by Ladew, Lisa
Jordan sat to the left of her, typing away on her phone.
Katerina stilled her own thoughts and craned her neck to see over Jordan’s shoulder. “Who are you talking to?”
“Blaise, I’m just making sure everything is ready up there.”
Katerina’s eyes fell on the words fuck you until you scream, and she pulled back quickly, a blush flying to her cheeks. She covered her mouth with her hands and giggled.
Jordan glanced over at her. “What? He said everything is fine. And now he’s telling me what we’re going to do tonight.” A grin tugged at her lips.
Katerina giggled harder. “Oh my God, remind me never to look at your phone again.”
“Don’t ever look at my phone again. You might see something that will tarnish your innocence.”
“Ok.” Katerina sank back into her seat, shaking her head. “It’s my wedding night, you know.”
“What? Other people can’t have sex on your wedding night?” Jordan leaned over, putting her phone in Katerina’s lap. “Quit complaining or I’ll show you the dick pic he sent me this morning.”
Katerina covered her eyes quickly, cupping her hands so as not to smudge her makeup. “Please don’t. I could go happily to my grave without ever seeing Blaise’s dick.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew how big it was,” Jordan said quickly, perfect confidence in her voice. “I bet he’s got a good two inches on West.”
Katerina sat up straight, outraged. “You don’t know that! West is big too, you know! Way above average!”
“Maybe you’re right. Here, take a look and tell me whose is bigger,” Jordan said, holding out her phone.
Katerina slapped her hands to her eyes, forgetting completely about her makeup, as she howled laughter. “No! Keep it away from me! I swear, Jordan, I don’t want to see it.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Jordan said, with true regret in her voice. “Got any in your phone of West? I could take a look …”
Katerina peeked out between two fingers, making sure Jordan’s phone was nowhere in sight. She dropped her hands. “I most certainly do not! West has never sent me a dick pic!”
Jordan lifted her chin sharply. “Text him. Tell him to send us one. I bet it would look nice in his wedding suit.”
Katerina shook her head slowly, her mouth falling open and her giggles finally trailing away. “You’re crazy. I’m not asking West for a picture of his dick. And if he sent me one, I wouldn’t show it to you.”
Jordan shrugged as if it didn’t matter, and she had won the contest by default. “You shouldn’t be so gullible.”
Katerina gaped wider, feeling silly now. “What - you - what?” she stuttered.
Jordan laughed and flipped her phone around so Katerina could see the screen. “He never sent me a dick pic. I was kidding.”
Katerina pinched the bridge of her nose. Jordan was too much sometimes.
Jordan looked at the window. “We’re almost there, have another drink, you need to loosen up. I was just trying to get you to laugh.”
Katerina giggled again, lightly. It had worked. She took the offered glass of champagne and drank half of it. She did need to loosen up. This was her wedding and she wanted to be happy, not nervous.
She caught Jordan’s eye. “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars you do have at least one dick pic on your phone.”
Jordan raised her eyebrows. “That’s money you’d lose.”
“Let me see.”
Jordan held out the phone but Katerina held up her hands. “Never mind.” She decided she didn’t need to know for sure either way.
The limousine slowed and began to turn off of the road into a parking lot. Jordan leaned forward quickly to look at the window. “Is this it?”
“This is the boutique where we get dressed. The hotel is another ten minutes up the road and the cove is a ten minute walk past that.”
“We have to walk?” Jordan said, eyeing her heels.
“No, they have an ATV that will take us to the beach.”
The limo pulled into the parking lot and a tall, slender woman with flyaway black hair and a mocha complexion came quickly down the steps to greet them.
“That’s Pamela, our wedding coordinator,” Katerina said.
Pamela pulled open the door before the driver could put the vehicle in park. “Girls,” she started, her energy preceding her. “Let’s go, let’s go, we have to get you beautiful.”
