Bring! Bring!
The sound of the phone rang in my ear. I peeked out of the break in the top of the linens at the brightly lit room. Was it really morning already? I asked my self with a thread of contempt that I had wasted all of yesterday moping around the house, trying to get it ready for today's guests. Somehow, I had managed to wrap myself so tightly in the covers since Fulton left that morning that now I couldn't get my arm out to reach for the object resonating the offending noise. It was Thursday morning and everyone would be arriving that evening.
Bring! Bring!
I sighed again hearing the phone from the bedside table. Okay, I'm up…I thought, rolling in the opposite direction of the way the covers were going to get myself loose. Finally reaching my arm out, I managed to grab the receiver, clicking it on and held it up to my ear.
"Hello?"
"Oh my, Tammy! I've been trying to get a hold of you." Her Brooklyn accent seemed to echo more into the phone than when you would talk to Melissa in person. I had to hold the phone away from my ear to understand what she was saying. Did I mention she was also yelling with excitement?
"The wedding of the year is only three days away." Yeah, I thought, Thanks for reminding me of that fact when I still have so much to do and no time to do it. "I'm so sorry, dear, I know you've been calling my office. I can assume it's about your dress. I'm so sorry; I've been so distracted with everything else. It's been a nightmare, I had to cancel two of my other weddings just to get everything done for yours." She laughed again. I rolled my eyes, was this a ploy to get more money because I felt bad? Yeah, I'm paying you enough already and she wasn't doing a great job as it was. "I mean first, the caterer will not agree to do the filet mignon anything but medium well and the flowers have been another story. I think I'm going to have to make your bouquets myself." She snickered a little and my head suddenly filled with worry as to what had been happening with my wedding that Melissa wasn't telling me. "Oh, but of course, everything will be lovely on Sunday, just you wait and see. I have it all under control, don't worry about a thing."
"So, everything is okay?" I asked, trying to reassure myself and calm the nagging feeling in the back of my head. I wasn't someone to usually get the feeling that I needed to do things myself but I was starting to feel like I couldn't trust anyone to do this wedding but myself.
"Absolutely lovely. Now about your dress, Lets' see..." She sounded like she was looking for something on the other end of the phone. I sat up from under the covers and felt the cool air hit my arms sending a shiver down my back. The wedding had been left open a crack.
"Oh, right, so the dress shop will be open tomorrow in the morning and it looks like I already have your wedding party filled in for their final fitting." I rolled my eyes again, Yeah, everyone else's final fitting, my first if she could even find a dress for me. I might be walking down the aisle in my underwear, wouldn't that just piss Eve off? I smiled a little at that thought.
"Okay, well, I'll let the girls know and I guess we'll see you then. Everything else is fine, the flowers will be here in time?" I asked.
"Yes, everything will be beautiful. I do have to get in touch with Fulton, though. Do you have a number I can reach him at?" She asked seeming like she was up to something. It could have just been me but I was really in no mood this morning.
"Why do you need Fulton? I thought everything was going through me?" I could tell the tone in my voice was a little accusing but hey, if I'm turning into bridezilla, I might as well take it to its full extent.
"Oh, 'cause the idiot over at the tailor just can't seem to get Fulton's measurement rights and I need him to stop in and try on his suit for Sunday."
"Okay, well, I have to cut this short because mine and Fulton's families are going to be arriving this evening and I have a ton to do before that. I'll make sure we stop in for that!"
"Okay, honey. I'll talk to you again soon! Say hello to Eve for me, what a wonderful woman." I hung up the phone at that and glanced at the clock. 9:30 am, 4 hours until the first set of guests was due to arrive at the airport. Connie and Guy had first trip, Madison and Portman had the second wave of people and I was left with my dear Aunt Rosie and who else but Eve and Phil to pick up. I wanted to crawl back under the covers and wait for the day to be over. It was sad I felt this way when must brides were excited about their wedding, I was worried my future mother-in-law was going to kill me, if I would even have a dress and if my wedding planner wasn't conspiring against me. Welcome to a day in my life. There was a small knock on the door and I grabbed my robe, opening the door to let the person in. Scott, looked around the door, his eyes tightly closed,
"Are you decent?" He asked, feeling the air in front of his face to move into the room. I laughed slightly, sitting in front of my mirror and staring at my tired face.
