speak now.
{ take a bow }
brian mercy caelum.
Damn he hated weddings. Sitting on the church pew he struggled not to fidget with the cuffs of his black tie occasion suit. He was still unsure why his dear siblings had chosen him to be the delegate of the family for this occasion. If he didn’t know better he would have thought that they were up to something. If he didn’t know any better, then of course, he would realize that the slight twinge in his heart when the door closed was due to the fact that he was in love with the soon to be Mrs. Lovitt.
Brightly colored dresses, imitation icing hats, and neutral suits all turned towards the door as the wedding march started on the organ. He barely noticed his sister slipping by the rest of the people in his pew to sit quietly next to him as the flower girl made her way down the aisle.
Little Violet had always so looked up to her favorite aunt, always trying to imitate the way she walked, and the way she just carried her head one degree shy of being snobbish. He saw the white and pink rose petals that she threw just a bit clumsily and thought that she hated the color pink. Fuchsia pink bridesmaid dresses followed next in a parade that was only notable for the fact that they all made the normally pretty girls particularly hideous.
He was a beat too late in standing, his coal black suit standing out in the other spring garden colors, hoping secretly inside that she wouldn’t be entering the room just yet. He didn’t want to see her dressed in white, but then he saw her framed like a queen in doorway, and thought that he did want to see her white. Just not the white given to her by her pressed suit, one in which she was laced and starched into.
He wanted to see her with a single oversized lily placed just behind her ear to nestle in her shining free flowing brown hair, he wanted to see her with a simple bouquet, and a gauzy carefree dress that reminded him of when they had rolled in sand together not caring for anything else but each other’s eyes. He wanted to see her in the white of summer breezes and the time that he ran his hands through her hair to loosen the chignon she normally wore it in.
Her white shoes crushed the pink and white petals underfoot and he saw her body lying on the white sheets of his hotel bed her velvet body next to his as his hand ran up and down her bare thigh while she tickled his nose with a buttercup. The priest stood up and started to speak, when a small wind caused a disturbance in the icing hats before him. He smelled summer, and the ocean. He smelled the perfume that she always used lightly sprayed on her wrists, and her neck.
He heard her say I do, and imagined that it was said with a slight quiver. He had always loved the way his name sounded coming from her lips, and remembered how his insides had quivered when she whispered it into his ear while she nuzzled his face.
Could this really be it? Was he really that okay with the idea of her life joined to another person’s? Had they really meant to part not even a year ago? Had she really intended to lie to him? Did she really love this unknown man with his impeccably tailored suits? Was it him all along that had gotten in the way of them?
“Speak now.” He heard, so …he did.
“Don’t.” he said softly, his eyes on the curve of her nose that he had so loved kissing last summer. His sister gently pushed him up with an encouraging smile hidden for him to see in her gray eyes, and that’s all the time he had to think before his eyes her meeting her blue ones, even while all the others in the church turned towards him.
“I hate the way you dress, with all that make up you think you need to be beautiful, and those impossible shoes that you can barely walk in. I hate that you insist on wearing that dress I hate so much, and the way you like to pick flowers from random people’s gardens and tuck them into your hair. I hate the way you can keep secrets from me, and the way you can pull mine from me.”
Her eyes are confused, though he starts to see the steel so well hidden in her eyes that he had fallen in love with. Even so, her pressed suits influence has changed her so much that her voice trembles, “What do you want Brian?”
The way her voice shakes saying his name spurs him forward. “Marry me love. Because let me tell you that I hate thinking that you’ll never wake up next to me, and that you’ll never pick out those well pressed suits for me. I’ll go shopping with you, I might even carry your bags, and if you’re really good I might even pay for half of what you buy.”
He hears the gasps of everyone else in the room and ignores them, smiling his smile that she had helped him find last summer, “Come on Chrysanthemum, I might even plant you a garden so you can stop massacring the innocents.”
A beat of silence, he waited trying desperately to ignore the myriad of emotions being shot at him. The horrified silence that permeated the room seemed to thicken by the second, and for a brief moment he wondered if he was going to get his ass kicked by groom and all his well dressed thugs. He felt a gentle tug on his hand and let Eerin carefully lead him from the room, trying to ignore the smile forming on the corner of her mouth.
Stopping just before the door closed on the frozen tableau of the church room he bowed at the silent room, his characteristic flair saving whatever dignity he had left. His sister beside him curtsied prettily before leaving, and at her questioning eyes when he waved her off outside, he just shrugged sheepishly unwilling to believe that Chrys wasn’t going to burst through the church doors.
The fine light rain outside was completely ruining his suit, but still he told himself a couple more minutes. He blinked when a raindrop dripped from one of his curls and into his eye. He blinked blearily to clear it, and when his vision cleared at last he saw Chrysanthemum taking off her white satin pumps as she made her way down the stairs, her expensive wedding dress dragging on the wet pavement, “You asshole. You know that we’re going to have to get you a new suit right?”
“Why don’t we get you a new wedding dress while we’re at it?” he smiled with his arms open towards her. She merely glared at his arms, as if they were offending her and ran gloved hand through her soaked hair.
“Whatever, let’s just get out of here before the mob realizes I’m not in the bathroom.” She smiled at him at last, and dragged him towards the car where Eerin was waiting with a smirk as her brother and his refound lady love entered the car.
brian mercy caelum.
