Just For Tonight

Mini Chap 14

"You may kiss the bride"

The solemn garden wedding participants break into exuberant cheers and applause for the newly-wed couple.

Lillian cannot be one with the crowd. She just smiled at the couple and started arranging her best friend's gown before they cross the threshold towards the marquis.

"Lil, I'll be alright. Go on, enjoy the party."

She glanced at the concerned faces of the couple. When would they stop being such a pair of mother hens to her?

"I'm your Maid-of-Honor, Daisy. This isn't a normal party you can shoo me away to."

"I'm the bride and so I get to decide what to do with my lady-in-waiting, okay? Go."

"We promise we wouldn't bother you again until your speech."

She assisted with Daisy's gown, anyways, and walked with them. "Do me a favor and don't bother me again for the rest of the wedding program. I need solace. I can only handle this many people at a certain period of time."

Jon made a face, "The cousins and 2nd-degree relatives. Its like a sharks den and you keep throwing me there."

She rolled her eyes at him, "You're the favorite grandson, that's why."

Their banter was interrupted by the sudden start of the band, playing an overly jolly background music for pre-dinner activities.

Daisy grinned at her husband, "It looks like your cousins from Julliard have conquered the instruments." She turned to Lillian, "They were offering to mix some of their stuff with the Il Mundo song for the wedding dance, a few days ago. They were all charming people so I can't say no."

Lillian grinned, "uh-oh."

Jon let out an exasperated sigh, "This is why I was asking you not to be charmed by them and restrict them from the dj box, Mrs. Bowman. Ugh." He kissed Daisy, "Gotta run before they destroyed my stuff."

Lillian gave a surprised look at Daisy, "Il Mundo.....that's one of his favorite record. Will he really use that big disk of his from his collection just for this?" She saw Daisy shrugged, "Now I could be finally convinced I made the right decision to hook you up with my crazy brother."

They stopped walking, Daisy faced Lillian, "We will be sisters from now on, do you know that?"

Her nonchalant cover-up for her mixed up emotions threatened to crumble by that warm feeling Daisy always made her feel ever since they bumped into each other 10 years ago in university halls. "Yeah."

"We both know that stupid brother of yours have been trying to show you that someone is still there for you. What happened with your parents....."

"The depression and the excessive expression of art, the individuality that possessed them leaving us, the children, totally out of their life?"

"We're a family now, okay? Well, it always have been. But now, it's official, and we're not going to drift apart."

It was a good thing that Daisy was embracing her because if she was seeing how emotional Lillian looks right now, she would start asking questions. Lillian needs to reassure Daisy and Jon that she will be fine, even if she knew she wouldn't be.

"Just enjoy your honeymoon and stop worrying about me. I'll be fine. I'm going for a vacation, just like you incessantly demanded me to have."

Daisy severed the embrace and looked excitedly at her, "Really?!"

"Yeah. I'm going to the Aspen."

Jon heard them talking when he was approaching and butted in, "You've always liked that big house since we were kids."

"This was the big, ancestral house you inherited from your parents Jon always dreaded?"

Lillian nodded, "Its because it is a secluded place, he dies in silence, we both know that."

Daisy sighed in relief, "Good for you, Lil. Just promise me you won't drive away the caretakers of the house off just so you could loom in silence alone, okay? Interact with people there."

"I'll try."

She forced a smile, even though she was aching to tell Daisy and Jon everything. That she didn't want them to leave and she didn't know how to do this pregnancy issue by herself.

But, as always, she kept it in, blindly assuring herself she can do this. 

Spending time in the Aspen house was the ideal vacation she have always suspended because of work. 

She's a doctor, she can handle her own morning sickness routines.

She has always been alone, she can probably come ease in again to that mindset and lifestyle and forget about him fast.

"Lillian!!!!"

Daisy and Jon called to her through the flock of well-wishers and waved at her.

She stopped reassuring herself then and there, the feeling being washed away by the intense urge to reach them and tell them everything. 

She can't handle this big situation by herself.

She feels a numbing, intense pain just thinking about him.

She's going to have a baby and she's desperately scared. 

The couple was urged by the coordinator to get in and they hesitantly followed.

That was when her mask crumbled and her tears fell.

It was too late. 

She was finally alone. 

That dream of becoming a hermit had never been such a bad idea up until now.