Getting Lucky (A Lucky Novella)

by Gioertz, Karina

  I knew there was no point in dress shopping without Tara, so I put the dress temporarily on hold and we headed straight for the county offices to apply for our marriage license, both of us still wearing the same clothes we had worn the day before and neither of us caring. As surreal as I thought the whole thing would be, it felt natural more than anything as I filled out the forms that would essentially make it legal for me to bind my life to Noah’s for all eternity. I had filled out job applications with more apprehension than I felt as I wrote my information into the blank spaces of the form and I wondered if Noah was having the same experience.

  With our marriage license in hand, we hit the road again in search of the most tacky and most memorable chapel we could find. If we were doing this, we were doing it all the way. After passing several suitable places, including a drive in chapel that nearly came in as top choice, we saw a big sign with the words “Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel” written on it in bright pink lettering. It was perfect and delightfully tacky in every way, right down to the Elvis impersonator who would perform our ceremony. We booked our wedding for the following evening and headed back to our hotel and our room. Now that everything had been settled, the adrenaline was starting to wear thin and the lack of sleep was beginning to take its toll on the both of us. So, after a piping hot shower, we slid under our fancy hotel sheets and passed out.

  When I finally woke up again, it was to the sound of my phone blasting Tara’s ringtone. I hadn’t ever realized just how annoying of a song it was until that very moment and made a mental note to change it as soon as I got done talking to her.

  “Hello,” I mumbled, still half asleep.

  “We’re here! What room are you staying in?”

  I blinked several times and searched the room for any clues as to what the correct answer might be. Finally I remembered.

  “Room 704,” I said.

  “Perfect,” Tara replied sounding far too chipper for my liking.

  I hung up and slid my phone back onto the nightstand. Noah was still asleep, so I curled up against him and buried my face in the warmth of his chest. We had a few minutes left before Tara would be pounding on our door.

  Less than half an hour later, Noah and I were standing in the lobby of the casino with all of our friends while Tara was handing out itineraries. Apparently, she had planned out the next twenty four hours leading up to our wedding in great detail, including everything from dress shopping to bachelor and bachelorette parties. The only thing I noticed was absent from her list was sleep. Oh well, it was Vegas.

  First thing on the agenda was the rehearsal dinner. It was being held at Botero, a super fancy steakhouse with an edgy, artsy flair. To make sure we all arrived in style, Tara had also arranged for a limo to chauffeur us around for the night.

  “How on earth did you manage to set all of this up so fast?” I gasped as we walked into the restaurant and were led straight to our private table in the back.

  “Bridesmaid magic,” Tara said, winking as she rushed ahead to make sure the table was set up just the way she had wanted it.

  Jason leaned in and whispered, “We had a three hour layover in Texas.”

  “Get out of here! You, too? What, are those mandatory anytime you leave the state of Florida and head out west?”

  He laughed. “Must be, ‘cause there’s no way Tara would have booked it that way if she didn’t have to. She was so anxious to get here, she was even looking at renting a private plane at one point. I had to translate the cost into pairs of new shoes before she was willing to divert from that plan.”

  Gabe had just caught the tail end of the conversation when he chimed in, “You had to get new shoes for this shindig too? I got mine at the airport. There wasn’t time to hit the mall and all I had in my closet were sneakers, and that just didn’t seem right.”

  Jason and I looked at each other and then at Gabe.

  “Totally not what we were talking about, man.”

  “No, but I think we ought to now. How do you not own a single pair of loafers? You used to. I remember seeing you wear them.”

  Gabe sighed. “I did have a pair. Had three actually. Jeanette tossed them when I agreed to move to New York. Said they looked like old man shoes. Thanks for bringing that up, by the way.”

