Immediately after high school, Helena moved to Oregon to be with me...and to get away from her father. She had told me he was constantly overworking her and treating her like her mother. I wouldn't doubt it if she didn't tell me the entire story.
A week after we moved in together, I proposed to her under an old willow tree by sunset. She said yes, obviously, and now I'm sitting at the front of a church, watching my beautiful bride walk down the aisle. Her gown looks like snowflakes sculpted against her skin, and her veil flows so long it's still halfway down the aisle by the time she reaches me.
She's wearing such a giddy and excited smile across her lips, I can see it through the veil. I vowed to respect her boundaries and wait till marriage to...tango with her, so I may or may not be a little more excited for the "after party" than the actual wedding at the moment.
"Do you, Benjamin Anderson, take Helena Truemen to be your lawful wedding wife? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, till death do you part?" The pastor says, and I smile and say, "I do." Helena smiles brightly at this as the pastor repeats the speech to her. She doesn't even hesitate a second to say, "I do," after the pastor is finished talking.
"Then by the power vested in me by the great and gorgeous state of Oregon, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride!" The pastor announces to everyone. I unveil my beautiful bride's face and kiss her more passionately than ever. We break away and lock hands, holding them up to the sky. Helena grabs the skirt of her gown, and we walk together out of the church.
We get into a horse-drawn carriage, Helena's request, and ride off to the community center for the reception. "Ready for the end of your old life and the beginning of our new life, my love?" I ask, and she smiles.
"As long as it's with you, I don't care what's ending or beginning," she says and kisses me once again. That kiss seems to last forever, and I could want nothing more in this life.
YOU ARE READING
New Girl on the Block
RomanceHow much do relationships and your environment really affect how you grow and develop as a person? I've been asking myself that question since I was old enough to understand how to form a sentence. Moving from place to place is hard, but not moving...