"Yes, I'm decent. You can open your eyes." He finally opened them looking around the large room.
"Oh, this is nice, I've never been in here before." He pondered looking around the room as my eyes fell on the package he was holding.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, he held up the package wrapped in white and silver ribbons with a smile.
"I have to admit, I wasn't trying to out do everyone else but sometimes I can't help myself. I just want to help in anyway I can." His eyes sparkled when he laughed. I stood from my place at the mirror and took the package, sitting on the end of my bed with it. Scott sat next to me, his hands resting in his lap and he crossed his legs at the knee.
"Should I wait for Fulton to open it?" Scott laughed a little, leaning on his hand,
"Well, it's sort of for you so I would open it now…" I patted his shoulder and began to remove the packaging, trying not to rip it.
"Oh, would you just rip that off!" He joked, helping to tear the packaging off. I laughed, revealing a while box. I stared at it for a long moment.
"Well, are you going to open it?" He asked, more impatient than me. I smiled, opening the top lid and looked inside with a gasp.
"Scott…I can't believe you…" I gasped pulling out a bunch of white lace and unwinding it to reveal a perfectly sculpted crown with white pearls and silver edging. It was my veil, even if I didn't have a dress to go with it yet.
"Scott, it's beautiful." I whispered, hugging him tightly. "It must have cost a lot." I said pulling back. He waved his hand at me,
"Don't worry about it. I haven't had anything to spend all that money we made on, so this is my gift." I smiled again, gripping his upper arm.
"Scott, I'm sorry things didn't work out for us. " He looked down nervously and took my hand to rub the back of it with is thumb.
"Tammy, this is where you're supposed to be. It was all supposed to work out this way and you know what, I couldn't be happier for you. Even if I end up alone for the rest of my life, I've always got you as my best friend. Not many people can say they have someone they can show their true self to. " I smiled, placing my hand on his cheek.
"I wish you could find that person you're meant to be with." He smiled back at me and placed his hand over mine.
"Believe me, honey, no one wants that more than me. He's out there somewhere, I just haven't met him yet." He stared off into space for a moment before smiling back at me, "Now we just need to find you a dress." I smiled placing the soft material back in its box and closing it.
"Well, that will have to wait. I need to go pick up Aunt Rosie and someone who shall remain nameless."
"Oh, Rosie's coming in. I must see my favorite Aunt!" He said grabbing his keys from his pocket.
"Easy, Elton John. You stay here and start dinner for the big party tonight and I promise I'll bring Aunt Rosie to see you." Scott nodded, taking off his jacket as we headed down the stairs and rolling up his sleeves.
"No worries, I got this." He assured me.
"I just need to pick up a couple more things for tonight and I'll be back." He said opening the front door to leave. I followed him out and stood on the porch, watching him get in his car and start it up.
The snow was still falling when I reached down to retrieve the morning newspaper. I smiled to myself picking up the paper that we had just started the subscription on that was marked for 'T and F Reed'. Grabbing the mail, I stopped to admire the view from my front porch. It was surprisingly warm for the snow to be falling so heavy, but I still remained standing there. It was a beautiful sight to a girl that had gotten used to seeing the Pacific Ocean everyday for 7 years straight. I just hoped it didn't delay any of the flights coming in that afternoon. We would have a strict schedule; we'd have to, to arrange transportation to each separate hotel. I closed the door with a soft click and hoped that I hadn't woken the occupants of the room at the top of the stairs. I didn't move for a moment until the house was silent. It was kind of peaceful, the house being so quiet for the first time in weeks. Come to think of it, it was only the second time since the day we moved in. Now if only Fulton was home to enjoy it with me everything would be perfect. Moving across the hall, I flipped through the first stack of mail, mostly junk mail and a few bills. My bare feet made a soft click on the cold hardwood floor before I stopped moving to glance up at the sound of movement from the top of the stairs. My eyes moved to the ceiling, the slow groan from the loose floorboards sounding in my mind. Looking up the stairs my eyes focused just in time to see a breeze of flaming red hair move towards the bathroom at a high speed. She must be sick again, I thought to myself, letting my head fall back to the stack of mail in my hands. I could definitely wait to have kids, I couldn't imagine being sick every morning for nine months. Turning the corner into the kitchen, I stumbled back, hitting what seemed like a brick wall and falling back onto what was slowly becoming my round backside. That's it, I was definitely sitting on the couch too much, watching too much daytime television and definitely eating way too much Ben and Jerry's to fit into any wedding dress, even one that wasn't picked out yet. The shadow that loomed over me stopped in front of where I was sitting on the floor and I looked up. Dean stared down at me, dress shirt on and his tie done tightly against his well-defined neck.
