33
INTIMATE MOMENTS
It was the morning of Ivy’s wedding. I left Nate's house in the early hours after he got all the passion out of his system.
“I need to go, baby! It’s Ivy's wedding day,” I said as I laid beside him, struggling to leave his side, glancing into his eyes, stroking his cheek. His arms wrapped tightly around me, I just wanted to stay in his embrace forever.
“We will tell her soon, I promise” he told me, and I nodded. He knew I was nervous. “It's going to be so hard keeping away from you today. I can't wait to see you in your dress,” he grabbed my arse and pulled me into him. I giggled, stroking the hair at the nape of his neck and pouted. He pecked my lips.
“I can't wait to see you in another suit.” I took a breath as the anxiety returned. “I just hope Ivy isn't mad at us. She means everything to me and so do you. I don't know what I would do if I lost you both.”
The day for revealing the truth was getting closer and closer. The realisation was hitting me hard that this little bubble would be no more, and the anxiety of losing both my best friend and the love of my life wasn’t an easy pill to swallow. I sighed pressing my forehead against him.
“Hey… that's not going to happen. I'm not going anywhere and I'll bring Ivy round if that happens. She may be mad at first, that we didn’t tell her, but she loves us both too much to stay mad. She would want us to be happy,” he reassured, planting a delicate kiss on my nose. I just hoped that he was right.
“Promise?” I asked, still unsure whether it would all be okay.
“I promise,” he smiled, as I watched the admiration beam from his eyes. It made all this worth it. “Now let's get going before we never leave this bed,” he instructed, giving my arse a final squeeze and rolling away.
I drove to Ivy's venue, making my way up to the manor house that she had stayed in last night to get ready. My floor length, apple-red bridesmaid dress was hanging in the spare room, waiting for me.
Ivy answered the door, dancing around and super excited that I had arrived. She embraced me before dragging me into the house, throwing me a champagne glass, not even 8am yet. What the hell, it was time to celebrate. She had laid pastries and fruit in the main room to make sure we would all eat this morning and I helped myself to a croissant.
“It's finally here, I'm a bride!” she danced as she grabbed some fruit and shoved it in her mouth. She was like a kid at Disneyland.
“You're a bride!” I squealed, matching her energy even though it was still too early. I shoved some more pastry in my mouth, downed my champagne and grabbed coffee from the machine. I wanted to make sure Ivy ate so I gave her some time to load up her stomach before getting her ready.
“Let's get you ready!” I grabbed her hand, placing her in the chair. Ivy was getting her hair and makeup done by one of the bridesmaids, Mia; a makeup artist and stylist by trade.
I sorted out her gown, getting her ready to step into it before it was my turn. Mia popped me in the chair next and worked her magic. A subtle, nude sparkle eyeshadow, with a statement red lip; Ivy knew it was my signature lipstick. My hair curled, positioned in an updo at the base of my neck, a few curls framing my face. Finally, I changed into my dress as Mia went next door to fix the other girls and herself.
We stood in front of the mirror as I helped Ivy to fix her dress in place, buttoning the hundreds of buttons on the back.
“You look so beautiful, Iv,” I smiled, feeling very emotional. Today was finally here and in a couple hours she would be married. I placed my hands on her shoulders and hugged her, pulling her into my chest and resting my head on hers.
She was my everything. I was lucky she was my best friend, I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
“I love you so much Gi. I can't thank you enough for everything, you’ve helped me with all of this.” I felt a lump in my throat and a tear fell from my eye as I patted it dry. I couldn’t ruin Mia’s work.
I felt so bad in that moment, that the lies were still between us, that’s what made me tear up. I wish I had been honest from the start and told her everything from the beginning. I knew I couldn’t turn back time and the choices I had made were my own. That right now all I could do was treasure her words and enjoy one of the biggest moments of her life in case I wasn’t part of it after she found out.
“I love you too, no matter what, okay?” I whispered, praying that these words would stick, that no matter what happened we would always love each other.
“No matter what,” she agreed. Her eyes welled a little and she chuckled, shooing me away so I wouldn’t ruin her look.
A gentle knock on the door pulled us out of our emotions. Ivy composed herself, tapping away the tears in the corner of her eyes and I went to find her veil, making myself busy so she could have a moment with whoever was at the door.
“Come in,” she called. “Unless you're Jude… then go away,” she added quickly. The door opened and Nate appeared.
He took my breath away. He froze, not sure if he was allowed to enter until Ivy waved him in. Nate was in a new suit, black of course and an apple-red bow tie. His hair was in his usual perfect style.