She motioned the women inside the boutique and admonished them to go put on their dresses. Katerina retreated to her own private dressing room, feeling surreal. This was it. It was finally here. She pulled off her clothes and began to dress, starting with the white lace corset and tiny panties chosen specifically for under the dress. She then put on her foot covering, and finally stepped into the dress, being careful not to bunch the satin.
Jordan knocked on the door. “Do you need some help with your zipper?”
Katerina opened her door gratefully. Jordan’s face lit up when she entered the room. She whistled. “You’re going to knock West on his ass.”
Katerina turned around, eyeing her reflection in the mirror. She looked nothing like herself. She looked more … more. More elegant, more beautiful, more sophisticated. She was suddenly reminded of how West used to see her - how she saw herself when she had looked at West’s thoughts and feelings using the hated sense and power she used to have. But this time she really looked that way.
Jordan zipped her up and smiled at her in the mirror, clasping her hands together. “I can’t believe how beautiful you are, Kat. You’re like a princess.”
Katerina turned around and took her friend’s hand. She felt the tears begin to flow again. “Thanks Jordan,” she whispered. “You look great too, I love your dress.”
“No crying,” Jordan choked out, her own eyes shining brightly. “Hold on.” Jordan disappeared, then reappeared with tissues, taking one for herself and giving one to Kat.
They left the dressing room and walked out into the small boutique, Katerina feeling strangely shy.
Pamela gasped when she saw them and held her arms wide, taking Katerina into a soft hug. “Beautiful. Let’s give you the finishing touches.”
She hurried over to the counter and opened a plastic container. “This is a haku lei, and I ordered it for you when I thought you were going to wear something understated. But it just won’t do now.”
Katerina peeked at the lei in the container. It was circular, and smaller than the lei West had ordered for her when they arrived. Instead of being made with only one or two flowers, it consisted of a brilliant splash of pointed, green fern leaves, accented with white and purple flowers. It took Katerina’s breath away.
Pamela took out the lei and laid it on the counter, then reached into a drawer for scissors. Katerina winced as Pamela cut the lei into pieces. “It’s supposed to go on your head, but it’s too heavy for a gown that amazing. We’ll fix that.” She cut a small portion and pulled a bobby pin from a small pile. “Turn your head.”
Katerina did, and Pamela fixed one green leaf with one white and one purple flower to Katerina’s hair in the back. “Now the other way.” Katerina turned again and another piece of the lei was pinned to the other side.
Katerina looked in the wide mirror on the wall, scarcely able to believe she was looking at herself. Pamela had been right. The flowers looked wonderful the way she had done them.
“Now you,” Pamela said to Jordan. “How about a piece over just one ear for you?”
Jordan nodded and Pamela finished the job. “Ok girls, we gotta go. The sun sets in forty minutes.”
Pamela handed Katerina her bouquet, a striking, trailing garland of more purple, white, plus some pink flowers, then she grabbed all the bags and they flew out the door, Katerina carefully picking her way over the parking lot so as not to hurt her practically bare feet or dirty her dress.
Pamela chattered the entire way to the hotel, mostly about the lighting at sunset
and how the photographer and videographer would position themselves. Katerina felt a strange, liquid anxiousness trying to push its way into her consciousness. She was hyper-aware of her heart pounding, the breath gasping in and out of her lungs, and a strange tingling in her hands. Joys and jitters clamored in her head.
Jordan handed her another glass of champagne, then rubbed one of her shoulders. “It’s almost time,” she whispered, pitching her voice low to be heard under the higher tone of Pamela.
They pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and Katerina saw the four-seater ATV waiting for them. She pushed out of the car and realized she would never make it through the wedding. “I have to pee,” she said to no one in particular, her voice jumping.
Pamela pointed her to the hotel. “The bathrooms will be on your left. We’ll wait for you. I’ll hold your bouquet.”
Katerina walked in the hotel lobby, enjoying the cool air-conditioning. A small girl who was standing behind her parents at the checkin desk, no more than four years old, locked eyes with her, watching her pick her way carefully through the foyer.
The little girl finally ran to her, ignoring her parent’s warnings. “Are you a princess?” the girl asked.
