UNJUSTIFIED HATRED {completed} (wattys 2015)

CHAPTER 16- D-DAY

Emily couldn't believe it was finally here, her wedding day. Today she was marrying Ash Hurley whether she liked it or not. For the past two weeks, she had worked closely with Gina, the wedding planner. She had asked Gina to handle everything but Gina insisted she participated; it was her wedding after all even though it wasn’t with her prince charming.  She chose the color of the flower, the dress, the location and of course the cake. She had cooperated but deep down she had always wondered if this was a huge mistake. She wondered if Ash would ever come around and be there for the baby. She was not worried about her relationship with him, she cared more about his relationship with his child than anything. She wanted the child to have a stable home, to be held by both mommy and daddy and of course to have someone there for the baby in case something happened to her.

She walked out the shower, grabbed the towel from the handle and wrapped herself with it. She wiped the mirror that was now fogged up from the stream. Her brown hair was packed in a plastic cap so it wouldn't get wet. Her eyebrows were trimmed beautifully. She had both her hair and eyebrows done yesterday including mani, pedi, messages and waxed all of her body. It was by far one of the most excruciating pain she had ever felt but she looked well groomed even though the beauty came with a lot of pain. She walked out of the bathroom to find her undergarment laying on the bed in her bedroom, her new room. She had moved from the help's quarter into one of the family room. Her room was now two doors from Ash's and on the other side of Mr. & Mrs. Hurley.

"Emily, you done?" Gina asked from the other side of the door. Emily walked to the door, opened it and let her in.

"So I got the gown" Gina said carrying a big black bag. "The makeup and hair stylist will be here in a minute". Emily nodded. She took her undergarments with her back into the bathroom. In there, she lathered herself with the vanilla scented lotion Gina bought her. Gina said it would drive Ash crazy since men liked vanilla scents on girls.

Yea right, Emily had thought but took the lotion from her anyway. She put on her black torsolette with lacy details on both sides and the matching panties. The torsolette was a great idea since it helped hid her bump that was now starting to show; it looked like she just had a huge meal really but with the torolette no one could tell. She covered herself with a robe before walking out of the bathroom into the bedroom. In there, she found both the makeup artist and hair stylist waiting for her with their supplies ready.

 "Emily this is mina the makeup artist and Ashley the hair stylist" Gina introduced gesturing first to a red hair and then to the other with purple hair?

 "Hi" Emily greeted softly before settling down on the chair that was placed in the middle of the room. "You didn't get your hair wet. Did you?" Ashley asked taking Emily hair out of the plastic cap. Emily knew she wasn’t supposed to get the hair wet since water would destroy the roller set.

"No I tried not to".

"Good" Ashley responded. Both ladies got to work after that. It was hard to sit still while her hair was been tugged but she managed to sit still as possible for her makeup. She wondered what Ash was doing at the moment; was he getting primed and proper too, not like he needed it anyway. She wondered if he was as nervous as she was, maybe getting a pep talk from his friends.

"So are you excited?" Mina asked drawing her thoughts away from Ash. She had been getting the same question from her former co-workers as well, and each time she gave the same answer.

 "More of nervous, you know?”. Nervous about Ash’s reaction, nervous on how marriage with two people who didn’t even like each would work, nervous with how Ash would treat her; the list was endless.  

"Aww don’t worry, that will be gone once you see your groom. You will remember why you said yes in the first place" Ashley assured her.

 Emily smiled a weak smile. She couldn't help but feel her heart break a little. Ash never asked her to marry him, she thought sadly. There were a lot of things he had never done: he never took her out on a date, never held her hands, never called to see how she was. He didn’t even know her last name but here she was about to marry the guy. The last she saw or heard from him was when he stormed out of the room after his dad forced marriage on them. He didn’t even call to ask about the welfare of their unborn child. She wanted to call to check on him but was too embarrassed to ask his parents for his number since none of the helps had it. That would show the real nature of their relationship, the 'bam bam thank you ma' type.