After the Rain (The Twisted Fate Series Book 1) (22 page)

32

A bit
of corniness is allowed

“Stormy!” Lilly threw herself on Stormy as soon as she walked through the door and put her mouth to her ear. “Thank God you’re here, Sue and Val are basically mad!”

At that moment, as if on cue, Sue walked in from the adjoining bathroom. “Stormy,” she pointed imperiously. “Nails. Hair. Make-up… Go! Now! Oh, and hello, nice to see you.”

And then after a quick hug, Sue dragged Stormy towards the pair of women on the other side of the room, who were wielding brushes and hair dryers. The one looked at Stormy’s hair and pointed, said something in Czech, and then shook her head.

Sue looked at her watch. “Yes. Making good time, people. But let’s not slow down. Come come people.” She clapped a few times and then tapped on a clipboard that she seemed to be carrying around. “Go people, go!” She was saying ‘people’ an awful lot.

And then Val swooped in. “I need a steamer, pronto. Dress has a crease. Steamer. Now. Crease.” And she darted back and forth a few times for added urgency.

“See what I mean,” Lilly whispered to Stormy with a smile. The room was manic with frantic activity, and Stormy made sure to obey Sue by sitting down for her manicure. And to make matters even worse, Lilly’s mom tottered in, and the whole room stopped and stared. She was carrying an open bottle of champagne; clearly, she’d started early – which was not unlike her.

“DAHLINGS!
” she shrieked to the room at large. She always made a loud entrance. It was probably from her decades on the stage – she was a renowned theatre actress of some fame and fortune.

She looked towards Stormy, and let out an exclamation of delight. “Dahling step-daughter! Kisses,” she cried, swishing over to Stormy and giving her a few of her signature air kisses. Then she looked around and burst out crying, before slumping down in a chair.

Lilly and Stormy looked at each other and rolled their eyes. “What’s wrong, mom?” Lilly asked wearily.

“It’s just…” She wailed and put her hand on her forehead. “My baby has grown up. My baby Lilly has blossomed into a woman.”

Lilly went over and gave her mom a hug and a pat on the back, still smiling resignedly at Stormy. “It’s okay mom, it’s okay.”

And then her mom jumped out of her seat and threw her arms wide with dramatic flourish, spilling a few drops of champagne as she shouted, “As Shakespeare says, men are April when they woo, December when they wed. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.”

Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were staring, transfixed. Lilly’s mom took this as the sign of an appreciative audience and did a bow. “Thank you. Thank you. You’ve been a great audience.”

She turned back to Lilly. “But seriously, dahling, I’m so happy for you.” More air kisses were dispensed, and then she turned to Stormy again. “Don’t you dare marry. I don’t think I could bear both my girls leaving the nest.”

Lilly and Stormy hadn’t lived in “her nest” for over ten years, but hey. Stormy suppressed a smile and made a non-committal noise as her former step-mother pulled her in for another hug.

“And please change out of that hideous top. Love you, sweeties.” She swung around and looked at Sue and Val. “Love you all.” She nodded in the direction of the hair and make–up people. “I don’t know you. But I could love you, too.”

And then, with one last bow, she was gone.

There was silence in the room for a few seconds; there was always silence after Ida exited. Sue cleared her throat and tapped the clipboard loudly, breaking the stunned hush. “Well, that performance made us lose two minutes, so hurry, we need to make it up.”

Things calmed to a simple simmer as all the girls were seated for hair and make-up. The hairdresser put Stormy’s hair into a fancy up-do, not something she particularly liked, but hey, this was Lilly’s wedding.

Lilly looked stunning: her lips were painted a delicate shade of pink, her blue eyes popped beneath a subtle bronze eye shadow, and her cheeks were dusted with a hint of rosy hue. A collective sigh rose up as the finishing touch was added – a small vintage tiara, which the hairdresser pinned carefully into her honey blonde hair.

“Oh my God, I think I’m going to cry!” squealed Val.

