HIDDEN IN THE CLOSET

Chapter 26 I "I wanted to see the northern lights."

"I'm going to puke." I call out suddenly and five different people rush to my side with a bucket in their hands. I grab whatever bucket my hand touched and place it in my lap, ready to vomit. Just like the last time tough nothing happens. "False alarm." I say and lean back in my seat.

"Can you please just calm down, you have nothing to worry about." Milly tells me who sat in the chair next to me, painting her nails.

"Nothing to worry about?" I ask rhetorical earning a nod. "Nothing to worry about?" I repeat with a more high pitched voice. "Sure you're right. I mean what could possible go wrong, right?" I ask, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "There is only a huge possibility that I trip, say the wrong things at the wrong time, or worse..." I say with fear in voice.

"He's not leaving you." Pia joins in.

"How can you be so sure? I'm a terrible person. I make terrible coffee, I have a great taste in music that nobody shares, I often forget to close the door when I pee, I-" I start panicking again when more of my annoying habits come to my mind. "Who wants to spend the rest of their life with someone like that?" I ask more myself.

"My son, who happens to love even those habits of yours." Leigh-Anne suddenly says as he enters the room. She was already dressed, looking beautiful and smiled at me. "If it helps you feel better, Simon is super calm and knows exactly that he wants to do this with only you." She says as she comes to stand behind me and we look at each other through the mirror.

"Simon is always calm." I mumble.

"Yes, but I just talked to him and right now it's a different kind of calm. He's entirely sure about this and I know you are too, you just have to stop worrying about the things that won't happen." She says with a smile on her face. "This is your day, Maisy, just enjoy it." She finishes her little speech and then tells me that she will go find her seat now. People started to go sit down and this was my cue to get dressed.

"Okay, it's time now." Melissa announces and Pia, Milly and I get up. The three of them help me get inside the beautiful white dress that I picked a few months ago to wear for my special day. "It's even prettier than I remember." Simon's sister tells me when I stood there in my wedding dress, ready to walk down the aisle. It's been about six months since Simon's proposal and today was finally the day we are getting married. I still couldn't believe that this was actually happening. Neither Simon and I have really been involved in the planning of our wedding, Simon just kept telling me 'to pick whatever I want'. I started to get a little frustrated with all the things that had to be planned, like flowers, venue and food, so our moms did most of the work, occasionally asking for our agreement. After a while I was sick of deciding all the things on my own and wanted more of Simon's opinion. I couldn't care less about details like invitations or food and let Simon pick from the ones that our moms laid out for us. I thought this way we'd get a good combination of what we both liked, but after a while I discovered that he always picked the most expensive ones. I confronted him and he just gave me the same answer over and over again, stating 'I want you to have the best, I don't care about the prize'. Leigh-Anne was the one doing the financial part in the planning process and a few days ago when the two of us met for coffee, I saw the final amount of money Simon spend on our wedding. Twenty minutes later, I barged inside his office without an invitation, demanding a proper explanation why any person in this world would spend over 200.000 thousand dollar on a bloody wedding. After a ten minute lecture as I walked up and down in his office while he watched me amused, he just pulled me in for a kiss.

The discussion about money seemed to be a never-ending story in our relationship. In the six months we have lived together now, he insisted on paying for everything. He paid for the penthouse, the food that his staff buys, the staff and more things like clothes. At least once a week, he would come home after work with a bag in hand, casually placing it down in front of me, saying he just picked it up on his way home, like it wasn't something worth thousands. It was either expensive shoes, jewellery that I never really wore, dresses or perfume. One day I sat at the dinner table reading a book when he walked inside the apartment in his suit with phone and a bag in his hand. He came up to me, greeting me with a kiss as he was on the phone. Then he placed the bag in front of me, whispering 'I thought you may like this' and then walking inside the kitchen to get a glass of water. I could still see and hear him, but then I grabbed the bag and took out the white box. I had no idea what could possibly be inside, but when I saw it, I gasped and the anger inside me started rising. Simon was casually talking on the phone as he walked back to where I was sitting and I glared at him. How could he just walk in here, dropping this off, acting like it's nothing? I had to respect his work when he kept talking, standing beside me with his hand on my shoulder now, caressing the skin on my neck, but my blood was literally boiling. As soon as he ends the call he looks down at me. "Hi." He tries to get another kiss, but I push him away.