From the Text Messaging Archives of Rachel Berry

Saturday, December 12, 2020

4:40 pm

Rachel: I can't believe we're running late… what have we missed!?

Tina: Well the ceremony just ended, and the wedding party was introduced into the reception area.

Tina: Dinner hasn't started yet, though! It's just cocktail hour!

Rachel: Ok, good. I feel bad for missing the ceremony, but at least we'll make it for dinner.

Tina: I'm sure Sam will just be happy you guys made it!

Rachel: I hope so! We should be there in 10 minutes!

Tina: See you soon girlie! :-)

"I thought you said Lima was only 45 minutes away from Maumee!" Kurt said in distress, driving his dad's old car through deserted Ohio back roads.

"And I thought I told you to turn right on Doanan Avenue, yet here we are," Rachel said, gesturing to all the corn. "Don't worry though, the main road should be coming up in another mile or so," the woman said calmly, taping away on her phone, doing damage control.

Kurt huffed. He abhorred being late, and he was near panic-attack mode over the fact that he and Rachel would be walking into a wedding reception having not made it to the ceremony. In the back of his mind, he knew that of all people, Sam wouldn't be upset, but that didn't remove the pit from Kurt's stomach.

"It's fine, Kurt. These things happen," Rachel said, finally putting her phone down and placing a hand on Kurt's thigh for comfort. "Once you get there you'll forget all about this and just enjoy yourself."

"For your sake, I hope so," Kurt mumbled, still kind of mad that Rachel hadn't double checked the amount of time it would take to get to the venue. He glanced at the rear view mirror, and tucked a loose hair back into the coif he'd created, cursing himself for not bringing extra hairspray. He brought the car to a stop at the next intersection, and turned left as per Rachel's instructions. And to say the least the man was more than relieved when the venue appeared on his right a few more miles down the road.

"Thank god," Kurt cried as he got out of the car and smoothed out some of the wrinkles on his suit. He straightened the baby blue tie he'd worn and checked his hair in the side view mirror one last time. Rachel was busy similarly reapplying her rusty red lipstick, puckering her lips together a few times before tucking the makeup back into her little silver purse. "That dress is gorgeous, Miss Berry. Where could you have ever gotten something so perfectly fit to you?" Kurt asked, slightly joking.

The dress did look amazing on Rachel. It was form fitting and navy blue with threads of silver sewn throughout. Her hair was in a simple high ponytail, but it was perfect to show off the back of the dress which was sort of open back save the silvery lace that Kurt had included for more of a 'nude illusion'. "Oh this old thing?" Rachel asked, striking a pose. "Some no-name designer gave it to me and I figured I'd do him a favor. Kent Hammel I think?" Rachel joked back, taking a few steps around the car in her 5" navy heels, and linking arms with Kurt in his grey pinstripe suit. "Let's knock em' dead."

Kurt was surprised at how classy of an establishment Sam had found for his wedding. The interior was gorgeous – huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, white and purple chiffon along with soft fairie lights draped over tall terraces that appeared to be brought in especially for the event to cover the bar and make it easy to find. Beautiful white flowers on every table, stark against the deep purple which Kurt realized quickly was the colors chosen for the bridesmaids dresses. Dark wood flooring and Wayne's coating along with golden wall paneling told Kurt that the room was beautiful on its own, but someone planning this wedding managed to make it even more spectacular.

"Holy hell, what does Sam and/or his wife do for a living?" Rachel asked as she gazed around the room, just as astounded as Kurt had been. To be honest, he totally forgot about the wife. He'd been giving Sam all the credit for finding such a spectacular venue, but there was no way the man had done all this. The décor screamed 'woman's touch', and thank god for that.

"It's gorgeous," Kurt noted as they walked further in, and were greeted by a table full of place cards attached to little white daisies. Kurt found his name in fancy gold script, placing him and Rachel at table 14. He took his card, and walked over to the cake nearby, awestruck by the detailing the baker had put into the pastry. It was 4 tiers tall, stark white with a lacy-looking piping detail on two of the tiers. The other two tiers were finished off with a fondant purple ribbon, and atop the cake was a classic man-and-wife figurine, along with a gold 'E' which Kurt figured stood for 'Evans'.

