The Wedding Guest

Forever

Accompanied by Claire, Lily, Glenn, Rose, Daniel and two of the bridesmaid's partners, I sat quietly and observed my surroundings until finally the wedding party took their seats. My gaze instantly fell on Ethan.

Raising my glass, I tip it slightly at him before taking a sip. He chuckles and tips his head at me.

Eventually the bride and groom are announced and everyone stands, clapping and cheering for the newlyweds.

Judith looks absolutely stunning in her sweetheart neckline, mermaid style gown that accentuates her curves. If she doesn't do modelling, she really should.

Martin escorts his bride around the room but as they approach the top table Judith stop, her eyes bulge and she lets out an excited squeel before shuffling towards me.

    "You're here!" She chirps releasing me from her hug.

As a person who doesn't hug others, I'm really not used to all the hugs I'm receiving today.

    "I'm glad I got to see this in person" I say holding her at arms length and admiring her gown. "You look amazing"

    "You too. I barely recognised you" She giggles.

Feeling everyone's eyes upon us, I imagine they're all trying to figure out who I am and why I'm so important that the bride was over excited to see me.

   "You better take your seat before all your hungry guests murder us, we'll talk after" I tell her.

Judith looks back at Martin and nods. "Definitely" She concludes before giving me another brief hug and returning to Martin's side.

I sit and watch as Martin assists Judith with her chair, just like Ethan had done with me. He then takes his seat, his attention still glued to Judith. I know I wasn't at the wedding ceremony but I can just imagine the look of pure love Marin would of had on his face when he first saw Judith in her gown. It must have been magical.

    "So Nikki, when did you return from travelling?" Rose asks to start a conversation.

    "Ehm about six or seven months ago"

    "Seven months and we haven't seen ya? what have you been up to?" Glenn pipes up.

    "I opened my own salon in town. The one Ian works in actually"

    "He never said. Although he really doesn't tell us much" Claire titters, handing Lily, who is sat next to me, a colouring book and crayons.

    "Hey gorgeous, can I colour with you?" I ask Lily sweetly, needing any distraction from speaking about myself further.

She gazes at me momentarily before holding out a blue crayon to me and moving the colouring book closer to me.

    "Wow, she's actually sharing. Usually she hides from people who talk to her"

    "She won't even come near me" Glenn huffs.

    "Can't blame her" I nip jokingly while colouring, causing everyone at the table to laugh.

    "That was mean" Glenn says and I glance up to see him pout his bottom lip dramatically at me.

    "You'll live'' I smirk and return to colouring in with Lily while the others chat among themselves.

Eventually food is placed on the table in front of us and I must stop colouring and giggling with Lily and re-join the adult conversations.

    "You're really good with children" Rose exclaims, "have you ever worked in a creche or that?"

I shake my head. "Growing up in a home, children and babies were always coming and going; And as a permanent resident I always just done whatever I could to make them feel welcome and cared about. I wanted them to have a nice experience there" I smile at the memory.

    "Like a big sister" Rose chirps and I nod.

A nice silence falls upon the table for a minute as we dig into our food, savouring the first few bites and hoping they soak up the alcohol in our systems.

As I sat quietly eating, it amazed me how quickly the conversations commenced. It wasn't long before dessert was served and we were all sharing funny stories and soon Glenn began telling unfortunate yet hilarious stories about Ethan's encounters throughout the past two years.

   "What's so funny over here? yous are the loudest table in here"

Speak of the devil.

    "Glenn's just telling us some hapless stories about your single life" I chortle.

    "Seriously?" Ethan narrows his eyes at his best friend, who just shrugs and chuckles heartily. "What's he telling you about?"

    "The Dolly Parton wannabe" Rose giggles.

    "Oh god, I forgot about her" Ethan chuckles and rests his hand on the back of my chair as Glenn continues with his story.

    "Sounds like you're enjoying single life" I teasingly smirk at Ethan.

He rolls his eyes and grins back at me. Lifting Lily from the seat next to me, he takes a seat and places her on his lap. Barely even bothered by being moved, Lily leans into her uncles chest and continues playing with her toys.

    "This is the main girl in my life these days" He says and kisses the top of Lily's head.

Damn this swoon worthy man.

    "But seriously being single is so much more difficult than I expected"

I nod my head, understandingly; not completely though because unlike me, who has a terrible dating history, Ethan had been with Lydia for almost seven years so I can't really understand what it's like to be dating after spending so many years with one person.

No offence but I hope to never understand either. I hope that should I fall in love it should be for the rest of our lives.

It's just hard finding someone that doesn't irritate the hell out of me within the first month.

Maybe I am going to be alone forever.

    "I'm sure it won't be forever" I say jokingly to Ethan but also internally hoping it for myself.