Chapter 14
Angela spent the rest of the train ride picturing their wedding. She needed something to focus on, especially when the intrusive thoughts were trying their best to plague her mind. She didn't exactly know what Tony's timeframe was for "marry me now', but she assumed it would be within a week or two. That didn't give them much time to plan or invite a lot of people. When the train pulled into Grand Central, Angela stopped at a magazine stand and picked up two brides magazines she planned to look over either on the train ride home or after dinner.
When she arrived at work, her first client was already in her office talking to Jack and her team. She quickly handed her mother her coat and purse as she walked into her office. Mona couldn't help but see the magazines as she pulled them out to keep her entertained. By lunchtime, Angela had finished her meeting and was sitting at her desk when Mona took the opportunity to barge in.
"So I see you are starting to plan for your wedding" said Mona as she tossed the wedding magazines on Angela's desk. "I take it today's appointment either went very well or… not" she said, not being able to finish her sentence without the threat of tears.
"It was fine Mother. Tony and I decided that we want to push up the wedding before the surgery so I figured maybe I would get a head start on the planning" she said as she tried her best not to look up at her mother, she too having a fear of losing it if she made eye contact.
"Your lying skills are about as good right now as your culinary ones… word of advice- before you do tie the knot, you might want to work on that…" said Mona.
"I'm not lying Mother. The appointment went fine. They want to do the surgery within a month. I need more pre-surgical testing with different doctors. I pretty much will be living at doctor's offices for the next month, plus all the prodding and needles for the egg retrieval. Planning the wedding will be a nice distraction" she said as she pretended to organize the papers on her desk.
"You might be able to pass one over on the kids, maybe even Tony from time to time, but not me Angela. What did the doctor say?" she prodded.
"Fine! He said the chances of it being cancer are around sixty percent and that the mass is bigger than they originally thought. It could still be nothing or… it could be pretty serious" she managed to say as she quickly wiped away the tears that had started to fall.
"I see… and you are getting married before hand in case it's bad news? Was this your idea or Tony's?" she asked as she sat down on the edge of her desk.
"Tony's idea but I said yes just as I was getting onto the train. If… if this is bad news, I want our wedding day to be a happy one. I feel fine right now and if this… this requires chemo and radiation, I most certainly won't be feeling fine. I think we deserve a happy day" she said as she finally made eye contact with her mother.
"I see… so how can I help?" she asked as she picked back up a bridal magazine.
"What? No further arguing? Telling me I'm making a mistake rushing into this?" she practically screamed at her.
"No, strangely enough. I think you should do this now. You should have done this at least three years ago after that performance at Paul and Isabelle's wedding. You've loved each other for five, almost six years. I'd love for you to be Tony's problem now!" she said with a chuckle, causing Angela to laugh. They spent their lunch break looking at different styles of wedding gowns, hairstyles that would look best on them both and floral arrangements.
Tony could barely focus during his classes. He kept replaying Angela's words in his head. He had prepared himself to be let down and spending the next few hours, days or even weeks trying to convince her to marry him now. By the time his last class ended, he had planned out almost their entire wedding. He stopped off at the florist and picked up a small bouquet of pink flowers as she waited outside his jeep for Angela's train. His heart skipped a beat as he watched Angela step off the train, Mona in tow.
"Hi sweetheart! How was your day?" he asked as he handed the bouquet.
"They're beautiful Tony! It was good! We had some good meetings today and Mother and I got a head start on wedding planning. I hope you don't mind that I told her about pushing ahead the wedding" she said as she took a moment to smell the flowers.
"I kinda figured you would! Does she know about the appointment?" he whispered to her as he helped her into the car.
"Yes she does" she said as Tony shut the door and went around to open it for Mona before getting into the car.
"So Mona, you on board with us getting married… Friday?" he asked as he watched both their mouths drop open in shock.
"Friday? As in this Friday? Like today is Tuesday, tomorrow Wednesday followed by Thursday and then our wedding day?" she asked, completely stunned by Tony's words.
"Well, she paid attention in Kindergarten apparently…" snarked Mona.
