"Mary!"
Mary stops, turns and faces Tomas. "Oh, Tomas. Hello."
Tomas gestures around to where the wedding is still being set up. "Your friend must be so excited," he says.
Mary smiles. "She is," she says, pointing over her shoulder. "I should really get to her. I came out to look for my fi-boyfriend."
Tomas's brows raise and then he is laughing much to her confusion. "I'm gay."
She must have looked mortified because Tomas is laughing, even more, running his finger through a strand of her hair to remove a loose flower petal before stuffing his hands into the pockets of his shorts.
"I'm not pursuing any women, especially at a wedding," Tomas tells her. "Plus, I'm into men."
"Oh," Mary squeaks out, feeling awful for assuming her was into her. "W-What do you want from me then?"
Tomas smiles politely, blushing slightly. "I'm not sure you know but I'm trying my hand in acting."
"I see," Mary says.
"And you are a rising star. I've got this film lined up, about a man who does ballet of all things and he meets a woman who dances and shows him that there's more to ballet.," he says, his smile becoming fond. "It's based on my parents' love story and when I saw you... You reminded me of my mother."
Mary's brows raise in surprise. "Me?"
"She's dead," he says, strained. "Cancer, I was seven."
"I'm so sorry," Mary breathes out, touching his forearm slightly before crossing her arms. "So, you want me to play the role of your mother?"
"The resemblance is uncanny, Miss Stuart," he says softly as if he's seeing his mother in her place. "We'll film in Portugal and France. The film will also be French and Portuguese dubbed. What do you say?"
Mary blinks in surprise. "I-I should speak with my manager," she says. "I'm not really accepting any roles after finishing a couple of big projects. I am used to films but I'm trying to do more TV shows lately."
"Oh," Tomas says sadly. "Think about it though."
"Let me take your agent's number."
"Take mine instead," Tomas replies, handing her his card. "And perhaps your fiancé would love to produce the soundtrack. His voice is exactly what we need for this."
Mary's eyes widen. "I-"
"I won't tell anyone your wonderful secret. Congratulations," Tomas says happily.
Mary blinks in surprise, stunned. It would be a great gig for Francis since he's independent. If he can be an independent artist and get on a huge film project, that would be great for him. "We'll think about it."
"Please, do," Tomas says before he's called over by the man she saw in Ibiza. "I'm coming!" He then turns back to her with a chuckle. "I hope your man is less threatened when you're in the company of attractive people."
Mary chuckles, blushing even more. "Have a nice day, Tomas."
"You too," Tomas says before joining his boyfriend and heading towards the casual pre-wedding breakfast service in the grand tent.
Mary shakes her head a little, knowing that was Catherine's idea, to have people mix and blend and exchange numbers. This family is all about contacts and they have many.
She looks ahead at the field where the wedding arch is being put up along with comfortable chairs. The wedding service is limited but the reception will have many guests and Mary mentally promises her and Francis to keep their wedding at a reasonable guest list. They don't need big names or rich people to attend their wedding, as long as their friends and families are there, it would be the best day of their lives.
"Have you seen the guys?" Greer asks, joining her and making her jump. "Sorry. Kenna's freaking out because they were meant to be here for their turn to make the rounds in the tent."
Mary shakes her head. "I've tried Francis's phone a few times and he's not answering."
"Great, we've got a missing groom and his missing groomsmen," Greer mutters before pulling Mary back into the house where Lola is on the phone, running her hand through her hair. "What's wrong now?"
"Well," Lola says with a wince. "The flowers were meant to be here yesterday but..."
Mary's heart sinks. "Oh, no, did I chose the wrong date?"
"No! Well, they were meant to come in today as you scheduled so Kenna's not worried about that. Only... I've just got word that there's been a major traffic jam in central Paris where it's coming from and now, they won't be here on time."
Mary curses. "Okay, what do we do?"
"We need to just make sure Kenna doesn't find out and keep her calm," Lola says.
"I'll grab the champagne," Greer says, hurrying off.
Catherine stalks inside from the garden and she heads towards them. "Another issue..."
"Oh, what now?!" Mary cries out.
"Well, the cake's ruined. In fact, everything in the barn is ruined," Catherine says.
"Huh?"
"I don't know how but the horses got out and well, there's hay in the barn that still needed moving and... you can put two and two together," Catherine explains.
Mary closes her eyes. She hopes her wedding won't go downhill so quickly. "Right," she starts, opening her eyes. "Get Henry to go to the airport and see where the guys are. Lola, grab one of the catering vans and rescue all of those flowers. I'll grab Greer and the rest of the bridesmaids and sort the barn reception out and Catherine, use your cunning skills and get us a cake!"
