Welcome to Blissville

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  Gabe smiled broadly at me, and I wasn’t sure I understood what was so damn cute until he pushed his sweats down to reveal he was wearing the same underwear as me. “I guess we are starting to dress alike after all,” he said. “Here’s my something new and blue.”

  “What’s your old and borrowed?” I asked.

  Gabe reached inside the garment bag and pulled out a baseball card. “Chipper Jones rookie card from 1991; it was Dylan’s prized possession. I asked my mom if I could borrow it for the night.” Gabe swallowed hard and cleared his throat before he said, “I thought it would be awesome to have a piece of him with me at the altar.”

  I fought back the tears and said, “It’s perfect, Gabe.”

  “Let’s get this show on the road, Sunshine.”

  Gabe finished stripping down until we stood across from each other wearing nothing but our undies and sappy smiles. “This is the opposite of strip poker,” I told him. “Asking you to get dressed is the opposite of what I normally want to happen, but I’d rather not say our vows in our skivvies.”

  “I’ll go first,” Gabe said then proceeded to pull on the dark gray dress socks.

  I put on my socks then waited while Gabe pulled his tuxedo pants up his long legs. I fastened them for him and he did the same for me once I put on my pants. We tried buttoning one another’s shirts simultaneously, but we kept getting in each other’s way. I buttoned his shirt first—making sure I got a sweet kiss each time the button slid through the opening—then he did the same for me. I tied his necktie for him next then giggled when he turned me to face the mirror so he could tie mine.

  “I have to be looking in the mirror,” Gabe said in my ear when he stood behind me. I wasn’t complaining because I took the time to study our reflections while he reached around me and tied my tie. I loved the difference in our height, build, and coloring. He was dark where I was light, the yin to my yang, the night to my day, and the sky to my sun—opposites, but equal and you couldn’t have one without the other. He was mine, I was his, and we were us.

  Our jackets and shoes were the final touches to complete our look. Once they were on, Gabe turned us to face the mirror once more. He wrapped his arms around my chest and rested his head against mine. I glanced at the clock on the dresser and saw that we were expected downstairs in three minutes. That was plenty of time for me to say what needed to be said.

  “Thank you for loving me,” I said simply.

  “Thank you for letting me,” Gabe replied. It might’ve sounded odd to anyone else’s ears, but it rang true in mine because I fought him and his affection for months.

  I turned to face him, linked my hands with his, and said, “Let’s do it!”

  Gabe widened his eyes in surprise. “Now? Our parents are waiting for us downstairs, Sunshine. I don’t think they’re going to believe that we’re up here hiding Easter eggs or wrestling,” Gabe said.

  “I can be quick,” I said, playing along.

  “Where the hell is the fun in that?” Gabe asked. “I’m going to take my time unwrapping the greatest gift I’ve ever received.”

  “Hey, you two,” Al hollered through our bedroom door. “There are people waiting downstairs who want to see a wedding. You coming?”

  “I was close, Al, but not anymore.” I covered my mouth when I realized that I had just made a sex joke with my future father-in-law and was about to faint when I heard his hearty laughter thundering in the hallway.

  “Damn, I’m getting the best son-in-law in the world,” he said once he could speak again. “Oh man, that’s awesome. You better get down here before one of the mothers comes looking for you.” That was exactly the words we needed to hear to get us moving.

  Gabe and I followed Al to the sunroom where our moms and my dad waited. Our moms burst into tears and took turns fussing over both of us. Al and my dad pulled handkerchiefs out of their pockets and handed them to our moms. I had a vision of Gabe doing the same for me someday when our kids got married.

  “Good thing you scheduled ten minutes for our moms to cry and fuss,” Gabe whispered in my ear as they were starting to wind down. He pressed his forehead to mine and asked, “Are you ready to become Joshua James Roman-Wyatt?”

  “I am. Are you ready to become Gabriel Allen Roman-Wyatt?”

