went to meet Kourtney, feeling his eyes on her the whole way. She turned around and blew him a kiss as the door closed, while the event manager announced to the room it was time to head in to the dinner.