Everyone heads off in different directions and Mary grabs Greer from the kitchen, the blonde handing a butler the champagne to take upstairs to the bride and they grab Margot, Leeza and Claude on their way. They decide to leave Kenna's sister with her so she's not too suspicious and they hurry onto the golf carts and drive down to the barn.
When they get there, everything from the streamers and glass ornaments and table decorations are everywhere and they start cleaning up, grabbing bin bags and now and then watching as the stable boys rear the misbehaving horses away from the barn.
"Francis and I will not have our wedding here, thankfully," Mary mutters to the girls.
"Yeah," Claude replies. "Has anyone heard from the guys at all?"
Mary shakes her head as everyone else does the same. She lifts up her full bin bag and heads out to put it in the trunk connected to the golf cart. When she looks up, she sees the familiar curls of her fiancé and she hurries down the hill to meet him.
"Where the hell have you been?!"
Francis winces. "I lost the guys."
"How?!"
"Mary, don't yell," Francis begs her with a wince. "We went to Trafalgar Square and everything goes hazy from that. All I remember is buying a ticket to France and coming here. There's a huge accident in Paris, by the way. I told the Uber I'll walk the remaining way and he gave me a water bottle and sent me on my way."
Mary looks at him in exasperation, pulling him to sit down in the golf cart before she drives it back to the house. "Where's your suitcase?"
"At home," he mumbles with a yawn. "Everyone's stuff was still there. Just grabbed my passport and I still have clothes here thankfully."
"You idiot," she mutters lightly. "Right, you need to shower, brush your teeth, fix your hair and start looking for your brother otherwise Kenna will have a meltdown."
Francis winces. "He's not here?"
Mary almost runs them into a ditch when she looks at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. "No, he's not here!"
"Okay, I'll sort myself out and look for Bash," Francis promises, pressing a kiss on her cheek as they pull up to the back steps of the house.
"Mary!" Catherine calls out when she sees the woman enter the house and then her eyes glow red. "Francois!"
"Muuuum," Francis whines.
"Where is Sebastian?" Catherine asks angrily. "God so help me, I have a sobbing bride upstairs."
"Who told her?!" Mary cries out.
Catherine rolls her eyes. "She is not stupid, Mary. Anyway, the cake company can't do anything, they're filled to the brim with orders."
Francis bites his lip. "Let me sort myself out and I'll bake a cake."
"Francis, you can't-"
"We've got about five ovens in this entire estate. Two racks per oven so we could make a ten-tier cake easily," Francis tells them.
"B-But Kenna wants the croquembouche," Mary says.
Catherine sighs. "I may know an old maternal family recipe," she says. "We can still fix this."
Mary grins. "Yeah, okay! Let's get cracking!"
...
Remy and Julien eventually make their way to the estate and Mary gets them showered, teeth brushed and dressed before getting them to work with the cakes and the barn decorations. There luckily was spare decorations as Kenna accounted for every single possibility in her perfectionist streak.
Mary keeps the guests watered and makes small talk with most before going back to the main house to check on Francis putting fondant on the biggest layer. She's so proud of him, how he's so focused and intent on fixing this for his brother and her best friend.
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she remembers Tomas's request. "Tomas das Pires."
"I saw him around," Francis says, sticking his tongue out a little when he pipes intricate flowers onto the bottom layer. "Thank God this wedding's been moved to start at five. The service will be cut short in order for the reception to start at six."
Mary hums. "Yep."
"You were saying? About Tomas?"
Mary nods against his back and he squeezes her hand quickly before focusing on the next layer. "He came to me with an offer for both of us."
Francis raises his brows in intrigue. "Wow, that's a great honour. He's really popular, anything done with him is an immediate publicity boost," he says.
"You're not worried?" Mary asks, surprised. "About him coming to me and..."
Francis laughs, turning in her arms and kissing her softly. "If you're trying to claim that I'm not threatened or jealous, you're right. Tomas is gay, everyone knows that."
"I'm not everyone," Mary tells him lightly.
Francis snorts. "We met briefly at one of my family's galas and he openly went around kissing his boyfriend. I think I'm pretty good when it comes to you and him together."
Mary blushes. "Stop teasing me!"
"You're beautiful," Francis assures her. "And I'm sure Tomas knows that too otherwise he wouldn't have bothered talking to you."
Mary blushes even more. "Actually, he says I remind him of his late mother and wants me to play her in his new movie where he plays his father."
"Wow," Francis breathes out. "That's intense."
"Yeah, and well, he loves your voice and wants you to produce the soundtrack. It's going to be a French-Portuguese hybrid."
Francis's eyes light up. "Really?"
"Yeah," Mary says with a grin that falters. "I may be a little threatened now."
Francis guffaws, nuzzling her nose. "I'm into women, Mary. Don't worry, you're the only one in my eyes."