“No, but I feel like one,” Katerina said, meaning every word of it.
Katerina found the bathroom, down a rather long hallway, and quickly did her business, staring at herself in the mirror as she washed her hands, carefully keeping her dress away from the counter. So this was why women couldn’t wait to get married. To spend one day looking and feeling like this.
She dried her hands and pushed open the door, holding up her dress carefully. She turned quickly to head back down the hallway and ran right into a man who had been standing behind the door. He looked like a maintenance man, or maybe someone working on the electricity in the hotel. He had on dark sunglasses, a nondescript blue jumpsuit, and heavy gloves.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, and tried to get out of his way. She stepped to the right at the same time as he did. She tried left, and he stepped that way too. His gloved hands grasped her upper arms and she looked at him, eyes wide, not sure what was happening.
“Katerina!” Jordan yelled from the lobby. “Hurry, they are waiting on us!”
The man let go of Katerina so suddenly she almost fell, then rushed past her without a word. She stared after him, confused. What had that been about?
Jordan rushed down the hallway and grabbed her by the upper arm, pulling her back the way she had come. “We’ve got twenty minutes or we miss the sunset, shake a leg!”
Katerina forgot completely about the strange man and rushed along the hallway with Jordan. They exited the lobby, climbed into the ATV, and were off. Katerina watched the sunset over the horizon, trying not to stare at it. It was a brilliant, deep orange, and hung huge over the steel-gray water below it. In a few moments, a hidden cove opened up before them, its white sand perfectly framed by the vivid orb descending towards the horizon.
Agnes sat in a chair off to one side, but directly in front of her, five men stood strong and tall on the sand - a pastor she and West had met with a few times, Blaise, Brody, Sam, and West. Katerina’s face flushed and she forgot to breathe as she looked over the men.
West had planned on wearing a simple shirt that had matched the dress Jordan had vetoed. But he stood before her in an elegant white tuxedo, complete with white shoes and a champagne-colored vest and tie, plus a purple boutonnière that was a match to one of the flowers in her hair. He also wore an open, strikingly green, masculine, maile leaf lei that hung down to his waist and contrasted deliciously with his outfit. She’d never seen him look so handsome.
The last Katerina had heard, the other men had also planned on wearing simple Hawaiian print shirts, but Jordan had them all in black tuxedos with vests and ties that matched her gorgeous plum dress.
Katerina turned to Jordan. “How did you do all of this?”
Jordan smiled. “We knew it was important to you. So we made it happen.”
Katerina took her friend’s hand and squeezed it, as tears threatened to fall again. Perfection. That’s what Jordan had created for her. She turned away from Jordan’s warm expression and stepped out of the ATV, onto the still-hot sand. It heated her toes deliciously, contrasting nicely with the slight breeze coming off the water. In the distance, the sun dropped lower and lower, a magnificent ball of fire heading to certain watery destruction at the far edge of their view.
Her dress clung tight to her waist as the bottom flared and flapped around her ankles in the salty ocean wind. The scent of flowers reached her, and she beamed at each of her tiny wedding party in turn.
Agnes, looking lovely and cordial at the far edge of the beach. Their onlooker brought to them only by the same strange twist of fate that had flung her into the arms of West.
Sam, wiping his eyes as he nodded and radiated a divine, nervous energy over the rest of them.
Brody, his legs slightly apart, holding a wooden box in his hands and favoring her with his kindest smile yet.
Blaise, his hands clasped in front of him, next to Sam and Brody, his face displaying confidence and his eyes telling her everything was right and good.
The pastor, a man younger looking than she remembered, holding a thick book in front of him, waiting patiently for her.
Finally, West, her fiance. Her almost-husband. Her savior and her hero. Her protector and her lover. Her guardian angel and her best friend. Her eyes settled on him and she tried to take a picture in her mind that would last for an eternity. His eyes sparkled at her and his face shone with delight and joy. As their gazes met she felt the spark, the promise between them of everything she had ever wanted and prayed for. He was for her, and she for him.
