by Dale Mayer
“Exactly,” Honey said. “I think we have to do this. We’ve already got so much in play, so much going on.” She glanced at Kat with a reminder. “You didn’t make it to the second fitting at the dressmaker’s, did you?”
Kat groaned. “No, I had to cancel the appointment last week.” She pulled out her day planner. “Look. I had a cancellation this afternoon, so maybe I can sneak it in there.” She frowned, chewing the end of her pencil.
“The sooner, the better,” Honey said. “We can do without a lot of things. But we really need the dresses.”
Kat chuckled. “We could always wear bikinis. We’ll be poolside anyway.”
The women laughed. “I’m pretty sure the bikinis will come out later,” Clary said.
Allison said, “We’ll be so stressed, so worried, so tired, we’re likely to strip off our wedding gowns and jump in.”
“You know something? I don’t think one of those men would argue.” Kat quickly jotted down a note about the dressmaker, pulled out her phone and sent a text to her assistant. “I’ll get Jim to call and see if he can get me squeezed in this afternoon.”
“Does he know?”
“He knows and is being very helpful. He’s assisting Marisa with the decorating,” she muttered, staring down at the scrawled message that didn’t seem to make any sense even though she wrote it herself. “I can’t seem to read my own writing.” She raised her gaze. “I’ve invited him too as he’s so involved.”
The others nodded. “Good. You’re really close to him, aren’t you?”
“Him and his partner. Oh, and I added Jim’s partner to the guest list.” She looked around at everyone else. “Anybody else fraying at the edges?”
“Are you kidding?” Clary said. “I came apart a long time ago.”
That elicited a laugh from everyone.
Kat grinned at her. “You’re always the coolest and collected of all.”
Clary stared at her in shock. “That is so not true. Maybe I’m just better at hiding the frayed edges.”
At that point Honey’s wine was delivered.
Clary looked at it. “Hindy, why don’t you give us all a round. We’ll follow it up with coffee after our meal.”
Hindy chuckled. “The date is coming up, isn’t it?”
“Way too fast,” Morning said. “I don’t know that I’ll be ready.” She looked at the others. “I mean, we’re talking in days now.”
“Nineteen,” Kat said, her voice somber, almost dark. “Nineteen days.”
Silence fell as they all thought about everything that had to come together in those few days.
Faith said, “Did you touch base with Levi and Ice this last week?”
Kat nodded. “Levi has got the men playing their part. They all know Levi is supposed to ask Ice to marry him, so all the men will show up in black suits. Apparently they all have something that will do the job.”
“I know Laszlo certainly does. It’s beautiful. He tried it on the other day, and he looks really sharp,” Minx said with a smile.
“Exactly. Badger still has to drop his off at the dry cleaners or the tailor’s, depending”—she shook her head with a grin—“but, other than that, he is good to go.” Kat said thoughtfully, “Our dresses are simple and elegant, and the men’s black suits will be too. We’ll look great.”
“They probably all won’t be the same color black though,” Morning noted.
“Says our resident professional artist,” Allison said with a smile.
“I don’t think that matters so much,” Kat said to Allison. “Our dresses aren’t going to be exactly the same color white either. And the guys’ll all have a different-colored tie, which we have to get.” Her gaze swept around the room. “Unless anybody else handled that detail already?”
All the women shook their heads.
Kat sighed. “That’s very important because we have to match each up to the flowers.”
“I can ask the florist,” Clary said. “I’m heading there this afternoon. They might at least give us sample colors so I can take them to a gentleman’s store.”
“I’ll be devastated if I can’t have that beautiful fuchsia,” Minx said. “But I’d rather find out now because what I ideally want is us to match our husbands’ apparel.”
Just hearing that word husband made everybody stop. They turned to look at Minx.
She coyly murmured, “What? I was just trying out the word.” She had a big grin on her face.
Hindy brought in a big tray, served a glass of wine to everyone and took their lunch orders.
“You realize we only have two more weeks to meet like this.” Kat picked up her glass of wine and held it up. “To us and to a very happy Labor Day weekend.”
Everyone held up their glasses and clinked them together. “To our weddings.”
Kat sipped from her glass, enjoying the cool feel as the wine hit her throat. She set it back down again. “Just over two weeks. Good God.”
“We have to have more meetings,” Honey stated. “Nineteen days only. And we need every one of those days.”
“Anybody running into last-minute snags with their schedules?” Allison asked.
“No, not yet,” Minx said. “When I accepted my job, I told my new boss how I would need some time off on Labor Day weekend. So I should be able to avoid on-call duty.”
“Honey, what about you?” Clary asked. “Any idea what you’re doing for your schedule?”
“I’m not planning on having my honeymoon directly afterward,” she said, “so I’m just taking off the long weekend. I’ll be back to work on Tuesday.”
Honey turned to look at Kat. “And you?”
“Same.” Kat looked at Allison. “And you?”
Allison nodded. “I did bring it up in my interview. So I’ll be getting the weekend off.”
In mass everyone turned to look at Faith. She threw up her hands. “Hey, don’t look at me. I promise I’ll be there.”