"Yes this Friday! I think I planned it all out! I'll put a call into Father Marconi first thing tomorrow morning and see if he can do the ceremony. We can invite Mrs. Rossini, maybe Wendy, Herb, Isabelle and Paul. I'll see if Joey, Philly and maybe Al are free. That just leaves us. We can have Mrs. Rossini whip up some food for us and I can bake the cake. I'll put the kids in charge of the music. Between the two of you, I'm sure you can get dresses for the three of you! I can swing by and get suits for me and Jonathan. We really only need rings and a marriage certificate. C'mon Angela… whaddya say?" he asked as he grabbed a hold of her hands.
"I… I think I'll say what I've said these past few weeks but have felt for the past few years. I love you Tony and I want to spend the rest of our lives together. Let's do this!" she said as she leaned over for a kiss, ignoring the cheering coming from Mona in the back seat.
"There's one thing though…" she said as she pulled back from Tony's lips. "I… I don't want the kids knowing about the details from today. I'll let them know that they still don't know much but want to go ahead with booking the surgery. They… they don't need to know more than that right now. Same goes for the wedding guests. I want our wedding to be the happiest day of our lives. No sadness, no black cloud hanging over us… anymore than there already is…" she said.
"Angela, I don't think that is a good idea! The kids are going to want to know…" he said.
"And I will tell them… after the wedding and before the surgery. Please Tony and Mother…" she said as she looked over at each of them, her eyes pleading with them to listen and obey her words.
"Alright Angela…" said Mona as she looked at Tony.
"Mona! This isn't right! They need to know!" he shouted as he grabbed the steering wheel so hard his hands were turning white.
"Please Tony… I can't expect them to put on a happy face when this will be hanging over their heads. I want the day to be full of joy and love. I want to look back on those photos years from now and remember only happiness" she said as she wiped away the tears that had started to fall from his eyes.
"Okay Angela… we will wait…" he said as he gave her one final kiss before starting the car and driving home.
Tony was able to whip up a quick dinner while Angela and Mona got changed. Both Jonathan and Samantha were finishing up homework by the time dinner was ready. They all filed into the kitchen as Tony began serving the food.
"So how did your appointment go today Mom?" asked Jonathan as he took a bite of his tacos.
"It went well sweetheart. They were able to review all of my tests so far and want to go ahead with the surgery. I need to go for something that's called pre-surgical testing before I can have the surgery so I'll be going to more doctors to get clearance along with the appointments for the egg retrieval. They still don't know much yet and won't know until they actually operate but they were very optimistic that I'm going to be just fine, right Tony?" she asked him, taking him by surprise. He shoved almost an entire taco in his mouth before he mumbled something that sounded like yes.
"Dad, don't talk with your mouth full! Well that's really good news then Angela! I'm so relieved!" said Samantha as she leaned over to Angela to give her a hug.
"Yeah, that's great news Mom!" he said as he too gave Angela a hug before digging back into his food. Mona and Tony made eye contact momentarily before looking over at Angela.
"So there's something else we wanted to discuss with you. Tony and I decided that instead of waiting until after the surgery to get married, we are going to make it happen sooner! In fact, we are going to try and plan it for Friday…" she said as she watched both kids' expressions go from joy to confusion.
"You're getting married Friday? This Friday? Three days from now?" asked a perplexed Jonathan.
"That apple didn't fall far from the tree…" snickered Mona.
"That's right! We are going to put together a small wedding this Friday! Tomorrow, you ladies will go dress shopping while us guys go get suits. I have time in the morning so I will start making phone calls and getting everything we need arranged. I just remembered we will need a photographer!" he said as he grabbed his pad of paper and pen from the counter and jotted down the reminder.
"Oh can I pick out the music? I've got some great ideas for your first dance!" squealed Samantha.
"Of course sweetheart! We will have the final say over everything though…" said Angela as she looked over at Tony. He reached out across the table for her hand as the family began planning all the details of their wedding, their excitement growing as their wedding day went from a dream to a reality.
After almost two hours of planning, the family finally headed their separate ways for the night. Tony and Angela spent the next half an hour cleaning up the kitchen before heading up to their bedroom. They were able to get themselves ready for bed, enjoying the tea Tony had made for them as they cuddle into one another under the warm blankets.
"What a day this has been… I still can't believe you agreed to marry me now…" he said as his hand began to play with the soft waves of her hair.
"Neither can I! I'm trying to listen to my heart rather than my head and it's telling me I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I guess we both want that…" she said as she curled further into his chest.
