(No) Acepto

Chapter 11: Remix

The chapel was more impressive than one would expect for a Las Vegas wedding. The living room was decorated in a maritime style. The blue curtains waved like waves, and the seats were covered with tablecloths with golden motifs, making them look like sandbanks. A long navy blue carpet ran through the room from the entrance to the altar. As a final touch, behind the altar, a gigography; showed an ocean at night, with the moonlight touching the water.

All of this formed the chapel "Queen of the Ocean," for a wedding of 20 guests or less. Jackie marveled. You get a pretty decent wedding for 170 dollars! Which reminded her that she now owed Tom $170.

"I'm a prince. I'm an ultra millionaire. Don't worry about the money," he had told her, but Jackie already had the bills on her head.

Jackie entered first, following Mariah, until she realized that she was walking alone. Tom was standing on the threshold and made a stone. Suddenly he realized what he was about to do. I wasn't afraid of the wedding, of course. What had him terrified was everything that came next. The future was uncertain, and Tom was not a man who takes uncertainty lightly. It takes you by surprise, combs your hair, and wrinkles your clothes; a terrible experience.

Jackie met him in the anteroom. She saw the anxiety in her fiance's eyes, almost as if she could read his mind.

"Last minute nerves?" she joked, but Tom was stiff.

"It's not that. It's just that..." Tom made a gesture with his hand, trying to put his thoughts in order. "I used to have my whole life planned until... well, until this morning. I knew what I was going to do for the next 100 years of my life. And now," Tom tightened his shoulders so much that he thought he was going to break the seams of the shirt.

"And now nothing," he continued. "W-when the wedding ends, the plans are over. I enter the unknown."

Despite the tragic comment, Jackie had to smile. He was so mature in many things, but almost a child in others.

"What if I promise you that, with or without plans, everything will go well?" she said.

How can you be so sure?

Jackie extended her hand to him.

"From one's own experience."

Tom trembled so much that for a moment, Jackie was afraid to end up planted on the altar. She was surprised when Tom intertwined his fingers with hers in a fleeting movement. They entered the room holding hands, with Tom bowing his head to pass through the door. I was going to have to get used to it.

Upon entering, they crossed paths with a couple on their way to the exit. A handsome young man with a red nose and a woman twice his age and twice as blushed; the Millers, allegedly.

"He... Hehe, love, look at that guy so tall," said Mrs. Miller when she saw Tom.

"Love, look at that ugly old woman."

"Jackie!" Tom held Jackie by the arm and took her out of the way, letting the Millers pass.

The couple laughed, oblivious to Jackie's comment.

"You're terrible today," Tom whispered to her.

"Weddings make me emotional," Jackie said.

At the end of the room, Mariah and Rodolfo were standing on either side of the altar, waiting for the couple. The justice of the peace received them when they arrived at the front. He was a relatively old black man; his face had more bags than a supermarket. He drank fervently from a cup that, judging by the fresh spots on his shirt, was his third or fourth cup of coffee of the night.

The Judge greeted them distracted but immediately turned his attention to Tom, stretching his neck to cross eyes with him.

"Don't tell me... Cosplayer?" said the Judge.