The Experiment © [Completed]

Chapter 101 - The Wedding

RJ stood nervously by the window of his hotel suite. Everything was already set on his end but they couldn't go to church yet until after an hour. He unbuttoned the collar of the traditional Filipino dress shirt that he was wearing, and then decided to fasten the button back again. After a moment, he started fidgeting with his cuff links.

"RJ, you okay, man?" Ken asked from the bed.

RJ sighed and cleared his throat. "Yea, I'm okay. Just a complete bundle of nerves at the moment."

Ken chuckled. "I can understand. Remember the many trips I made to the toilet while waiting for the ceremony on my wedding day?"

"I still haven't heard from her," RJ said, pulling on his collar again.

He heard a commotion from the living room and saw the other groomsmen laughing as they took pictures of each other.

"Well I have, at least thru Beth. They're getting ready," Ken told him. "So... you really haven't spoken to her for a week?"

"Well she sneaked a call three days ago, but it only lasted for less than five minutes because her mother came in," RJ said.

He had not seen Dei for a week now. Her last day of work from TrendBuzz was on Friday last week and her parents, being the more superstitious kind, whisked her away from his apartment and brought her to their home. They weren't supposed to talk to each other for the rest of the week - and for what reason exactly, he wasn't really sure. He knew of couples not being allowed to see each other a few days before their wedding, but to completely remove any type of communication for a week? It just seemed so medieval... actually he didn't think that kind of rule even existed in the old days.

He heaved another sigh. It didn't help that Dei sounded so worried and uncertain again the last time he talked to her. She sneaked a call from her bedroom three days ago and they talked for a few minutes, checking up on each other, and he noticed how irresolute she sounded. After that 4 minute call, he was left feeling anxious and worried about what's gonna happen on the actual wedding day.

"RJ, will you stop walking around, you're making me dizzy," Ken said. "And remove your dress shirt for now. You're sweating like a pig and it's 16 degrees celsius here."

RJ didn't realize he had been pacing back and forth. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Yep, he's sweating. Not exactly as bad as Ken had implied, but he was sweating. Damn this nerves!

"She came, RJ. She's already up there, two floors above us and she's not running away. In fact, she's almost ready and she's beautiful," Ken told him.

"You saw her? You have a picture?" RJ asked eagerly as he walked over to the bed and tried looking at Ken's phone.

"No!" Ken exclaimed, moving his phone away. "You're not allowed to see her, remember? Don't ruin the surprise, man." He stood up and fixed his outfit. "Stef is coming over to give you Dei's present. Should I go there now and give yours?"