"I do Angela, I do. You know, we haven't planned the honeymoon yet…" he said as the smile grew large on his face.
"That's true… any ideas? I doubt we could really go anywhere with everything going on. Maybe that's something we can wait until later to do" she said.
"I think we can figure out something for this weekend but a longer trip will have to wait. We can start thinking about it though! I'm thinking somewhere tropical maybe? Or we could really go big and plan a trip to Europe! As long as you are in my arms, it doesn't matter where we go…" he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Maybe we can find a hotel in the city. I don't know if I'll need to go for any monitoring appointments for the egg retrieval but if I do, at least we would already be there" she said.
"I think that can be arranged! I can't wait until Friday!" he said with almost child-like excitement.
"Me too…" she said as she put her tea on the nightstand. "I think it's time for bed Tony…" she said, although the look in her eye said they were about to do anything but sleep.
The next morning, Angela took the early train into work to try and get as much done before cutting out early to go shopping. She gave Mona the day off to help Tony get as much of the arrangements planned as possible before meeting her and Samantha in the city to go dress shopping.
Tony and Mona had a marathon morning of running errands for the wedding. They headed to a local photographer and were able to plead for a last minute photographer for Friday. They headed to the florist and ordered all the bouquets, corsages and other floral arrangements. Tony had called Mrs. Rossini the night before to invite her; before he could even ask her about making the food, she jumped at the chance and gave him the menu. He needed to stop and pick up some additional items for her as well as all the ingredients for their wedding cake. By the time they picked up the kids early from school and dropped Mona and Samantha at the train station, Tony was exhausted.
"So what are you thinking for your dress?" asked Mona as they got comfortable in their seats on the train.
"Something that will go with Angela's dress I guess! Mona, can I ask you something?" she asked as she started to pick at part of the ripped seat.
"Sure kid…" said Mona as she watched her almost granddaughter try and come up with the words she wanted to say.
"Why are they getting married so soon? It took practically all of us to convince Angela to even say yes to Dad and now they are getting married in two days? Did… did something happen at her doctor's appointment? Did she get bad news and they want to get married before… before she gets sick?" asked Samantha as she started to bite her bottom lip to keep from crying, a habit Mona noticed she picked up from Angela.
"Oh dear… look I'll be honest with you but it has to stay between us okay?" she said as Samantha just nodded her head. "They don't know much more but they did say the mass is bigger than they had initially thought and that… that the chance of it being cancer is about sixty percent. That's all they said, I promise you. Angela and Tony wanted this to be a happy day for all of us so they didn't want to tell you guys until afterwards. They won't know one way or another until they operate" said Mona
"Why didn't they say something? I'm not a little kid anymore!" cried Samantha as she couldn't stop the tears any longer.
"They are just trying to protect you and Jonathan. I'll make sure they have a conversation with you both after the wedding. Angela is trying her best to protect you both… well all of us actually and this is just one of the ways she's handling it right now. Honestly, if your dad wasn't there at the appointment with her, I doubt she would have told him either" she said as she wrapped her arm around Samantha's shoulder.
"I just don't want anything to happen to her. She's the only mom I have…" she said as she leaned up against Mona's side.
"Neither do I…" she said as they spent the rest of the train ride lost in their own thoughts.
"Alright Johnny boy! What do you think?" asked Tony as he spun around in his fresh new suit.
"I think what I thought about the last six you tried on Tony! It looks good on you…" said Jonathan as he rolled his eyes at his soon to be stepfather.
"But this one has these cool inside pockets! The last two were navy blue by the way and this one is true black not charcoal like the second one" he said as he admired himself in the mirror.
"Whatever Tony just pick one before I need one for my college graduation!" complained Jonathan as he huffed again.
"Alright already! Yes this is the one! Do you have one in his size?" asked Tony to the salesman.
"I'm sure I do! Let me go check in the back. If you need ties and shoes, everything is over there against the wall" he said as he headed back to get Jonathan's suit.
"Okay what do you think about the color tie? Your mom's favorite color is pink…" he said as he looked at the wide variety of shades of pink ties.
"I'll wear the monkey suit and shoes and stand up next to you without puking but I will not wear a pink tie!" shouted Jonathan as he crossed his arms.
