Chapter 20: The Wedding

They got up, showered and went down for a drink, while they waited for their table.

Marty got talking to two blokes at the bar after hearing their accents. They informed him that they were on a bus tour and had a free day the next day before they moved on. One was from Sydney, and the other bloke was from Brisbane.

They couldn’t decide what to do, as the weather forecast for the next day was not conducive to exploration. So, Marty asked them if they wanted to come to his wedding. He explained that they didn’t know too many people here and he thought his bride would prefer there was someone from home rather than an empty room.

The boys grinned, and one of them made a call. He then asked Marty if he would like a whole busload of them as the girls were in and the other blokes said they hadn’t planned anything. Marty was delighted and said that he’d arrange lunch.

The guys said no that they didn’t expect that, but Marty insisted that they would be delighted to have them and could easily afford it. The boys shrugged and passed on the message. It was soon agreed that they would all be coming to the wedding and celebration lunch.

Marty and Mary enjoyed a quiet dinner, and he let her drive the proceedings when they made it back to bed. He was learning that Mary had little trouble driving him nuts and getting him to fuck her until they were both insensible and exhausted.

He didn’t tell her about his little surprise.

Marty took great delight in pampering Mary the morning of the wedding.

He had booked her in for all the beauty treatments and so she could get her hair and makeup done for the wedding. Mary asked him if she really needed it. Marty had kissed her and said that while they didn’t have family and friends here, it was still their special day and he wanted her to feel that she was a beautiful bride.

He was happy to marry her as she was, but he understood that brides liked to be pampered on their special day. He reminded her that he would see her at eleven o’clock in the wedding room. Mrs Bell, the celebrant’s wife, would meet her in the room to help her dress at ten o’clock.

The bouquet should be delivered no later than ten-thirty and Mr Grayson the Concierge would collect her and Mrs Bell from the room at ten-fifty. Mary giggled as he rattled off the instructions. She had a feeling that Marty had gone to a lot of effort to plan their wedding.

She might be worried about the differences in their age, but Marty had simply dismissed it as unimportant when she had bought it the night before. He had told her that he was happy that she was going to have his babies and that she would be able to start over as his young and beautiful wife.

She would be able to experience being a new mother and not look any different to other women going through the same thing. It would probably help her to think of herself as a young newlywed, which she would be.

He told her that since they would now age at the same rate the extra fifty years, she had on him just meant he was less likely to die before her. So, they would be more likely to go together, and that suited him just fine, as he couldn’t contemplate life without her. He’d had to hug her when she cried.

Marty had paid extra for Karen, the beautician who worked for the hotel to come in early and look after Anne as Mary now made him call her. Anne dutifully placed herself in Karen’s hands when Marty left them to it.

Karen sent her to the massage room, where she was steamed defoliated and massaged. Karen then cut her hair into an on the shoulder bob that feathered longer towards the front to her collarbones and then she had lightened her natural colour.

It now shone like polished copper, and it looked very different and striking with her darker eyebrows and tanned beige skin tone. It was still long enough that she could pull it back when she wanted to. She also liked the length and wondered why she hadn’t cut it shorter years ago.

Anne hoped that Marty liked it. She certainly felt different and was even thinking of herself as Anne. Karen said it took several years off her face saying that Anne barely looked as old as twenty and not the twenty-five she had said she was.

Karen teamed the new hair colour with a coral lipstick and nail polish. She was light on the make-up, and Mary loved the effect she had achieved. They both decided that she looked fabulous.

Mrs Bell met her in her room and helped her into the ivory wedding dress. She had fallen in love with it when Marty had dropped her off in the bridal section the morning before while he organised a tuxedo.