Nice Day For A White Wedding. A. Michael L.

Just a little.

      The rest of the evening passed in a blur, and none of it was the painful extravagance that Chelsea had dreaded. They strolled through cobblestone streets, hands clasped, occasionally bursting into giggles. They sat in a square eating pizza, drinking Prosecco and commenting on how wonderful everything was, and how amazing their life was going to be.

      They drunkenly stumbled back to their room, excitedly showing the doorman, receptionist and bellboy her ring and receiving smiles and pats on the back in return.

      Finally, Chelsea collapsed on the bed, arms out like a starfish. She closed her eyes and smiled.

      ‘I don’t think tomorrow can beat today. Today was perfect.’

      ‘Well actually, I do have another question to ask you.’ Kit plonked himself on the bed next to her. ‘I mean the first one was worse, but…’

      ‘Oh God, what?’ Chelsea groaned dramatically, not bothering to open her eyes. ‘You’re secretly a Mormon and you’re wondering if I’m okay with sharing.’

      ‘No,’ he laughed, and she could feel the bed springs bounce. She opened her eyes.

      ‘Okay, shoot.’

      ‘Well, it just so happens that my parents are at their place in Garda for the summer, only a short train ride away…’

      ‘You want me to meet your parents,’ Chelsea said simply, feeling the fear rise from her stomach, the sparkling wine suddenly turning on her.

      ‘Well, you agreed to marry me,’ he shrugged, looking at her with wide, hopeful eyes, ‘it’s got to happen eventually.’

      ‘Does it?’ Chelsea sighed. ‘You hate your parents. I kind of thought we’d make it through to our first wedding anniversary before I had to meet them.’

      Kit frowned. ‘I never said I hated them…’

      Chelsea rolled over to face him and raised an eyebrow.

      ‘You said, and I quote, “my mother is a vindictive harpy and my father hasn’t been sober since 1993”.’

      ‘All said with love,’ he laughed, putting an arm around her waist and pulling her closer, till they were nose to nose. ‘Look, we’ll go, we’ll tell them we’re engaged, we’ll swim in the pool, drink their expensive Champagne, and then we’re gone!’

      He kissed her neck and she could feel herself softening, the exhaustion of an exhilarating day and too much wine catching up with her.

      ‘Okay, we’ll drink their pool and swim in their wine, and then we’re out of there.’ She nodded sagely, then frowned. ‘Wait, where are we going after that?

      ‘Wherever my future wife wants.’ Kit kissed her shoulder. ‘Rome? Sicily? Leave Italy and jump over to somewhere else? Or go home and plan the wedding?’

      Chelsea wrinkled her nose and made a face. ‘Rome, and then wherever you want. We’ll take turns until the holiday is up.’

      ‘We’ll be like backpacking teenagers, making it up as we go.’ Kit snuggled against her.

      ‘I never did that as a teenager,’ Chelsea sighed. ‘The idea of being out of control used to terrify me.’ And the fact that I had no money, no skills and had to work. I couldn’t gallivant around Europe cashing in my trust fund.

      ‘And now?’ Kit murmured sleepily against her skin.

      ‘Now I don’t feel scared of anything at all,’ she smiled, drifting off to sleep.

      ***

       ‘Jez has been round three times this week,’ Chelsea hissed at Ruby as she plonked herself down beside her in the form room.

       ‘Why?’ Ruby frowned. ‘He sorted it, didn’t he? The guy who –’

       ‘Yes,’ Chelsea growled through gritted teeth, looking around the room, ‘he sorted it. And now he keeps coming back.’

       She looked at Ruby darkly, her overly plucked eyebrows high on her forehead. She smoothed down her high side ponytail, the dark roots almost greasy.

       ‘Oh. Carly.’

       ‘Yep. Jez is dating my mum. What’s next? The Krays turn out to be my fucking fairy godfathers?’

       Ruby snorted, ‘even I’m not that good, babe. This is a gift. A gift that happened because of me, by the way.’

       Chelsea’s eyes hardened. ‘None of this has been a gift. Do you even know what happened to that guy?’

       ‘Was it worse than someone biting off his tongue?’

       Ruby’s eyes were dark, her mouth smirking with no softness around the edges. Chelsea glowered, staring straight ahead.

       ‘Jez being your stepdad could have a lot of advantages you know,’ Ruby laughed, ‘he’ll scare off anyone who might hurt you.’

       Chelsea snorted. ‘You scare off anyone who might hurt me.’

       ‘Well, maybe it’ll be all happy families and he’ll make your mum a better person. Maybe he’ll end up being that dad-type person who walks you down the aisle at your wedding.’

       Ruby fluttered her eyelashes, hands clasped as she stared off into the distance dreamily for a moment, the whole thing a farce. She snorted and shook her head.

       ‘Married?’ Chelsea hooted. ‘Who the hells shackles themselves to someone for better or worse? No one goes down with a sinking ship, babe, no matter how good a person they think they are.’

       She looked old, her nose twitched up in derision, like she knew the answers about the world. She felt ancient, like she’d already seen every stupid thing that anyone could do in this stupid town. That people were essentially bad, and you just had to let it go, because they were too stupid to be better.

       Ruby paused. ‘Do you wish your mum had waited for your dad? Done that whole “stand by your man” country music thing?’

       Chelsea shook her head, smiling just a little. ‘The man gets arrested, gets locked up, gets out, and does it all over again. Maybe he’s happier there. Or maybe he just makes shitty decisions.’

       She looked down at the scratch marks on the table, the promises of loving ‘4eva’, the ‘Tracey is a bitch’, the random phone numbers and crude drawings. Horny little stick figures that had since been scraped over in the hopes of erasing them. But you could still always see what had been underneath.

       ‘Either way,’ Chelsea shrugged, ‘man’s an anchor. My mum’s a bitch, but she was right to let him sink. The man invites trouble, always has.’

       ‘And Jez doesn’t?’ Ruby grinned, thinking about the ageing cockney gangster with the ancient trilby.

       ‘I think Trouble knows to only call on Jez when she’s been invited,’ Chelsea grinned and Ruby pointed, grinning, her button nose turned up in triumph.

       ‘I knew it! You like him!’

       ‘He’s sweet for a gangster,’ Chelsea said, shrugging and turning silent as the teacher walked up to the front of the room and started writing on the board. If she was going to shock them all, and get out of Badgeley in the most unbelievable way possible, she was going to have to listen.

Chapter Four

      Kit and Chelsea woke up in the same positions they’d fallen asleep in.