Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

It may surprise many, considering my job, but I never saw myself as a girly girl. I wasn’t one of those girls, who had that wedding all planned out entering high school and their dress designed after the first art class. I didn’t even have a vision about how I wanted it to be or where. Honestly until the day our families broke the news to us, I hadn’t spent more than a thought to it. Sure had I been put into multiple wedding dresses for runway shows but never had I had tears in my eyes and stroked the fabric emotionally. The days just went by and Trina and my mom turned all bridezilla. On an almost hourly base they came up to me with any decisions they had made, asking for my approval. Not that I cared a lot but still they asked. Yesterday they had chase Taylor and me through pretty much ever bridal shop in Halifax and after finally agreeing on the simple dress I chose over some over the top Vera Wang, they dropped us off at a spa and made us getting manicures, pedicures and facial. Today the wedding was 3 days away and I was laying on my balcony trying to get some peace and maybe a slight tan.
So far I had to give approvals to flowers, cake decorations, seating orders- even though I only knew like 25% of the people on the list because the number of people I had invited was close to 10- and songs. The not ending knocks on my door and the interruptions did not help me getting a rest and of course didn’t make me think about other things. It was around 2 pm now and my mother- who had taken the week of to get everything settled- was somewhere down town meeting up with Trina later on. My father luckily was at work so I was at home alone finally being able to nap a little.
Well at least I thought so but then I heard something hitting my window. I got up, walked over to the balustrade and looked down. My oh so awesome husband stood in the backyard all alone and looked up to me.

“Romeo how can I help you?” I joked throwing a tiny stone back at him.

“Oh Juliet could you open the front door for me? I’d like to talk to you.” He answered.

“Sure. Come around. I’ll be down in a minute.”

I rushed back into my room, threw a beige tank top and jeans hot pants over my golden bikini and made my way to the front door. After opening I led him into the kitchen and leaned against the counter.

“How can I help you?” I asked after some seconds of silence.

“I’m actually here to ask you for a favor. Two of my best friends are flying in today, some more tomorrow, but those two mean a lot to me and the parents want us to pick them up together so they can get to know you. They never knew about Becky and uhm I don’t want them to know about this marriage being fake… for several reasons… you’ll find out soon enough.” He rambled, fidgeting with his cap.

“Kay. No problem. So I can escape from the evil mothers.” I rolled my eyes. “When do I have to be where?”

“I’ll pick you up in let’s say 40 minutes? Is that okay?”

I agreed and led him back out. Then I quickly jumped into the shower and changed into a white floaty dress with slight pink flower prints and put white Mary-Jane pumps on. After applying some mascara, I threw my hair into a messy bun and went downstairs. Realizing I still had 10 minutes left I took bottle of water out of the fridge, locked the front door behind me and sat down on the swing Sid had waited on for me many years ago. Now it was me swinging around a little and waiting.
It took approximately 5 minutes until the big car with the tinted windows pulled into the driveway. He got out, started walking towards the house but stopped midway. He must have seen me sitting here because he turned, took of his sunglasses and came towards me. I jumped of the swing, picked up my handbag and water bottle and approached him.
“This thing still exists huh?” He mumbled and motioned to the swing. I just nodded and followed him to the car.
The drive to the airport was silent until we pulled into the parking lot and stopped.
“Do you have the ring?” He asked. “I haven’t told them yet why they are here because Max has a really big mouth and I want to tell them in the car or something. So we really should look like a couple I guess.”

I let out a sigh. “Of course I have.” I answered flashing my hand. “My mom won’t let me come down to breakfast without it. Yeah let’s give it a try. First appearance in public. Be armed and ready.” My statement ended in a mock town. He let out a halfhearted laugh, got out of the car, came over to open my door in good manner and offered me his hand. I accepted it and got out. “So where do we have to got?” I asked when we walked towards the airport building and his right arm lay around my shoulder and I had put my thumb through a belt loop of his pants. If you asked me we did a pretty good job acting.
In my heart it hurt a little, because being so close again made me think about the good times we had spent as kids put also about the pain he put me through when he left. But at the same time anger built in my stomach because of the hatred that had formed during the last years. Out of all people karma had chose him to be the person to go through all this with. The human reminder of how miserable I was after he left.
Sidney navigated through the airport as if he had in inner map of it and came to stop in front of a large glass door. He led me towards a pillar, leaned against it and pulled me into his arms. I stood between his legs and faced him. After resting his head onto my shoulder he said: “When we stand like this chances are higher people won’t recognize us so fast.” His thoughts made sense and I also leaned against him.
I inhaled his scent and listened to his heartbeat. When I closed my eyes it felt like being teens again. It felt like he had never left and we had never been apart. But when I opened my eyes again I again was in the arms of a stranger. 10 minutes later I heard people getting excited and started to shout. Obviously the passengers of the flight were arriving now. I lifted my head, stepped back and took his hand. “Come on. Let’s go find your mysterious friends.” He pushed himself off the pillar and pulled me into his side again. “We’re pretty good actors huh?” He mumbled.
“Guess so” I agreed.
When we got closer to the door, it slid open and to guys in the mid twenties stepped out pulling a suitcase each and a duffle bag perched on it.

“Hey there Champ” the smaller one in ripped jeans and a very colorfully plaid short-sleeved button down exclaimed. Sidney smiled, let go of me and walked towards them. He pulled the two of them into men hugs and they greeted each others loudly. That’s when people recognized them and stormed towards them asking for autographs and pictured. I pulled out my Blackberry and pretended to work on it; hoping people wouldn’t recognize me now too.
After roughly 15 minutes that felt like an hour I suddenly heard Sid calling me. “Hey Viv, come on.” I followed him, his friends were already heading out. In front of his car we met up with them.

“So guys” Sid began after putting their baggage into the trunk. “This is Viv, the main reason why you guys are here.”
The two of them were speechless for a second but found their voices as soon as they were on the backseats.

“Excuse my question and sorry if I’m mistaken but are you Vivian Laraque by any chance” the taller pale one said. “I’m Colby by the way but you can call me Army just like everyone here does.”

I laughed. “Yeah by every chance I am. But you can call me Viv like this guy here does because he couldn’t say my name in Kindergarten.”

“Hooooooooold on. You were in Kindergarten together and never told me? Sid I’m beyond disappointed in you. You should’ve told me that you have such a beautiful buddy. I’m Maxime by the way but call me Max.”

“The famous Max Talbot I take it?” I grinned focusing on the road, even though Sid drove.

“Too bad for you she’s my fiancé, Superstar”, Sid said matter of factly as if he was reading out High School Soccer results, while checking the road in the mirrors and setting the blinker to changes the lanes.

“Wow you’re engaged?” Army screamed. I laughed. “Yeah guys… you’re here for the wedding. It’s in 3 days.” I told them while laughing about their shocked expressions.

THIS should be fun.