  “I am,” Gabe said tenderly then dropped a sweet kiss on my lips. “After you.”

  I pulled back from him so I could join my parents who waited for me at the door. I fixed the smudge of mascara under my mom’s left eye then joined hands with my parents. I looked over my shoulder at Gabe who stood watching me with smiling eyes filled with so much love and happiness that I was sure I had to be dreaming. No one had ever looked at me the way he did. “It’s not too late to run,” I said teasingly.

  “I’ll see you down there,” Gabe assured me.

  The music started the second we stepped around the corner of the house, and the altar came into view. I didn’t have the urge to look back to see if Gabe followed because I knew damn well he did. I faced forward to a gathering of people who loved us and a future I couldn’t wait to begin.

  I paused with my mom and dad at the corner of the house to allow Josh and his parents time to reach the altar. I wished that I could watch him walk between the aisles of seats where our closest friends and family gathered to share the day with us, but I stayed hidden so that I didn’t detract from his attention. Besides, I’d get to watch the video recording as many times as I wanted later. Perhaps, watching it would become an anniversary tradition for the two of us.

  Josh and I had talked at length about the music we wanted to represent us as we walked, first as individual men then later when we became one. The songs we liked weren’t unique, but we found a way to make them our own. The second verse of an acoustical version of Train’s “Marry Me” was the cue to begin my walk. I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly to calm my racing heart while searching for the center that Josh was always trying to find.

  “Keep breathing, and it will be all right,” my mom said, squeezing my hand.

  “You’re right,” I told her then plastered a huge grin on my face for my guy and our guests to see. “Let’s not keep him waiting any longer.” Then the three of us took a step forward at the same time.

  “Would you look at that,” Dad said once we rounded the corner of the house and could see across the expanse of the yard. We had practiced the walk the night before, but it looked completely different with smiling people filling the chairs, and the man at the altar wore a matching tuxedo to mine instead of shorts and a T-shirt.

  “I’m looking,” I told him. My ingrained protectiveness urged me to keep an eye out for a potential threat, but my soul whispered don’t look away from Josh. I placed my faith in the universe that brought Josh into my life and my trust in the extra men on hand for protection. I refused to let Jimmy rob me of another moment.

  I saw the same love and commitment shimmering in Josh’s gaze that I felt in my heart. Tears welled in my eyes when he held out both hands for mine. Standing in front of me was a man who turned toward me instead of away from me, who reached for me instead of pushing me away. My Sunshine.

  I never looked away from Josh’s eyes and listened with half an ear as Judge McDonnell began to speak about why we had gathered and the meaning of life and love. I knew why we were there and I was looking right at the meaning of life and love. I knew from rehearsal that I’d be reciting my commitment to Josh first. The level of excitement inside me kept building as I waited for the part where I got to promise to love and cherish him for the rest of my life.

  Judge McDonnell seemed to be more long-winded the day of the wedding than he was at the rehearsal. I was ready to jump out of my skin by the time he said, “Gabriel…”

  “I do,” I said eagerly. I winced with slight embarrassment when I realized what I’d done. The guests and judge chuckled over my exuberance, but the only reaction I cared about was from the man holding my hands. The joyous smile on his face said he didn’t car
e that I jumped the gun a bit.

  “I do too,” Josh said just as eagerly.

  “Fellas, this isn’t how we rehearsed it last night,” Judge McDonnell said good-naturedly. “Perhaps now that we’ve got that out of the way we can go back and do it right.”

  “Not from the very beginning though,” Josh told him. “Start at the ‘Gabriel’ part.”

  The judge chuckled some more, and I could see him shake his head out of the corner of my eye. He cleared his throat and began again. “Do you, Gabriel Allen Wyatt, take thee, Joshua James Roman, to be your wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ’til death do you part?” Emotion clogged my throat, and it took me longer to respond than the judge expected. “Now you can say your part, son,” he encouraged.

  Laughing at my idiocy dislodged the lump in my throat. “I do!”

