AN: This chapter has the return of two minor characters from my first RENT fic. Also, there's a reference to the popular American sitcom, The Nanny.
"Come on! It's my house!" Roger complained through the sliding metal door, which he was sitting in front of with his arms crossed. "You have no right telling me I can't come in."
"Do you want a pox on your wedding day, Roger Davis?" Nana's voice scolded in response. "If not, then stay out. Mimi is trying on her dress, and you are not allowed to see her in it until the ceremony itself."
"Nana, the superstition is that I can't see her for twenty-four hours before the wedding," Roger corrected.
"That's a general rule. But when she's in the dress itself, you cannot see her at all, regardless of how far off the day is." In frustration, Roger tilled his head back so it was resting against the door. He couldn't remember a time when he was more exasperated with Nana and her irritating, almost religious belief in superstitions.
Inside the Loft, Mimi was in the process of trying on the dress they had found at a second-hand shop. It was slightly off the shoulders with small faux pearl beads sewn in intricate designs across the bodice and around the helm. At the metal table, Mark, Emily and Penny were sharing some tea and sugarless cookies, waiting for Nana to be finished reattaching some of the loose beads and fixing the hem on the dress so the four of them could join Maureen, Joanne, Collins and Robbie with meeting the wedding coordinator to go over some things.
Chuckling softly, Mimi turned to Nana, who was packing up her sewing kit.
"Can't you just let him in?" She asked, taking pity on Roger who had been locked out of the Loft while Nana worked on the dress.
"I second that," Emily added, casting Nana a glaring look. "An atomic bomb is not going to drop on the city if you let him see her in a wedding dress."
"You can make fun," Nana waved a finger in Emily's direction. "You remember my second cousin, Pearl. She didn't pay heed to the old omens. Look what happened on her wedding day!"
"Why? What happened?" Mimi asked.
"Nana, quit trying to scare her," Emily instructed. "Mimi, it wasn't anything major, and it had nothing to do with bad luck or any of that horse bunk. She just suffered an allergic reaction from some shellfish and her face kind of swelled up."
"Exactly!" Nana spoke with triumph. "And you know why? Because she decided to make her own wedding dress!"
"No, it was because the cooks were lazy, and mixed the tomato soup with the same spoon they used with the clam chowder," Emily replied.
"And why do you think the cooks used the same spoon? Because she made her own wedding dress!" With a weary sigh, Emily dropped her head onto the table in a sign of defeat, prompting Mark to pat her shoulder in comfort.
"All right, then," Nana announced, returning her sewing kit to her bag. "That's it for now, Mimi. I left a final stitch on the hem undone, too. That should be left until you leave for the ceremony itself." Once Mimi had disappeared into her and Roger's bedroom to change, Nana unlocked the door to leave, resulting in her being greeted by the disgruntled Roger.
"Oh? Am I allowed in now?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yes, it's safe to come in now. And you can loose the attitude. You will thank me someday." A minute later, after Nana had left, Mimi came out of the bedroom in her multi-colored tank top and short denim skirt.
"So, should we get going now?" she asked, grinning widely at the others.
By the time Roger, Mimi, Mark, Emily and Penny made it to the wedding coordinators, the others had already arrived. The wedding coordinator's office was completely filled with arches covered in fake ivy or flowers, mannequins in wedding attire, and tier cakes made of plaster.
"Man, this place looks like Martha Stewart on overdrive," Robbie commented, helping himself to some pastel buttermints that were left out in a candy dish. "Mmm. Rog, Mimi. You should have these buttermints in those little wedding favors. So many people use those Jordan Almonds. I don't know why. Who eats Jordan Almonds, anyway? I'd love to know." Robbie's rambling was cut off when the wedding coordinator entered. She was a rather heavyset woman in her mid-fifties, in a vibrant hot pink caftan with a green sash.
"Ah. Well!" the wedding coordinator breathed, clapping her hands once for effect. "I see you've all arrived. Now, judging from the body language, the hand holding, etc. etc., I'd say, you are the hopeful couple." As the wedding coordinator spoke, she walked up to Roger and Mimi, holding out a hand with bright red nails up to an inch long. After shaking each hand in turn, she continued.
"I am Prudence Hodges, and I am here to make your big day one you shall never forget. Each wedding I have coordinated has resulted in an elongated era of exultances."
"She talks like my ninth grade English teacher." Roger heard Maureen whisper loudly to Joanne. "You know, daffy old Ms. Newport."