  “Huh…” I was searching for an out just when we arrived at our table. It was gorgeous. There were live flowers and candles running down the whole length of the table. At the very end were two chairs draped in a rich red satin covers and beaded accents along with little ‘bride and groom to be’ name cards on the table. I was so giddy, I could barely stand it as I went to take my seat beside Noah. In an almost eerie way, he seemed to be just as pleased with his groom to be card as I was with my bride one.

  Our amazing dinner lasted for over three hours. It involved plenty of eating and drinking – mostly in the name of toasting – and laughing until our sides hurt and our eyes were red from crying. It was the best kind of laughter, the uncontrollable kind that takes over from the inside out until everything else ceases to exist, including sound. Silent laughter…that’s the best.

  By the time we were done, the whole restaurant knew we had been there and why. Half of the patron’s had send over a mixture of shots and desserts to congratulate us and we in turn had invited each of them to join us, many of which had. To top things off, Gabe had even scored himself a date for the wedding when he asked out our server; a cute girl named Danica. I had liked her the second she had shown up to take our drink order. She had taken one look at Gabe and said, “What’s with the sneakers? You planning on making a run for it when you’re done eating?”

  Everyone at the table had erupted in laughter, but none more than Jason and I.

  After dinner, the next things on our list were the bachelor and bachelorette parties. For these, Tara had decided that the boys should head next door to the Resort’s nightclub, XS, while the girls took the limo to go see the Cirque du Soleil show LOVE at the Mirage. I wasn’t going to argue with that. I had seen one Cirque du Soleil show in my life and had been desperate to see more ever since. So, Tara, Lisa and I piled into the car and took off.

  Two hours later we were strolling through the grand canal shoppes of the Venetian. Tara had sent the limo back to the Wynn to pick up the boys while we wandered the stores in search of something fabulous to wear for my big day. We didn’t have much time since the stores would be closing soon, but naturally, Tara had done a little research and made prior arrangements with one of the smaller boutiques. When we walked in, the manager of the store greeted us just as the doors were being locked behind us.

  “What’s going on?” I hissed into Tara’s ear.

  She just smiled and said, “You’ll see.”

  We followed the manager to the dressing rooms where she directed each of us to a cubicle. When I went inside, I found three spectacular dresses waiting for me. The first was a strapless cocktail dress with a sweetheart neckline. It was a beautiful blush color with a corset top and full skirt layered in lace. The second was a one sleeve dress in a sleek champagne color with a fitted bodice and a skirt that flowed gracefully to the floor. The third and final choice was a white feather cocktail dress. The top was a sexy, strapless satin, covered in silver sequins. It was accentuated with a white satin band at the waist and a beautiful broach, matching the sequins, at the center. It was stunning and all I could do was to hope that it looked even half as spectacular on me as it did on the hanger.

  “So, what do you think?” I heard Tara’s voice from outside the small room.

  “They’re amazing!” I gushed, holding the white dress up in front of the mirror.

  “Yeah, I know. I have a fantastic taste,” Tara said in her usual humble way.

  “Now get your little butt out here so we can see you in them,” Lisa chimed in from out in the store.

  “Okay, okay. Hang on, I still gotta put it on,” I muttered as I began to take off my pants.

  “Wait, which dress are you going with firs
t?” Tara asked.

  “The white one,” I replied. My voice was completely muffled by my shirt as I pulled it over my head.

  Tara didn’t reply, but a minute later she was handing me shoes and accessories over the top of the door. “Here, you’ll need these if we want to get the full effect.”

  The platform heels were peep toes in a sparkling white with a shiny metallic heel. Never in a million years would I have dared pull them off the shelf, but there they were on my feet as I looked down.

  Slowly, I opened the door and stepped outside. My eyes were immediately drawn to Lisa and Tara who were both wearing beautiful fuchsia colored dresses. Each dress was slightly different from the other, but the deep pink color matched perfectly. Meanwhile, as I was staring at the two of them, they were busy staring back at me.

  “Wow,” Lisa whispered.

  “That’s the one,” Tara said, tears welling up in her eyes.

  Having purposely dressed myself with my back to the mirror, I had yet to see myself in the dress I had already fallen in love with. After seeing their reactions, my anxiety had shifted to curiosity as I took several careful steps toward the nearest mirror.

  There I was. Not your traditional bride by any means, but then, nothing about Noah and I had ever been traditional. I slowly scanned the length of my reflection, starting at my daring shoes which made my legs look crazy long and tone, up to the feathered mini skirt of my dress which not only gave me a slight princess pouf, but would be a blast to dance in as the feathers took flight with every move. The fit of the top was seamless, but the most striking thing I saw when I looked in the mirror was my own smile.

  I turned to face my friends again.

  “I’m getting married tomorrow,” I said quietly. Tara and Lisa both huddled around me in a group hug. Having them here with me was already turning out to be the icing on the cake.

  I didn’t even bother trying on the other two dresses. Beautiful as they were, they were simply no match for the white one. When we went to pay, I noticed there was a third bridesmaid dress lying on the counter.

  “Who’s the extra dress for?” I asked.

  “Danica. Can’t have her being the only one who doesn’t match. It wouldn’t look right,” Tara said. Then she told the woman to go ahead and ring everything up together.

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” I interjected. “Do you have any idea how many new shoes that it?”

  Tara giggled. “Oh honey, as much as I would love to take credit, I can’t. Your hubby to be has been picking up the tab all night.”

  “What?”

  “Well, of course. He didn’t tell you?”

  “No.” He most certainly had not!

  “Yeah, he called me a little while after you did. Asked if I could help with the wedding because knowing you, you’d just downplay the entire event and that he wasn’t going for that. Said he had a lot of making up to do, and he was going to start by giving you a one of a kind wedding to remember. Oh, and then he used the word priceless, which I’ve taken pretty literally.”

  I watched in silences as Tara handed over Noah’s credit card. I was too speechless to do much else. Lisa came up beside me and squeezed my hand.

  “He’s still the same guy. He’s just more comfortable with it now.”

  She was right. The Noah I was seeing so much of suddenly had always been there and I had always known it. He just hadn’t ever stuck around for that long. In the past it seemed like every time I caught a glimpse of him, the other Noah, the asshole Noah, would rear his ugly head to try and convince me I had been wrong about what I’d seen. Sometimes I had believed the asshole and sometimes I hadn’t. Now I couldn’t help but be a little scared that the asshole would come back and try to take everything I wanted most, just as it was about to be mine forever.

  Maybe Lisa was right. Maybe he was truly ready to show the world the best parts of himself, the parts I had seen long before everyone else had.

  Chapter 10

  What happens In Vegas

  By the time we finally reunited with the boys, everyone was hungry again. Thankfully, Tara had prepared for this and scheduled a late night pancake break at one of the twenty-four hour restaurants back at our hotel. After we were all efficiently refueled, we embarked on a night of gambling. D. won big at Black Jack while Tara scored a sizeable jackpot playing slots, but no one won bigger than Gabe, who was beaming from ear to ear when Danica showed up to see him.

  The hours flew by and with no concept of time, we relied heavily on Tara to keep track of the schedule for us. It was after 5 am when she decided that not accounting for time to sleep had been an oversight on her part. She gave each of us a four hour window to use how we chose and ordered us to be back in the lobby for breakfast by 9:30 in the morning.

  Noah and I didn’t even need to discuss our options. We headed straight for bed and passed out the second our heads hit the pillows.

  Breakfast consisted of a massive buffet and none of us were surprised to see Danica standing in line with us. After that, the boys and girls split up again. Tara had arranged for the groom and groomsmen to take a ride out to the nearest golf club, a weird choice considering Noah didn’t play, but whatever. Meanwhile, the bridal party was to enjoy a day at the spa. While I was initially apprehensive about the idea of being poked and prodded and covered in mud by complete strangers, I got over it quickly. I still wasn’t fond of the mud, but everything else more than made up for the minor discomforts of having grainy wet sand in places you really shouldn’t ever have grainy anything. And even I had to admit, my skin felt ridiculously smooth when it was over.

  When we were done polishing up our bodies, we were ushered over to the adjoining salon where we received mani-pedi’s to match our dresses, before having our hair and make-up perfected for the evening. Best part of all, was knowing Tara wouldn’t be scolding me for doing a shoddy job myself as I began my trek down the aisle.

  It was 4 p.m. when we headed back to our rooms to get dressed. Noah had already vacated the premises when I walked in with the dress. I had stashed it in Tara’s room the night before. All the guys had received strict instructions from Tara to be absent when we returned from our spa and to meet us at the chapel for the ceremony. While we’d be using the Limo, Tara had named Jason the driver of my car, putting him in charge of the groomsmen and their punctuality. It was yet to be seen whether or not that would turn out to be a good move.

  I was just finishing up when I heard a rap on the door.

  “Yoo-hoo. Are you done? It’s time to take you to your wedding,” Tara chirped from behind the door.

  I opened the door and waited for her last minute critiquing. There wasn’t any.

  “You’re total perfection,” she sighed, then she remembered the large paper back in her hand and added, “Oh, I almost forgot. You’ll need these.” Tara reached into the bag with her free hand and retrieved a lovely bouquet of white roses. The simplicity of it brought the perfect balance to my otherwise blingy ensemble.

  “Wow. I’m like a real bride now,” I said looking down at the flowers in my hands.

  “Yup. With like a real groom, like totally waiting for you,” Tara said, mocking me.

  “I know! And he’s like totally hot, too,” I added. “We better hurry before some like totally skanky girl comes a long and tries to like totally snag him from me.”

  “Like, totally.”

  I counted a total of 27 more likes and 23 totallies by the time the conversation came to an end as we climbed into the limo where Lisa and Danica were already waiting for us. I almost told Tara, but then I decided against it. She didn’t need to know that my nerves were suddenly so shot that I had to recite our stupid conversation in my head repeatedly, searching for our bad vocabulary choices just to keep from jumping out of the moving vehicle.

  Then, the moment I saw Noah, all of my crazy fears subsided. Sure, the idea of commitment still scared the crap out of me, but was loving Noah for the rest of my life really a commitment? Ha
dn’t I already loved him for seven years without ever even choosing to do so? The next seven or fifty years would be no different.

  The ceremony itself went off without a hitch. When it came time to exchange rings, I had a momentary panic attack realizing that in all of Tara’s careful preparations we had missed a very vital step. Only we hadn’t. Before I could express any of my concerns, I watched as Gabe handed a small box to Noah. He opened it up carefully and then slid a diamond encrusted band with a princess cut center onto my finger.

  “You didn’t really think I spent the day golfing did you?” he whispered.

  All I could manage in response was to press my lips together to keep from crying and force the corners upward into what was probably the freakiest looking smile ever. I complimented this gesture with nodding repeatedly before realizing that I was sending the wrong message and switching the nod to a shake of the head.

  Somehow we both still managed to recite our vows perfectly, and neither of us broke into too much of a giggle every time our Elvis spoke in his extremely exaggerated ‘king’ tongue. It wasn’t until the very end, after he had pronounced us husband and wife and declared that we could kiss that he ‘thanked us very much’ and we completely lost it. Between the overflow of emotions racing through us, the lack of sleep and the extra shots of caffeine we had consumed throughout the day to get us to this point, Elvis’s grandeur was simply too much. We laughed hysterically until everyone else was caught up in the same insane whirlwind. Our endless giggling continued to send waves of involuntary movements through our bodies as we left the chapel. When we finally calmed down enough to catch our breath out in the parking lot, Noah was holding me up to his chest and caressing my face with a million feather light kisses, none of which left so much as a trace on my skin, but each of which etched permanent prints of themselves onto my heart.