  “Do you, Joshua James Roman, take thee, Gabriel Allen Wyatt, to be your wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ’til death do you part?”

  “I do,” Josh said proudly.

  “May we have the rings?” Judge McDonnell asked.

  I turned to Adrian and accepted the ring he held out for me. The man who’d become more like a brother than a friend winked and smiled happily. I placed the ring on the tip of Josh’s finger and said, “I give you this ring as a symbol of my commitment to love, honor, and respect you.” I felt tears sliding down my face as I pushed the ring the rest of the way home.

  Josh’s voice cracked with the raw emotion he felt while reciting those same words to me before he slid the ring on my finger. I raised my hand to brush away his tears just as he did the same for me. There were audible sighs coming from our guests when we smiled at one another.

  “By the power vested in me by the great state of Ohio, I now pronounce you husband and husband.” I had already planted my lips firmly against Josh’s before Judge McDonnell could finish saying “You may kiss your husband.” My eagerness earned whistles and catcalls.

  I pulled back and stared into Josh’s smiling eyes until a peppy ukulele version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the Wizard of Oz began to play. It was our cue to take our first walk as a married couple. In keeping with the desire to do things our way, we stopped at each row of seats and shook hands or hugged the guests as they exited the rows rather than walk down the aisle and wait for them to converge on us.

  Our guests walked over to the ornate marquee that was set up for our reception while Josh and I posed for photos with our families and the wedding party. I wanted to tell my husband three very important words, but I was interrupted by Josh’s photographer friend who kept saying, “stand here” or “look this way” or “smile.”

  I snagged Josh’s hand to hold him back when the smiling and posing was over. “I love you.”

  “Still?” he asked like he was surprised.

  “Forever,” I promised then pulled him to me for a long, lingering kiss.

  “I love you too, Gabe,” Josh said when we finally broke apart. “Now, we better get in there before those damn deputy marshals eat all the food.” At first, he caught me by surprise because I was so fixated on him that I forgot about the potential threat to both of us. Then I laughed because they did seem to enjoy the barbecue while they kept an eye on things at the rehearsal. Well, I thought his observation was humorous until he said, “I hope they didn’t find the apple tarts in the kitchen.”

  Most men would question why two deputies from the Marshals Services office would be rummaging through his kitchen, but not me. “What apple tarts?” I asked as I began tugging Josh toward the reception.

  “I got up after you fell asleep last night and baked tarts to take to the hotel. I knew you’d prefer it over the cake we ordered,” Josh told me.

  “How well did you hide it? My dad can sniff out apple, cinnamon, and pasty better than a bloodhound,” I said, increasing my pace.

  Josh tugged on my hand to slow me down and nodded his head in the direction of the marquee when I started to veer off toward the house to check on my tarts. “He already found them, but your mother threatened his life if he so much as stole a fleck of cinnamon sugar off the crusts.”

  “I’m going to trust you on this, Sunshine.” I placed another kiss on his forehead before we entered the marquee.

  “Let’s hear it for Mr. and Mr. Roman-Wyatt!” the DJ announced. Cheering and clapping erupted when we walked to our table.

  I was eager to get Josh alone in our hotel room that night, but I didn’t want our reception to pass by too quickly. Our wedding was a once in a lifetime occurrence, and I wanted to savor every minute, every smile, kiss, and especially when we shared our first dance to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” I’d relive that moment until the day I died. When the song finally ended, our guests clapped, expecting us to leave the mock dance floor or invite them to dance also, but we had a surprise. Instead, we struck a pose in the middle of the floor until “It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock started to play. Josh had created a fun, easy dance that even I could pull off to entertain our guests. I had been nervous about it, but we laughed, and they cheered, not caring if I missed a step.