"Everything is gorgeous," Rachel noted. "Including that open bar, where I spot one Tina Cohen-Chang!" Rachel squeed, as she shuffled off in her too-high heels over to her old high school friend. Kurt chuckled, and followed behind over toward the girls, but he was stopped before he was even within earshot.

"Kurt!" an excited voice called. Spinning on his toes around to see who had called his name, a smile crossed the man's face as the blonde of the hour took a few steps toward him then enveloped him in a hug. "I'm so glad you made it!"

"Trust me, me too," Kurt noted, reciprocating the hug. "I'm so sorry we missed the ceremony, Sam. But look at you! You clean up nice!" Sam looked as goofy as usual, but was very put together in his three-piece suit. More importantly his hair was actually combed in one cohesive direction - something Kurt rarely saw in high school.

"Oh, it's alright," Sam promised taking a step back so he could continue the conversation at a more comfortable distance. "And thanks! Turns out I can dress fairly well for my own wedding. I'm just glad you and Rach are here now. It wouldn't be a party without two of the original New Directions!"

Kurt laughed and rolled his eyes. It had been a long time since they were all in one room. Looking around he saw mostly unfamiliar faces – family and friends of Sam and his wife whom Kurt wasn't expected to know. But in the crowd he could certainly pick out everyone he'd spent so much time with back in his teenhood – Artie, Mike, Tina, and even Puck. He was sure Quinn would be around somewhere. "It's so cool that you invited all of us," Kurt noted, turning back to Sam with a smile. "And whoever was crazy enough to marry you to go along with it!"

Sam laughed at the joke as well. "Brielle is amazing. I can't wait for you to meet her. She's around greeting family somewhere right now, though," Sam explained. Kurt nodded, and was sure at some point in the night Sam would come by to show off his bride.

Before Kurt could get another word out, a high pitched call reached his ears, causing both him and Sam to turn toward the source. "Unca Sam!" cried a little girl in a white dress with a thick royal purple sash. Her hair was beautiful golden blonde, partly in an up do, partly tight ringlets cascading down her back. She wore a crown made of daisies and Kurt could only assume that the girl that called Sam her Uncle was the flower girl. She slid on the hardwood floor as she tried to slow her run before she collided with both men, and it was then Kurt realized she wasn't wearing any shoes – just the white stockings under the fluffy skirt.

Sam reached out and caught the girl before she took a header on the hardwood floor. "Mackenzie," Sam started with a slightly stern voice. "Where are your shoes?" he asked dramatically as he lifted the little girl up into his arms.

The girl put on a thoughtful face for a moment before shrugging and insisting "I dunno." Kurt couldn't help but laugh a little at this, even though Sam rolled his eyes. "Unca Sam, I gotta go potty but I can't find daddy," the little girl said very quickly, words blending together as she bounced slightly in Sam's arms. "And my dress is gettin' in the way!"

Kurt took a little step back, fearing this child could erupt any second. It was things like this that reminded him why he wasn't ready for kids. Kids were messy. Kiss peed when you didn't want them to pee. "Alright, I can help you out, kiddo," Sam said, setting the flower girl back down. The little blonde girl started off toward the bathroom, and Sam stepped after her, but turned to Kurt quickly to say "I'll be back. Emergency."

"Yeah, please," Kurt noted, gesturing for Sam to follow the child to the bathroom so she didn't stain that perfectly good white dress. Whoever decided flower girls should wear white was masochistic. It was only inevitable that by the end of the dinner the girl's mother would be hysterical about a saucy stain down the dress's front. He was sure seltzer wouldn't get out any of the grime that child would accumulate.

Kurt took a moment to walk over to Rachel and Tina, still standing at the bar and chatting excitedly over some sort of red colored cocktail with cherries in the bottom of the glass. Tina looked amazing – long hair cascading down her back, a classic red and black dress hanging effortlessly from her shoulders.