“You could have dressed up Nate,” Ivy teased as she saw her brother in yet another suit. He chuckled a little, he looked nervous to be here. He stepped closer to his sister, kissed her cheek and pulled her in for a hug, careful not to crinkle her dress or ruin her hair.
“Wow, Iv! You look so beautiful,” he complimented. He studied her; a beautiful mermaid tailed dress hugged her figure, it was full of glitz on the bodice and she looked like a Hollywood star. Her hair was curled over her shoulders in a 1940s wave and the veil was last to go in. Her blue eyes pierced through the earthy eyeshadow tones.
“You think so? Why am I so nervous? Is Jude okay?” She shook her hands as if the worry was on the ends of her fingers and she was trying to shake them off.
I knew Nate was one of Jude’s best men after Zak had got called into work last minute. Nate got the message late last night to tell him when he arrived to come and grab the matching tie. He was told where he needed to stand but his main job was to also take care of the rings.
“Iv, everything is okay. Take a breath,” he chuckled as he stood in front of her, his hands on her arms. “Jude is fine, he's ready. I wanted to stop by and check in with you,” he reassured her and she calmed. She nodded.
Nate glanced over at me, eyes widening at the sight of me. I have to admit red was my colour. He smiled affectionately. The silence filled the room for a few seconds too long as I got lost in Nate’s eyes before my brain pulled my attention back to Ivy who was looking at me too.
“Nate is right,” I smiled, swallowing the lump in my throat. “You look incredible, you don’t need to be nervous. Jude loves you always,” I expressed. Jude loved her when she was at her worst so I knew he would love her at her best and this was her best.
“Hey, Gi.” Nate finally greeted me, like he’d found the words.
“Hey.” I smiled, butterflies in my stomach every time my name fell from his mouth. Anxiety bubbled. Are we acting normal? Do we usually say hi in front of Ivy? Am I blushing?
I began to fiddle with the veil nervously, trying to remove the attention from me.
“Iv, we need to fix your veil,” I said after a while, as Nate stood, fixated on me, Ivy’s attention flicking between us. Nate shrugged out of it, drawing Ivy’s focus back to him.
“I have something for you.” He handed her a small poker chip.
“For luck. And ,it’s your something borrowed.”
“Your lucky chip!” Ivy's eyes lit up as she rolled the little red poker chip in her fingers, as if she knew what it meant to him.
“It's brought me so much luck, I think it’s your turn for a while.” Nate's sentimental side always took me by surprise. My heart raced in my chest as I watched this interaction. Nate didn’t seem like the type to have a ‘lucky’ object.
“Thank you,” she smiled, tears welling in her eyes. Nate glanced over to me one more time.
“You look beautiful too, Gi,” he admired, before coughing to cover his emotion. “Right, I will see you on the other side Mrs Lawrence." He placed his hands in his pockets and left the room. The new surname Ivy was taking suited her.
After Nate left, I took a breath, watching as Ivy turned back to the mirror, smoothing down her dress and finding somewhere to pop the sentimental chip. She decided to push the lucky chip in the side of her dress under the arms, so she could have it on her at the wedding. I placed myself behind her again and slid the veil into her hair.
“I think an alien has taken my brother's place.” Ivy caught my eyes in the reflection. “He seems different, don't you think?” She eyed me suspiciously, I tried to play it cool, fiddling with the veil.
“Maybe he's just happy for you. He loves you so much Ivy.”Something in her expression made me feel like she didn’t believe the lie I just told, hell I didn’t even believe it myself.
Nate had changed a lot over the last few months and I’d had a front row seat to the show. He was a lot calmer, a lot more vulnerable than when I first met him. He didn’t feel the need to put on a charade anymore. He was a lot more mature and was learning how to deal with his emotions; not completely but better. And I guess maybe he was able to do that around Ivy.
“Yeah maybe,” she smiled softly, looking away from me. “I want him to be happy too. He has been through a lot. Oh actually, please can you do me a favour?” Ivy asked, taking me by surprise.
“Sure,” I nodded, glad this conversation was taking a turn. Hiding my emotions wasn’t coming easy. “Can you keep an eye on Nate? I really don't want another outburst at the wedding. Mum is going to keep an eye on Dad but I'll have peace of mind knowing someone has Nate's back when it comes to Dad.”
“Maid of Honour duty, accepted,” I chuckled. I wasn’t going to let anything ruin her day. But I also was grateful it gave me an excuse to get close to Nate. I knew this would be the first time Nate and his Dad would be in the same place since the Christmas incident and that made Ivy nervous. “Now let's go get you married,” I chimed, trying to lighten the mood.