"Well, do I look alright?" He asked looking like a fish out of water. I smile to myself as he reached out a hand to help me up.
"Gee, you're out of bed and dressed before me. What's the occasion?" I asked, setting the stack of mail on the counter before a single envelope slipped to the floor. I bent at my knees to pick it up and returned my stare to Dean, shifting nervously.
"I just thought that since… I know, you guys have been putting up with me and Mad for the past few months and now with the baby…I just thought I should dress up for the event. You know, show you guys how much you really mean to me." I was surprised at his words and momentarily forgot the letter. Sitting it on the counter with the other ones, I moved towards Dean to give him a small hug.
"You know, Tammy. You're like the sister I never had." I couldn't tell if he was joking or being sincere but either way, I'd take what I could get. I smiled graciously and looked back at the counter.
"Anyways, I should go get Madison up, it's almost 10 and the first flight comes in at 1:30." Dean sounded anxious as he exited the room. I stared at the letter now sitting by itself on the counter of the island. It was addressed to me and looked to be in a child's handwriting. I smiled to myself and picked up the letter. Lately it seemed like my smaller fans were all in awe of a wedding and were writing to tell me of how they dreamed of their weddings. It was funny because they hadn't done it when Scott and I were going to marry but now it seemed like my fans were actually excited about my upcoming nuptials. Opening the letter, I smiled at the small child's drawing. I held it to my chest with a smile, just three more days.
Before I knew it, it was 4:30 and I was standing at the final gate in the Minneapolis airport waiting for my Aunt Rosie. I stood on my tiptoes to try to spot my aunt in the crowd when my cell phone began to ring in my hand. I looked at the caller ID and wondered why Guy was calling me. Things had just gone from bad to worse.
"What do you mean they lost the reservations? Where the hell am I suppose to house 50 people for the next 4 days?" I yelled as people began to look at me as they passed. My hands were flying in the air as a crazy woman's would.
"I don't care what you have to do Guy, you figure it out. Just find a way." I yelled at him. I felt a hand rest itself on my covered shoulder from behind and I brought the phone down from my ear, turning to see the smiling face of my Aunt Rosie. I wasn't going to cry, I was trying to be strong. The frantic yelling of one of my best friend's voices from the small LG flip phone was a distant memory, my Aunt enveloping me in her arms for a tight hug. It felt good to finally relax and I hugged her back with an overwhelming force.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you aunt Rosie!" I said pulling back to hear Guy now practically screaming into the phone for me to answer him.
"Is everything alright?" She asked looking down at the open phone. I shrugged, bringing the phone back to my ear.
"Guy, I'll have to call you back." I mouthed, closing the phone. He tried to protest but I had clicked it shut before he could get a full sentence out.
"What's going on, Sweetie?" My Aunt asked, her eyes boring into me with a look of fear that could rival one of my own. I had always wondered where I got some of my personality traits from; I guess I had just got my answer. We quickly moved through crowd, my cell phone going off again and I hit the ignore button, I really didn't feel like handling that situation just yet. I suppose it was bit childish of me, considering it was my wedding and all and to leave my friends with 50 angry wedding guests and no hotel rooms, but I was mentally exhausted. I let out a resounding sigh, sitting down at the coffee shop, my aunt followed closely behind.
"So, how was your flight? It's still snowing and Eve and Phil's plane was delayed a few minutes. So we have a few minutes to catch up." I smiled, ordering us each a cup of hot chocolate. I believe I told you before about my aversion to coffee. I didn't see the sense in it or the reason to drink it. It had always tasted bad to me and though the smell could be appealing when Fulton was making it at 6:30 in the morning, I really had no desire to ever try to like it.