Everyone narrowed their gaze.
She sighed. “I’ve got Sunday and Monday off. Saturday was the issue.”
The others winced. “That is the wedding day, remember?”
“I know. They had me doing a Hong Kong flight coming in first thing in the morning,” she said. “I got it changed earlier today.”
Clary asked, “Did we ever get somebody to do our hair?”
Honey pulled out her notepad. “Who was supposed to look into that? I have it down, but I didn’t put somebody’s name beside it.”
“I talked to my hairdresser,” Clary said. “She said she does do weddings. And, depending on how elaborate a style we want, she needs hours per person.”
“And we’re out of time.”
Kat shook her head. “Let me send a text to mine. I know she does beautiful hairdos. We don’t need anything too elaborate, I don’t think. At least I don’t. But I do want my hair done.” She sent off a text to her hairdresser and set her phone down. “She has at least three hair stylists that could do the job with her. It depends on their schedule.” Her phone rang a moment later. She picked it up, took a look and said, “It’s her.” She put the phone to her ear. “Hey, Beth. I have an unexpected last-minute request. What’s your schedule like for the Saturday of Labor Day weekend?” She listened and nodded. “Any chance you want to be booked to do seven heads?” She continued listening as the woman checked her calendar. “It’s for a wedding.”
Beth sighed. “Those take forever. I don’t know that I can do that many at one time.”
“Well, it’s for seven of us. It can’t be too fancy because …” Kat raised her gaze, looking around at the women and whispered, “Do I tell her?”
Honey said, “You pretty well have to.”
“Beth, this is a special circumstance. We’ll be in normal clothes, and nobody’ll really know what’s going on until late afternoon, and then we’re changing into our wedding dresses.”
“Are you saying this is a surprise wedding?” Beth asked, her tone shocked. “All seven of y
ou?”
“The wedding of a lifetime,” Kat said in a wheedling tone. “We all want a somewhat elegant do but not too fancy.” She looked around at the women, an eyebrow raised.
Everybody nodded. “And we have some with short hair, so I don’t know how fancy it can be.”
“I need head shots of everybody,” Beth said. “And then I have to check out my availability. I’ll get back to you.”
“Okay, good. I’ll send those photos right away.” She tossed back the rest of her white wine, stood and walked around, deliberately taking photos of everyone at the table. And then she turned her phone to take a selfie. She sent them all to Beth. “Anybody have any clue what you want for a hairstyle?”
The other women just stared at her.
“Jesus. I can’t even imagine. I’m not interested in any of those big fancy dos,” Clary said. “But maybe ringlets and flowers in my hair down one side.”
“That’s possible,” Kat said. “You would wear something like that very well.”
Clary shrugged. “It would go along with the flowers in my bouquet.”
“If we’re doing something like that, then we need extra flowers from the florist,” Honey said.
The other women groaned.
“This is just getting more and more complicated.”
“Only if we let it,” Allison said firmly. “Look at all we’ve survived to get here. And considering how much we’ve already accomplished, I think we’ve done amazingly well.” She glanced over at Morning. “What about food? Any idea where we’re at?”
Morning nodded. “Alfred’s bringing the desserts and a selection of savory items we can throw in an oven at Kat’s place. Any of us could do that, in theory.” She pulled her notepad toward her. “I don’t know if you all want to know exactly what he’s prepping for us. Most of it will be ready to serve. I believe he’s coming up the day of the wedding.”
Everyone turned to look at Kat for confirmation.
She nodded. “That’s my understanding too. Levi and Ice are potentially coming on Friday night, and we are telling Badger that Alfred is staying at a friend’s on Friday night and will arrive Saturday to handle the kitchen. Bailey is doing the baking at the compound, but Alfred is doing the delivery. Our lovely Hindy has arranged for several hot dishes and small finger foods for after the ceremony. To go along with cake, which will, of course, be a single large wedding cake not multiple birthday cakes. Plus there’ll be hors d’oeuvres and appetizers.”
“With lots of red meat for our men?” Allison asked in a drawling tone. “If they have that they may not miss having groom’s cake.”
Morning chuckled. “Yes, and there’ll be some lighter fare for us ladies. And as long as they have lots of cake I think they won’t care that some men order a groom’s cake.” She batted her eyes. “There’ll be some seafood too,” she added as an afterthought.
“Prawns, shrimp, scallops?” Faith asked hopefully.
Morning chuckled. “All of the above. And many puff pastry wraps and rolls.”
“Sounds good. I’m totally happy to leave that to you to coordinate, Morning.” Kat turned to look at Faith. “Were you the one doing the music?”
“Well, I’ve been trying to do the music. I think you’re the one not responding to my questions.”
Kat winced. “Sorry, it’s hard to listen to it when I don’t have anybody around me. I really would like to hear it in privacy.”
Faith chuckled. “In that case, let me bring it up here.” She opened her laptop and brought up the series. “We were going to play this set.” She hit Play.
A melody Kat couldn’t name came on, putting an instant smile on her face. “I love that song. But I can’t even remember what it’s called.”