She grins happily and hugs him tightly. "I should actually help and-"
"Sebastian!" Francis says over her shoulder and she turns to glare at Bash and Leith who meekly wave at them. "Okay, right. Get upstairs, dressed, everything and get down here as soon as possible otherwise, you're dead meat."
Bash cringes. "Kenna's going to kill me?"
"I'll happily get in line after her," Mary says, crossing her arms. "Now, move!"
"Jesus," Leith mutters as he and Bash head upstairs and try to avoid Kenna.
Mary sighs heavily. "Let's get back to the cake."
Francis nods, pressing a kiss on the top of her head. "Our wedding will be less dramatic, don't worry."
"Oh," Mary laughs.
"And the only role you'll play is the blushing bride," he says into her ear before kissing it.
Mary's eyes darken with lust but she keeps her hormones in check, going over to collect the next two layers of cake from Margot before the woman hurries back out.
Francis laughs from behind her and she glares at him, flushed. "Don't worry. I've missed you just as much as you've missed me. I love you, Mary."
"I love you too," she says with a happy smile.
...
Mary doesn't know how they did it but everything is still perfect despite the missing groom and groomsmen, ruined reception, late service, damaged cake and late flowers. Everything was sorted out and Mary pours the girls much-needed glasses of wine as they watch Bash and Kenna share their first dance as a married couple to John Legend's All of Me.
"I'm never getting married," Greer mutters lightly.
"Same here," Claude says, raising her glass and clinking it with Greer's.
Mary laughs, shaking her head. "Cowards," she jests, her eyes watering when Bash presses a kiss on Kenna's forehead. "God, they're so beautiful."
"Okay, that's enough red wine for you," Lola teases her as they all grin and watch the couple glide over the dancefloor, everyone's eyes on them.
Mary meets Francis's eyes from across the barn and he gestures to the dancefloor where couples are taking it beside the newlyweds. She weaves through the couples, meeting Francis in the middle and they start slow-dancing, everyone's faces blurring as they only see each other.
"I'll give you all of me and you'll give me all of you," Francis whispers to her.
Mary beams. "I will," she promises, hugging him tightly to her chest as the song ends and another slow-dance song starts.
Her eyes close as she basks in the music and she realises it's Francis's song and he tightens her. She can feel his smile growing and he spins her a little so she sees Bash and Kenna smiling over at them as they excuse themselves from the dancefloor.
Mary scoffs lightly, her lips meeting Francis's ear. "Seems like they're off for their hot air balloon sex," she says with a chuckle.
"It is still light out," Francis muses, meeting her eyes. "Should we... go ourselves?"
"I have missed you," she whispers, pulling him in the direction of the opened barn doors. They find a golf cart but forgo it, deciding for a walk through the vineyard. "I never saw this when I visited the first time."
Francis grins. "You have forever to get to know this place better. I'll inherit it once my father passes. Bash rejected it because he gets Chenonceau."
"What's Chenonceau?"
"His mother's estate," Francis explains. "But this will all be ours one day. What do you say? Living in France when we're old and grey?"
Mary smiles widely. "I'd never have to leave because I'll have everything I need here. You."
They stop and Francis kisses her deeply, her fingers entwining in his hair as he dips her low, a smile on her lips against his lips.
Bringing her back up, they look up and see a hot air balloon in the distance and Mary snuggles into Francis's side as they watch the sunset and the balloon float around.
Mary feels fireworks and sparks inside her whenever she feels Francis near, she's so in love, she can't put it into words. With Francis, he sings them to her but she can't even...
She turns to Francis. "You're the best thing to happen to me, okay?"
Francis looks down at her and he smiles. "Okay."
"That's a fact," she says. "If you ever hurt, I'm going to bleed and I'll pick you up and put you right back on your feet."
Francis presses his forehead against hers. "I'll always put you first. When I'm lost, you give me order."
"Let's save the rest for our vows," Mary whispers before meeting his lips for a kiss.
Francis smiles widely, spotting the horses. "Hey, my horse is there. Have you ever ridden a horse?"
"That's Kenna's thing," Mary says. "Got slapped by a horse's tail when I was little."
Francis laughs and pulls her in the direction of his horse. "Come on. I'll sit right behind you, you won't fall or get hit by anything."
Mary obliges and soon, they're riding off towards the grand lake. She feels Francis's warmth on her back and she feels so safe and content in his arms.
"It's been a year since we got together," Mary breathes out in wonder. They celebrated back in May somehow but it always feels so crazy.
Francis rests his cheek against the side of her head. "Every day with you is a blessing, Mary. I'm happy I met you."
"I'm happy I met you too," Mary whispers, feeling his kiss on her neck. Her eyes close and she enjoys feeling her fiancé's heart beating for her against her back.
So, I wanted to put some drama into Kennash's wedding so I didn't have to with Frary's wedding. Just thought it would be funny! :)