"Mr. Kurt Hummel," Tina mused, the same cheerful smile as ever gracing her face. "Looking as editorial as ever."

"That's exactly what I was going for!" Kurt exclaimed, before taking a last step forward and embracing Tina. He kissed the woman's cheek as the hug ended, and turned to the bartender just as quickly. "I'll have what they're having," he said, pointing to the drinks in the girls hands. He turned back to Tina. "It's been way to long."

"Oh you don't have to tell me twice," Tina agreed with a slight roll of her eyes. "I'll be back in Manhattan semi-permanently starting in March though!" Kurt smiled excitedly, happy to hear his old friend would be around more. Tina had taken a job after college that sent her on long excursions around the world. The past couple years the woman had been traveling through Asia helping establish schools in impoverished villages. She would come back to New York every now and again – a place she called her 'home base'.

"That's so awesome! No more yellow fever or typhoid shots?" Kurt asked excitedly as the bartender slid the cherry drink over.

"Nope! It's back to the safe, relatively disease free United States for me! I'm going to start teaching at an elementary school in the summer. I'm pretty excited about it. I didn't really see myself teaching first graders until I worked with so many kids in Myanmar and Indonesia," Tina explained. "And it'll be nice to be able to actually work on establishing a life for myself."

"And the fact that Mike lives in Manhattan has nothing to do with that hmm?" Rachel asked with a raised eyebrow, not being subtle about her accusations.

"Listen, if Mike and I are meant to be, then we'll be," Tina said with a laugh. "We've kept in touch and everything, but who knows how two years has changed us. He could have moved far on and away since I decided to travel the world." The woman didn't seem too torn up about it, though. Tina and Mike held an extremely on-again off-again relationship throughout college. They consistently got together, broke up, saw other people, and got back together again. And just when it seemed they had gotten together for real, Tina went on her two year adventure. Needless to say, they didn't last even until Tina took her first plane out to Texas for training.

"Well here's hopin'," Kurt mused raising his glass then taking a long sip of his drink.

"Speaking of moving on…" Tina said slyly. Kurt raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what Tina was talking about. Rachel matching Kurt's expression, then pointed over the man's shoulder. Kurt turned his head to glance behind him, then nearly choked on his drink at the sight.

He looked even better than he had in that Facebook photo. Which shouldn't be surprising since the old bar photo had so many glares and poor saturation. His suit was tailored to perfection, a purple bowtie with white pinstripes around his neck. His hair probably wasn't completely product free, but his curls – god those curls – it was like they'd been waiting for this moment to shine. He was a little cleaner shaven then Kurt had seen, but the facial hair was still there, and made the man look so much more mature than Kurt had ever seen. "Holy hell," Kurt muttered, suddenly self-conscious about how he still looked almost exactly as he did 8 years ago. A new haircut and a more elaborate wardrobe wasn't enough to make Kurt look any older (Partially due to his very particular skin care routine).

"He looks goooood," Rachel cooed softly, just so Kurt and Tina could hear. "Just take a few pics with that and you'll have Jamie crawling back to you in no time," Rachel teased.

"God, Rach, not now," Kurt groaned, not wanting to think about James in the least. He wanted to avoid the topic, if anything. But now that Rachel brought it up, it would probably stick with him for at least a little while. "He's the last thing I want to worry about right –"Kurt started.

"Kurt?" A voice came from behind the man, just as melodic as it ever had been. "Rachel! Tina!" The excitement from the voice grew louder, and Kurt turned with a smile to face the man that approached the small group. Blaine immediately went in for hugs, starting with Rachel on the right, and working his way to Tina, and finally Kurt. There was half a second hesitation, nobody except Kurt and Blaine probably noticed, but it was there. "You guys all look amazing! I'm so glad you're all here."

"Oh we wouldn't want to miss meeting Samuel Evan's first wife," Rachel joked freely, insinuating that Brielle would eventually realize she was crazy for ever thinking Sam was husband material. It was a joke, of course, but Kurt agreed that it had to take a very certain person to agree to marry Sam.