"My flight was fine, we had a little shake coming in for the landing because the runway is getting iced over but besides that, it was fine. So, what's going on, anything I can help with?" I looked down, silently shaking my head. I wish there was something someone could do but no.
"No, I'm just so sick of everything going wrong. This is the one thing that I've wanted all my life and something seems to get in the way at every turn. My Mother's not even speaking to me." My aunt let out a small gasp and sat back in her seat.
"She still has not gotten over whatever stick that got lodged up her ass when she married your Father." I was a bit taken back to hear my Aunt talk of my Mother in such a way. "Suddenly she was so much better than everyone else. So much better than her own family at times." I looked up at her meeting her stare and gave her a confused look as to what she was talking about.
"I don't understand." I said trying to figure out where she was going with her statement.
"Oh, your Mom's told you about her childhood, hasn't she?" I thought back to my own childhood and tried to reason that she must have told Tommy and me something about her own childhood in our lifetimes but I couldn't remember anything. My memories of my Mother were limited to 5 am practices since the time I could walk and once a year, on our birthdays being able to eat cake and candy and do something fun. I wasn't saying she was bad Mother, just I couldn't remember anything but that. Pretty sad, I could remember my dad sneaking Tommy and I out for ice cream on the hot summer days and taking us to the carnival when they were in town and all these great memories to make up for the lack of memories given to me by my Mother.
"Your Mother grew up on a farm back home in Iowa. Six kids to be exact and if she told you that our family was really well off, she'd be lying. We barely had enough to scrape by each month; it was a special occasion when we actually got something for ourselves. Your Mother, god, she could skate but our parents didn't have enough money to enter her in any competitions or get her the proper coaching you need to get anywhere in that sport. You know how it is." She motioned as I nodded away, figure skating was a tough sport.
"Anyways, I know that was your Mom's one regret, that she never could complete her dream. When she met your Father, his family was pretty successful and he was going to college out there to be a doctor. She knew she had found someone to support her the rest of her life and she was head over heels in love with him too. They got married right away and you were born just as your Father was getting out of medical school. God, I remember those days like they ere yesterday." I looked down as our order was brought over. "Your mother swore she would send you to the Olympics one day and she did. The day you won gold was the happiest day of her life because you fulfilled her lifetime dream as well but she never liked Fulton. She saw him as a threat to everything she had worked to climb out of and something that could potentially ruin her plan for your life." I nodded, moving in my seat nervously, I had never known any of this about my very own Mother. She should understand Fulton better than anyone else but she hated him more than anyone else. I would never understand her but I suppose that was common for children and their parents. I sighed, looking back at the flight times, Eve and Phil would be here any minute.
"I can't change her or make her see that this is something that I want. She just won't listen, so I guess I'm doing this without her." Aunt Rosie nodded and took the last sip of her hot chocolate.
"Well, Eve and Phil's plane should be landing. We'd best be getting towards that gate."
"Yeah, I guess so." I said getting up from the table to leave. I paid at the counter and we headed off to find Eve among the dozens of people lining the small terminal.
Okay, this was it. I was officially in hell. Could there possibly be anything worse than being in a car, when it was snowing, and having to listen to Eve complain about what a horrible driver I was and have my Aunt respond back to start a huge fight.
"I said you don't have to be so harsh on her!" My Aunt yelled back.
"Well, if she could get us home without going off the road!" Eve yelled back, I was glad when I saw the front gates of our house come into view. I sighed deeply and pulled into the driveway, parking quickly. It looked that some people were already here for the dinner. I stumbled out of the car and quickly popped the trunk to get the bags. Phil came to stand beside me at the rear of the car.
"Let me get the bags." He offered, taking two in his hands.
"That's sweet of you Phil but I think I can manage. Say, Eve didn't bring anything to try to kill me, did she?" I asked in complete seriousness. Phil laughed at the comment and began to take the two bags in the house.
"Did he think I was joking?" I asked myself, shouldering another bag and removing the last suitcase to close the trunk.