Sunlight

"I hate weddings!" Sam announced, walking into her and Freddie's home late at night. "Hate them. They should be illegal! They're just stupid and pointless anyway."

"That's always a fun thing to hear your wife say," Freddie said, rolling his eyes as he got up from the couch, carefully shifting his and Sam's five-month old son, Jason, in his arms. He stepped over and gave Sam a quick kiss. "So wedding planning with Carly was fun, I take it?"

"She's just getting more and more insane as the wedding gets closer," Sam said, gently taking Jason from Freddie. "I mean it's a week away, and she's freaking out about whether she should change the table cloth colors from cream to eggshell! And of course, since I'm her Maid of Honor, I have to deal with it! I didn't make her this crazy when she was my Maid of Honor!"
"No, but she did basically do all the planning," Freddie pointed out.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Look, like you said, the wedding's a week away," Freddie said. "Which means in one week Carly will go back to being her normal, happy self. I know it's really difficult to handle all of this wedding stuff, but just remember, it's for our best friend. She's always there for us, so we need to be there for her too."

Sam sighed. "Yeah…I mean I do want her wedding day to be amazing."
"Exactly," Freddie smiled. "That's what this is all about."
"Well I'm glad you see it that way," Sam said. "Because I volunteered you to help her out creating a playlist for the DJ and figuring out the light set up for the reception."
"Wait, what?" Freddie frowned.

"Yeah, you're meeting her tomorrow at eight in the morning at the coffee shop," Sam grinned.

"Er, I-I actually don't know if that's a great time for-"

"Oh come on, what happened to 'we need to be there for her'?" Sam said.

"I-Well-Dang it Sam!" Freddie groaned. "You're not supposed to throw my own words back at me!"

"Have fun," Sam said. "Try not to make too much noise when you wake up. Mama's finally gonna try and get more than five hours of sleep."

The next morning, Freddie struggled to keep his eyes open as Carly talked away at the small coffee shop, barely pausing to take a breath.

"-And so after our first dance as husband as wife, I want to have some really festive music going. You know, some modern hits, but not too modern, because I do still want to keep with the classical feel of the rest of the wedding. So basically we'll need something new yet old."
"Carly, is that even a thing?" Freddie asked.

"Sure it is," Carly nodded. "Oh, and then for the father-daughter dance with my dad, I want-"

Okay, I know what Sam was talking about now, Freddie thought to himself. She is a tad bit insane.

"I just can't believe I let this all go until the last minute," Carly said, running her fingers through her hair. "It just totally slipped my mind. Thank God Sam reminded me how good you are with this stuff or I'd be losing my mind trying to do it myself right now."
"Yeah, isn't she great," Freddie said.

"Well anyway, I've got to run, I'm meeting with my caterer to go over the plate layouts one last time," Carly said. "And then I've got to make sure the flower arrangements are going to be delivered on time, go over the seating chart one last time…I really need Sam. Hey, can you do me a favor and remind her that she needs to meet me at the reception hall at eleven? We're supposed to start putting up the first layer of decorations today."
"You have layers?" Freddie repeated.

"Of course," Carly said, getting to her feet. "Now I really need to go. Call me when you finish the playlist, and tell Sam to check her email. I just sent her a bunch of forms I need her to print out and bring with her when she meets me."
"Yeah, I'll-"

"Thanks, Freddie!" Carly said, grabbing her bag. "Bye!"
Freddie shook his head as Carly raced out of the coffee shop. "I've never seen someone so awake at eight in the morning."

….

"Did you bring me breakfast?" Sam asked later that morning as Freddie returned home.

"Here," Freddie yawned, handing Sam a bag of donuts. "What are you doing up? It's only nine. I thought you were going to sleep in."
"I was, but then Jason woke up," Sam replied, helping herself to a donut. "I might go back to sleep now that he's napping, though."

"Just don't sleep too long," Freddie said. "Carly wanted me to remind you that you're supposed to meet her in a couple hours."
"Aw chiz!" Sam moaned. "I completely forgot! I'm supposed to help her with decorations; that's gonna take forever!"
"Yeah, apparently she has layers," Freddie grinned.

"I know, I-I'll take Jason with me," Sam said. "That way if he starts to cry I'll have my ticket out of there!"

"Sam, you can't take our son with you as an excuse to leave," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh come on, you just dealt with Carly in her wedding mode," Sam said. "Tell me she wasn't crazy."
"Er…"
"Exactly!"

"Sam, come on, you said last night you wanted Carly's wedding to be perfect for her," Freddie pointed out.

"I know, but-"

"It's Carly," Freddie said. "She would do the same for us. She has done the same for us."

"Alright," Sam conceded. "Don't wait up for me, I guess. Who knows when I'll be home."
Freddie gave her a short kiss. "I saw online that there was a Tub of Chicken across from the reception hall."
"Well at least that's dinner," Sam sighed. "You know, I think I'm more stressed for this wedding than I was for ours."

….

Nine hours…Sam thought bitterly as she hung up a large banner at the front of the hall for the seventh time, trying to get it exactly level. We've been here for nine hours and we haven't even made a dent in the decorations!

