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.
After a couple of minutes or what seemed to be like hours, she couldn't tell anymore, the ladies were done. "You can't look yet" Gina scolded. "First, we have to get you in this dress". She held the dress out for Emily. Emily took her rope off then stepped into the dress, tugging it with her until it rested on her breasts. She turned her back to Gina so she could be zipped up.
"Could you fix the torsolette as well please?" she wasn’t able to put the hooks on the lingerie earlier. "Sure thing honey".
The dress felt like a glove on her when she was properly zipped up. "Wow. No one can tell you're pregnant ems" Gina gushed. I know, Emily thought to herself.
"What? You are pregnant?" Ashley asked stunned.
Emily chuckled at the wide-eyed look on Ashley’s face. "Yea. I am almost 19 weeks"
"Told you that torsolette would do it" Gina said proudly. That was the whole point of the purchase, not that she was ashamed of being pregnant, she just didn’t want people to know right away the reason for the wedding.
"Well, congratulations" Mina said. "Thanks" Emily muttered softly. She didn’t like the look she was suddenly receiving; both Mina and Ashley were giving her a pity stare, like they knew the only reason she was getting married was because of the baby. Even though that was the case, Emily still felt hurt other people were aware of it.
Gina placed the silver shoes by her feet, it was T-strap shoe with rhinestones running in the middle.
She put them on one at a time holding Gina's hand with her sweaty ones caused by her nervousness.
"So you ready for the big reveal?" Emily nodded wiping her hands on her dress. "Here we go" Gina said pushing Emily gently towards the full length mirror in the corner of the room. Emily's mouth dropped when she saw her reflection. She looked beautiful. Her brown hair was styled into a loose up do with a silver clip on the bun. Her makeup was flawless. Mina went for the soft look giving her a more natural appearance. The red lipstick enhanced her red lips making them look redder than usual and fuller. Her dress was a simple strapless lace dress with a white ribbon tied into a bow at the midline that was fitted all the way to her knees than flared to the floor. She didn’t want anything extravagant, maybe if she was actually marrying for love, she would have put more effort into the dress.
"Wow" were the only ones she would utter; she didn’t believe how beautiful she looked. "I know. You look beautiful. Ash is going to die" Gina said looking gleeful.
Emily forced a smile. She doubted that would be the reaction she will get from him, a girl could only hope.
***************
"Relax Em. You will be fine" Mr. Hurley assured her again. They were standing in the corner where Ash and the rest of the guest couldn't see her. She had asked Mr. Hurley if he could walk her down the aisle. His response was "Of course. I would be honored to walk you down the aisle"
He jokily added "Besides, this is the only chance I have to walk someone down the aisle". Emily had laughed at that. She was truly grateful for the supports she had received from the man, despite the fact he had to force his son into marriage, he was indeed a kind man.
She opted for a very small wedding, she would have preferred a court marriage but Mr. Hurley dismissed that idea fast. They were about 30 guests in attendance, Sherri, Tim the driver and Carol were the only ones there for her. Ash's friends were invited as well as some of Mr. Hurley family friends. She remembered seeing Gina at the verge of tears when she had informed her she had no family to send any invite to. Emily had told Gina to stop apologizing when she kept apologizing for her lost; Emily didn’t see the need since she never met any of her family members.
Emily wiped her sweaty palms on her dress taking several deep breaths; she was incredible nervous. It was finally here, after two weeks of dreading the day, it was finally happening. She felt Mr. Hurley squeeze her hand then turned to him. He mouthed "Relax". Easier said than done. She nodded anyway and smiled at him through the veil.
"Its show time" Gina said behind her. They walked around the corner and on cue "Here comes the bride" filled the air. The wedding was being held at the Hurley's garden. Emily's eye wandered around. Gina had outdone herself in the short amount of time she had. The place was transformed with white and peach decorations. The chairs were white flaked with peach ribbons. Walking through the arch made of several beautiful flowers, she could see Ash standing by the small gazebo. He was wearing a black tuxedo and was standing with his hands behind him. She looked at the faces of the people smiling at her; some of them she didn't know, others she did. She smiled back at them all, pleased they made time out to honor the invites. She wouldn't have been surprised if no one showed up, that was just the story of her life.
All too soon, she reached her destination. Mr. Hurley handed her off to Ash. He took her hand and she finally looked him in the face, she had been avoiding making eye contact with him until then. He looked really good with his hair perfectly styled making his eyes pop out more. He smiled but she noticed it didn't reach his eyes. This was the first time she had seen him since the news. She didn’t even know if he still felt the same way he did or if he had finally come to terms. With his demeanor, she suspected the former might be the case.
"Ladies and gentlemen. We have gathered here to witness the union of Asher James Hurley and Emily Springs." the priest started. The ceremony went on after that, they said their vows and exchanged rings. The moment Emily dreaded the most came when the pastor announced "I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride". The guest clapped and hollered. Emily turned to the guys making the loudest noise, they looked like they are making fun of the whole ceremony. She recognized two of them but the third one was a new face. She smiled softly to the only one she was familiar with, Michael; under normal circumstances she would have gone out with him but too bad he was just like his friend. She liked him at first and had thought he was cute when she first met him but when he asked her out after Ash had proposed his bizarre offer, she knew both of them were up to no good. She figured they had a bet on her and refused for them to use her like that.
Emily turned her attention back to Ash and to her surprise, he unveiled her then instead of the scorching hot kiss she was used to getting from him he gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. No tongue. Emily stamped the hurt she felt down, put on her fake smile she had mastered through the years, then turned around and waved to the guest who were cheering loudly with her bouquet. "Ladies and gentleman, Mr. and Mrs. .Hurley" the pastor declared.