Chapter 4: The Wedding Ceremony

I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, the sun was trying desperately to get past the heavy drapes the hotel used. I opened one eye and wished I hadn’t; my head, at the introduction of some light into my eyes, started a rhythmic pounding in time with my heartbeat. Lou must have gotten up sometime in the night and covered me up, as that was the way I found myself. My mouth tasted terrible and I slowly got up off the couch. I stumbled to the bedroom and found my small travel bag. I rummaged around in it until I found the extra-strength pain reliever I knew was there. The caffeinated driver I knew would help eventually and would also help wake me up. I eyed the bottle and shook out two and dry-swallowed them.

Lou was not in bed and I heard the shower running so I knew where she was. I lay down on the bed with my arm over my eyes. She turned the shower off and in couple of minutes I looked up as she came out of the bathroom. She smiled when she saw me and came over and gave me a kiss on the cheek, dripping all over my face.

“Good morning,” she said brightly. I groaned and rolled away from her and closed my eyes. “I’m glad you’re awake,” she continued a little less loudly. “Head hurt?”

I groaned again and nodded my head. I heard her pick up the bottle of aspirin. “This will help,” she declared, “but so will a shower and some breakfast. I’ve ordered some room service and it should be here in about 20 minutes. You’d better get that shower, quick!”

“Go away and let me die!” I croaked. I was surprised at the depth of my voice. I hoped it would be back in time for the wedding.

“No,” she replied. She grabbed my arm and started tugging me into an upright position. She was surprisingly strong. “Come on, Jon,” she said. “You’ll feel like a new man when you get cleaned up and some breakfast in you. You still have a wedding to photograph in about,” she paused as she looked at the clock on the bed stand and did some calculations, “three-and-a-half hours. Move!!” She had me on my feet and she shoved me in the direction of the bath.

I did as I was told and by the end of the shower, I was feeling halfway human. Next, whether it was the soap and water or the caffeine on an empty stomach that did the trick, I don’t know, but the smell of bacon and eggs had me salivating. I quickly put my robe on and joined Lou in the other room.

She was dressed, but not in anything I’d let her wear as my assistant. The sloppy sweatshirt with no neckband was hanging off one shoulder and she was standing reading the headlines on the paper and chewing on a piece of toast. I could see she was wearing tight-fitting pants and tennies. When she saw me, she grinned.

“Feeling better?” she queried. When I nodded my head, she said, “Good. Now eat some breakfast, read your paper and maybe take a little nap. Gina called me while you were in the shower and she wants to talk to me. I’ll be back in about two hours. We’ll talk later.” With that, she gave me a kiss, picked up her purse and walked out the door.

I watched her ass as she walked away from me, marveling again at how the female form could move in such a way as to capture a man’s imagination. Believe me, Lou’s walk made me imagine all sorts of things.

I was a little disappointed in that Lou wasn’t sitting with me for breakfast. Where she would have sat was a plate that had a little bit of egg on it and a piece of bacon, which I filched as I sat down. I uncovered the plate at my spot and saw eggs, bacon and sausage. A second plate was uncovered and on it was biscuits and gravy, a real favorite of mine. A tall glass of OJ sat perspiring from the humidity generated by the two showers. It all looked very good and my stomach rumbled. I sat down and set to.

As I ate, I glanced at the headlines, noting that however much things changed, they generally stayed the same. It seems I was experiencing déjà vu all over again, as the headlines were about the same as when I was Lou’s age; unrest in the Middle East, North Korea rattling its sabers and political scandals at home. I turned to the comics and had a couple of much needed laughs.

After I ate, I checked my cameras and the laptop, just to make sure everything was functioning well. After that, with my head still throbbing a bit, I lay down in the darkened bedroom and closed my eyes, trying to will the headache gone.

It seemed like only few minutes later I felt the bed move and I felt a feathery touch on my lips. My eyes fluttered open to see Lou tucking an errant lock of hair behind her ear. “Hi,” I said. “That was a short trip.”

