after this night (camren)

11. Camila

The deadline was looming closer.

......

I petted my best friend's dog over and over, as if the animal might have a calming effect. Dogs sometimes did that, right? Settled nerves and made people happier. I needed some of that right now, so I sat on the edge of the antique white couch stroking Ms. Pac-Man's soft fur, hoping it would turn these jitters inside my belly into a thing of the past.

I wasn't even the one walking down the aisle. I was the damn maid of honour and I was supposed to reassure the bride. But Dinah was ready, eager, and not a wink nervous, while all I could think about was the ticking clock. I'd texted Taylor a few times, ostensibly about my hair, but really to make sure my stylist was fine. Taylor was getting ready for a Jane Black concert, she'd said, so all was well.

Still, I couldn't help feeling as if someone was watching me. Waiting for me. Poised to take me down.

Focus on the bride.

Decked out in a vintage-style tea-length dress, Dinah applied her lip gloss then twirled once in front of the antique, gilded mirror in her suit at the at the swank Club of Knights in Coral Gables.

"You look so beautiful, and this dress is so completely you" I said, even though I'd seen it many times. But that was my job - to shower the bride with extravagant compliments on her wedding day. It would also force my mind off the heightened state of panic inside my body.

"You're next, Mila" she said, and I scoffed.

I didn't even know how to respond. The notion of being married was so foreign, my best friend might as well be talking about orbiting Saturn right now, "Let's get you down the aisle" I said.

I washed my hands on final time. Yes, Ms. Pac-Man had had a pre-wedding bath, but even so, I didn't want the scent of a pooch on me as I held a bouquet. I grabbed my daisies, the perfect flowers for Dinah's sunny disposition, and held open the door for the other bridesmaids: Dinah's good friends Hayden and Erin, and Normani's best man, Marcello, who had flown out from California for the weekend, taking two days off from his starring role in the musical Crash the Moon.

We headed too the expansive grounds, across the rolling green hills, to the bluff overlooking the water. The waves lolled peacefully against the shore in the distance, and the afternoon sun warmed us. The weather gods were on our side today - the sky was crystal blue, and there was no wind.

White chairs were spread across the lawn, and out friends and family were there. I spotted Alexa in the second row, and instantly my thoughts flicked to Lauren. The two women were best friends, and I found myself wondering if my name had ever come up in their conversations.

The music began and the other bridesmaids walked down the white runner spread out on the lawn. I turned to Dinah and whispered in her ear, "I love you. I'm so happy for you" then I squeezed her hand.

"I love you too" Dinah said, and her voice threatened to break. I reached out, and gently wiped the start of a happy tear from my best friend's eye, "Don't ruin your mascara"

"I won't"

I took my turn down the runner, thrilled to finally see this day arrive. Though it hadn't been a lengthy engagement - in fact it had been markedly short, clocking in at two mere months - it was the day I'd longed to see. Nearly two years ago, the man Dinah had been involved with dumped her via voicemail twenty-four hours before their wedding, leaving her with a houseful of mixers, pasta makers, and place settings she'd never use. My best friend had been devastated. Normani wasn't like that, not in the least, but I had still asked a few days ago if my best friend had any lingering worries.

"You nervous at all now that it's so close?"

"Nope. I've never been more sure of anything in my life" Dinah had said

She looked it too, radiant in her joy today.

When I reached the raised stage, my throat hitched, and a tear slipped down my cheek as I turned to watch Dinah walk down the aisle. I delighted at the song that filled the air. Dinah hadn't picked Pachelbel's Canon or the wedding march. She'd chosen Normani's and her song - Can't Help Falling in Love.

That was the best kind of love, wasn't it? The kind where the love was its own entity, a living, breathing presence between two people, demanding to be felt. A life force of its own. That's what my best friend and Normani had, and my heart soared with happiness that Dinah had found the one.

Normani couldn't take her eyes off her bride as she waited at the edge of the bluff, watching her every step as she walked closer. The last words of the Elvis song faded out as Dinah stepped next to her. Take my hand, take my whole life too. Normani whispered something to her, and she whispered something back, and I was no longer jam-packed with worries over Austin and Squirrel. It had all been replaced by this torrent of happiness I felt for the two of them.

As the justice of peace cleared his throat, I quickly peeked at the crowd, spotting familiar faces - Normani's family, Dinah's friends from the fashion world, along with Normani's best friend who stood next to her, some of her surfing buddies in the seats, and people she worked with on her TV show. Then my eyes landed on the profile of a beautiful woman in the back row who was taking a seat. A latecomer, she'd just arrived. The woman raised her face and my heart stopped with a quick shudder.

Then it started again, somehow, across the crowd of people, the sea of suited men and elegantly-dressed women, of family and friends and new faces, she made eye contact with me, locking her gaze on mine. the sounds of the ceremony, of the vows being exchanged turned to white noise, and all I could see, hear, and feel was her. No longer separated by a continent. No longer connected only by the tether of text messages, She was one hundred feet away, and she never once stopped looking at me.

My skin was hot, and my heart was beating loudly, and as soon as the bride kissed the bride and walked back down the aisle, I was damn near ready to launch myself into her arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

im posting kinda late in the day for my time but oh well :)

but guys.. i got one of my exams back today,, i basically failed lollol 😭🤣