Chapter Four
Brooke couldn’t stand still. She was pacing a hole in the ground in the groom’s cabin, waiting for Jaqueline, their wedding planner, to tell her it was time.
At least whatever tension had been plaguing Vivienne and Chris for the past few weeks wasn’t also adding to Brooke’s stress.
She’d made them promise to just be normal for the day. Just one day.
They still hadn’t told her—or Anna—why Christine had suddenly decided to move out of Vivienne’s house, but Anna had made some interesting speculations that Brooke honestly couldn’t refute.
She just hoped her friend group wouldn’t entirely fall apart as a result.
They’d been friends for nearly half of Brooke’s life.
They were two of her three favorite people.
Whatever was going on between them had been weighing on her a lot recently, but she couldn’t focus on that today.
They were keeping their promise. Today, they were acting normal.
The three of them felt like they used to.
They had the added bonus, or tension diffuser, of Nate doing his best to get to know them better.
They’d all met at Anna and Brooke’s bachelorette party, of course, but there had been a more than a little bit of drinking that night, and Anna and Allegra had arranged for their groups to play so many ridiculous games, both with, and against each other, that they hadn’t really gotten around to more basic questions about each other.
“B, you’re starting to stress me out,” Chris said with a smile. “You have nothing to be nervous about.”
Her pacing hardly halted. “There are a lot of things to stress about. Someone could drop the cake. The photographer could lose all our photos. Mother and Father might object. I can’t believe they’re here,” she added, though that was more to herself than really out loud.
“And I would personally remove them from the facilities if they did,” Nate said, not caring that Brooke wasn’t actually addressing the room with that last part.
“I hate public speaking. I’m awful at it.” Brooke shook her hands out, trying to force herself to relax.
“But you’re not publicly speaking, Brooke,” Vivienne said.
She wasn’t exactly known for her pep-talks, but she was known for solid, blunt advice.
“There are all of about fifteen people out there who you’re not close with, and most of those people were hired on for the day.
Everyone else, however,” Viv paused, making sure her words were sinking in, “loves you. Both of you.”
Chris nodded, seconding Vivienne’s words. It was a small relief in itself to see them agreeing about something. “Exactly. Brooke, we’re all so, so unbelievably happy for you both. There’s not going to be a dry eye in that room. Did you write out your vows?”
Brooke nodded quickly. “Yeah, I wrote them out.”
Vivienne let out a little laugh. “Alright, well if you can’t get the words out, just hand them to Anna.”
That got a laugh out of Nate. “Knowing Anna, she’d probably love that.”
It wouldn’t be the worst thing that had ever happened. Nate was right. Anna would probably get a kick out of getting to read Brooke’s vows to herself out loud for an audience. She’d probably even attempt Brooke’s accent.
“It’s going to be the best day ever because you two are perfect for each other,” Christine concluded.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s no cake, or no food, or if it rains, or if your parents try to duel you in the middle of the ceremony.
At the end of the day, you and Anna will be Mrs. and Mrs. Fourchette. No matter what.”
Brooke’s heart fluttered at the thought, remembering how absolutely shocked Anna had been when Brooke had asked if she could take Anna’s last name.
She had asked on their last evening in France.
They were sitting on the bank of the Seine river, watching some small boats floating slowly down stream as the sun set off in the distance.
Anna kept playing with both of their engagement rings, first hers then Brooke’s.
She hadn’t stopped being excited for a single second of the trip.
Neither had Brooke, but Anna’s excitement was always tangible.
Brooke had wanted to broach the subject of last names all day, but she hadn’t known how.
What if what she wanted wasn’t what Anna wanted?
Would that even matter in the grand scheme of things?
It wouldn’t, she concluded, as long as she got to call herself Anna’s and Anna her’s, their last names really didn’t matter.
She cleared her throat as she closed her hand around Anna’s fingers, grounding herself with Anna’s touch. “Darling, can I ask you something?” She really wished that she knew how to soften her voice when something was stressing her. She could hear her nerves, curling around the question.
