- Thunder, Love Walked In -
- March -
I was stood all dressed up, ready for the performance of my life. Somewhere outside, Simon, Oddball and Ethan were waiting.
Our daughter Ayame had been a total rubber ball all morning so my mum had taken her out of the dressing room as soon as she was in her dress to match mine. As long as Aya had Ethan, she was happy. She had become such a daddy's girl.
And her favourite uncle Oddball was out there. Between the three men in our lives, Ayame was the most protected, loved and spoilt little princess in rock.
My old classmate Vero was making final adjustments to my dress. Based on what I had wanted, she had designed something that made me feel immaculate.
Freddy entered the room with a camera. He had been trusted with the task of photographing the event and started snapping my preparations, now that my gown was in order.
"All done," Vero smiled and stood to look me over.
"Thank you, Vero," I said and gave her a hug.
"God, no! I should be thanking you! My little dress shop has taken off thanks to you getting all your red carpet stuff from me," she grinned.
"This ain't a red carpet event tho," Ellen said dryly.
"No. This is much bigger!" Vero laughed.
She left the room with Freddy to join everybody else and I was alone with Selma and Ellen, both in beautiful maroon dresses, also from Vero's shop. Emma was just outside the room in a similar dress.
I took a deep breath and nodded.
"You look beautiful," Selma smiled before opening the door.
I took a step out and saw Simon in his vest and formal frock-coat.
His eyes were on Selma with a wide smile for a few seconds before turning to me.
"Looking good, Izzy," he smiled.
"Thank you," I said.
"I'll enjoy being your daddy," he chuckled.
Ever since I'd asked him to walk me up the aisle he had found the concept of playing my dad hilarious.
"Ready?" Selma asked.
I nodded and Ellen signalled someone.
The sound of the string quartet started. Peeking through the opening in the curtained patio doors, I saw family and friends stand up. Up ahead was a floral arch. The chairs and arch were set up in a cherry orchard and everything was surrounded by pale pink and white flowers. The occasional breath of wind caused petals to float down from the canopy of flowers above the arch.
My heart was beating like a monster. This was it.
"Don't you fucking dare run now," Ellen laughed at me.
She had been teasing me about making a run for it since we first told people what was happening.
I poked my tongue out at her and had both her and Selma laughing.
"He'd run after her," Selma grinned with a nod towards the door.
After an initial awkward phase, they were back at being thick as thieves. Our girlie movie nights usually featured an element of Ellen teasing Selma about Simon being a second hand toy, charitably passed on after some basic training. It usually ended with Selma threatening to lock Ellen in a room with Mio.
Ellen blamed her busy life and accountancy business for her single status, but we knew she'd shared a few wild nights with Mio. She was just unwilling to admit to it.
I looked at Emma who was beaming at me. She had grown into a stunningly pretty 12 year old.
Next to her was Abby. I had my stepsister, my best friends, all my family and all the people I loved all gathered in one place. The butterflies in my gut were threatening to lift me up form the ground.
"You're up!" I said to the two youngest bridesmaids.
Selma handed Emma a basket of flowers and sent her through the doors with Abby. She turned and gave Simon a quick appraising wink. He wiggled his eyebrow at her in approval before he reached out and tugged her by the wrist towards him. Selma giggled and gave him a quick peck on the lips before following the younger ones with Ellen.
Once they were through the curtained doors, Simon patted his pockets.
"Right. It's still there," he muttered.
"What are you on about?" I asked.
He stuck a hand into his left pocket and pulled out a blue velvet box.
He opened it while shielding it in his hand to show an antique ring with diamonds and emeralds.
"Mind if I steal some of your thunder later?" He asked with a childishly exited look on his face.
He looked up the aisle after Selma with a weirdly nervous smile.
I laughed.
"Go for it," I grinned.
He stuck the box back into his left pocket.
"Right. Let's go get you married," he grinned and held out his elbow.
I took it and drew a deep breath as we followed the bridesmaids.
I looked up to see all our family and friends, but didn't really register them. Up front was stood in impeccable frock coat and grey trousers, the man I was still hypnotised by.
I loved that contrast between his formal wear and the soft hair. From the look of it he had run his hands through it several times. The revelation made me want to giggle. He flashed a smile back at me with an open look of happiness in his eyes.