"Okay, okay! How about this one? It's mostly navy blue but it has a slight bit of pink in it" said Tony as he held up the tie.
"Alright I guess so… but if anyone asks it's off white not pink!" said Jonathan just as the salesman came back with Jonathan's suit. They were able to get the suits altered, find shoes and everything else they needed for the wedding before heading to run their final errands.
"Hello! I need some help finding some dresses. We need a bridal gown, a mother of the bride gown and a maid of honor gown for my daughter. They need to be off the rack because the wedding is in two days" said Angela to the saleswoman.
"Of course! Where would you like to start?" she asked.
"Start with yours Angela! We can coordinate when you know your style and color" said Samantha. They were led to a section of gowns in Angela's size that they all began to search through. They each found a few gowns that Angela approved and headed to the fitting room to try on. Angela was getting frustrated as each gown either didn't fit right, was the wrong length and would have needed alterations or just wasn't her style. Finally, the last dress she tried on, one that she was shocked her mother picked out for her, seemed to work.
"What do you two think of this one?" she asked as she came out of the fitting room and modeled the gown.
"That's it! That's the one! It's beautiful on you!" said Samantha as she looked over at Angela.
"Yes dear, I think I have good taste!" laughed Mona as she too looked at her daughter.
"Alright this is the one! I hope Tony likes it…" she said as she continued to look at herself in the full length mirror.
"He's going to love it Angela! It's form fitting, shows off your legs- something if you haven't picked up on the past six years is one of Tony's favorite parts of your body…" said Mona.
"I agree with Mona but I'm not commenting any further without risking losing my lunch…" said Samantha as Angela laughed.
"Alright you two need to start looking for your dresses while I get changed and start looking at shoes and other accessories" she said as she headed back into the fitting room. An hour later, Angela was paying for all three dresses, their shoes and accessories. Samantha and Mona were able to find her something borrowed, blue, old and new but they kept it a secret.
When they all finally arrived home, they were all too tired and very grateful when Tony suggested getting in a pizza. The kids headed upstairs early to finish up their homework, while Mona headed out to her place for a date. Tony and Angela cuddled up on the sofa as he channel surfed for a good show. To their luck, Casablanca was on.
"Less than two days until I get to marry my Ingrid…" he said as he pulled her in closer.
"Your Ingrid can't wait…" she said as she leaned in for a quick kiss that managed to linger longer than either of them had planned. It would have escalated further if they hadn't been interrupted by the phone ringing.
"Hello, Bower soon to be Micelli residence! This is Tony… oh hi Michael… yes she is just give me one second…" said Tony as he reluctantly handed Angela the phone.
"Hello Michael… fine and you… you what… really… yes, yes I will make sure I tell him… bye" she said as she hung up the phone, the shocked expression on her face not giving Tony any ideas if it was good or bad news.
"So Angela… what did he say?" asked Tony as he wrapped his arm around her side.
"He… he said he isn't going to fight it. Jonathan is staying with us and with you and Mother if something were to happen to me before he turns eighteen. He's dropping the whole legal battle!" she shouted as she started to cry, this time tears of joy not sadness.
"That's wonderful Angela!" he shouted as he pulled her into a hug. Hearing the commotion, Samantha and Jonathan came running down the stairs. Both were worried when they saw both their parents in tears.
"Whats going on?" asked Jonathan.
"That was your dad Jonathan. He's dropping all the legal stuff! You aren't going anywhere you don't want to buddy!" cried Tony as he let go of Angela and came over to hug Jonathan.
"Really? He said that?" asked Jonathan, still not believing what he was hearing.
"Yes sweetheart! He realized he still wants you to be in his life and if he pursued this he was risking alienating you forever. Maybe sometime tomorrow you can call him to thank him…" said Angela as she came over and gave her son a hug.
"Looks like you're stuck with us dweeb!" said Samantha as she ruffled his hair. They both ran back upstairs, the joy in the air lingering.
"One less thing for us to worry about…" said Angela as she sat back down on the sofa.
"I wasn't worried Angela! I would have beat him senseless, put his remains in a box marked 'The Amazon' and called it a day before he was ever going to take our son…" he said as he sat down next to her.
"I wouldn't put it past you! Thankfully he came around. Now to enjoy our wedding…" she said as she kissed him, picking back up where they had left off.