  “It’s time for the grooms to dance with their mothers,” our DJ said once Josh and I finished busting a move. We had something more than a simple dance planned to honor our parents. As Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me” began to play, the screen behind the DJ showed a video we comprised of pictures of us as kids with our parents. There were photos of them holding us for the first time, holidays, birthdays, sporting events, and spelling bees. As we spun our sobbing mothers around on the floor, our guests saw our prom, graduation, and pictures of us at college. As the song worked to a close, the individual photos turned into group photos of all of us taken when we visited them in Miami. I doubted there was a dry eye beneath the marquee by the time the song ended.

  “Our greatest blessings,” my mom said to me. “I cannot wait until you experience it for yourselves.”

  Later, I shared a dance with Bonita and my three beautiful sisters and so did Josh. I spun Meredith around the floor and then sweet, feisty Mama Richmond, who assured my mother that she watched over me like she did Josh. I was able to find moments with both fathers, my friends and coworkers, and even Captain Reardon. I smiled when I saw Kyle and Chaz take a few spins on the dance floor and the way Emory and Silver tried not to watch each other. It was the most precious night of my life, and I knew when it was time to steal my husband away to consummate our union properly.

  We said our goodbyes to our guests and thanked them for being part of our special day then headed to Cincinnati in the back of a hired car. We decided to stay closer to the airport when we booked a flight that was scheduled to leave CVG at seven forty in the morning. I would’ve booked a room even if our flight didn’t leave until noon because I had no intention of being quiet or holding anything back and some things parents didn’t want to see or hear.

  “Here comes your favorite part,” Josh said once we were inside our hotel room.

  “Third favorite part,” I reminded Josh as I backed him up toward the bed.

  “I brought something special for our night,” Josh said.

  “Toys?” I asked in surprise.

  Josh snorted and said, “Hell no. With our luck, we’d be ‘randomly selected’ for a luggage search and the TSA would have a grand ole time waving our dildos around.”

  “We have dildos?” I asked.

  “I was just using that as an example. I do have lubricant in our luggage, but no sex toys. Oh,” Josh said with a crestfallen face, “the FAA doesn’t permit us to have liquids in our carry-on luggage,” he said. “No lubricated hand jobs for you on the flight unless you want me to use spit?”

  “We’ll worry about tomorrow’s orgasms tomorrow. I want hap
pily-ever-after sex,” I told Josh.

  “I brought just the thing too,” Josh said excitedly. He left me standing by the bed while he fiddled around in the suitcase. When he returned, he held a bottle of lube in one hand and my burgundy silk tie in the other. “We’re tied together now, baby, so let’s do it right.”

  I’d wanted to wrap that tie around his wrists every time I wore it, but I would always forget later in my haste to have him. Josh was right; there was no better night to slow it down and love him properly. I took the tie and lube from his hands and placed them on the bed then we proceeded to undress one another until we wore nothing but our matching bikini briefs. I’d made love to this man as his boyfriend and fiancé, but that night I was his husband. I felt the enormity of the moment in my soul and swore that I’d make it the best night he ever had because I’d never get another first time as his husband.

  Josh held his hands in front of him and said, “You’ll just have to tie my wrists together since there’s no way to anchor my hands to the bedframe. I would expect these pricey hotels would think more outside the box and at least have some discreet rings disguised as decorations or something.”

  “I’ll ask next time before I book a room,” I told him while I wrapped the silk around one wrist then the other. “Excuse me, sir,” I said pretending to talk to the concierge, “does your establishment offer beds where a man can tie down their husband for sex?”

  Josh chuckled briefly, but all traces of humor faded from his face when I pushed his briefs down his long legs. I removed mine also then helped him get comfortable on the bed. I saw nothing but trust and desire in his eyes when he rested his bound hands above his head on the pillow. I wondered if my faith in him those two times he bound my hands was as big of an aphrodisiac as it was for me. I had to close my eyes and breathe deeply to stifle the urge to take him instead of drawing out his pleasure.

  “I can’t wait to taste you,” I told him.

  “You just had my dick in your mouth yesterday,” he said, already impatient.