It's Got A Ring To It

by Desconhecido(a)

  I stood there for a second, taking in the scene around me, letting it all sink in. All the vendors were scurrying in a mad dash, putting on the finishing touches. It wasn’t a church, but a wedding was going to take place here. A ceremony. In twenty minutes, Elle was going to march toward a man to whom she’d promised her future.

  In the back of the room, in the farthest corner from the slapdash altar, I found solace in my work. Stephanie and Ashley had already gotten everything done, but I polished it up. Varying sizes of apothecary jars and bowls adorned with pink ribbon and calligraphic labels lined the table from one end to the other. Inside them, assorted flavors of pink and white candy were filled to the brim. As a courtesy to the guests, little monogrammed plastic bags and ties. The scoops were placed at either end of the table for easier access. I stood back for a final review.

  “How does everything look?” the girls asked in unison. The Boopsey Twins, I affectionately called them. They’re eager for my response. The station added a playful, fun element to the already festive atmosphere. It took a while for me to trust them with my baby, but the occasion arrived and even I had to admit, that they had risen to it. I didn’t hesitate to compliment them on their beautiful and efficient handiwork. By the smiles spanning their young eager faces, they were just as pleased with their job well done as they were with my favorable assessment. I hadn’t planned on it being a test, but they were coming up all aces. They’d asked for more responsibility and maybe now I would give it to them.

  A barrage of bridesmaids and groomsmen sauntered down the aisle to a lovely ballad, in knee-length silk pink dresses and penguin-like black tuxedos with matching pink bow ties and pocket squares. As soon as they were positioned in their respective staggered lines, the music changed and the horns of the “Wedding March” song echoed throughout the building. At the entryway, Elle stood arm-in-arm with Myles for all the room to see her. She was exquisite in all her wedded glory as she sashayed regally toward the altar. In a floor-length ball gown boasting a fitted satin strapless bodice and befitting polka dot tulle skirt as fun and flirty as she. This was the moment she’d dreamed about a million times since she was a little girl. Everything she had envisioned with the girliest of pinks at every turn and beautiful bushels of flowers pouring at the seams. At her side as always, Myles towered above her, with pride and a trace of seriousness about the job ahead of him.

  Elle was his precious cargo today. We talked about how bittersweet it was, giving away the sister that he’d cared for, for so long, though respectfully to a man who loved her unconditionally. Since their parents died, Myles had been the only father figure, protector, provider, and confidante that Elle had until Sam became a part of her life.

  “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” Questioned the officiant, as Myles proudly assumed the responsibility and stepped aside for Sam to stand in his place. The way Sam endearingly watched Elle’s every move, hanging on her every word, he listened to his soon-to-be wife, pledge her love to him. From where I sat, it was like watching a silent film. No words, just body language and interpretation. The looks on their faces spoke volumes. They were the only ones in the room, professing untainted love to one another. Sam smiled from ear to ear, while Elle’s eyes rimmed with tears. He placed a diamond-encrusted band into the groove beside the simple princess cut solitaire as the officiant pronounced them husband and wife.

  The stress began to subside with the drowning applause of the couple’s kiss. The tension in my neck eased slightly, and I could move freely without regard for the events around me. As people approached the candy bar and scooped their fill of treats into the takeaway bags, I was actually starting to enjoy myself. Our table was next to the photo booth, so it was a natural progression to get amped up on sweets and memorialize the sugar-high with an Ironman mask or Minnie Mouse ears. I’d taken a liking to the handlebar mustache prop and heard the proper banter of an English accent creep in a time or two as I sipped my champagne with the pinky lifted to attention.

  At the peak of the day, long after the wedding party pictures and the father-daughter dance that Elle replaced with the brother-sister dance, I resolved to have a good time. A waiter with hors d'oeuvres and petit fours waltzed by and I snagged a few and ate them hastily, looking over my shoulder to see if anyone else saw me scarf them down. Not a few moments later, another waiter circled by and I was double-fisted throwing caution to the wind. Quickly, I took one down for courage, and sipped like a lady on the second as I headed over to sign the guestbook while the line had died down.