“It’s one that all the rest of us have agreed on, as long as you’re okay with it,” Faith said. And she continued to go through the set, letting Kat hear the music.
“And what about at the actual wedding?”
“We thought we would do the traditional wedding march.” She looked around. “Unless anybody has a reason not to.”
“Let me think about that,” Honey said. “It’s not that I’m against it. But I’m thinking there has to be something a little better suited for us.” Honey’s fingers drummed on the table beside her plate. “Surely there’s a song that speaks to everything we’ve come through.”
“A song about catching you blindside?” Faith glanced around with a big grin on her face. “Everybody is still going forward, right? Because no way we can handle any one of us getting cold feet at this late date.”
“No, no cold feet,” Allison said. “Nervous feet, definitely chilled feet. But, no, none that will turn around and run in the opposite direction.”
“You have to remember too,” Clary said, “if any of us do get cold feet, that relationship is basically over because we’ll have left him standing at the altar for his surprise wedding where everybody else will have a partner.” Then her face brightened. “And I’d be very happy with the traditional wedding march.”
Faith nodded. “I would too.” She glanced around. “Anyone disagree?”
And just like that they had an agreement.
Feeling cheered, Kat asked, “Are the flowers all organized?”
“Except for the damn matching ties.”
Kat nodded but frowned. They ran through a list of what each person had to do. Then they sat back, exchanging glances.
“You know something?” Minx said. “We’re damn close.”
“I spoke to Marisa,” Kat added. “She’s got a justice of the peace. We’ve got the licenses to do.”
“We have to get those,” Honey stated. “Can’t forget that.”
“And she wants to decorate the backyard nicely.” Kat frowned. “It’ll be a little hard to do that and keep it not too wedding-ish.”
Faith snorted. “I can’t imagine how we’re making any of this happen without it looking like a wedding.”
“Right?” Kat checked her watch and groaned. “It seems like all I’m doing is running from thing to thing right now.”
“That’s okay. In another couple weeks, this will all be over,” Allison said.
At that Faith froze, looked around at everybody and said, “Can you believe it? Can you believe what we’re doing?”
The others looked at each other and then shrugged.
“You’ll be standing strong on this, Kat, right?” Clary asked. “It was your idea after all.”
Kat gave her a slow smile. “There’s nothing I want more than to be married to Badger.”
“Now let’s just hope Badger wants to be married to you.” Honey chuckled.
Kat rolled her eyes. “That is what keeps me awake at night.”
Instantly silence settled.
“Do you really doubt he wants to?” Allison asked.
Kat shook her head slowly. “No, I believe it is what he truly wants. I don’t believe he’s anywhere close to ready to asking me. I think that would be, you know, maybe three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine … I don’t know, twenty years down the road before he thought he would ever be good enough, and he wouldn’t want to be a burden to me. He somehow seems to think that, if we’re not married, then I could pack up and leave because that’s what I should do. He might be able to scare me off, but, once there’s that commitment, it’s a lifetime.”
Minx nodded slowly. “The thing is, it is a lifetime.”
Morning added, “It is a commitment. For me it’s a lifetime commitment. And I can certainly see Geir saying the same thing. That, if we weren’t married, he could chase me away, so I would go off and have a supposed better life. But there’s just something about the commitment behind that piece of paper.”
“Rings?” Honey asked urgently. “What about rings? We’re out of time.”
“I was thinking about that,” Allison said. “We could just buy plain bands. And then it’s up to the individual couples afterward if they want to have an engagement ring to go with it. A
lternatively we could buy the wedding rings that have engagement rings as a set.”
“We could also just have simple rings as stand-in rings, and then we can go shopping for the real rings afterward,” Minx suggested. “I saw a really cute pair of handcuffs that were meant to be rings.”
Everyone looked at her in shock.
Her laughter peeled across the room. “I’m joking about the handcuff rings. But I did see them. I’m not suggesting we do that. But sometimes—when the rings aren’t ready, have to be resized, ordered in or are lost—any ring will do the job as it’s just symbolic.”
“I have another suggestion,” Kat said. “Although they’re not terribly fancy.”
The women looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“I was thinking about it earlier. I was going to bring it up, then forgot about it. Thought about it again and then decided you’d all want something much nicer.”
“Speak up, girl,” Honey said.
Kat took a deep breath. “The company I work with makes rings out of the same titanium I use to add support to the men’s prosthetics.” She dug in her purse, set it on her lap, opened up the photos she kept inside and passed them around. “They’re simple, simple titanium rings, but these are braided with ivory, jade, gold, or however you want to mix it up. They’re unisex and can be done in all sizes. I like them, but you may not.” She shrugged. “It was just a thought.”
Faith looked at her. “You know something? I think the men would like that. They are a rare breed, and are all connected to you, so displaying some of your artwork—your engineering—that’s a perfect connection to their struggle, their survival. These men of steel would have a very personal reminder of our place in their lives.”
Kat said quietly, “I’m really partial to the braided one with a small ivory rose in the center.”
The women fell into a heavy discussion about the rings.
“This isn’t something they do on a wide distribution,” Kat added. “I just happened to ask them about it, and they sent me some of these as prototypes.”