Work Before Play

Soon-To-Be Hubby and Wifey

The woman in front of the mirror did not look like me. She looked like a model version of me. Her red hair was not frizzy like mine, it was smoothed back in delicate curls. My summer tan was fading but still had color in contrast to the white lace dress. In the mirror my cheekbones seems higher, more defined than what I am used to. The soft lipstick made my Cupid's bow more feminine than childish. But my eyes. My green eyes looked frantic.

Maggie reset my veil to perfection for the umpteenth time and smiled at me through the floor length mirror.

"You look beautiful, Lydia." She said to me.

"T-thanks." I stuttered quietly.

Maggie turned me around to face her, and held onto my shoulders. "What's wrong?"

"I am so nervous. I-I- I don't know." I fidgeted with my dress.

"Stay here." Maggie left me in the basement room of the church. After she rushed off, I walked over to a couch and seated myself, patting down my soft A-line dress. The other girls were in other rooms getting ready themselves.

After about five minutes of more anxiety creeping in my mind, Maggie rushed back into the room.

"Come here." She grabbed my hand and brought me to the door of the room. For some reason she didn't close it, it was slightly ajar.

"Lydia?" Mark's deep voice called out from the other side of the ajar door.

"No, Mark! You can't see me until I walk down the aisle!" I said in frantic. This day had to be perfect. I just couldn't handle this right now.

"It's okay. I'll stay on this side. It's okay, Honey. What's the matter? Maggie said you needed me." Mark's smooth voice already was putting my mind at ease.

"I don't know. I'm so nervous this day won't go as planned or something bad will happen." I confessed.

"Hey, it's okay. Here." Mark reached his hand through the door. I pulled my hand into his, running my thumb over his hand.

"See? It's going to be fine. You know what? Even if it ends in a disaster, I know I will still love today. You know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I get to marry the woman I fell in love with the moment I hired her to be a silly housekeeper. Lydia, the moment I saw you took my breath away. I just knew I couldn't let you go. From time to time you always found a way to quietly make my heart melt. Like when you made pies for us, when all you wanted was the best for me, when you planned my whole convention trip because you thought it'd be fun. Everything about you, makes my heart happy. That's why this day no matter how it ends, as long as you have the ring on your finger- I will be the happiest man in the world today."

"Wow." Stupidly, that was all I could think of to say. Mark has said such sweet and thoughtful things to me, but never poured his heart in such a manner like he did just now.

"Now are you going to leave all alone up on that altar today?" Mark asked.

"Oh gosh no!" I exclaimed.

Mark's bassy laugh made me smile softly. "God, because that would be very awkward. Now I am going to go back to the front of that church and wait for you there. I cannot wait to see how beautiful you look today. If you look half as beautiful as that hand I am holding, then I just might cry." Mark chuckled at his own joke at the end.

"Mark!" I laughed deeply with him at his lame joke about my 'hot hand'. "Okay, I'll see you in there, soon-to-be-Hubby."

"Oh my, Lydia, you're going to make me blush." Mark said. "See you then Wifey."