  Somewhere down the middle of the page, I jotted down my information and well wishes to the happy couple. My handwriting was barely legible chicken scratch. All at once, I felt woozy, unstable on my feet. I grabbed hold of the table to anchor myself, when I felt a hand cup my elbow to hold me up.

  Turning, I’d hoped it would be Myles, but it was Myles’ friend, John. As my luck would have it, behind him stood the whole New Year’s Get-Along-Gang, Drew and Raquel. Almost immediately, I regretted my decision to drown my sorrows and fears by hobnobbing with alcohol. My cheeks flushed, but I was too nauseated to try to make a run for it. Absentmindedly, I patted at my dress to iron the invisible wrinkles out, and smoothed at my hair.

  “Hi,” I stammered, stifling a bubbling urge to laugh—likely at myself.

  They held it. Clearly, for as long as they could without exploding, but it got the better of them. Right in front of a gathering line at the guestbook, the Three Stooges burst into knee-slapping laughter—hooting and hollering and carrying on. John’s eyes watered, threatening to spill with tears at my expense. He let out a robust snickering cackle. Raquel was more of a chuckler gasping for air with no sound, but the way she held her stomach, even Drew doubled-over.

  I wanted to be mad. I really did. I wanted to be really pissed at them. But I couldn’t blame them for guffawing at my futile attempt to maintain my equilibrium. Who was I kidding? I’d never been able to hold my liquor. Half my prom night was spent in the girls’ restroom, while my date stood outside the door warning people off. Before I knew it, I was in stitches, too.

  We were getting along like old friends. Drew was every bit the ladies’ man that I thought he was, flirtatious and touchy-feely with constantly wondering eyes. Naturally, he came by himself so he wouldn’t miss out on any good catches. There’s a sweetness to John and Raquel’s relationship that made me a tad envious, wishing Myles and I could be that way all the time. It was sort of a relief to see the whole crew. Otherwise, Myles and Elle would have been the only ones I knew. But, I was right at home as they let me in on stories about Myles before his skateboard phase, growing up being awkward and nerdy. Drew, thumbed through pictures on his phone to one of Myles with thick-rimmed glasses—a nauseatingly genius IQ and a makeshift pocket protector that he’d invented, apparently went along with the picture.

  The guys had ventured onto some worldly subjects that I wasn’t quite paying attention to, for the heat of Raquel’s interrogating eyes pierced on me.

  “So…?” She dragged it out. “What’s going on with you and Myles?” A little too eager, she pried with a wink and a smile, knowing good and well that she likely knew more than I did.

  “Um…just the usual.”

  “Uh-huh. Romantic trips to Napa and secret gardens are the same old same for you,” she demurred skeptically. “That’s the story you’re sticking with, huh?” Raquel flashed a disbelieving smile under raised eyebrows.

  Straight-faced, I stared back and cracked almost immediately. “Okay, okay. Okay. Geez. Does he tell you guys everything? If you know so much, why don’t you tell me, how we’re doing?” It came out sounding sarcastic, not at all what I intended. Guiltily, I backtracked a little to save face. “Honestly, we haven’t talked much since the weekend ended.” And that was the truth, though I wish it wasn’t.

  “All Myles told us was that he had an amazing weekend, emphasis on the amazing.” She smiled more for my sake than hers. “But, he said the last nigh
t, things took a turn in a different direction. Although I tried to get more out of him since he was being so vague, that’s all I could get.”

  Her eyes, didn’t tell me she was lying. Still, I couldn’t get past the word, “different.” What the heck was “different” supposed to mean. It gave me no indication of whether he was sincerely willing to be there for me, or simply ambivalent toward the whole thing.

  Raquel sat on edge, waiting to hear the scoop, but it just doesn’t feel right spilling the beans to his friends, when he had the chance and chose not to. I kind of felt obligated to do the same.

