by Tara Wimble
Jacque looks down, finally noticing her stillness, she leans until she’s whispering in her ear, though with the noise it’s more like a regular volume level. Bella doesn’t mind at all. “Something wrong?”
The time it takes for her to make these words whisper in Jacque’s ear. Trying to move without Kathryn turning her head to them. Not wanting to fall away from this request now that she means it.
What’s wrong?
It feels like everything.
“Marry me.”
It’s low enough that only Jacque can hear it and she has, heard it that is, judging by the comical way her face scrunches up and her mouth flaps like a fish out of water.
“You’re gonna have to repeat that.”
“Me and you. Let’s do it.” Bella rushes out. “Wedding 2.0. Right now.”
“Marry you?” That breathless feeling Bella has is worn well on Jacque’s face. “Now? Right now.” Jacque forms the words like they’re in another language, like she can’t quite understand what they mean or where they came from.
“I’d go back if I could-” Bella dabs her words out as best she can. Her tongue tastes like cotton. Heavy and slow. “-I’d do this so many times-”
“Bella-”
“-To end up where we are now. It’s simple, just me and you.” Bella cuts her off because she doesn’t want to hear the protests or the rationality or anything that Jacque has to say except for yes.
The chorus is booming over them. Over the years they’ve sung this song so many times and felt the words move them, but Bella finds that not singing, infects her emotions more. Staring at Jacque’s flushed face, she knows that there’s one answer beneath the hazy confusion.
“Marry you.” Jacque repeats. Her hand moves from her back to her neck and brushes over Kathryn’s hand. “For real.”
They might as well be face to face now. Bella has turned away from Kathryn as much as she can while still being included in the circle. She’s not sure Jacque is even holding Robyn at her other side anymore. “You want me to get down on one knee? Yes, for real.”
The answer trickles. Jacque’s voice is a paper thin humor trying to pull herself together. “I don’t know. There’s this hot blonde I room with in Chicago, I think she’s kind of into me-”
“Are you--” Bella throws her head back in exasperation, trying not to betray her amusement. “Marry me, you moron.”
Jacque unapologetically breaks away from the circle. “Yes. Yes, you idiot.”
Hands catch cheeks and shoulders and the heavy set of expectation on Bella’s shoulders falls off in a rain shower. And then their wave is broken by someone else.
The squeal from behind them comes and it turns out they weren’t as successful in being discreet as they’d hoped as Kathryn is bouncing towards them with her arms outstretched and a beaming smile.
“No!” Kathryn fans her face. “Oh God. Don’t do this to me-”
The rate at which she moves through excitement to overwhelming happiness is astounding and the tears that had been threatening to fall since they walked off the pitch start and Bella finds herself welling up too. “Don’t start!”
Kathryn shakes her head, lips pressed closed, as she falls to joyful little pieces in front of them.
Oliv points at the collapse in their circle. “Hey! Singing! Swaying!”
But it’s a moot point because the three of them are hanging off of each other and soon the circle, despite not knowing what brought them here in the first place, has converged and collapsed in on them as well. A crushing mess of bodies and beaming faces, joining in and adding themselves to a happiness that they haven’t heard voiced yet. Here for this moment and all of the rest to follow.
And at the center of it all they’re still latched on to each other, grabbing at shirt collars and whispering heavy promises that they have every intention of keeping this time.
Epilogue
*
The unofficial theme is silver.
Bella pulls at the silver colored ribbon tying her hair up while they wait on the seats together. Jacque’s painted her nails a light silver with small flecks of glitter in them. They both agree that it’s tacky looking but didn’t have the heart to tell Kathryn otherwise.
The rest of the team is scattered around in the hallway. Half of them are still wearing forms of their training gear. 2015 jackets and red shirts with silver additions. They’ve arrived in a rush with most of their bags pushed up against the wall ready for flights home and long trips in cars.
But they didn’t hesitate to drop everything down when they decided to do this now. When would they get a better chance?
