Obstruction

Love Walked In

- Thunder, Love Walked In -

- March -

I was stood all dressed up, ready for the performance of my life. Somewhere outside, Simon, Oddball and Ethan were waiting.

Our daughter Ayame had been a total rubber ball all morning so my mum had taken her out of the dressing room as soon as she was in her dress to match mine. As long as Aya had Ethan, she was happy. She had become such a daddy's girl.
And her favourite uncle Oddball was out there. Between the three men in our lives, Ayame was the most protected, loved and spoilt little princess in rock.

My old classmate Vero was making final adjustments to my dress. Based on what I had wanted, she had designed something that made me feel immaculate.
Freddy entered the room with a camera. He had been trusted with the task of photographing the event and started snapping my preparations, now that my gown was in order.

"All done," Vero smiled and stood to look me over.

"Thank you, Vero," I said and gave her a hug.

"God, no! I should be thanking you! My little dress shop has taken off thanks to you getting all your red carpet stuff from me," she grinned.

"This ain't a red carpet event tho," Ellen said dryly.

"No. This is much bigger!" Vero laughed.

She left the room with Freddy to join everybody else and I was alone with Selma and Ellen, both in beautiful maroon dresses, also from Vero's shop. Emma was just outside the room in a similar dress.

I took a deep breath and nodded.

"You look beautiful," Selma smiled before opening the door. 

I took a step out and saw Simon in his vest and formal frock-coat.
His eyes were on Selma with a wide smile for a few seconds before turning to me.

"Looking good, Izzy," he smiled.

"Thank you," I said.

"I'll enjoy being your daddy," he chuckled.

Ever since I'd asked him to walk me up the aisle he had found the concept of playing my dad hilarious.

"Ready?" Selma asked.

I nodded and Ellen signalled someone.
The sound of the string quartet started. Peeking through the opening in the curtained patio doors, I saw family and friends stand up. Up ahead was a floral arch. The chairs and arch were set up in a cherry orchard and everything was surrounded by pale pink and white flowers. The occasional breath of wind caused petals to float down from the canopy of flowers above the arch.

My heart was beating like a monster. This was it.

"Don't you fucking dare run now," Ellen laughed at me.

She had been teasing me about making a run for it since we first told people what was happening.
I poked my tongue out at her and had both her and Selma laughing.

"He'd run after her," Selma grinned with a nod towards the door.

After an initial awkward phase, they were back at being thick as thieves. Our girlie movie nights usually featured an element of Ellen teasing Selma about Simon being a second hand toy, charitably passed on after some basic training. It usually ended with Selma threatening to lock Ellen in a room with Mio.
Ellen blamed her busy life and accountancy business for her single status, but we knew she'd shared a few wild nights with Mio. She was just unwilling to admit to it.

I looked at Emma who was beaming at me. She had grown into a stunningly pretty 12 year old.

Next to her was Abby. I had my stepsister, my best friends, all my family and all the people I loved all gathered in one place. The butterflies in my gut were threatening to lift me up form the ground.