“Short?” she snorted. “I’ve been gone almost two hours. It seems Gina forgot some very important stuff at home.” She wriggled a little and sat up on her knees.

“Two hours?” I started, then glanced at the clock. It really had been two hours! “I guess I fell asleep,” I said sheepishly.

“I just hope Gina’s bridesmaids look as well rested as you, later,” Lou said. “Seems they did not take your advice about not tying one on last night, which is why Gina called me this morning. They were all hung over worse than you!”

I glommed onto something she said. “Stuff? What sort of stuff are we talking about?”

“Girly-stuff, nosey,” she replied. “If you need to know, you’ll find out about it tonight. Right now, you need to start dressing for the wedding.”

By this time, I was sitting up. “Won’t take me ten minutes,” I huffed. “How about you? Maybe we could...” and I waggled my eyebrows at her.

“No, Jonny,” she said. “I don’t have time for another shower and I won’t go to this wedding smelling like a two-dollar whore.” She smiled as she said it, taking away some of the sting. She looked at me carefully. “Are you OK from last night?” she tentatively asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” I said. “Are you upset with me?”

“No,” she said. “I am upset with your ex, though. I hope I don’t run into her for a while. I might do something really stupid, but really gratifying.”

I stood up. “I’m thinking that I might try to do something from a legal standpoint. I’ll have to think about it.” I paused. “Are we ... you and I ... OK?”

She knee-walked across the bed to me, put her arms around me and put her head on my chest. “We weren’t OK, but we will be,” she said. She reached down and pinched my butt. “We need to get going, mister!”

I swatted her hands and moved away from her. “Well, stop teasing!” I said.

“Yes, Sir!” she said, grinning. I stepped over to the wardrobe and fished out a suit from my garment bag. I had packed a couple of extras, anticipating maybe going to a concert or a show Sunday afternoon. I looked over at Lou. She had taken my place at the wardrobe and was looking into her garment bag. She had a couple of dresses pulled out, one in red and the other in deep blue. She looked at me and held the two dresses at her side.

“Which one?” she asked.

“The blue,” I said. It was very nice with a scoop neckline and spaghetti straps, but it looked like it had a longer silhouette than did the red. The red she could wear to show off her legs. However, it would never do to show up a bride on her wedding day.

She looked at it critically, shrugged and said, “OK.” She went over to the vanity and did a few things with her brushes and then slipped the sweatshirt and yoga pants off. She then went back to the vanity and reached into a bag sitting on the floor. She pulled out two flesh-colored items, then sat at the vanity, raised one arm and maneuvered the item under her breast. She adjusted it and put her arm down and when she did, her breast stayed up high on her chest. That’s when I was able to identify the items: silicone bras! Each one fits under the breast, giving the breast a nice shape and helps the breast to fill out the bodice of the dress. Clever!

She did the same thing with the other breast, then unzipped the dress and pulled it over her head. She settled it into place and then came over to me and presented her back to me, saying, “Zip me, please?”

By this time, I was dressed, too, except for tying my tie and it was around my neck. I zipped her up but quipped, “I’m much better at unzipping than zipping!”

She turned around and grinned and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “No doubt,” she said, “but we need to keep moving.” She then placed both of her hands on her tits and did that thing that women will do if they have any cleavage exposed: she moved her tits around, adjusting the fit, feel and appearance of her tits.

“I could do that, too,” I said, waggling my eyebrows at her. I was adjusting my tie.

She turned and came towards me. “I’ll just bet you could.” She brushed my hands away and adjusted the tie. “However, if you did, we’d never get out of here!”

“Probably not,” I agreed, grabbing my jacket and a camera bag. Lou picked up her purse and the other camera bag.

“Just a moment,” I said, going back to the bathroom. My head was still pounding, so I scooped the bottle of aspirin. If what Lou had said earlier was true, then some of the attendants might need it, also. “All set,” I said, picking up the things I had dropped. I opened the door and we were off.