Simon led me up the two steps and placed my hand in Ethan's.
"There. Daddy duties done," he grinned.
"Not really, if you're going through with your thunder-stealing," I smiled.
Ethan chuckled.
He obviously knew of Simon's plans.
Then he turned to me and my breath hitched again. I couldn't believe my luck.
"Forever?" He asked me.
"Forever," I replied as we turned to the clergyman.
Simon took up his position with Oddball and Mio, changing his role from my side to Ethan's.
On my side were Abby, Ellen, Selma and Emma.
There was a flash of realisation that our family and friends weren't separate. He had Simon, I had Selma. Our families were already mixed up and intertwined. And in the middle, were us.
Together.
"I want my Oddball!" A sudden squeal was heard from my side of the family.
On the front row seat was my mum struggling to hold back our two year old daughter. She wiggled down on the floor and ran over to Oddball who without hesitation crouched down to lift her up into his arms. Both of them wore wide smiles as Ayame tugged on Oddball's lapel.
Little Aya was a perfect mix of the two of us. His eyes, my hair, his smile, my nose.
She was laughing at something Oddball was telling her.
I turned to look at the man in front of me.
About to be bound to him legally in a bond we already had.
I held my hand out and accepted the silk ribbon that was tied around both our wrists, tying us together.
We had opted for a pagan ritual rather than a traditional one. The idea of literally tying a knot, felt right.
I barely registered the words the clergyman said. All I knew was the deeply focused look in a grey pair of eyes until the words 'you may kiss your wife' were spoken.
Ethan's face broke into a wide smile.
"Come here, wife," he mumbled and pulled me to him for our first kiss as a married couple.
I heard a faint hum and as Ethan and I ended the kiss, I looked around to see all our guests with small soap bubble containers, blowing bubbles at us. Either side of the arch, were bubble machines, which were the source of the hum.
Freddy had his camera, capturing us and our surprise at the rain of bubbles around us.
The look on Mio's face was all I needed to know who had made this happen. He gave me a friendly wink as I turned back to see Ethan's almost childish joy at the bubbles surrounding us. Gently he lay an arm around my waist pulling me to him again.
"Perfect wedding. Perfect wife," he whispered and kissed me again.
My hand reached into his hair as I kissed him back not caring about the not-so-subtle clearing of throats coming form Oddball and Simon.
"Shut up, idiots. Let me kiss my wife," Ethan mumbled without breaking the kiss.
I suspected there was a flipped finger involved going in their general direction. Breaking the kiss I stared into my husband's eyes.
"I love you!" I giggled.
"I should bloody well hope so! You just married the man!" Simon huffed with a chuckle.
A few hours later, the party was going strong. Dina and Chris had taken Aya home with them and their kids after the cakes.
I was on the dance floor with a very twitchy Simon.
Over to the side Mio was flirting heavily with Ellen. If the look on her face was an indication, he was playing a winning game.
Ethan was dancing with Selma, while Simon was looking over every couple of seconds.
"If you go past the arch, there is a stone bench, partly hidden," I whispered.
"You think this is a good idea?" He asked.
"It's the best you've ever had," I grinned.
He sighed.
"Do it!" I encouraged.
Simon nodded and let go of me before walking over to take Selma from her brother.
A hand landed on my shoulder and I twisted up to see Oddball grinning towards Simon who was leading Selma out for some cool air.
"He's serious, huh?" Oddball grinned.
"Looks that way," I replied.
"I had the caterers place a bottle of champagne and two glasses on that stone bench," Ethan said as he approached us.
"I swear... that man would be useless without us," Oddball laughed.
"Interfering band-buddies?" I asked Ethan.
"Yep. But it gets the job done and I have the best wife in the world," Ethan grinned.
"That is true, husband," I replied as his lips touched mine with that same magic spark as we'd always had.
"May I borrow the bride?" I heard behind me and turned to see Josh.
"You may," I grinned and let my stepfather lead me out to the dance floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Oddball and Ethan in some kind of discussion. I left them to it and enjoyed my dance. At the other side of the dance floor, Mio and Ellen were dancing without following the beat of the music and giggling like children.
Once Josh had left me to dance with my mum, and I had danced with my father in law and with Sean, I decided it was time for a break. Not surprisingly, I found Evan over by the chocolate fountain.
