Forever and Always

Chapter 22

The wedding was planned over the next couple of months. We decided to have it at the Inn, mostly to save money on renting a place and because it was the perfect venue for such a special occasion. We set the date for late spring, when the flowers we planted would be in full bloom and the grass would be at its greenest. We took that time to spruce up the area surrounding the Inn. We built a beautiful garden and set up a white arch trellis at the end of where the aisle would be. We planted special vines that twined around the trellis and bloomed beautiful white flowers.

In that time, Alex and his pirate cronies were tried and found guilty. Alex was sentenced to life in prison, and the rest were given sentences of about 20 years. That was the end of that. After I found out that Alex was locked up in the highest security prison in the Intergalactic Empire, my nightmares decreased in both number and severity. But they didn't disappear altogether. I would still crawl into Jim's bed at night after a particularly bad nightmare, and sometimes he would wake me up after I had been screaming. But every time he wrapped his arms around me, I was able to sleep soundly.

The night before the wedding had finally arrived, and Jim and I decided to spend that last night together before we would be bonded forever. I slept peacefully through the night, despite my nervousness for the day to come.

When I woke up in the morning, Jim wasn't next to me. Across many humanoid species in the universe, there was a tradition that the groom mustn't see the bride the day of the wedding until she walked down the aisle. It was considered bad luck if he saw her before then. So before midnight, Gabriel and Austin had woken him up and taken him down to the floor below to sleep for the rest of the night, and that's where he and the rest of the men would get ready all morning. The girls and I would get ready upstairs on the fifth floor, away from the eyes of other men.

My bridesmaids, also known as my best friends, helped me get ready all morning, along with Mrs. Hawkins. Captain Amelia came and helped her daughters get ready, as all three of them were the flower girls. Delbert was downstairs, helping Daniel get ready. Danny had not been happy that he'd had to wear a stuffy tuxedo, but I insisted that he looked so handsome and that I would give him a surprise later for being a good boy and wearing it. The surprise was a new board game, since he loved those so much. His three sisters had white dresses with short puffy skirts. Pale pink ribbons and sashes accented their dresses, and the pale pink rose petals in their baskets matched. Amelia was currently pinning back Brittany's curly blonde hair and attaching bows to them. Jessie's dark brown hair was too short to pin back, so a clip with a ribbon attached to it had to be stuck in her hair. Rachel's red hair was just long enough to tuck behind her ear with a ribbon.

My friends all had the same bridesmaid's dresses. I had designed them myself. Back on Earth, most bridesmaids had ugly dresses so that they didn't dampen the beauty of the bride's dress. I didn't really believe in that, so I had made sure that the dresses were simple and elegant. They were short and ended just above the knee, made of a pale sky blue fabric. The dresses were sleeveless, with a heart shaped neckline and a fit-and-flare style; tight around the waist and puffing out after the hips a bit. A darker sky blue sash was wound around their middles. There were no accents or silly flowers, ornaments, or unnecessary ruffles all over their dresses.

Though everyone looked beautiful in the dresses I had picked out, Angela wore it the best. She had on pale blue eye shadow that complimented her blue-green eyes. Her long blonde hair was straight, tucked behind her ear on one side with a simple butterfly clip.

Nerita stuck out the most of all my bridesmaids in her dress, as she was the only one with green colored skin. But she didn't look ridiculous. She would definitely draw attention, but she did that on a regular basis anyway. Her green hair was curled, a first for her, as she preferred to leave it straight.