She clasped her bouquet tight to her chest and began the walk to him. The last walk she would ever take as a single woman. Her eyes fixed on the spot on the beach next to him. When she next moved from that spot, she would do so as a married woman. A partner to her soul-mate.
Her mother’s presence wafted in on the breeze, enveloping her, reassuring her, spurring her on. Thanks Mom, I love you too.
She took the next step, and the next, over hot sand and smooth rocks, until she ended up next to her beloved. He smiled down at her and took her hand, then they both turned to the pastor, their smiles announcing their readiness.
Jordan followed behind, then stood next to Blaise as witness. The pastor turned to Katerina and addressed her, his voice mingling with the ocean waves behind him.
For Katerina, the wedding itself was both too short and an eternity. Words washed over her, prompting her to nod and smile, as the heat of her almost-husband’s body beside her drove her slightly mad. Finally, the pastor turned to West and asked him to say a few words.
West turned towards Katerina and grasped both her hands. He took a deep breath, then began to speak. Katerina felt her emotions trembling inside of her, threatening to spill over at once. The energy of the moment doubled and tripled as the man she thought of as her rock began to profess his forever-love to her.
“Katerina, I wanted to say something special to you today, but I know it’s all already been said before, by men much more eloquent than I. So I borrowed a few phrases from the Hawaiian poets that I hope will convey to you exactly what you mean to me.”
He took another deep breath, gazed solidly into her eyes, and recited from memory, ” ‘O Ku’u Aloha No ‘Oe. A O Ko Aloha Ka`u E Hi`ipoi Mau. Ka`u Ia E Lei A`e Nei La. Ua Ola Ae Nei Loko I Ko Aloha.”
Katerina’s heart quickened again as the melodious sounds flowed over her. When had he had time to learn all of that?
“It means, You are indeed my love. With you joy will ever be mine. May our love last forever. Life is once more alive within me for my love of you.”
West inclined his head towards her and whispered, “Thank you for loving me. I will always be yours.”
Katerina bit her lower lip as her eyes and her heart overflowed. This man was so open and true and g
ood to her, and her heart couldn’t take much more.
The pastor turned to her and indicated it was her turn.
Katerina wiped her face, then tried to begin. Everything she had planned seemed to have fled right out of her head, but she didn’t care. It had all been utter crap anyway. She would speak from the heart, right here and now. “West, I’m not good at this stuff either, and I’ve actually forgotten everything I had planned to say. So let me simply say, you are my life. You calm me, energize me, complete me, finish me, feed me, comfort me, love me, soothe me, cheer me, delight me, worship me, cherish me, and honor me. It’s way more than one woman deserves and I know this. I promise you my everlasting love, my undying faith, and my ceaseless devotion.” Katerina’s voice broke on the final word and her heart seemed to swell in her chest. Her throat thickened as she licked her lips and tried to go on. But West had heard enough. Without waiting for the official word, he took her in his arms and crushed his lips to hers, his tears mingling with her own.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the pastor said triumphantly. “You may continue to kiss the bride!”
Jordan let out a jubilant cry and somewhere, someone clapped excitedly, but Katerina could only pay attention to her husband. He bent her backwards and plied her with a passionate kiss that went on forever. She flung her arms around his back and felt someone pluck the bouquet from her hands so she could hold him properly.
Laughter and talking tinkled around them, but the kiss went on and on.
Chapter 9
Later, with the pictures taken, the forms signed, and everyone piled into the same limousine, the party began in earnest. Katerina noticed Agnes seemed a little quiet, a little strained, but she couldn’t spend too much time worrying about it. All eyes were on her, and everyone wanted to speak to her.
“A toast!” Sam cried out. He raised a glass that had been thrust into his hand by Jordan, who was still pouring out the rest of the champagne. “To the bride. Son, you’re a handsome man, but I don’t know if you’ll even show up in those pictures. Katerina, you’re the loveliest bride I’ve seen in all my sixty-four years.”