The Not So Perfect Love Story

42|| Our not so perfect wedding

We loved with a love that was more than love.

- Edgar Allen Poe

42|| Our not so perfect wedding

It was the ninth of November, the day I got married to bash, the day I traded my maiden surname for his becoming Charlotte Maria Gray.

I woke up normally with a small groan at the prospect of having to wake up. But the moment I realized what day it was I sat up, excited.

I was getting married!

I got off the bed and twirled about in the room grinning like the Cheshire cat and I swear I was on cloud nine. That was before my gaze fell on the photo I had on my nightstand.

It was just the four of us, the Scott family.

It had been clicked in the cabin where I was now about to get married in, on a weekend camping trip that Mia and I forced our parents to go on. We almost threw a temper tantrum and were 16 and 17 year old.

We had set the camera on timer and sat down next to our unassuming parents who were surprised when we yelled cheese. It was a beautiful picture that managed to picture our family dynamics the best way possible.

And suddenly I was sobbing because we won't be able to make such memories anymore because we won't be living in the same house. It didn't occur to my overly emotional state that I already don't live with them. That I moved out for college and never moved back in there.

Someone knocked on the door and then opened it, entering the room. Mum and Mia gasped and rushed to my side asking me what was wrong and why I was crying. I sobbed out the reasons and they were silent before they burst out laughing.

"You moved out when you were 18 for college, my little Lottie. We haven't been living together again after that, not for more than at max a month. Calm down, it's not like we can't ever hang out, just the four of us." Mum said and I felt all the embarrassment rush at me over the breakdown.

After a couple minutes of just hanging onto my mother and sister for support I got up and went to freshen up. Downstairs the Knights were just leaving the cabin and smiled at me as they left out back. Breakfast was just the four of us where my parents and sister made fun of my waterworks again.

"You'll always be my little angel Lottie. You're my first daughter, my first child. You called me dada for the first time ever and made me realize what it was to have a child and that would always the best memory I'd ever have. You are my sweetest little angel and never forget that." Dad said as I was leaving to go upstairs and shower before the makeup artists and hairdressers arrived to work on me.

I hugged dad back, unable to say a word with my emotions chocking me.

Soon I found myself back in my bedroom at the cabin where I'd woken up in the morning, sitting in my bathrobe while the makeup artists set up camp on my vanity. Since I had chosen an evening wedding, it gave us time to do things in a relaxed, unrushed manner.

Hours later I was ready, wearing all the makeup, jewelry, shoes and the dress that made me the most special person today. The guests had started arriving and some people popped by to greet me and wish me.

Even Nancy from the diner near our high school came to wish me and said she told me so. And I chuckled and agreed along, wondering how many people saw me and Bash together and saw our fates intertwined this way.

My bridesmaids were rushing about a little trying to find last minute things, and making sure we were ready to start on time. Soon it was time for everyone to line up for the walk down the aisle and only Mia and I were present in the room.

Throughout the day everyone had been cautious around me, ready to support me if I started getting nervous. My early morning breakdown confirmed everyone's worries of my having a nervous breakdown right before I walked in.

But I had refused them because I had no doubt I was marrying Bash today.

Until now, that is.

"What if he realises it is too soon, and calls it off before I walk in? What if it is when we say the 'I do's'? What if he realises he deserves better than me, better than his best friend's sloping seconds and calls it all off? What if– " I ranted when Mia cut me off.

"Ottie, calm down. That man standing at the end of the aisle waiting for you? He loves you with all his being, Ottie. He's known you since you two were kids and probably has loved for all these years too, just never realized it until he saw the strong woman you had to suddenly become. He realized he'd be a fool if he never told you how much he loved you and put a ring on your finger the second you accepted him. He loves you and only you. For him you are the sun around which our solar system rotates."

She took a breath in and chuckled.

"You might just be the centre of his universe Ottie. You are getting married today, right now and nothing's changing that."

It was all the assurance I had needed. Well, all that I was getting whether or not I needed more. Because dad walked in and said it was time. Mia squeezed me once again before she left with her bouquet in hand.

Dad walked up to me and wrapped his arms around me tightly and kissed the top of my head. Then he slowly pulled back and held is arm out to me.

"Come little angel, let's get you married."

I grinned and linked my arms with his. We walked down the stairs and to the back door. We reached there in time to see Mia walk down the aisle between James and Mark, arms linked with both.

There was a pause, before the song, a thousand years extended its notes far and wide in the open wilderness.

I gripped onto my dad's arm and stepped down the back porch and slowly took careful steps towards the end of the aisle, the altar where Sebastian stood.

My Sebastian. My Ebby.

I looked up and saw his glistening eyes and shining streaks on his cheeks. He was crying. Or in his words, his eyes were leaking. I smiled, trying to hold my own tears back, but they wouldn't stop. Dad handed me over to him nodding and smiling softly.

The officiator breezed past the ceremony. It was both too long and too short. We had been standing for hours and days on the altar, but all too suddenly, he was asking if we took each other as our lawfully wedded spouse and we said yes. Of course we did.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss your bride."

He announced and Bash's arms were around me pulling me into him and smashing his lips to mine. For that second I forgot everything other than his being and mine, the rush of feelings and emotions and pleasure and other unnamed things coursing through me.

I was his wife now. Officially his for the world to see, as he was mine; and this was our beginning.

The beginning of our not-so perfect love story.