Long Distance Love Letters

The Night Before

The next few months seemed to pass by in a blur. Anne and Gilbert had been working very hard to meticulously plan every detail of the wedding for what felt like forever, but now, it was done. The wedding was tomorrow.

Anne sat in the living room with Marilla (Matthew had already gone to bed) and her bridesmaids. Diana was the maid of honor, of course, and the rest of the bridesmaids were Ruby, Jane, Josie, and Tillie.

She hadn't seen Gilbert in a week due to their desire to see if they truly could do it. It was immensely difficult but Anne knew that it would make tomorrow even sweeter.

"Anne, are you alright?" Diana asked, pulling her out of a daydream.

Anne looked over. "Yes, of course. Why?"

Diana nodded toward Anne's hands. Looking down, she realized she had been twisting her engagement ring around on her finger, something she always did when her emotions were racing.

"How are you feeling?" Josie asked.

Anne looked around at the girls, taking a deep breath. "Is it bad that I'm nervous? I mean, this is the rest of my life."

"Of course it's not bad," Marilla assured. "You are more than allowed to be nervous. You're not having second thoughts, though, are you?"

"No!" Anne exclaimed. "No, of course not. The whole idea is simply a little daunting."

Marilla smiled kindly and sat next to her, holding her hand. "Just remember that it's Gilbert. He adores you. He is going to be by your side every single second, and he will never try to extinguish your ambition. If anything, he'll add fuel to it."

Anne smiled. "Thank you, Marilla. You're right."

A moment passed before Anne gasped as she got hit by a pillow. She looked over to see Ruby giving her a devilish grin.

Anne tolled her shoulders. "Alright, Gillis, I see how it is. You're going down."

All of the girls proceeded to engage in an intense pillow fight, their screams of laughter probably waking Matthew up.

Anne lit up as she felt her nerves melt away.

•••

"Blythe," Bash said sternly. "Stop that. You're making everyone anxious."

Gilbert snapped to attention and realized that he had been obsessively bouncing his leg. He looked around at his groomsmen. Moody (his best man), Bash, Charlie, Adam, and Brian (a friend he had made at college) were staring at him with a nervous expression.

He breath a self-conscious laugh. "Sorry, guys. I guess I'm just a little...restless. My life is starting tomorrow."

Moody shrugged. "This whole thing seems pretty simple to me."

Gilbert chuckled. "Oh, yeah? When are you going to propose to Ruby?"

All the guys started laughing as Moody threw a pillow at Gilbert.

"None of your business," he claimed, blushing.

"It's perfectly fine to be nervous," Bash interjected. "It's natural."

"I have something that might help," Adam spoke up. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of moonshine.

The eyes of the young boys widened and they turned to Bash, considering most of them weren't quite allowed to drink yet.

Bash seemed to wrestle with it for a moment before sighing. "As long as we make sure no one drinks too much, I'll allow it once since it's a special occasion."

The boys cheered and Gilbert went and got glasses for everyone. Once they were all full, Bash raised his.

"To the groom," he said, smiling at Gilbert.

"To the groom," the rest of the boys repeated before clinking their glasses together.

As Gilbert laughed with his groomsmen and drank his shine, a wave of peace washed over him.

Tomorrow, he would marry his best friend.

———
AN: get ready 😉