Damn he hated weddings. Sitting on the church pew he struggled not to fidget with the cuffs of his black tie occasion suit. He was still unsure why his dear siblings had chosen him to be the delegate of the family for this occasion. If he didn’t know better he would have thought that they were up to something. If he didn’t know any better, then of course, he would realize that the slight twinge in his heart when the door closed was due to the fact that he was in love with the soon to be Mrs. Lovitt.
Brightly colored dresses, imitation icing hats, and neutral suits all turned towards the door as the wedding march started on the organ. He barely noticed his sister slipping by the rest of the people in his pew to sit quietly next to him as the flower girl made her way down the aisle.
Little Violet had always so looked up to her favorite aunt, always trying to imitate the way she walked, and the way she just carried her head one degree shy of being snobbish. He saw the white and pink rose petals that she threw just a bit clumsily and thought that she hated the color pink. Fuchsia pink bridesmaid dresses followed next in a parade that was only notable for the fact that they all made the normally pretty girls particularly hideous.
He was a beat too late in standing, his coal black suit standing out in the other spring garden colors, hoping secretly inside that she wouldn’t be entering the room just yet. He didn’t want to see her dressed in white, but then he saw her framed like a queen in doorway, and thought that he did want to see her white. Just not the white given to her by her pressed suit, one in which she was laced and starched into.
He wanted to see her with a single oversized lily placed just behind her ear to nestle in her shining free flowing brown hair, he wanted to see her with a simple bouquet, and a gauzy carefree dress that reminded him of when they had rolled in sand together not caring for anything else but each other’s eyes. He wanted to see her in the white of summer breezes and the time that he ran his hands through her hair to loosen the chignon she normally wore it in.
Her white shoes crushed the pink and white petals underfoot and he saw her body lying on the white sheets of his hotel bed her velvet body next to his as his hand ran up and down her bare thigh while she tickled his nose with a buttercup. The priest stood up and started to speak, when a small wind caused a disturbance in the icing hats before him. He smelled summer, and the ocean. He smelled the perfume that she always used lightly sprayed on her wrists, and her neck.
He heard her say I do, and imagined that it was said with a slight quiver. He had always loved the way his name sounded coming from her lips, and remembered how his insides had quivered when she whispered it into his ear while she nuzzled his face.
Could this really be it? Was he really that okay with the idea of her life joined to another person’s? Had they really meant to part not even a year ago? Had she really intended to lie to him? Did she really love this unknown man with his impeccably tailored suits? Was it him all along that had gotten in the way of them?
“Speak now.” He heard, so …he did.
“Don’t.” he said softly, his eyes on the curve of her nose that he had so loved kissing last summer. His sister gently pushed him up with an encouraging smile hidden for him to see in her gray eyes, and that’s all the time he had to think before his eyes her meeting her blue ones, even while all the others in the church turned towards him.
“I hate the way you dress, with all that make up you think you need to be beautiful, and those impossible shoes that you can barely walk in. I hate that you insist on wearing that dress I hate so much, and the way you like to pick flowers from random people’s gardens and tuck them into your hair. I hate the way you can keep secrets from me, and the way you can pull mine from me.”
Her eyes are confused, though he starts to see the steel so well hidden in her eyes that he had fallen in love with. Even so, her pressed suits influence has changed her so much that her voice trembles, “What do you want Brian?”
The way her voice shakes saying his name spurs him forward. “Marry me love. Because let me tell you that I hate thinking that you’ll never wake up next to me, and that you’ll never pick out those well pressed suits for me. I’ll go shopping with you, I might even carry your bags, and if you’re really good I might even pay for half of what you buy.”
He hears the gasps of everyone else in the room and ignores them, smiling his smile that she had helped him find last summer, “Come on Chrysanthemum, I might even plant you a garden so you can stop massacring the innocents.”
A beat of silence, he waited trying desperately to ignore the myriad of emotions being shot at him. The horrified silence that permeated the room seemed to thicken by the second, and for a brief moment he wondered if he was going to get his ass kicked by groom and all his well dressed thugs. He felt a gentle tug on his hand and let Eerin carefully lead him from the room, trying to ignore the smile forming on the corner of her mouth.
Stopping just before the door closed on the frozen tableau of the church room he bowed at the silent room, his characteristic flair saving whatever dignity he had left. His sister beside him curtsied prettily before leaving, and at her questioning eyes when he waved her off outside, he just shrugged sheepishly unwilling to believe that Chrys wasn’t going to burst through the church doors.
The fine light rain outside was completely ruining his suit, but still he told himself a couple more minutes. He blinked when a raindrop dripped from one of his curls and into his eye. He blinked blearily to clear it, and when his vision cleared at last he saw Chrysanthemum taking off her white satin pumps as she made her way down the stairs, her expensive wedding dress dragging on the wet pavement, “You asshole. You know that we’re going to have to get you a new suit right?”
“Why don’t we get you a new wedding dress while we’re at it?” he smiled with his arms open towards her. She merely glared at his arms, as if they were offending her and ran gloved hand through her soaked hair.
“Whatever, let’s just get out of here before the mob realizes I’m not in the bathroom.” She smiled at him at last, and dragged him towards the car where Eerin was waiting with a smirk as her brother and his refound lady love entered the car.