Anna giggled, unaffected by Brooke’s tone. “I already said yes, Honey.” Anna nodded towards their rings, not bothering to try and tug her hand out of Brooke’s grasp. Her smile softened though as she saw the serious furrow of Brooke’s dark eyebrows. “What’s wrong, B? You can always ask me anything.”
Brooke licked her lips, possibly more nervous about this than she had been about asking Anna to marry her—granted Anna had already said yes earlier that morning. “Um, I wanted to ask you about last names.” She hadn’t phrased that as a question, but she hoped Anna would know what she’d meant.
Anna’s head tilted to the side, curious. She leaned forward and pressed a reassuring kiss to the back of Brooke’s knuckles. “Okay, Love. We can talk about last names. I guess I assumed we’d hyphenate. Kent-Fourchette or Fourchette-Kent? Why? What are you thinking?”
Brooke knew what she wanted. She had for a while, she just hadn’t really registered that it was a conversation they needed to have.
Until, suddenly, it felt like one they very much had to have.
“Well, I was thinking, and you can say no of course. It’s absolutely something we can discuss or talk about, but if you’d be open to it, I thought that maybe…
” she paused for a second, needing to take a deep breath, she hadn’t realized what a powerful thing this would be to say, “well, I was thinking, that, if you’re alright with it, I’d quite like to be a Fourchette. ”
Anna’s eyes widened. Her jaw dropped. The setting sun framed the moment perfectly in Brooke’s mind. “Just Fourchette?” Anna’s voice was soft, reverent, laced with a delicacy that Brooke couldn’t name.
Brooke nodded. “I mean, this all began because of my family’s lack of acceptance of me.
And while that has improved over the past few years—particularly with Nate—I don’t want to pass the weight of the Kents down.
I want the expectations and harshness and pretense to end with me.
At least on my side, Nate and Mel can do as they please, obviously. ”
“You want to be a Fourchette?” Anna’s eyes watered.
“I want to be yours,” Brooke said, as easily as she breathed.
“In every way. Your mother is lovely. Everyone she’s had us meet on this trip has been lovely.
I’d be honored to take your family’s name.
” She smiled, confident now thanks to Anna’s warm reaction.
“If you’ll have me?” She added, cheekily.
That memory shot through Brooke, syncing perfectly with what her friends and brother were telling her.
They were right. And the most obvious illustration of that fact, was simply that Brooke really just wanted a hug from Anna.
She knew most of her stress would go away if she could just have a hug from her almost wife.
She sat with that thought for a moment, basking in the warmth of that realization.
Three years ago, to the day if their fake origins were to be believed, Brooke was hardly able to hold a conversation with Anna.
She couldn’t sit across a table from her without worrying about careening into a panic attack.
But now, now, Anna was home. It didn’t matter where they were, who they were with, or what awaited them, if Anna was there, Brooke felt like she was home.
There was a knock on the door of the little groom’s cabin, pulling Brooke from the comfort of her thoughts. Please don’t let this be one of her parents, please let this be Jaqueline.
It was neither. When Nate opened the door, he revealed the photographer, Audrey. Brooke and Anna had picked Audrey to be their photographer because she was obviously queer and more than a little excited to get to photograph a sapphic wedding.
“You all look amazing,” Audrey said, addressing the whole room.
Brooke agreed. Her friends and her brother cleaned up nicely.
“Okay, so I was hoping to get some photos of this group doing a little before. Brooke, I know that your tie is already perfect, but could we maybe try for some adjustment shots maybe between you and your brother?”
And so the next fifteen minutes went like that. With the photographer taking photos of them staging things they had already done. Brooke didn’t mind. Anna would love to see these photos in a few days when they finally had access to all of them.
When Audrey was done with their ‘getting ready’ shots, she told Brooke that Anna wanted to get a few of them before the wedding. She said something about a door photo that Brooke was unfamiliar with. Christine, however, seemed thrilled.
“Oh yay.” Christine was practically bouncing. “I’m so glad you’re going to get some of those. They’re always my favorites from weddings.”
Brooke and her party followed Audrey dutifully out of the cabin and down to a little barn that was more of a staging area than anything else.