"My husband seems to have disappeared," I said.
"Yep. With my housemate by the looks of it," Evan shrugged.
"What the...?" I asked and saw a grin on Evan's face.
"Yep," he grinned.
"When? How?" I asked feeling bemused.
"We kinda figured love was in the air... so we got a house," Evan laughed.
"When?" I asked.
"We got the keys two days ago," Evan grinned.
"Why do the two of you always do things on the down low?" I asked and gave him a hug.
"You were so busy with this," Evan laughed.
"Well... that calls for champagne," I replied and dragged him to the bar.
"To Odds and Evens!" I said and clinked our glasses.
"And to ever after," Evan chuckled.
Suddenly there was a commotion up on stage.
We had gone to the Academy and hired the band who were occupying our old band room, but at that moment, they had been replaced by three very smiley rockers. Down by the bar, the trio of youngsters were trying to convince the bartender that they were of legal drinking age. I sent the bartender a quick thumbs up and he brought three beers up with a smirk at the grateful musicians.
There was the sudden noise of feedback as Oddball grabbed the microphone, no longer used to smaller stages.
"So. Seven and something years ago, Ethan sang a sappy song that changed all our lives. But. Because we don't really do sappy shit any more, we decided to go all 90's glam-rock and get the sentimental stuff out of our systems once and for all," Oddball said into the microphone with a mischievous smile.
I spotted Selma to the side and dragged Evan over to her. She saw me and subtly wiggled her hand to show the glint of jewellery.
I gave her a hug and got a happy squeal back.
I turned to look at the stage, where Simon was trying desperately not to laugh. His smile had never been wider. Ethan was looking at me with a clever, warm smile. Oddball was already seated at the drums in full tux. He and Evan smiled happily at each other.
I blew a kiss up as the three of them started on Thunder's "Love Walked In".
To my surprise, Simon took main vocals and didn't let Selma out of his stare.
Selma shook her head and rubbed her nose in exasperation.
"He's so fucking cheesy," she huffed with a laugh.
"He loves you," I grinned.
"Yeah. But he's so daft! Last night he did a strip tease while singing 'D'ya think I'm sexy'," she grinned.
We were just calming our giggles when Sarah sidled up to Selma.
"Should I be commenting on the fact that you're wearing my grandmother's ring?" She asked through the side of her mouth towards Selma.
"It does look like I've just signed up for a life with that cheeseball, doesn't it?" Selma replied.
"Good! He came and asked for that ring a while ago. I was hoping he actually had a plan," Sarah laughed.
"I just want to know what possessed him to sing this tho," Selma huffed.
"That would be Mark," Sarah replied dryly.
Selma sent her a questioning look, so Sarah waved her own husband over.
"Tell the future mother of your grandkids why they chose the dodgiest glam rock ballad on the planet," she said.
"Because it was the one I wanted for our first dance," Mark grinned happily at Sarah.
"You did?" Sarah asked.
"Yep," Mark grinned.
"All about the romance," Sarah laughed.
Up on the stage, Ethan was looking at me. Our eyes met and I felt the mad fluttering of happiness at the smile on his face.
I lay my arms around the two people next to me.
"One big happy family," Evan giggled.
"I wouldn't want it any other way," I replied with my eyes on the three guys on the stage who seemed to have forgotten all about the party and were moving on to randomly goofing around with music.
I stood there wondering if it would be totally inappropriate for me to run up there to join them when Ethan caught my eye and waved me up to them.
He took my hand and pulled me up so I ended close enough to kiss him. Which I did.
The guitar between our bodies reminded me of the setting before I got carried away.
Five minutes later, I was officially the most unconventional bride ever as I sat at the drums with my gown hiked up over one knee, beating out the rhythm to match Ethan's guitar.
Over by the microphone Oddball laughed at us.
"You just know they will live happily ever after!" He said.
Ethan and I just looked at each other and both started giggling.
We were just getting started.
-the End-
(A/N:
This is the actual end of Obstruction.
The book... not the band...
The band lives on in the sequel!
IMPETUS
Make sure you check out the next instalment in this story. It is called Impetus and will be a different beast
It takes place 20 ish years down the line and as they have grown up, they have also encountered a few bumps in the road.
Read it!
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