“Me too!” Sue jumped in.

“I’m already crying,” said Stormy, because she was. The make-up artist looked a little pissed as she tsked and dabbed at Stormy’s face. Everyone laughed. It was hard to describe the beautiful feeling of that day. Stormy felt surrounded by love. She was practically over-flowing with happiness and her heart was swelling – of course, Marcus played a huge part in that. Maybe the biggest.

Before getting dressed, they all sat for a moment of quiet conversation and snacks. Stormy was starving and tucked in enthusiastically.

“God, how do you do it?” Sue sighed, looking at Stormy helping herself to yet another delicate canapé. “You can eat like a man-beast and stay so thin.”

“So not fair,” echoed Val.

Lilly nodded in agreement. “Not fair.” And then she turned to Val and said, “Such a pity Steve couldn’t be here.”

Val shrugged. “Oh well, that’s what happens when you break up.”

The sudden shock in the room was palpable. “What?” Lilly screeched.

“What?” Someone else echoed.

“What?”The echo continued.

“Okay, pause everyone. What’s going on here?” Lilly was up. “First Stormy and Marcus fall in love while their plane almost crashes and they get stranded in a freak storm and start shagging their way up the continent. And now this!”

Stormy cringed a little and busied herself with the snack platter, her cheeks burning. Clearly, these girls kept no secrets from each other.

“What?” Val now screeched looking at Stormy. “So envious. He is so hot!”

“
So
hot,” the echo agreed.

“Wait,” Lilly cut the echo off. “Back to you, Val. What then hell happened?”

Val sort of shrugged, looking pretty unperturbed by the whole thing, “Truthfully, it was the most uneventful break-up in the history of the world. We just grew apart, and after dinner one night, when we’d hardly spoken a word to each other, he asked me if I still loved him. I said that I wasn’t sure, and he said the same. We agreed that we should break up, then we hugged each other, both said we would start looking for new apartments, and he slept on the couch. But we still ate breakfast the next morning and read the paper together.”

Everyone took this in for a moment.

“Are you okay?” Lilly reached out and took her by the hand.

“I think so. Yes. It hadn’t felt right for a while now.”

And then a knock on the door interrupted the girly bonding, and Stormy crossed the room to find Jess standing behind it. Damien’s best friend Jess was a megawatt hot lesbian that everyone had been jealous of at some point, because she was so cool in that
I-don’t-care-what’s-cool-and-don’
t-even-know-what’s-cool
kind of way.

“Yo guys!” And she also said things like ‘Yo’, which was super-extra cool. Jess greeted the room and walked in looking stupidly hot: short cropped black hair, red Angelina lips, perfect almond-shaped eyes and wearing a tailored black suit with bright red high-heels. The tattoos on her ankles popped out as she walked, one of them winding its way down her foot.

“Damien wanted me to give you this,” she said to Lilly, walking over and handing her a note. “Don’t worry, it’s not like the last note,” she added quickly. Lilly had been left at the altar by her last fiancé, who’d been bastard enough to dump her in a note just minutes before she was supposed to walk down the aisle in front of five hundred people. It had been a very traumatic day; but if it hadn’t happened, she would never have met Damien.

“Also, I believe we’re delaying a bit until Marcus arrives,” Jess said as Lilly took the note.

“
OOOHHHH,
” a collectivegasp rose up from the room at the mention of his name, and suddenly all eyes were on Stormy.

Jess looked around, slightly confused. “Yeah, okay” she smiled. “I’m going back to the room where people are sane.” She blew everyone a kiss and walked out.

“So hot,” Val said as she watched Jess stride out.

“So hot,” Sue echoed.

“Totally,” said Lilly, who had at first thought that Jess might be Damien’s girlfriend.

Stormy nodded. “Like a hot tomato.”

Lilly opened the note and scanned the handwritten lines, looking like she’d just melted. Stormy smiled, touched to see how happy he made her. Damien was no doubt one of the best guys on the planet – next to wonderful Marcus, of course. Lilly held out the note for everyone to read.