  “Myles is right. Things did go in a ‘different’ direction, but the most important thing is that we’re in love.” Immediately after I said the words aloud, it felt weird. Myles and I spoke the words repeatedly, but to tell others, somehow made it more official. It wasn’t the scoop that she was hoping for, but it was enough to dodge the subject. Raquel shrieked with a mile-wide smile and wrapped me in a hug so tight, my air supply cut off temporarily.

  Somehow, I got caught up in the excitement and the two of us were higher than the moon and the stars, hugging as we bounced in circles in a frenzied tailspin. “May I cut in?” A familiar voice whispered in my ear. Raquel’s bulging eyes confirmed my suspicion. I didn’t turn, just stepped back into him, so that his arms enveloped me. Raquel eagerly took her cue to rejoin the guys.

  “Hello.” His warm lips on my ear set me aflame.

  “Hello yourself.”

  “Don’t ever leave me again,” he whispered. Behind his words, an emotional undercurrent gave way to the pain that he’d concealed so well up until now. “Have I lost you?”

  I shifted to turn toward him, but he held me in place. “You could never lose me…unless you decided that you didn’t want me anymore,” I replied, worried that he might choose the latter and get tired of me one day.

  Myles didn’t acknowledge the last part. Without missing a beat, he continued his line of questioning. “Happy to see me?” The way he did it was sexy, to say the least. All the innuendo backed up by strong hard fact. We were swaying to the rhythm of the music while our bodies spooned in ecstasy. My back arched in response.

  Turning me to face him, I locked eyes with the smoldering gray ones of the man who showed me love instead of just saying the empty words. He was debonair, stealthy, like the deliberate moves of a jungle cat prowling in his sable suit and freshly groomed mane. Virile and pristine. Satisfied with my answer, he submerged me into a kiss that had me seeing double. When we came up for air, Myles paraded his flawless wicked grin at me. “Laila, we are in public…at my sister’s wedding,” he feigned shock and innocence, as if he wasn’t the cause and cure for the ache stirring in my belly.

  If I wasn’t stifling a guttural laugh, I might have noticed sooner. Quite befitting to see that he was turned on high, too. Donning my most serious face, I chastised him in return. “Mr. Donovan, I advise you to contain yourself,” I scolded as I motioned with my eyes toward his burgeoning erection.

  Crimson is the exact shade he turned and I could hardly contain my hysterics. In one fluid motion, he’d glued our bodies together and we were headed for the dance floor.

  “I need another drink first,” I complained, still giggling.

  “Just dance with me,” Myles pleaded with a wicked grin. He was irresistible. Without further ado, I surrendered to my sweetheart. Music blared through the speakers and it felt like old Hollywood glamour. “Come Fly with Me,” played and at that moment, I could have, as long as I was in Myles’ arms. “Have I told you that I love you today?”

  “Just once.” He looked at me with upturned eyebrows, trying to recall when he’d said the words. “On the note that came with the beautiful flowers you sent. Thank you by the way.”

  The music faded into a low instrumental jazz tune. Background noise. Theme music for the best man and maid of honor to give their speeches. We fumbled to our seats at a round table set for ten, along with the rest of the guests, trying not to be the last ones standing.

  “You’re welcome.” Myles leaned in and whispered from a seat behind me on my right side.

  The bride and groom sat at a heart-shaped table at the center of the room and a step up from the wedding party seated at a linear table that spanned the width of the dance floor. The maid of honor was telling some story about her and Elle back in middle school that had all the signs of a tearjerker. The spotlight painted her a luminescent shade of pearly white, and as she stood there, feet hidden behind the ivory tablecloth, with that ethereal glow, it seemed like she was floating. All attention in the room faced her, so I couldn’t turn around without stirring a commotion.

  Leaning against the table and slightly into Myles, I whispered back through closed teeth and a plastered smile, trying not to move my lips. “I have something for you, too, but, you’ll have to come back to my place to get it,” I murmured teasingly.