“Oliv, put the flowers back.” Sadie is subdued, tired from the early wake up to go about picking things up in preparation.
She gets a disobedient kiss to the side of her head. “No.”
“Fine.” Sadie huffs. Bella chuckles to herself at the pair of them sitting on the marble floor. Oliv keeps hold of the flowers for safe keeping. There’s nowhere else to put them.
It’s a strange sight to see the mess of them all strewn around waiting. Even more when she looks closer, seeing their blurry eyes and tired, beaten bodies. Jacque keeps hold of her hand even as she holds a short, amused conversation with her best friend.
Allison looks a little fresher than most of them. Her silver is a light cardigan that doesn’t belong to her, but to the girl snoozing next to her while they wait. Ashlyn flew in for the finals and stayed. “I get to be maid of honor this time.”
“Allison.”
“Jacque.” Bella hears the way she says her name. It’s full of a lifetimes worth of knowledge of how to work Jacque to her advantage. Best friends.
“...fine.”
The news sparks a few others to life again, reminding them that they’re all here to witness something special, something real.
They didn’t have time to find new rings but Jacque promised her, last night curled up in a single hotel bed, that they’d do it right this time. Put aside her grandmother’s ring for another. One they can press with their own feelings and new meanings, not weighed down by the anxiety Bella has been saving in it or the past it’s held.
For now they hold onto the rings they had. Something old.
The details were figured out overnight. A blur of getting a marriage license and making a few calls to arrange someone to oversee the ceremony. Sadie and Oliv got up earlier than everyone to find flowers. Desi and Kathryn busted out their makeup and forced everyone to sit down with them before breakfast.
Something new hangs around their necks and while Allison’s may be a different color than the rest of them, they don’t hold it against her.
Carla and Niav sit opposite them, their heads bowed together talking quietly and Bella feels like she’s almost looking at a reflection. They borrowed from the other couple. A short versed poem that Carla had offered for them to use in lieu of cookie cut statements from the court official.
Bella feels blessed that her team has stayed for this. It would have been so easy for them to have been convinced to wait more than a few days after the World Cup final to get married again. Go to Hawaii, get married on the beach. Go back to Toronto and throw a huge party. Go back to Chicago and invite the rest of the Red Stars.
But it needed to be now. Something both of them had guiltily expressed in bed together last night. The thought of leaving without doing it was like breaking a spell that the tournament had cast upon them.
So silver and Jacque’s awful blue Nike high tops.
“You okay?”
Bella squeezes Jacque’s hand. “Allison and Kathryn are fighting over being maid of honour.”
“Oliv’s the flower girl.” Jacque points out.
“We need a ring bearer.” Bella comments, tiredly.
“Do we?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe Carla will do it.” Jacque mumbles quietly so that she doesn’t disturb Carla resting on Niav’s shoulder. It makes Bella laugh so much that she has to tur
n her head into Jacque’s neck, reflecting again, to keep from waking some people up.
“My mom is gonna kill me.” She sighs happily.
Jacque scoffs. “After she finishes burying me.”
Some things haven’t changed that much. Her team is running on coffee, less than five hours sleep and the high of the last few days. The ceremony is going to be short and sweet with enough pictures to make sure everyone remembers it happened when they come out of this coma of exhaustion.
Bella looks around at everyone, feeling her bottom lip quiver in an overwhelming gratefulness to these girls she’s come to consider her family.
“You’re crying.” Jacque whispers.
Bella sniffs. “No I’m not.”
“We haven’t even gotten in there and you’re having second thoughts.”
“Dust in my eye.”
Jacque’s grin gets bigger and bigger. “You sure you want to marry me again?”
She’s a bounce in her step. A wicked smile. A heart. That damn charm that she’s come to love. Bella leans over and kisses her.
“You’re stuck with me.”
Jacque presses their foreheads together. “There are worse things in the world.”