Episode 25

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Wednesday September 7 , 2023

DuBuis sat next to Luci and Theodore on the Episcopal church pew with eyes only for his own husband Spencer who had been so endearingly nervous all day about his first ever best man duties for Nigel. He had been obsessed with the possibility of messing up badly. Running over someone's feet with his chair or forgetting the ring or something horrible to that degree.  DuBuis smiled softly and his mind flashed back to their own wedding eight years ago.

( " Do you, DuBuis David Lane, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband in sickness and in health, for better and in worse, forsaking all others, for richer and for poorer , till death do you two part? ")

( He stroked Spencer's face and looked into the suddenly nervous and wide blue eyes of his best friend. " Oh you better believe I do ," DuBuis said. " )

DuBuis thought that he would do the same thing today.

Spencer turned his head suddenly and hie eyes met DuBuis's. His lips curved into a shy smile almost as though he knew what his husband was thinking. Maybe because he was thinking the exact same thing.

Glory sat between Sol Klein and his grandmother Gertrude. She patted her face with a lacy white handkerchief that had been in her family generations. She could feel the tears already threatening to spill out of her  eyes. She could not help it. She always cried at weddings. Her own. Her daughter's. Of course, she smiled as she noticed her husband blinking his own eyes as he stood beside his oldest son, nobody cried as much as Andrew did.

( " I , Andrew Richard , take you , Glory Jade , to be my wife , my friend, my soul mate, my playmate , my partner in pranks, my everything. For all the days left in my life. I love you and I thank God for you every day. You saved my life. ")

Faith Lane sat next to her new wife Melinda Velez, her eyes hidden by a pair of black sunshades. Melinda had tried to hold her hand and Faith had earlier pulled it away, saying that that was not part of the arrangement. She looked at Nigel and Richard saying their vows and she remembered Pamela. In that one moment she missed the woman.  She wanted what they had. What her brother had. She closed her eyes and suddenly saw ........ In her mind's eye...... not Pamela..... not Melinda.... not Penelope but the plain serious sharpboned dark face of Detective Nita Browne. She sucked in a breath and reopened her eyes in a moment of shock.

( " God , you're beautiful, " she moaned softly as she leaned in to claim Nita's lips that night outside the cop bar. " I want you bad. ")

Melinda arrogantly crossed her long legs and tossed her arm around Faith's shoulders. She whispered in Faith's ear ," Weddings are so cheesy, aren't they? "

Rebecca looked with adoring eyes at her daddy and her new daddy. She missed mommy but she was happy that day. Especially since she was a flower girl in a pretty new dress and because Granny Glory let her wear lip gloss. She loved Granny Glory and Grandpa. And Uncle Spencer and Uncle DuBuis too. Her smile was big as she played with the remaining silk flowers in her small wicker basket. She never wanted to ever ever leave any of them. And she never would. Daddy had promised her he and Nigel would never leave her like Mommy had. And Daddy never lied.

In London England Lewis sat cross-legged on the bed in his private room, watching the streamed wedding service on his iPhone. He had never seen his father look quite so happy. Niles was wrong , he thought. Maybe Nigel was right for Dad.

Reverend Smith smiled at what was the very first gay couple he had ever married before. He had been surprised to find out that Richard Norland was indeed gay. Or bisexual as the man called himself. Yet as he saw the loving devotion shared between the two men the minister realized that it didn't matter. He had never seen that between Richard and his last wife Sarah. Richard's last wedding he had performed had felt different somehow. For one the man looked so happy and peaceful and content.

" You may now kiss your husband," the Reverend said with his own joyous smile.

Richard smiled at Nigel. " About time. "

Then he pulled the younger man with the platinum blond hair and the rainbow sequined eye patch closer to him. His hand reached up to stroke at the scars on his face. He looked into Nigel's twinkling eyes full of tears and he leaned forward to press the softest and most serene kiss on his lips. A kiss that Nigel greatly responded to as his own lips proceeded to escalate it to something deeper and more passionate.

" Get a room! ," DuBuis called out as he laughed.

                ----------

Congratulations, Richard and Nigel. Stay tuned for the next season of ODDS OF LOVE dropping soon. Hope you're enjoying the soap opera.

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