  A lady at the table next to us, shot us a disapproving squint as if she wanted to shoo us from the room. We might as well have been school kids being reprimanded for passing notes or talking during the teacher’s lesson. Suddenly, an ear-piercing screech reverberated through the room like nails against a chalkboard. Everyone in the room turned as Elle apologized profusely about her fear of public speaking and how much she hated being on a microphone. Nervously she shuffled, fidgeting with the chord and wishing someone else could speak for her.

  “I know this is not traditional,” she began, “but I wanted to say a few thank you’s before the night is over. Sam, my loving and charming husband, I feel so lucky that I get to spend the rest of my life with you. The fact that you chose me, makes me feel like I must’ve done something right in the Lord’s eyes to be favored in this way. You are my life and my love. To all my friends and second families, I love you and I’m so happy that you could share this special day with us. Thank you to all the vendors, who made this dream a reality. Thank you to Pastor Roberts for officiating our ceremony. And last but not least, thank you to my brother, Myles,” her voice cracked and I knew the waterworks weren’t far behind. “Myles, I know that I’ve been a handful. Some might even go as far to say, bratty—” The room roared with laughter and a brief smile made its way into her emotional speech. “But through all my crazy phases and mixed up drama-filled years, you have been the one constant in my life. The boy who turned into a man I’m so proud of. And when Mom and Dad passed—” Without a second thought, Myles ran to her side, where he’d been her whole life and took her into his arms.

  “No, let me finish. I’m sorry, everyone. I need to say this before I can’t.” Still losing the fight to her streaming tears, she continued with her arm in his. “When Mom and Dad passed, I thought my life was over and I wanted to join them. But you. You were strong enough for the both of us and you gave me a new outlook on life. I still don’t know how you did it—do it. I’d been wishing they were here today, so Dad could’ve given me away and Mom could’ve helped me pick out a dress, but with you by my side, everything was okay. I love you more than you’ll ever know and more than I’ll ever be able to repay you for giving me hope and love.”

  On cue, I cried like the blubbering baby that I was. I couldn’t imagine having the same strength. They made me want to call Lena and my parents and tell them how much I loved them. Myles swiped at a running stream of tears, and I bawled with him. With my dinner napkin, I dabbed at my eyes, thinking about that first night Myles and I strolled through my parents’ neighborhood, when he told me that he decided not to reenlist for another term, to be there for Elle.

  She was still gushing about Myles, but it finally sounded like she was wrapping it up. I couldn’t take much more. “So for you, my dear saint of a brother, I wish you the love that you’ve given me.” And then I heard it...“I can’t wait for you to marry Laila, so that you’ll be as ecstatically happy as I am today and I can have a sister and possibly a niece or a nephew, soon.”

  The room erupted into applause and a full-on standing ovation as
the siblings hugged. Meanwhile, someone redirected the spotlight at me, as I shielded my face from the light, wholly mortified.

  twenty-four

  Painstakingly slow, Myles twisted and turned the gold-foiled box. A little shake here and a slight lift there to test the weight. “What is it?”

  “Open it and you’ll see,” I replied, taking full pleasure in his curiosity.

  As soon as he removed the lid, he paused for what seemed like hours, his expression blank. Not a breath or a blink. He sat, cemented in place. “What does the line mean?” he questioned, as he delicately pulled the stick from the white tissue paper as if it were fragile.

  “It’s my gift to you. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

  Myles stared at it attentively, though uncertainty still lingered on his furrowed brows and steady glare. It wasn’t the reaction I’d hoped for. I thought, immediately he’d look at it, know what it meant, and start the celebration. At that point, it wasn’t evident whether he knew what it meant, or if he was just let down.

  “We’re not pregnant,” I said, a little too excited. I watched him as recognition colored his face, waiting for him to say something, anything. Not a peep. Myles sat there speechless, expressionless. Apparently, I’d laid a bomb on him. Then, a tear trailed the curves of his chiseled jawline.

  When he still said nothing, I filled the void in the silence, “That’s what you wanted, right?”