Sweep Me Off My Feet

Chapter 36: A Wedding

Lillie

“Sit down, relax, and shut your brain off,” I put my hands on Mara’s shoulders lovingly, sitting her down in her rollie chair.

“But I need to—”

“Shh, you don’t need to do anything, now hush.”

Samara sat silent in her seat, giving in to my words. It’s the day of her wedding for crying out loud, she shouldn’t be stressing about a thing. I looked at my watch; 8 o’clock. We had about 3.5 hours before this thing was to commence— we got this.

“Charlie, go check on catering. Cassie, will you watch over the florist please? And Shai, bring out Mara’s dress for me?”

I put everyone to a job, if I didn’t, Mara would find some excuse to be getting up, and running around. I left absolutely nothing for her to do. Exactly what I wanted. I watched as she stared at herself in the multi-bulbed vanity mirror.

Huge 2 inch rollers covered her light brown hair, and she just stared at herself like she’d never seen her own reflection before.

“What’s on the to-be-wed’s mind?” I asked her, running my hands up and down her arms. “Everything,” she muttered quietly. She looked up to me. “I’m about to be Mrs. Perez in less then 3 hours,” she finally realized.

“Cold feet?” I asked, hoping I was wrong. She shook her head, a reassuring smile on her face. “No, no, never. I just thought it would never happen—,” she choked on her words as she started to cry. Anyone would think they were tear of fear or stress, but I already knew they just from happiness and reassurance. She was excited.

“I have the…dress…,” Shai peaked her head into the bride’s quaters, “I can come back in like 10 minutes?” She asked shyly. I rolled my eyes. “Come on, come in,” I waved for her to come. She hung the dress up, walking over to Mara.

“Why are we crying?” She asked in such a motherly tone, even I was surprised. She grabbed a tissue and blotted Mara’s eyes. “Come on, I know you’re happy, but no need to ruin your face,” Shai chuckled lightly.

I went over to the dress we had chossen weeks ago, unzipping it from it’s ‘everything-proof’ bag. I looked back at Shai retouching Mara’s face, fixing the places she’d let the tears wash away.

My attention was taken away to a light rapping on the door. I answered to find five stunning, slight, replications of Samara staring back at me. They all seemed to be an older version of her, with varying differences— one had curlier, lighter hair, one had straighter, darker hair. Another had fantastic green eyes, another with peeling amber ones, and yet another with simple brown. These had to be her infamous older sisters.

“Come in,” I smiled at them as they all filed in, surrounding Samara in this huddle. Excited fits of Portuguese exploded in the air as Samara stood to engulf them all in hugs. Shai found her way over to me, excusing herself from the mini reunion.

I nodded toward the door. “Come on, let’s them dress her—, have that family moment.”

Shai nodded in agreement with me, as we silently exited.

*

Jacob

“Come in,” I said aloud as I tucked my tie in for the third time. For some reason, it always looks funny no matter how I put it. Or maybe I’m nervous. Nah, it’s the tie.

My eyes bulged as saw the woman standing behind me, of course the full length mirror gave her away.

“Ma?” I asked, spinning around. Her face wrinkled into many smile lines as she smiled at me, holding her arms open for me. I gladly went into her embrace, smelling her familiar flowery scent. I haven’t seen my mother as often as I should, considering the fact that she decided it was best she resided in Mexico these days.