Fade to Black (sequel to riptide)

Part 36

Hella later in time
Lauren's pov
I get to go home for a bit. Since Jackson and I want the wedding perfect were flying a caterer out to Hawaii to do the wedding. We didn't want anything half assed so we got a popular celebrity chef and caterer to agree to this for us and he's doing menu tastings and cake tastings with us in Miami at his restaurant. We also have a ton of other stuff to get done for the wedding like fittings and other stuff so we have to fly to LA to get all of that done. Since the tour is pretty much over now we can work on all of this given we have 6 months left to do it all. Right now is he most important moment of all in my opinion. I gathered the girls and all of my friends to talk to them.
"Hey guys welcome all. I have something very important to talk to you all about."
"So as you know I'm five months I'm getting married to the most amazing man on earth in Hawaii but there's an order of business that I should've sorted out earlier. Dinah, ally, Normani, Camila, Lucy, Keana, and Taylor will you be my bridesmaids?"
"Yes!" They all yell at once.
"Oh my gosh yes totally oh my god I'm so excited!" Keana almost yells.
"We thought you'd never ask!" Lucy says with a huge grin.
"There's one more thing. Me and Jackson have talked about his a lot and we decided on the best choice. You were always the go between in our relationship. You've helped us and encouraged us in every aspect of our relationship and you've built our trust. You pushed us together when i didn't even want to admit that I loved him. You gave me advice and helped me through the hardest times in our relationship. You helped him and you told him when he was being an asshole. So Dinah Jane Milika Ilaisaane Hansen Amasio will you be my maid of honor?" She looked shocked.
"Oh my god yes! What the hell of course! I'm so honored that you asked me holy shit! I love you Lauser!" She jumped up to hug me. We stayed in our hug for a really long time just embracing one another. After she let go we sat down to talk about the wedding all together.
"Do you know who Jackson's best man is or any of his groomsmen?" Ally asks.
"His best man is his Navy Seal friend Frankie. Justin is a groomsman. Jacob as well. But ever since Arian died he's been a little slow on choosing groomsmen. Arian was going to be his best man and now he can't so every time he goes to think about this he has to relive Arian's death."
"It's been hard on him hasn't it?" Ally says sympathetically.
"It has he was destroyed when it happened and he wasn't himself until after he got the chance to write it all out and he got relief and closure so he got better but it still hurts him." Everyone just nods sadly.
"Ok let's not be sad let's be happy I'm getting married yay! Let's focus on that. So there isn't that much left besides everything minus like venue, location, date, yeah so like everything is left."
"Oh my god Lauren."
"What? We been busy."
"Do you even have any idea of anything you want?"
"Well Jackson wants his pastor to preside over the wedding and the guy has agreed. It's going to be on the beach with a ton of chairs and that's all I've got for the wedding part. The reception is different well the whole theme of the wedding color scheme wise is blue so you guys are wearing blue. Jacksons boys will have an element of blue. The reception is at this beautiful clubhouse place with the most amazing view of a Hawaii ocean that I have ever seen. It's literally so beautiful. Uhm that's all I've got."
"Flowers? Food? Cake? Entertainment? Decorations? Seating assignment? Guest list? Anything?"
"Nope. I mean food and cake are being taken care of today. So that's good."
"Does Jackson have any ideas?"
"Of course he does. He's so metro sexual it's confusing because he's also hella masculine."
"So has he talked about what he wants?"
"He tries not to because he's convinced that the woman is supposed to plan the wedding but he's been dropping hints and he thinks I don't know it."
"Ok so what does he want?"
"He wants a light sea blue and white theme and peonies with white roses and my bouquet will be probably just peonies and white roses to please him. I don't really mind since he's giving up the rest of his wedding for me no negotiation."
"He's actually perfect."
"Yeah he is." I smile thinking about him.
----------