“I
am counting the seconds until I see you walk down
the aisle and become my wife. You are my dream
come true.”

Everyone sighed and cooed over Lilly. It was the sweetest, corniest thing anyone had ever written. But then, even Stormy had to admit that a bit of corniness was allowed when it came to weddings and love!

Finally, it was time to put the dresses on. Sue and Val opened the garment bags labeled with their names, and Stormy tried to look enthusiastic about their bland, cream-colored bridesmaid dresses with the dove-gray waistbands.

“Mmm, so pretty,” she managed with little enthusiasm.

Sue and Val both looked at her skeptically. “Don’t lie, you hate them. We knew you would – that’s why we got you this!” They pulled the exact same dress out of a third garment bag, but in a pretty pink, with a lavender-colored waistband. Stormy almost teared up at the gesture.

She slipped it on and the make-up artist put the final touches on her face. She stared at herself in the full-length mirror in shock; she’d never seen herself this dressed up before. And she had to admit, she kind of liked the effect.

Then it was Lilly’s turn. And she looked incredible.

Her wedding gown was perfect, echoing the timeless romance of their setting: beautiful, strapless and tight-fitting, adorned with vintage lace and a thin pink ribbon around the waist. Lilly glowed with happiness as it was lifted carefully over her head and the delicate pearl buttons fastened.

The final touches were added: a flowing, lace-edged veil and a pair of droplet ruby earrings that Damien had given to her as a gift, to remind her of the
burning moon
that had brought them together.

Everyone looked at each other and fell into a giant group hug, squealing like schoolgirls, before heading out the door.

33

Someone’s got it ba-aa-d

The wait for his flight felt like the longest two hours of Marcus’s life. Being separated from Stormy felt wrong. They’d spent every second together for the last few days, and being apart felt like he’d just had a limb amputated. A tad dramatic, perhaps, but that’s how it felt. Her absence caused a phantom itch that he just couldn’t scratch. He wondered around the airport in a Stormy daze, where everything reminded him of her. As a result, after the two hours, he’d bought her an entire airport of stuff:

An extra huge bag of colorful M&M’s had reminded him of her hair, so he’d bought them…

A strange-looking spiritual magazine with a person on the cover covered in colored aura lights (or something) had made him think of her, so he bought it too…

Likewise the colorful pens and note pad full of butterflies from the same shop, so he’d bought those too…

As did the rainbow-colored knee-length socks, and the fluffy pink Hello Kitty slippers. He’d never, ever imagined he’d be buying Hello Kitty, let alone for his girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

He rolled that word over in his mind several times, and even said it out loud a few times, just to hear what it sounded like.

He loved the sound of it. “Hi, this is my girlfriend, Stormy-Rain.” He chuckled out loud, thinking about his work colleagues’ reactions. Not that he cared. Anyone would see what a special person she was after spending just five minutes with her.

The flight finally took off. He’d told Damien to let the ceremony go on without him and that he’d catch up at the reception, because he might be as much as two and a half hours late, but Damien had insisted they would wait. The guests would be more than happy to do some more sight-seeing or relaxing at the hotel, he’d said, and he suspected the ladies would love the extra time to get ready. Besides, he was secretly grateful, he’d confessed – he was still trying to get his vows perfect, and had been practicing them with Jess. Plus, with any luck, Lilly’s mom would have passed out by then!

Marcus laughed, remembering what had happened the first time he’d met Lilly’s mom. Damien had warned him about her, but the warning hadn’t quite adequately prepared him. It was at their engagement party; she’d got up and made a terribly inappropriate (and totally unplanned, unsanctioned and unexpected) speech about the “terrible difficulties of marriage” – such a great thing to say to a newly-engaged couple in love. And after that, she’d fallen off her chair. Obviously accustomed to this, Lilly’s family had just dragged her to the other end of the room, given her a pillow and put a blanket over her. Marcus had found the whole thing pretty shocking.

