Starry Nights

Chapter 13: The Wedding

December 19, 2011

Alex

He stood there, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror. He hadn't seen Natalie in almost 30 hours now. This is the longest they'd been apart since he proposed. He could feel the butterflies racing in his stomach. He wished for nothing more than to watch her walk down the aisle already. He wanted to see her in her dress. As he thought about all of this, he did not hear Denny walk into the bathroom behind him.

"You good, Alex?"

Alex jumped and said, "Shit, Denny. You scared the hell out of me."

"I'll take that as a no?" Denny said laughing.

"I'm just, nervous I guess; impatient. I want to get the wedding going already."

"You know," Denny started, "I may not be the wizard of love, so to speak, but I do know that in about 20 years you're going to look back and wish that you could re-live this day over and over. So what I'm saying is, you should take this day as slow as you can, and take in every second of it, 'cause you're going to miss it one day."

Alex looked at Denny in disbelief. "That is probably the smartest thing you've ever said to me."

"That's probably the smartest thing I've ever said."

They laughed and Alex felt himself begin to calm down. "Thanks, Denny. I needed that."

"Well duh, when I walked in you looked like you were about to die or something."

"Yeah, I kind of felt like I was. I mean, I love her to death. I don't understand why I'm so nervous, it's aggravating."

"I understand", Denny said. "Everyone seems to get nervous at their weddings for some reason."

"Why though? Why is it that during what is probably going to be one of the best days of our life, do we get nervous? It's silly, and pointless."

"Maybe, it's not so much that you're nervous. Maybe it's that you're realizing that you are going to spend the rest of your life with this person and you're just extremely excited. I don't know, like I said, I'm not the wizard of love."

"What is up with you and wise words of wisdom today? Are you becoming a monk or something?"

"Possibly", Denny said with a mischievous look. "I'll leave you alone now to get back to whatever it was you were doing in here."

As Denny walked away, he stopped and said, "I'm really happy for you, Alex. You deserve a girl as great as her." He didn't give Alex a chance to respond and quickly shuffled out the door. Alex knew that Denny wasn't really the type to have deep or meaningful conversations with, and he definitely wasn't the type that comforted someone. He knew Denny always felt uncomfortable doing it, which made it all the more meaningful when he actually did it.

He looked at himself in the mirror, straightened his bow tie, and walked out of the bathroom with confidence. Though he was still nervous, he knew that today was going to be one of the greatest days of his life, and he didn't want to spend it being nerve-wrecked the whole time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Natalie

"You look absolutely gorgeous", Lauren said.

"Really?"

"Of course you do! You're in the best freaking wedding dress ever picked by you and your amazingly attractive single best friend who should be set up with one of Alex's friends by his fiancée."