NOTHING BUT A BAD TASTE. (✓)

03. DADDY.

( unedited )

THE CHURCH WEDDING OF THE CÁSTROS was intended to be a private affair; a firm instruction to those that were working the security detail. However, paparazzi and its media affiliates wrestled hard for access knowing fully well that this was about to be the wedding of the century. This, therefore, stripped Maya and Ebén of whatever shred of privacy they had left by being an unofficial witness to their love.

I want you back.

Reuben's need to publicly declare his want and his need spurned Maya's day; turning a day of wedded bliss into something sour. His concern, after she dropped to the floor, seemed disingenuous when he was the root cause of her slipping into a state of unconsciousness with a let's-start-over.

"Are you alright, Pooh?" Reuben called out over her limp body, trying to stir her body to wake but he found that his calls to her conscience went unanswered. However, so did Ebén's.

"Baby... Can you hear me? P-please wake up" pleaded Ebén, cradling her face with a tinge of desperation present in his husk. Her head was wilting in his hands; looking for any small sign that she was still there, still conscious.

"Maya? ...Maya?" Reuben continued to call out.

She had spent years away from him; trying to reset her heart that had grown so stubborn and was completely numb to grandiose gestures of love.

He was, now, too late as she had outgrown him and found better; better that made her heart swell.

"Maya? Maya? I know you can hear me," Reuben continued to petition her mental as her eyes drooped, utterly convinced that she hadn't forgotten the sound of his mating call. He tried to wrangle his arms free from the security guard that held him down, realising that proximity to her was a thing of the past.

Maya's limp body lay undignified in Ebén's arms; as shutters of cameras sought to sneak a photo of the unconscious bride. Ebén had already become acclimated to the claw of public scrutiny but was desperate not to subject Maya to the same.

His soft baritone had turned into a groused warning. "Cut the fuckin' cameras otherwise I'll smash every single one to pieces, best believe that."

Reuben was no longer displaying a glower but something had amused Maya's insignificant other.

"Did I say somethin' funny?"

With his arms still restrained by the grasp of Ebén's security detail, Reuben hurled a rebuttal back, "I'm just amazed that of all people it's you she chose."

"She ain't the same Maya that you abandoned," grated Ebén who had gotten tired of being pliant to the man that gave Maya hell. "And more to the point, it ain't on me that you fucked up your chance."

"I never abandoned her." Reuben addressed the first accusation, "Life just... happened."

"And now you're trying to fuck up the best day of both our lives, for what? Your ego."

"Nah, not even. She's just told me enough about you to know this isn't what she wants; that's why I'm doing this" gloated Reuben's prideful green orbs who had backed Ebén into a corner that his statement couldn't be verified from his bride-to-be.

"I know this is what she wants and has always wanted," said Ebén, not willing to be drawn into a public spar with Maya's good-for-nothing ex.

"You seem really sure..." Reuben taunted.

Eben's tone was brusque; he had been patient for long enough and wanted to set the record straight.

"I know my wife"