"Oh Brielle is amazing. Her and Sam are literally perfect for each other in ways I couldn't begin to describe," Blaine gushed. Kurt could see the sweet smiles on Tina and Rachel's faces, but didn't have quite the same reaction. With all of his own relationship issues lately, it was hard to imagine perfection. Instead Kurt's eyes kept glancing around almost nervously. "She's so incredibly sweet and smart. She's just finishing up nursing school. She brings Sam's head out of the clouds and he reminds her to let loose and enjoy life."

"Awe! That's really awesome," Tina said sweetly. "Rumor has it you introduced them, Mr. Matchmaker."

"Oh well, as much as I'd hate to take all the credit," Blaine joked with a small chuckle. "It's been really awesome to see how they've brought out the best in each other in every way. And at this point we're basically family."

"The family you never asked for. So cute," Rachel teased, pushing Blaine's shoulder playfully. Kurt smiled just slightly after seeing how happy Blaine seemed. He was beaming like Sam was his son who just got the winning hit at his little league game.

"Oh, trust me, I never asked for them. But they weaseled their way into my life anyway," Blaine continued, a slight roll of his eyes. His big hazel eyes – still as memorizing as ever. Kurt always loved how full of life Blaine's eyes were.

"Somehow I doubt that was very hard to do," Kurt finally contributed, thinking back to just how easy Blaine made it for everyone to love him. Everyone wanted to have Blaine as a friend. It was hard not to want someone as genuine and full of life as a comrade. He smiled softly at Blaine, who returned the gesture after a moment, and Kurt took it as a sign that everything was ok. Although awkward, things weren't being held against one another. They could smile. They could talk and have a good time tonight. "I'm surprised you stayed in Ohio though," Kurt added, realizing that Blaine must have stayed if he and Sam maintained this strong relationship. "I always thought you'd run away and never come back."

"Me too!" Rachel agreed. "Especially when you were accepted to NYADA! I can't believe you turned that down," the woman huffed slightly. She was still somewhat bummed that her high school friend hadn't joined her for his college experience. Kurt was surprised when Blaine turned down the offer as well, but at the time he was honestly relieved. 8 years later Kurt just hoped he wasn't the cause of any sacrificed dreams.

"Oh, yeah… well… plans changed…" Blaine responded with some hesitation, just a slight glance in Kurt's direction causing the taller man to turn his gaze down to his feet. So much for not causing anything... "I went to University of Michigan for a while."

Everyone seemed to ignore the 'for a while' aspect of Blaine's comment. Kurt noticed, but let it slide pretty quickly when Rachel continued her questioning. "But then you came back here of all places? Blaine Anderson, just because you didn't go to school there doesn't diminish your New York potential." He lifted his head again as Rachel spoke, but avoided direct eye contact with Blaine, not wanting to see any disappointment in those eyes. He nodded in concurrence as Rachel spoke, believing fully there was no way Blaine had ever lost his star potential – or at the very least lost his drive to be a star.

"I was considering it," Blaine agreed with a nod, but then he shrugged. "But like I said, plans changed. I actually…" before Blaine could finish his sentence, something to the group's side caught the man's eyes.

"Mackenzie Josephine Anderson!"

Kurt jumped slightly, taken aback at Blaine's sudden sternness, unsure of where it had originated. A quick glance over at Tina and Rachel told Kurt they were similarly confused. That is, they were confused until they all turned their heads to follow Blaine's light of sight, over to the little girl with golden blonde curls and a crown of daisies. Mackenzie Josephine Anderson,Kurt repeated in his head, as his mouth fell agape.

"Why did I find these in the lobby?" Kurt's eyes turned back to Blaine, then to the girl again. He couldn't believe this entire time he hadn't realized Blaine had been holding a pair of white child-sized Mary Janes. And he couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed the flower girl had the same memorizing hazel eyes he'd once known so well.