The Weddings

1: A Double Booked Morning

Charlotte continued to wake up every few minutes, unable to contain her excitement. She'd finally done it, the Casa Loma was finally hers June 18th. One year seemed to be so close and so far all at once, but getting this dream venue seemed to calm her nerves, and aggravate an entirely different set that she wasn't accustomed to — wedding nerves. She couldn't wait to finally be living with Paul so she could sink into his arms and finally get some sleep. He had a way of making all of her worries go away, he was perfect, this whole year had been perfect.

"Mrs Charlotte Evergreen." She loved how it sounded, it rang odd in her ear when she first started replacing her surname with Paul's but that only lasted a week and she was in the third grade. She remembers how much he teased her and kicked dirt in her face when she accidently left her diary open for the whole class to see. Even that didn't dissuade her though, especially when Paul's widowed father remarried. They started going back to church and things started to change for the better. By the next year Paul had combed hair, a new set of friends and a lot of apologies to hand out. So many that a few started making jokes of who would apologize to the next day. She could still remember it like it had only happened a few moments ago.

Charlotte made sure to always be sitting at the swings so that Paul could see her from the four-square court. She knew he would come and apologize to her, he'd kicked enough dirt in her face that if she had saved it she'd have at least a dozen gallon mason jars tucked away in her room. She thought about that for a second, it wouldn't be too much of a bad idea, maybe when they got married she could take some out and make a cute vow about how God can change anyone and how he blesses the women who are patient enough to wait on God's timing. Although Paul's timing was something completely different - when is he going to apologize to me? She thought to herself. It had almost been a month and he was running out of class members, she had to be the only one left. The past two days he didn't apologize to anyone, and Charlotte spent her evenings at home crying and overhearing her parents blaming in hushed tones that it was just puberty and nothing serious. But it was something serious, her husband was neglecting her ... husband, to be. But that Friday seemed to be the day everything would fall into place. Paul started walking to her after his last game. He jogged at first and then slowed down to an agonizingly slow walk when he got to the sand pit that surrounded the swings. Hurry up! Charlotte screamed in her head but she still kept a light bubbly smile on her face as he approached her. There was music playing in her head, knowing that this was meant to be a romantic moment to remember. This is the day her future begins.

"Hey Charlotte." Paul had his hands in his pocket and had his eyes glued to his feet. It was nice to see, it was fitting that Paul would feel the most guilty when apologizing to her since she was the most important. It made her mind go wild, maybe he had taken so long to apologize to her because he had spent sleepless nights righting out what he would say to her and just couldn't find the right words.

"Paul," Charlotte said, she tried to use her mothers angry voice. The kind that was cold and alert but still left some space for approaching. Usually dad would come back with take out and flowers to make up. That was what she wanted, she wanted Paul to feel like she wasn't going to forgive him easily, she had it all planned out. What she didn't expect was for Paul to have it all planned out too.

Paul didn't want to apologize to Charlotte, if it hadn't been for his older sister who babysat Charlotte over the long weekends, he wouldn't be standing here. Amber had forced her way into his bedroom every morning this week to cover his room in silly string saying, "talk to Charlotte or you'll wake up with a shaved head!"

So far he had been able to avoid it since he was able to get a break from Amber when coming to school, but with the weekend coming, he didn't think he'd be able to deal with Amber for a whole day and deal with Charlotte at church service and the evening youth group. All he had to do was say he was sorry for bothering her so much, for calling her names, pulling her harm and pushing her down so much. His heart really did change, he knew those things were wrong. But what didn't change was his mind on Charlotte. He didn't like the way he felt when he was near Charlotte, he wasn't sure what the feeling was exactly but he knew that it was too old for him and made his body feel ... funny. There was no way he'd admit that to her though.