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Talk of the Wedding

At the Juicy Bar, Lance sat and stared at the picture that Rikki had handed him. It was of her in her bridesmaid dress… It was indeed pink… Long, fancy looking, short sleeved with a ribbon for a sash above the waist. There were flowers in Rikki's hair too, half of them white the other half also pink.

Handing the photo back to Rikki, Lance said: "That is very pink. I thought Emma would have been the one to go for pink."

Smiling, Rikki handed Lance another photo and said: "I'm not just another tomboy, Lance."

Lance could only nod and stare at the photo. Emma, Cleo, a younger girl who looked like Cleo, her sister no doubt, and a few other girls were similarly dressed. Rikki was there too, as was a woman in a bridal gown, her stepmother obviously… Emma's face said, at least in Lance's opinion, that pink was not her favourite colour, probably not even her second favourite colour.

Thus, did Lance ask: "Pink isn't Emma's favourite colour, is it?"

Coming over to their table, Emma answered: "No, gold and orange. So, the usual, everyone?"

"Think I might try the pink lemonade this time, Emma." Said Lance.

Shaking his head, Lewis uttered: "Think you might want to try the regular lemonade. The pink lemonade here isn't the best."

"Hey, I like the pink lemonade here!" Rikki exclaimed.

Holding back a laugh, Lance asked: "So, does that mean pink is your favourite colour, Rikki?"

"No, mine is scarlet red." Rikki answered.

Lance thought for a moment. Pink was a shade of red, so it made some sense, at lease he thought it did.

"Red is my favourite colour too." Lance said, giving Rikki a small smile. "Not any specific shade, just red."

"Well, Lance has placed his order. What about you two?" Emma asked, looking at Rikki and Lewis.

Whatever choices they made Lance didn't hear. He simply thought about the photograph. The bride in white and all the bridesmaids in pink… He wasn't sure if it made sense. Weren't the bride and bridesmaids all supposed to match? He wasn't sure, he had only been to two weddings in his life and while he knew for certain there hadn't been bridesmaids at the one, he couldn't remember if there had been bridesmaids at the other, so how was he to know?

"And this is the family photo." Rikki said, handing Lance another. "There is me, my dad, Cathy, my sister, her husband, my nephew and Cathy's family."

Lance stared at the photo, specifically at Rikki's sister. The resemblance was remarkable, she looked like an older Rikki, with a difference in build of course.

Groaning, Lewis his looked to the sky and uttered: "I hate your nephew. I know he is just a kid, but he can be such a brat sometimes!"

"How old is your nephew?" asked Lance.

"Oh, Kim and Elliot's age." Rikki replied.

"Who?"

"Cleo's sister and Emma's brother." Lewis explained.

"Oh… Yes, right." Lance said with a nod. So those were the names of Cleo and Emma's mentioned siblings… Unless, he had learned their names and either not been paying attention or completely forgotten… Had he? Both sounded like something he would do.

"Do you have siblings, Lance?" asked Lewis.

"No, he's an only child." Rikki answered for Lance. "Though his grandma wishes he wasn't."

Lewis turned his head to Lance and asked: "She's asked you this before?" Lance merely nodded in response. Lewis then said: "The most I can say about your nephew, Rikki, is at least he was well-behaved for the wedding."

"He wasn't that bad and he is better than you give him credit for, Lewis."

Turning to a returning Emma with their drinks, Lance asked: "Do Lewis and Rikki's nephew not get along?"

Laughing a bit, Emma answered: "No and if they were characters in a sitcom, they'd be archenemies."

Taking his drink from Emma, Lewis commented: "You exaggerate."

From how things sounded to Lance, it seemed there was a bit of exaggeration coming from both Lewis and Emma. Taking his drink from Emma, Lance stared at the pink lemonade. Lewis had said that the pink lemonade at the Juicy Bar wasn't the best, but Rikki said she actually liked it, so who was he to believe? Was it a matter of opinion or an acquired taste? There was only one way to find out.

Taking a sip, Lance discovered that the pink lemonade wasn't half bad. It probably was just a matter of opinion.

"Have you ever been to any weddings, Lance?"

Looking at Rikki, who had asked the question, Lance replied: "Yeah, two. One was my great-aunt's wedding and the other was… some relation's wedding, I can't remember how we are related… Didn't we talk about this already?"

"No, I don't think we did." Lewis said, leaning back in his chair with his drink in hand. "Let's see here, we covered the sprinklers going off with the first take, me dancing with Cleo, the bouquet toss, where Emma caught it, and other stuff related to the wedding between Rikki's dad and stepmother, but not really any talk about other weddings."

"Which one was the most recent?" asked Rikki.

"The latter." Lance answered. "I think I was nine… Bored out of my mind… I can't even remember if there were any other kids there."

"And I guess with your great-aunt's wedding there would have been other kids, but they all would have been relatives." Commented Lewis. Lance nodded and Lewis asked: "Were you bored there?"

"No and that is because there was at least something to do like go swimming at the lake near my great-aunt's house." Lance thought back to that distant day. How long had it been? It had only been two years since his great-aunt died so maybe nine years ago? "I guess weddings are more fun for girls than for guys when they are at that age, though my great-aunt's wedding was not exactly dress up early. She and my step-great-uncle were just wearing the sort of stuff they'd wear to church or something like that."

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Rikki.

"What?"

"About weddings being more fun for girls 'at that age'."

"Well, until guys are interested in girls, they won't really be interested in going to weddings." Lance explained. "It is all fun for the girls with the dressing up and all that, but for boys it is just being dragged along by their parents to some being event they aren't old enough to enjoy. I've always been rather bookish, so, with the second wedding I went to, I had a book with me to read during the party, but after a while, one book got tiring."

Lewis could only nod in agreement, while Rikki said: "I can see your point."

Hearing a vibration, Lance watched as Rikki pulled her phone from her pocket. "Is something the matter?" he asked.

"Oh, not really. Just a notification that I have an interview in an hour."

"An interview?" Lewis asked. "That's great! Where?"

"I'll tell you if I get the job!" Rikki answered, putting her phone away.

"Oh, come on, Rikki. Cleo told us about her interview at the oceanic center, why don't you tell us?"

"Hold on, I wasn't here when that happened!" Lance exclaimed. Lewis gave Lance a look to which Lance replied with: "What? I wasn't!"

"I'll tell you both if I get the job, besides, Cleo and Emma already know." Rikki said before taking a sip of her drink.

"Because they were present when you applied for the job?" Lance asked.

Smiling, Rikki replied: "That's right."

Looking to Lewis, Lance asked: "Do you have an interview coming up, Lewis?"

"Uh, no, I've been distracted by a personal project." Lewis answered.

Tapping his finger on the table, Lance became unsure of what to say. Should he have said anything? Well, he knew something he could say, thus did he utter: "Good luck on your interview, Rikki."

Still smiling, Rikki said: "Thank you, Lance."

Tapping his finger on the table one more, Lance began to think of what he could say next. When a question popped into his head, he asked: "So, did you dance with anyone at the wedding?"