"Sam!" Carly exclaimed, rushing over to her best friend. "Sam, we have a huge problem! This reception hall has stairs leading up to it!"
"Um…yeah?" Sam frowned. "So what?"
"Three of my dad's friends who are coming to the wedding are in wheelchairs!" Carly said, panicked. "They can't go up stairs! Oh, this is going to be a disaster! This whole thing is ruined! I just-"

"Carls, relax," Sam said. "We ordered a wheelchair ramp two months ago, remember? Your dad's friends will be able to get in here."
"Oh…Oh, that's right," Carly said, calming down. "I completely forgot…Sorry."
She sighed as she sat down at one of the small tables.

"Hey, you okay, Carls?" Sam asked, hoping down from the chair she had been standing on.

"Yeah," Carly nodded, not meeting Sam's eye.

"Carly…" Sam said knowingly, sitting down next to her. "What's up, kid?"
"I dunno," Carly said softly, her voice shaking slightly as she looked out the window.

"Dude, are-are you crying?" Sam frowned, scooting closer to her. "Carly, seriously, talk to me. What's wrong?"
"It's just…I'm really freaking out about this wedding," Carly said.

"What? Carly, we've been planning this for a year," Sam pointed out. "Everything is all set for the big day! Everybody knows where to go, all the dresses have already been picked up, the food's ordered, flowers are set…trust me, I'm you Maid of Honor and I took care of all of that."
"I know," Carly sniffed. "And thank you so much for all you've done. I-I know I've been a little crazy with all this wedding stuff."
"Crazy?" Sam scoffed. "You? Nah."
"No, I have," Carly said. "And-And I know I've taken a lot of your time that you could've been with Freddie or-or your son."
"Aw Carls, it's nothing," Sam said. "Wait, that's not why you're upset though, is it?"

"Well…no," Carly admitted heavily. "I-I know the ceremony and the reception and all that is going to be perfect. But-But I'm just worried…what-what if the actual part isn't perfect?"
"The actual part?" Sam repeated, confused. "You mean you and Andy?"

Carly nodded. "What-What if this is all just some giant mistake? What if the two of us aren't really meant to be together? What if I wind up messing everything up and-"

"Alright, Carly, breathe," Sam said. "Look, you love Andy, right?"
"Of course," Carly said at once. "I-I love him more than anybody else. I don't know what I would do without him."

"And Andy definitely loves you," Sam said. "Anybody could see that."
"But what if-"

"Carls, everybody freaks out about that stuff before their wedding," Sam said. "I mean I felt the same way before I married Freddie."

"You did?" Carly frowned.

Sam nodded. "It was a couple hours before the ceremony and you had just gone to deal with my uncle who was refusing to wear a shirt…I was just sitting there in my dress and I was freaking out about whether or not I was doing the right thing and-and if Freddie and I were really meant to be. But…ugh, this is gonna sound so lame…but Carly, when you walk down the aisle and you see Andy up there and you say your vows…all of that anxiety is just gonna fade away."

"So it-it's really normal to be freaking out right now?" Carly asked.

"I think it's not normal if you don't," Sam chuckled.

"I'm still just really worried," Carly said softly. "I mean we have this huge, perfect wedding…what if our married life isn't as, you know, perfect?"
Sam let out a laugh. "You think married life is perfect? Carly, married life is far from perfect. Sure, it might seem perfect for the first couple of weeks after the honeymoon, but then you'll never use that word to describe it again. You're gonna have to deal with hairy feet under your legs every night for the rest of your life. You're going to have to deal with about a thousand geeky little organization systems that alphabetize your breakfast cereals and put your socks in order from least wooly to most! And before you know it, your garage is gonna be filled with model trains!"
"Um…Andy actually isn't that in to those-"

"And then you throw a kid in there!" Sam continued. "And for the first few months your gonna be too tired to even look at each other. And then-"

"Um, aren't you supposed to be trying to make me feel better?" Carly frowned.

"Look, Carly, even though there are times when I want to strangle Freddie," Sam said. "I-I wouldn't trade being married to him for the world. Even though he has tons of annoying habits, I've actually sort of grown to love them. Honestly, if we had some perfect relationship, I think it'd be kind of boring. You'll see with Andy."

"He does have this really weird way of eating grilled cheese," Carly said, giving Sam a small smile. "But-But what if-"

"Carly, I wouldn't have spent the past year helping you with all this planning chiz if I didn't believe you and Andy were meant to be," Sam said firmly. "You think I would've spent six hours arguing with a florist over the maximum number of violets that could be delivered while I was eight months pregnant just for anybody?"

"That was one of your best Maid of Honor moments," Carly laughed.

Sam stood up and wrapped her arms around her best friend.

"You're going to be fine, Carly," she said. "You and Andy aren't going to have a perfect life, but you two are perfect for each other."

"Thanks, Sam," Carly said. She looked at her phone. "Whoa, it's after ten already. I didn't even realize…Hey, why don't you get going back home? I'm sure you want to spend some time with Freddie and Jason."

"You sure?" Sam asked. "I thought you wanted to get this banner hung at the exact right height so that it wouldn't block the sunlight coming in from the windows."
"Eh, we'll get to it later," Carly shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal."