by Grace, M. J.
“Boo?” On seeing my expression, her own eyes fill with tears. “Oh Boo.” She whispers, and disregarding the fact that the assistant has just spent the last few moments meticulously arranging her dress, she steps down off the podium and walks straight into my arms.
Holding each other tightly, neither of us can speak, but the embrace and the love we feel for each other is all that’s needed. She knows how much I love her, and I know she feels the same way. All our lives we have supported each other. This special time will be no exception. Breaking apart as the assistant brings us tissues, we laugh as we wipe each other’s faces, trying to redeem the leftover make-up.
“Ruined?” I ask of my make-up, as I wipe her cheeks.
“Yep! Mine too?” she asks.
“Totally.”
Laughing we embrace in another quick hug, before Jen walks to take her place once more on the podium, in front of the mirror.
“So I take it you approve.” She inquires.
“One hundred percent.” I reply. “It’s totally perfect for you.
Razor isn’t going to know what hit him.”
We spend the next hour going over her fitting and arrangements, before it’s my turn to try on some dresses. After narrowing it down to two, I try them both on again, before we decide on a satin strapless dress in black, with elegant crystal work at the waist. I thought Jen would want a bright colour, but no, as I am to be the only bridesmaid, she declares she wants me to stand out. Viewing myself in the mirror, I can’t deny that’s exactly what I do. My auburn hair standing out loud and proud against the black satin. By the time the wedding comes around I will have a slight tan, and it will make the dress even more stunning. Matched with a pair of four inch heeled, black satin shoes the outfit is complete. I can’t believe that the person staring back at me from the mirror is me. I’ve lost a few pounds, but this dress highlights my hour glass figure to perfection.
By the time we leave the wedding store, we have been in there for hours. Both hungry, we make our way downtown and enter the sushi restaurant that Jen took me to on my first night in LA. So much has happened since that first night, I can hardly believe my life now. We don’t have a reservation, but on seeing Jen, we are quickly ushered from the foyer, and are seated and eating at a speed that I can hardly believe.
Over lunch, Jen fills me in on the wedding arrangements, and I fill her in on the whirlwind happenings of my book launch. I have never seen Jen so animated. So much for needing me to help with the arrangements. Between Jen and her organiser, everything is in hand. Which I suppose, as I hear the amount she is paying said organiser, it should be.
“So, how’s things with AJ?” she questions, just as I am about to take a sip of wine.
“Sneak attack eh?” I announce, my hand holding my glass an inch from my lips, before taking a sip and placing it on the table.
“Gotta be done.” She announces with a smile. “Besides, I need to know that my Boo is happy, and that I didn’t make a mistake when I believed AJ was the one for you.”
“You didn’t make a mistake.” I acknowledge. “Well, so far anyway.” I smile.
So over sushi, Jen becomes acquainted with my life, my feelings, and my love for AJ. As I speak, the smile on her face becomes wider and she acquires a contented expression on her face.
“I’m so happy for you Boo.” She whispers.
“Me too.” I laugh. “So now you’ve given me the third degree.
What’s next for today?”
“We are going to pick the makings of our bouquets.”
“The makings of our bouquets? Flowers?” I query.
“Nope, you’ll see.” Is her mysterious reply.
So after Sushi, we make our way to a store that I doubt I would ever locate again; seeing as it is all but hidden away down a side road, and to my surprise, I find myself sitting opposite Jen, perusing brooches. A mixture of outstandingly, amazing brooches, incorporating black and white stones. Some even look like diamonds, but I sincerely doubt they are or I hope not, seeing as they are huge in size.
Yes, my clever friend is having bouquets made out of different brooches. The only problem being, that as we like them all, we have severe difficulty in choosing them; however eventually, the decision is made as to which ones are to be incorporated into the bouquets. Jen said that she wanted something that was not only unusual, and stunning, but something that we could both keep forever, with these we can.
With the last chore of the day done, we hug and part company.
Climbing into the back of the car, I can’t help the beaming smile I have on my face, knowing Jen is going to look spectacular on the day.
“It’s been a good day Wade.” I shout over the stereo.
“It has indeed Jorgi.” He replies and I hear a hint of boredom in his voice. Poor Wade, he has had to put up with the two of us laughing and crying and being totally girlie all day. Even playing along when we made him swear that he would never divulge anything he had seen in the process.
It doesn’t take long before we are back at the house, and in desperate need of a shower I head straight upstairs to our bedroom.
Dropping my bag onto a chair as I walk in, I immediately strip off and head into the bathroom. Placing my iPod on the docking station I select my favourite playlist, turn up the volume and step into the shower.
Relishing the hot water beating down on me, I stand and let the heat ease away the day’s aches and grime; only to jump when the shower door opens and AJ swiftly steps into the shower, his back to the spray. Without a word he lifts his hands to each side of my head and dips his own to kiss me.
“Hi.” He whispers against my lips.
“Hi.” I murmur, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I missed you today.”
“Me too. Did you have a good day?”
“The best. You?”
“Yeah. Only thing missing was you.” He smiles.
“Well, I’m here now.” I say.
“So you are.” He smiles as he places his hands on my hips and pulls me closer to his body. I can feel his erection against my belly, causing my nipples to respond and harden.
Reaching behind him, he picks up a bottle of shower gel and turning back to face me, proceeds to tip some into the palm of his hand. His eyes never leaving my own, my breath hitches in anticipation, as he rubs his hands together. Slowly, starting at my shoulders, he moves his hands gently down over my body, delaying to play close attention to my breasts; circling my nipples, before moving downwards over my belly and out to my hips, and around and lower until he reaches the most sensitive spot of all. Kneading his fingers as he goes, he takes his time massaging my body, bringing me to the height of arousal.
With my eyes closed, my hands clinging to his waist for support, I have become a tightly strung ball of sensation. No one has ever taken the time to bring me to such an arousal before, and I’m totally lost; only conscious of AJs hands as he works his magic on my body, causing me to moan.
“Birdie.” He breathes and I slowly open my eyes and look at him, to see him holding the bottle been two fingers swinging it slightly from side to side, smiling.
Returning his smile, I reach and take the bottle from him. Oh, I’m going to enjoy this. Taking his lead I start at his shoulders, working down and around his body as I go. Kissing every place my hands caress, running my tongue over his nipples, tasting him. I can hear his laboured breathing, and it spurs me on as my hands travel lower, until I touch his erection, running my fingers up and down his length and around the tip.
Hearing him groan, I look at his face and find he’s standing as I had been; eyes closed, and totally enthralled in my actions. Quickly dropping to my knees, I take him deep into my mouth.
“Ah Birdie?” he moans spurring me on.
I release him as far as the tip, before taking him deep again, sucking and running my tongue over and around the tip. He tastes divine, all AJ, and listening to, and feeling AJ becoming more excited, encourages me to be bolder.
&
nbsp; In one swift movement, I’m up with my back pressed against the tiled wall, and he’s inside me driving deep and hard, his hands supporting my ass, and it’s wonderful. All I can do is hold onto his shoulders for support, as I feel it quickly build within me.
“AJ.” I moan as I explode into a thousand pieces, and I hear and feel him follow me as he climaxes. We stand with our arms wrapped around each other, catching our breath; my heart pounding, my legs weak. I’m grateful he’s holding me up, as I doubt my legs would support me if he wasn’t.
Lifting my chin, he kisses the tip of my nose and then my lips.
“Wow, you did miss me.” I smile.
“Oh yeah.” His arms give me a squeeze before he releases my legs. Taking my hand, he leads me out of the shower, and passes me a towel. We both dry off, and grabbing my hairbrush, I try to tame my hair.
“So what are the plans for tonight?” I enquire. I know we are staying in, but that’s all.
“Slumber party.”
“Slumber party?” I repeat smiling. “But you said it would be just us tonight.”
“It is. We’re going to get our Pj’s on, have a carpet picnic, watch a movie and generally slob out, with a little making out in there somewhere too.”
“Sounds perfect.” I smile.
“Thought you’d like the idea.” He says opening a drawer and pulling out some pyjama bottoms. I stand and watch him, marvelling at the beautiful man that he is, and he’s mine. How could it be that this man belongs to me and says he loves me?
“You’re staring.” he states with a lop-sided grin.
“I know.” I retort smiling, as I walk over to quickly kiss him, before collecting my own pyjamas, which consist of shorts and a camisole top.
“Birdie!” He replies on an exasperated sigh, shaking his head.
“Come on, let’s go. For some reason I’m suddenly starving.”
“Can’t think why that would be.” I say sassily only to laugh when I notice his impatient expression. “Okay, okay I’m ready, let’s go feed you.” Grabbing his hand, I pull him after me as we leave the room and head downstairs.
On arriving in the lounge, I come to a sudden halt when I see he truly meant a carpet picnic. On the floor in front of the sofa is a rug, onto which lie several bowls of food; ribs, chicken, salad, nachos the list goes on. The coffee table to the side holds drinks, plates, cutlery and condiments.
“We’ll never eat all that.” I say, turning to him astounded.
“Come on.” He says and tugs me towards the rug, before sitting down on the floor, dragging me down with him. He passes me a plate and orders me to “tuck in” as he reaches for the TV remote.
“What are we watching?” I enquire as I start to load my plate with food.
“You’ll see.” Is his cryptic reply and I stop picking at the food to look quizzically at him. The TV springs to life and seconds later the opening titles of The Notebook begin to play. I turn to him in shock.
“My favourite.”
“I know. Jen told me.”
“But honey, it’s kind of a chick flick. I don’t think it’s going to be your kind of thing.”
“I don’t care. I’m willing to sit through it if you want to watch it. Now, the quicker you eat up, the quicker we can concentrate on the film, the quicker we can arrive at the making out part of the evening.” And ensues to pile his plate full of food.
*****
The final credits of the movie start to travel over the screen, and AJ passes me a tissue.
“I’m sorry, it always makes me cry.”
“I can see that.”
“It’s so sad.”
“Ahuh.” He mutters.
Turning my head to look at him, I see that he’s intently examining the remote control.
“AJ?”
“Mmm?”
“Look at me.” He turns to look at me and I see that his eyes are moist. He wasn’t crying, but he definitely wasn’t far off.
“You liked it. You lovvvved it.” I tease.
“Okay, I liked it, and yes, it got to me. I confess.” He laughs.
Grabbing his face I kiss his lips. “Another reason to love you.” I announce.
He lowers my back to the floor and kisses me, his tongue teasing mine, before lifting his head to smile down at me.
“I guess we’ve reached the make out section of the evening.” I breathe against his lips.
“Oh yeah.” He confirms before doing just that.
CHAPTER 18
It’s two weeks before the wedding, and tonight is the start of Jen and Razors hen and bachelor party weekends. The guys are off to New York and we girls are off to a rather snazzy spa hotel in Mexico.
The last week has passed by in a whirl of wedding appointments, with a television interview promoting my book thrown into the mix. AJ and the band have been working long hours in the studio, so between it all, we have only seen each other for a few hours in the evening. The only exception being, when I happened to mention I was going shopping for a bikini for Mexico. On hearing this, AJ decided he needed to come with me. So with Tiny and Wade in tow, we had hit the LA shops with a vengeance.
Needless to say, purchases didn’t stop at a bikini. Nope, I had six. Six! I argued with AJ that we were only going for a couple of days, but to no avail. Then there were new shorts and tops and a couple of dresses. Every time I tried to call a halt to the shopping spree, AJ would pick something else up and proclaim that he loved it, and that it was just me, which I have to admit he was usually right. It appears our taste in clothes runs parallel.
As AJ had stated he wanted a few things too, I used this as a distraction and soon we were in a Harley shop. While AJ was inspecting some jeans, I wandered away looking at the T-shirts. Finding one I really liked I sneakily made my way to the pay point and bought it as a surprise, hiding it in amongst my purchases.
By the time we had finished our shopping spree, I felt like we had hit every shop in LA. It had been a fun day, full of laughter, as we pretended to like some really bad items, trying on hats, and teasing each other endlessly.
The press had been nowhere in sight, although I had learnt my lesson. I didn’t presume that we hadn’t been photographed with a long lens at some point. I did notice a few people filming us on mobile phones, and on more than one occasion AJs name was called out. Nonetheless, no one crowded us or tried to bother us, and I recalled AJ saying he had never really experienced problems walking around the city before.
On arriving back home, we had spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool, because as AJ had stated “you need to break in the bikinis babe”. To which I had called him a ‘pervert’ and listened to his laughter as I had walked away smiling, whilst deciding which bikini to model first.
On giving AJ his T-shirt, he’d excitedly said he loved it and proclaimed he was going to take it to New York with him, so it would remind him of me.
So here I am, packing the last of my things for Mexico. AJ and the boys having already left earlier for the airport.
He’d been laughing, as he told me Razor wouldn’t know what hit him, but he wouldn’t divulge a thing. Which filled me with a sense of concern and anxiety for poor Razor.
We had stood by the car, our arms around each other and I hadn’t wanted to let him go. I have become so used to having him around, and being part of my day, that I am going to miss him like crazy. We had teased each other to “not to do anything I wouldn’t do” and before I knew it, he was gone, leaving me with Wade who was accompanying us down to Mexico. So now I’m waiting for Jen to arrive before we head off to the airport, where we are going to meet the others for our flight.
*****
We’re strutting our stuff on the dance floor, and I’m totally and utterly drunk. In fact, we all are. It’s our last night and boy are we making the most of it. We’ve had two days of pampering at the spa. Sunbathing, swimming, and laughter by day. Followed by nights of drinking, dancing and hilarious laughter. All in all we have basically g
iven Jen the best hen weekend of all time. We had a theme that Jen knew nothing about, until we were preparing for our first night out, when I suddenly produced her outfit. An outfit that didn’t leave much to the imagination as the theme was ‘Moulin Rouge’.
So there we had been, all dressed up in raunchy Basques and stockings, of various colours. Something I had been quite apprehensive about when the girls had first mentioned it, especially as I was taking the press into consideration. However, Naomi had said as we were in a private hotel, and we had security, that we should be okay. I have to admit, once I had tried my costume on and saw what it did for my figure, I had been all for it; and we were only wearing them for the first evening anyway.
Just the expression on Jens face when she realised what we were up to, had been worth it. At first she had tried to refuse to wear her outfit, until I had informed her we were all dressing up; she had then given in gracefully. However, I suspect she did so, mainly because all the Basques had tiny skirts attached to them, so we weren’t being totally brazen.
I had stupidly enlightened AJ about our outfits before we left, and he had demanded an inspection. Knowing where that would lead, I had speedily manipulated the situation, by promising a private fashion show when I returned home. To which his reply was simply a sulky “Babe”.
Glancing over at Jen, and noticing she definitely looks worse for wear, I carefully make my way over to her, whilst trying to clear my head.
Drunkenly, she grabs hold of my shoulders to support herself, almost making us both topple over.
“I love you Boo.” She slurs, shouting over the music.
“I love you too, and I think it’s time we called it a night.”
“Nooooo. It’s still early, and it’s our last night. Let’s have another drink.” She says turning away from me, and staggering towards the bar.