"Maureen, shhh!" Joanne scolded. But when Roger glanced over, he noticed a large smile on the lawyer's face, the one she always got when she was trying very hard not to laugh.
"Now, for you," Prudence continued, circling Roger and Mimi, sizing them up. "I see you two as the type who want to shout out your love to the world. I'm seeing a collection of reds, and maybe a few lavenders thrown in. Perhaps in an outdoor gazebo, with white fountains, and…"
"Um, the thing is," Mimi interrupted. "That all sounds nice, but we don't really have a lot of money, so…"
"Ah, say no more, dearie. I absolutely love it. The whole 'we have nothing, but we have everything' scenario. Delightful. And it so happens that we have an entire section in our catalogue for scenarios such as these." Prudence, with great flourish, flipped a heavy looking book that had been sitting on a table to a page near the back. "This one is one of my personal favorites. Inexpensive, but elegant all the same. The male members of the wedding party in traditional tuxedos, and the women in pastels. And we have the sweetest rental dresses for flower girls in the back room.
"In fact, this little one," Prudence paused for a moment to place a hand on Penny's shoulder. "She would look precious in a little cream-colored number, with a light pink sash."
"Only one problem," Roger noted. "Wouldn't having a flower girl require a boy to be ring bearer, too? We don't happen to know many boys who could…"
"Well, wait. What about those two Robbie brought with him?" Collins inputted.
"What two boys?" Mark asked, as everyone glanced over at Robbie.
"Oh, right!" Robbie laughed. "Roger, you remember that time we met up again on Fourth of July, right? When you and Mimi were babysitting Penny?"
"Yeah," Roger replied hesitantly. What was Robbie going with this?
"Well, after that night, I thought about that stuff we talked about. You know, having kids of your own? I have to admit, after thinking about it for a couple months, the concept started to sound pretty good to me. So I started looking around and finally found a couple of kids that I just connected with."
"Wait, you went and adopted a kid?"
"Actually, two," Robbie admitted. "The agency said they refused to be adopted unless they were adopted together. Didn't really care, though. They're both great boys." Robbie started looking around the room. "Speaking of which, where'd they go? They were just here. Boys?"
"Are these dummies anatomically correct?" a new voice asked as a pair of ten-year-old boys, one Asian and the other of Native American descent, appeared from beneath the dresses of two of the female mannequins.
"WHAT DO YOU CARE?!" Emily cried suddenly, her eyes widening as she recognized the two boys, striding forward and pulling them away from the mannequins. "You two are ten-years-old. Would you be normal?"
"Hey, come on, Miss Emily!" the Asian boy complained. "You're not our caretaker anymore."
"You know those two?" Joanne looked over at Emily, who was giving both of the boys an exasperated look.
"Do we!?" Penny laughed, running up and hugging the two boys. "Rupert! Jerry! I didn't think we'd ever see you again!"
"Wait. Rupert and Jerry?" Mark gaped. "You mean those two boys from the Center who were always getting into mischief?"
"And you adopted them both?" Emily directed her question at Robbie. "I wish you luck with that. They're enough of a handful individually, but with both of them?"
"Aw, I think I can manage," Robbie smiled. "Of course, if things do get too out of hand, I suppose I could always come to you for advice, since you know them both so well."
"In that case, I get the feeling I'll hear from you very soon."
For the next few minutes, Prudence continued to exchange ideas with Mimi. As concepts were bounced back and forth, Robbie got Roger's attention and led him out of the room for a word.
"I tell you, Roger," Robbie began. "That girl is something else." Roger beamed as he gazed back at Mimi.
"Yeah. She sure is."
"Yeah. The thing is, I was wondering. I don't suppose you could, you know, get me her number or something?" Roger suddenly turned to Robbie in shock.
"What are you…? Do you not get what we're doing here?" he hissed. "I told you ages ago, she's mine! Did you not get me…?" Robbie, who had looked confused for a brief moment, suddenly covered Roger's mouth with his hand. The expression on his face showed he was close to laughing.
"No, Roger!" Robbie chuckled. "I was talking about Emily!" Roger's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he looked back into the room, where Emily was trying to keep Rupert and Jerry from knocking over one of the plaster cakes. For a long pause, he tried to wrap his mind around the concept. Robbie, his old band mate and friend, and Emily, a girl who he'd come to view as the sister he never had.
"I'll… I'll see what I can do," Roger replied finally.