"A love so deep. A love so wide. A love so extravagant—that even death wouldn't deter me from an eternity by your side. Can you imagine that type of love, Ally? Can you fathom it? Well, can you?"— Austin
~Ally~
Cassidy tugged my hair with a brush and then set to work on braiding it into a loose crown around my head, while Trish worked on my make up.
"I still can't believe you're here." I sighed.
"Yeah, well it's been way to long, besides, it's not like we really need to catch up, I've been following along with your story on the news." Trish said.
"I think the whole world has."
"Hey," Cassidy interrupted us, "this is your special day, you can't be sad, you need to be happy!"
"Well considering I was only going downstairs to ask Austin if he wanted any breakfast, I've not exactly had time to prepare." I deadpanned. "Besides, how did you keep this a secret?" I gasped as she pulled a bit too hard and glared when she smiled like she'd done it on purpose.
"If I can keep my long term boyfriend a secret, I can keep anything a secret." She grinned at me through the mirror. "And forget I mentioned anything about a boyfriend."
"Rrrriiiight." I laughed, while she shoved a few bobby pins into the base of the braid and grabbed the hairspray.
"Hold your breath. I don't want this to fall out."
I covered my face with my hands and took a deep breath as the cold hairspray hit the base of my neck and top of my head.
"Now." Trish set down her make up bag. "The dress."
I giggled—I couldn't help it. Was this really happening? Was I going to be a wife in a few hours? His wife.
How the heck had Austin planned everything? It was a tie between being so nervous I wanted to puke and being so excited I couldn't actually sit still.
I hadn't told Austin—mainly because I didn't want to add to the stress, but with everything going on with the media lately, things had felt distant. I know he didn't have much of a choice I'm this, but between practice and him making sure things don't get out if hand—I'd kind of fallen into the cracks. Though if I were being completely honest to myself it felt more like a giant chasm.
"Hey..." Trish held out a dress. "You ready for the fairy tale?"
I gasped when she zipped open the garment bag. The color white made everything more real. The material shimmered and beckoned from the bag. The lamplight from the room gave the beading a warm glow. I was almost afraid that if I touched the dress it would disappear. "Is that for me?"
"From your future husband—he flew it in from France."
"WHAT?" I shrieked.
"Austin Moon does style good." Cassidy's smile grew to epic proportions. She clapped her hands in excitement. "Then again he may have had the super awesome friend of the bride help out a bit with measurements."
"He flew me in from New York last night, that man has his ways. He's definitely a keeper." Trish winked.
Cassidy giggled and thrust the dress into my arms. "Now hurry and get dressed, we don't have a ton of time."
~~~~ (ू•-•ू⑅) ~~~~
"How's it look?" I asked as I emerged from the bathroom and twirled.
The dress was actually an embellished bodice with a sweetheart cut, while the skirt was around seven layers of lace and intricate beading. It had a definite Spanish flair. It was something I never knew I could pull off, but right now, in this moment, I felt like a princess.
"When I'd tried to show Austin, he'd covered his eyes and pulled out his credit card and mumbled something about not wanting to see the dress before the wedding and that I should do 'whatever it takes' make the love of his life happy." Cassidy explained.
"I snatched that credit card with lightning speed—no girl should say no to a Austin Moons credit card, those bad boys have no limit, which was also a perk since I'd had it shipped that very day." She smirked.
"You look beautiful." Trish squeezed my arm gently. "You've changed so much since the last time I saw you."
"I know, but hey, at least you get to see me at my best. Even though I feel like I'm going to pass out and have a breakdown."
"No freak-outs! No breakdowns!" Cassidy piped up. "You," she pointed at Trish, "Need to go check up on the boys. And you." She turns around to me, "Need to relax and have a little trust that your husband-to-be has everything sorted."
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~Austin~
Being nervous hadn't really occurred to me—not until Dez mentioned a text from Ally where she used lots of exclamations points and enough emoji to illustrate her own graphic novel.