He suddenly imagined what it must have been like for Lilly and Stormy to have lived with her. His stomach twisted as he thought about her childhood and how terrible it had been. It made him furious, and even more determined to treat her like the most precious gift he’d ever been given – which she was. He wanted it all with her. And he hoped they could have it. Because he wanted the whole damn thing: the house, the kids, the dog, even the white-picket fence – which he would probably land up painting pink, under Stormy’s instructions, and that would be okay. It was absolutely crazy to feel this way about someone so soon, but he did.

By the time Marcus arrived in Prague and caught a taxi outside of the airport, it was already dark.He knew that it was meant to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but he hadn’t been expecting this – lit up against the night sky, it was utterly breathtaking. Everything had a golden glow to it, which reflected in the waters as he drove past the iconic Charles Bridge and into the main part of the city. Huge, glowing steeples and towers loomed above him. This had to be one of the most romantic places in the world, and he was here, and so was Stormy. An involuntary smile broke out across his face.

“You made it,” Damien greeted him at the door of their hotel room once Marcus had finally arrived.

“Sorry, it was touch-and-go there for a while.”

“It’s okay. You’re here.” Marcus and Damien gave each other one of those manly, back-patting hugs.

“Hey,” Jess got up and walked over. “So I hear you and Stormy are, like, getting jiggy with it?”

“Crap, Jess!” Marcus exclaimed and turned to Damien. “Does everyone know?”

Damien made a face like he was thinking. “Uuuh… Yup. Basically.”

“You guys waste no time,” Marcus said, smiling as he shook his head. It was impossible to be mad when the hot topic of gossip was something that made him so happy.

“So I bet she’s, like, a wild child in the sack,” Jess said matter-of-factly. It was more of a statement than an actual question, and although he had known Jess for years, and she was a lesbian, he still hadn’t quite gotten used to talking about women like that with her. Even if she and Damien told each other
everything!

“It’s not like that… I swear.” Suddenly he felt himself blush, actually blush. His face went warm and clammy and his palms started sweating.

“Oohhhh,” Jess made a playful girly noise, which was so not her usual style. “Someone’s got it ba-aa-d!” She picked up a brochure from the table and fanned Marcus’s face with it, smiling. “Need to cool down there, hey?”

Marcus just smiled, and judging by the looks on Damien and Jess’s faces, it was a stupid, giddy schoolboy smile. Jess’s face softened.

“Oh my God! You
have
got it bad! For real!” she exclaimed. Marcus nodded sheepishly and Damien’s eyes widened.

“Just
how
bad have you got it?” he asked Marcus.

Marcus had actually been dying to say this out loud to someone, and this was his first opportunity. “We’re together,” he said, unable to keep the hint of pride from his voice.

Jess made another girly noise. “Like boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” Marcus nodded and smiled. It sounded so good to have someone else acknowledge it. “We are.”

Jess nodded in approval. “Don’t blame you, she’s totally hot.” She looked at Damien who seconded her with a nod.

“She’s more than that, though…” Marcus trailed off. “Much, much more than that.”

Damien smiled at his cousin. “I think it’s great. I’d like to see you as happy as Lilly and I are.”

“Speaking of Lilly…” Jess said, her voice taking on a tone of urgency. “We don’t want her to think she’s been left at the altar again. Time to get this show on the road, guys.”

Marcus went to the bathroom and changed into his suit, brushed his teeth and sprayed on some cologne. The anticipation of seeing Stormy again was building by the second.

“Ready!” Marcus declared, coming out of the bathroom. Damien inhaled a long breath, and suddenly started looking tense.

“Nervous?” Marcus asked his cousin.

Damien shook his head. “Excited. Just so excited to see her.”

Marcus smiled. “I know the feeling.”

Jess put her arms around them both. “Okay then, let’s go get you married.”