That Wedding

"Most definitely," he says. He gets up, turns off the lights, puts the do not disturb sign on the door, strips down to his boxers, and slides into bed with me. "We'll order room service for breakfast, relax, and I'll sneak out when you go get your hair done. What time is that?"

"My appointment isn't until noon," I say as I happily snuggle up next to him.

Lori bangs on my door at ten-thirty. I'm leaning against Phillip's naked chest while he feeds me bites of pancakes.

I get up, peek my head out the door, and whisper to Lori. "Didn't you see the do not disturb sign? That's kinda like hanging a sock on the door. I have a boy in my bed."

She pushes through the door. "Jade, don't joke about something like that," she says, like I was hooking up with some random stranger on my wedding night.

Her eyes get big when she sees Phillip. "Phillip, what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here!"

"It's not my fault she wanted one last single girl fling."

I slide back in bed to finish breakfast. "Lori, don't act all shocked. I know you and Da

"No, we didn't."

"You left early. Don't act all i

"Okay, so maybe we spent some time together the night before, but he went to a different room to sleep. I didn't want him to see me the morning of the wedding. It's bad luck, you know."

"I think it's good luck. I also think it's a stupid tradition and why some brides call off their weddings at the last minute."

"You think sleeping with them the night before will guard against cold feet?"

"Definitely. When you're all alone the night before your wedding, you have nothing to do but think. To question yourself. Contemplate all the lifetime commitment stuff you're about to say." I give Phillip's thigh a little squeeze. "It's hard to think about cold feet when you've got a hot guy in bed with you."

"Fine, joke all you want."

"I'm not joking at all. I'm dead serious. I'm glad Phillip spent the night with me."

Phillip kisses my cheek, pops the last piece of bacon in his mouth, and gets out of bed. He's only wearing boxers, so he pulls on his jeans, tosses his shirt over a broad shoulder, and picks up his shoes. "I think I better leave you girls to this."

"You're a chicken, you know that, right?" I tell him.

After watching his sexy backside walk out the door, I turn to Lori and say, "You want some food?"

"Are you really doing okay? Like you seem very calm."

"Does that surprise you? I've always been pretty chill about stuff."

Lori rolls her eyes at me and shakes her head. "You used to be chill about everything until you started dating Phillip. Then you got a little dramatic. So is there anything you need? I feel like we should be doing something."

"I'm go

"You seem too calm. It's kinda scaring me."

"Lori, I wa

She slaps me on the arm. "Jade! Do you ever take anything seriously?"

"Yes, actually I do. In all seriousness, I'm seriously blessed. Like he's amazing. Last night...."

"Okay, I give up. You're calm. Da

"You don't need to babysit me. I'm not going anywhere. I didn't even have any bad dreams last night." I grab a ceremony program off the nightstand and toss it toward her. "Take a look at this."

She watches it float down to the ground, and as she's leaning down to pick it up, she says, "What's this?"

"The ceremony program."

She looks at the front of it. The black and white brocade print. The purple trim. Our wedding monogram. She turns it over, flips it open, then closes it. "It's pretty."

I smile. "No, you need to read it."

"Why? I know everyone."

"Fine, there's something I need to tell you. If you'd read the program, you'd see that you're not my matron of honor."

She puts her hand to her chest and cries out, "What did I do wrong?"

"No, silly. I mean we're not calling you matron of honor."

"Oh, you scared me, and Jade, I'm so sorry. You didn't have to do that. It was so selfish of me to want to change your wedding."

"Well, I looked up the word matron in the thesaurus for a different word to use. The synonyms were even worse. Words like biddy, dowager, dame. So then I decided fuck tradition. I searched the internet and found that other people felt the same way. I found lots of ideas. A nice one was treasured friend, but I thought that sounded like we were fifty-year-olds. There was honor attendant, lady of honor, best woman, chick of honor, goddess of honor, my home girl, and the bride's babe."

She puts a hand up to her mouth to hide her giggles. "Oh, that sounds like we're having an affair!"

"Scandalous, right? What about executive vice president in charge of bridal affairs?"

"That sounds like you're having affairs, and I'm in charge of them!"

"That'd make you my pimpppp!!!" I laugh, but then I get serious. "So, read it."

She opens the program and reads from it. "Lori Diamond, HOTASS BEST FRIEND."

She chuckles. "Very fu

"No, that's the actual program. Ask Amy."

She looks down and reads more. "The bridesmaids are THE HOTTIES? Da

"Nobody reads them anyway. I think it's awesome!"

"I think you're crazy!"

I start to tear up for real. "You're my best friend, you know that, right? Da

She gets tears in her eyes too and gives me a big hug.

I'm ready. Ready to go meet Phillip. Ready for him to see my dress for the first time. Mrs. Mac and Mrs. Diamond are gushing about how pretty I look.

Mrs. Mac says, "So you haven't followed any traditions, but we're making you do this one. Do you have something old?"

Lori nods her head. "Yes, the satin at the base of her bouquet is from one of her mom's bridesmaid's dresses, and she has lots of new things."

"What about something borrowed?" Mrs. Diamond asks.

I squint my eyes. "Um, I don't have anything borrowed."

Mrs. Mac grins. "I was kinda hoping you'd say that. I have something for you to borrow." She rummages through her bag and pulls out a beautiful four-strand pearl bracelet. "It was my grandmother's. Both my mother and I borrowed it for our weddings."

"I'd be honored," I say and hold out my arm.

She slides it on my wrist. "It looks really pretty with your dress."

I hug her and try not to cry. Even though we went with the waterproof mascara, I don't want to mess up my makeup right before I see Phillip. "Thank you. It's beautiful."