By the time we'd gotten to the location and I saw the decorations—I started freaking out. Probably not to the level that Ally was freaking out, but my hands were shaking and I was pretty sure that if Dez offered me a shot of tequila I'd toss it back like water. I wasn't nervous about the marriage—I was nervous about everything before that point.
I sucked in a nervous breath as Dez slapped my back. Either Ally was going to flip in a bad way, or she was going to think it was the coolest thing I could do.
Yeah, the very fact that Dez flipped should have given me a hint. After all, the guy had just visited hell and back. Lets just say him and the media don't go down to well... But hey, he's just been enrolled in a directing school, so he has that going for him.
"It's creepy." Dez sniffed and looked around the white room. "You know those movies where people go to heaven and everything's white?"
"Yeah?" I touched some of the flowers sitting on the table. "What about them?"
"We are freaking in that movie dude, I'm a bit worried the door's going to close on me and then a trapdoor on the floor's going to open revealing the fires of hell and a booming voice is going to come on the loud speaker and say 'MAKE YOUR CHOICE!'"
"Paging Doctor Smith," boomed a voice over the loud speaker in the ceiling.
With a giant-assed start, Dez grabbed my arm and let out a streak of curses.
I burst out laughing as I lifted his hand and dropped it. "You still worried they don't want you upstairs?"
"Cautious." Dez pointed at me and rolled his eyes. "Just cautious."
"Everything ready?" My dad came barreling in, JoBob and Sandy in tow. Even though we were loaded, we'd had a hell of a time actually getting all the big shots at the hospital to agree to this. But honestly? Any other way and it wouldn't make sense.
I hoped Ally would realize that.
Trish popped into the room and shut the door behind her. "Okay I've just left Cassidy has Ally, they're in the car and they're driving in this direction, so everyone?" She waved her hands into the air.
"She dancing?" I asked Dez.
He tilted his head and squinted at her then shook his head. "Not sure."
Trish sighed in irritation. "Just get in your places like we practiced last night."
"That was fun." Dez smirked. "Last night."
"Can we not?" I smacked him on the shoulder. "Wedding day? Hello?"
"Sorry." He licked his lips and winked at Trish who in turn looked like she was about to kill him. Hey, at least we were close to the hospital.
I tugged at my tie again and told myself to calm down.
But instead of calming down, my heart slammed against my chest. Funny, how I'd come so close to never having that feeling ever again. Yet there it was, slamming in perfect cadence. Announcing to the rest of my body that I was nervous, that I was excited. It's funny, we all have hearts, but do we ever truly listen to them?
Its' true, death had made me all kinds of philosophical, swear it made Dez want to strangle me most the time.
Your heart is everything. Why else would the one you love ask for it first? I mean, why not ask for your mind? Your soul? Instead, they ask for our hearts. Our significant others ask for our hearts. Family...they ask for our hearts. Friends ask for our hearts.
It's not just a muscle.
I truly believed that the heart stored the essence of everything a person possessed. The human body didn't start with the brain or the legs...no...when we were conceived...the first thing doctors searched for?
The heartbeat.
When you get married...you don't just ask for your wife's hand. The first thing you search for? Her heart.
When you're sick. The doctor doesn't ask about your heart—he listens to it.
Seems to me like we've had it wrong all these years.
If you have a heart—I guarantee—there's someone out there who wants it. Who's searching for it. Who dreams about it.
"Austin?" Dez knocked me in the shoulder. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just thinking about...things," I lied.
"Well," he said, sighing. "Pretty sure all thinking will cease the minute that girl walks through that door."
"Oh yeah?" I smirked. "Why?"
Dez gave me a knowing grin.
Ally walked through the door, her eyes already pouring tears down her cheeks.
And then I looked at the bouquet she was holding.
Red roses.
In the shape of a heart.
She was holding my heart.
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