reaching dusk (WATTY Awards 2013)

chapter 14

I hurried down the staircase towards the kitchen taking the steps two and three at time in my haste. I bounded off the bottom step clearing half the distance to the kitchen and rounded the table in one sinuous movement reaching for the door. As my fingertips found the cold brass knob the door abruptly opened stopping me in my tracks. My hands flew up and caught the door securely before it smacked me in the face. My breath came out in a huff of embarrassment as I stood face to face with my new husband.

He looked every bit the definition of tall, dark, and handsome as he peered down at me curiously, his full lips turned up at the corners fighting a smile. He paused still not having made it completely thru the door as I took his measure quickly. He was uncharacteristically dressed in what looked like designer jeans and a white button down shirt with long sleeves that he had rolled up to his forearms. He was also wearing shoes- which was even more of a rarity, but an overall nice change from his day to day shirtless and barefoot ensemble.

I cocked an eyebrow at him showing my approval and peered around the door opening it further so he could come inside. He ducked under the door frame and I quietly shut the door behind him. He had a long grey garment bag thrown over his right forearm.

"Where's the fire?" he said jokingly. He laid the garment bag across the back of the kitchen chair and pulled out another across from it and sat down folding his arms behind his head.

"Shh! I'm hiding from Aunt Alice," I said panicking. I reached behind his head grabbing one of his wrists and attempted to pull him out of his seat, "If we leave right now maybe we can get far enough away that she won't follow us."

His eyes passed over my frame from head to toe and he smiled widely.

"Where exactly were you planning on going?" he asked raising an eyebrow, "Don't get me wrong I like it, but this seems like more of an indoor outfit."

In my rush to escape I realized I didn't think my plan through very clearly. I still wore the white satin corset top and thin, satin,slip shorts that fashion decreed under the last atrocity of a dress my aunt had me try on. All I had covering me was a short ivory silk robe that I hadn't even bothered to tie in the front. I also wasn't wearing shoes.

I had been up to my ears in a sea of ribbon, taffeta and endless lace since Jacob and I had agreed have a formal wedding ceremony, so that our families could celebrate the nuptials with us. I thought I would be able to endure Alice's lust for fashion and be able to go with the flow, but I had used up my last reserve of patience a few hours ago and needed a break.

One of the only conditions that Jacob and I had laid down was that we wanted the ceremony to take place on the beach in La Push, and my family and our new friends happily obliged. It was a Quilute tradition and Jacob's parents had been married there years ago, plus it was fitting since that is where our make-shift ceremony took place only days before. I had thought that condition would keep Alice's visions of grandeur slightly subdued. I was wrong.

She had pulled out all the stops yet again. We had a gourmet cake she commissioned by a baker in Seattle that had over two hundred tiny handmade, sugar spun flowers covering the entire surface. She had florists all over Forks and Port Angeles working around the clock to construct an all white orchid and rose covered gazebo. Top label designers over-nighted the most opulent, and overpriced bridal gowns to our home, which she weeded through and scrutinized until we had at least fifty 'respectable choices' to pick from.

I tried every shape and every style imaginable while she and my aunt Rosalie pinned and pulled fabric in every direction. I tried on Grecian style dresses, mermaid style dresses, dresses with so much taffeta I looked like a bridal ballerina, and ball gown styles that had so much volume in the bottom they rivaled the southern bell hoops skirts in Gone With the Wind. And I still hadn't found a single dress I liked. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. If I had to put on one more set of crinolines I was going to scream.