"Ok so for the main course we have seared beef with limited seasoning..."
"No no everything must be seasoned heavily in cuban spices ." My dad interjects.
"Papi we have talked about this, there needs to be options." I say rubbing the bridge of my nose as Jackson rubs my back keeping me calm.
"Are you trying to whitefy this wedding? Keep all of the cuban traditions hidden? Are you ashamed of your heritage?"
"No te se ocurra! Amo a Cuba. Amo mi herencia. No necessito una boda cubano amo mi herencia." (Dont you dare! I love Cuba. I love my heritage. I don't need a cuban wedding to love my heritage).
"Lauren tu necessito un poco influencia de cubano en tu boda."
"Dad we will. We have a lot of cuban influences but this wedding includes a cuban-american and an Aussie."
"Lauren the food is the most important part of our culture. We can't just ignore that."
"OK papi ok. Dimitri is there any chance that theres some cuban influences in the meal?"
"Of course we could always add some flan to the dessert or some beans and rice as a side."
"So in addition to the cake we will have flan. Can we add a choice for Yuca con mojo its a simple cuban dish and it will make my dad happy."
"Of course Ms. Jauregui it is your wedding my menu will mold around your vision for your wedding."
"Thank you Dimitri."
"Lauren thats all? Thats all the heritage you want to get married under."
"Dad we are musicians. We are artists. We do not believe that the food is the most important part of our culture. Music will be front and center in our lives always and so dad that being said cuban music will be played at the reception and a lot of it too. A lot of cuban music will be played."
"OK i will back off now." I lean in towards Jackson.
"I need to get out of here as soon as possible. This wedding stuff is making him give me a headache."
"Of course my love don't worry we will be on our way to the airport in 3 hours."
"You have no idea how happy that makes me."
"I'm sure that I do." I laugh barely audibly before turning back around to continue the tastings. We tasted like fifteen million other things before the cakes, the part I wanted to try.
"Oh my god this lemon cake is so good."I say closing my eyes to enjoy the flavor of the cake.
"I like the german chocolate cake." Jackson says.
"I didn't."
"Well you don't like chocolate missy so of course you don't like the cake." He pokes my side causing me to giggle.
"What other ones do you like?" I ask him feeding him a bite of the red velvet.
"I like that one."
"You like all of the deep dark ones."
"Ok what is the issue? Why cant we just have one of those?"
"You want a blue bright theme and you want a deep dark cake?"
"Contrasting."
"No babe you need something light and sweet without being overpowering. We're at the beach something light would be perfect."
"Ok which ones are considered light then?"
"Here." I give him a taste of the lemon cake.
"It's good." He says plainly.
"Well that was a shit reaction."
"It was good if that is the one you want then thats the one we will get."
"No this is your wedding too so we both have to like the flavor I need a reaction. You need to taste and melt."
"Well none of the flavors you like make me melt."
"Come on babe none of them?"
"None. They're all good but they are not meltable you know." Dimitri comes out of the kitchen with three more cakes.
"We have a raspberry lemonade cake which is a raspberry cake with a lemon buttercream frosting, pink champagne cake which is a cake cooked with champagne to replace the water and pink coloring with a buttercream frosting, and a green tea cake which is a mandarin green tea cake with a honey buttercream."
He places one of each in front of each couple. In front of me and Jackson, in front of my parents, in front of Dinah and Frankie and the last in front of Sydney and Tobias. We all tried each flavor but when the raspberry lemonade touched our taste buds we all moaned at the taste.
"That is amazing." Jackson says taking another bite.
"I agree." I say.
"Wait did we just..." He starts jokingly.
"I think we just...." I played along.
"We just agreed." He pretends to be shocked making me laugh. He chuckles along with me.
"So you like the raspberry lemonade?" Dimitri asks.
"We will take it. It's the only one we agreed on." I say to which Dmitri smiles and bows thanking us. His helpers take our plates away and we give him our thanks going over the menu one more time before saying our goodbyes. We got into our car driving straight home to get ready for our flight.
"I can't wait to see your family baby."
"I can't wait for them to meet you either but I forgot to tell you my parents won't be there."
"What?! Why not?"
"Because I don't want my father anywhere near you."
"Why? Do you not want him to meet me?"
"I really really don't."
"Because of me?" I ask slightly hurt.
"No because he's an asshole."
"Sure." I continue packing my makeup aggressively. I feel strong hands on my arms from behind. His strong arms wrapped around my body holding me close to him.
"Hey I am not ashamed of you in anyway shape or form. I'm taking you with me to show you off not to hide you. I fucking hate my father and you know that. This is not at all about you because you are an amazing woman and I am so lucky to be marrying you. I don't want my dad to talk to you and say something hurtful nor do I want him causing drama or telling you untrue things. I don't want him to try and ruin this wedding which is why I never told him about it. He will find out when my moms invitation arrives with a plus one. I love you and I am so proud of who I have chosen don't ever believe otherwise. Ok?"
"Ok." I reply as he puts his head into my shoulder blade placing a kiss there before returning to what he was doing.
I finish packing my makeup and all of my other things I might need on the plane into Jacksons carry on bag. It was more like a backpack.
"Baby do I need a pair of boots."
"Definitely."
"Heels?"
"Only one."
"Nice clothes?"
"One pair for when we go to the boat club for dinner."
"Casual and like hiking casual clothes mainly."
"Awesome. And it's hot in Australia right?" He starts laughing.
"What?" I ask confused.
"Did you just ask if it's hot in Australia? On the outback?"
"Yes I did."
"Oh my sweet, innocent Lauren yes baby girl it's scorching in Australia." Instead of being embarrassed it's my turn to laugh.
"You say scorching funny." He rolls his eyes.
"You know you like my accent and the way I say my words." His voice gets deeper making my throat go dry.
"Babe we have to finish packing." I say trying to get back into that mindset instead of thinking about...things.
"Yeah ok lets finish packing for the ranch." He goes back over to his suitcase packing up his various items he would need. I made sure I had some jeans, hiking pants, shorts, leggings, belts, t-shirts, flannels, sweaters, sneakers, boots, bikini, flip-flops, sunglasses, dad caps, dress, heels, and toiletries including my makeup.
"OK babe I think I'm done." I say looking at the outfits and shoes and such laid out. He walks over and drops two jackets onto my pile. There was a light rain jacket and a bigger jacket bulkier north face jacket.
"Thank you baby." I peck his lips. I watch him pack up his hair supplies, shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, comb, little baby hair scissors, and a brush. He double wrapped them up probably to hide the scissors. He then packed up his facial hair grooming stuff. He adds his old fashioned razor that looks like a full metal comb without the incisions.
"Babe its ten days your facial hair will be fine. You're going to get us kicked off of the plane."
"I won't. They won't catch me and if they do I'll throw it away and buy a new ones in Australia."
"They can take away your visa or something."
"No they can't anyways I won't get caught."
"You better not." I zip up my suitcase and change into some nicer clothes. I settled on flexible jeans, vans, and a razerback shirt. Comfortable yet nice for when I meet his family.
"My grandfather just sent me a overview itinerary to aid us in packing."
"Aww that's so sweet."
"Yeah so you will definitely need more shorts. Since we are going mid spring it wont be too cold. Like it'll just be getting cold."
"What?"
"Summer, spring, winter, fall thats our progression of seasons."
"Interesting."
"Yeah it's crazy how the world doesn't resolve around America huh?"
"I never said that."
"I was just kidding babe."
"We won't be doing anything go crazy but you might want to bring an extra swimsuit."
"Ok will do then." I grab another one and instead of re-opening my suitcase I just sort of stuffed it in.