The Girl With Five Watches

39: Reception

"Sara, there are no words to say what a blessing you are. I'll be honest, it took me a week to write only three sentences on this notecard. In the end, I crossed out two sentences and only have one sentence left. It's an important sentence though. It says, 'Who could be more loving than Sara?' Sara, let me just say right now, there is nobody that I know that is more loving than you." Her face began blushing almost crying tears out of her eyes. "Before I met you, my life was a mess. I needed help. I needed love. I needed grace. Little did I know, you would be the one to provide that help, that love, and that grace. You've demonstrated what love is and what it should be reaching for every day. And because of that, I want to make sure that I give you everything that you've given me. Love never dies. It only dies when we let it die."

It was finally Sara's turn to read her vows which were typed up on her phone. Who knew she would have a hard time reading them with her tears rushing out of her eyes.

"Jimmy, like you, I was hurting but was good at hiding it. For the time, life was fine. But it wasn't fine. Meeting you, you showed me that there is no need to hide from anything. You didn't judge me, but instead, you embraced who I was. Most of my dates actually made fun of my five watches. There's so much more I want to say, but I can't take any more of this crying. The last thing I would like to say is that I don't ever want to judge you. I want to embrace who you are for years to come."

Everyone clapped at our vows. And if this day couldn't be any more surprising, Sara's zoo monkey was the one that delivered our rings. That was all her. Originally, Karla was going to be the one to deliver them. Once the rings were delivered, Sara gave up another watch and gave it to the monkey even though it wasn't the monkey from the fire.

In another quick moment, the pastor announced that I could kiss my bride. And I gave Sara my new wife the most passionate kiss that I had ever given her. It was a kiss that lasted a good minute.

"Ladies and Gentlemen for the very first time, I am proud to announce standing here before me, Jimmy and Sara Rider," announced the pastor.

The crowd went wild in uproarious applause. Who knew people could get excited over a wedding? Karla began jumping with joy and ran up to Sara to give her the tightest hug she could give her. Roger simply just gave me a small smile and a simple nod of approval. In another shocker, the audience wanted us to kiss again. "Another kiss!" They shouted.

Sara was the one this time to grab me and give me the kiss that the crowd wanted. Once that happened, they all stood up with cheering and whistling. The pastor couldn't help but laugh with what was going on. Looking at Dr. Parker in the audience, he provided me with a thumbs up and continued clapping. It dawned on me how young he looked that day. Love sometimes makes us young.

With all the excitement going on that afternoon it was time for the reception. The pastor had never been so relieved after dealing with a joyfully roaring crowd. Did we seriously invite these people? Needless to say, the reception went by smoothly. It was fun getting to meet with friends and family. Having my parents there was also something that brought great joy to my heart. In everything that I ever imagined, I always felt that my parents would never want to celebrate something this big with me. And yet, here they were celebrating something big. After meeting with my parents, I found myself walking by an empty table. Sure, it was empty, but it was also reserved. The table was reserved for Emily. Many emotions began rushing in. In the middle of the table was a picture of my wonderful sister. It was the last picture of us taken together. We were being hugged by Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.

"Oh no, it's Mickey Mouse!" screamed Emily. "I don't want to do this!" She began crying. "Please, mommy can we go somewhere else?"

If my mom had said yes, Emily would've regretted this moment for the rest of her life. Taking the initiative, I grabbed her hand and beamed at her. "We'll do this together." Without any argument, she agreed and we walked up to Mickey Mouse. Mickey didn't hesitate to give my little sister a hug. In much joy, she began giggling as a little girl would. Our mom quickly got a picture of us together with the mouse.

A stream of tears went down my face. I missed her so much. Not able to stay at that table, I headed on over to the next empty table which was reserved for Sara's uncle. A picture of him saving a cat out of a tree was chosen as the display for the table. On that table, laid another watch. Chills went down my spine once I realized that she had gotten rid of her third watch. She was down to two watches. Where was she? What would happen if she had no watches left? I wanted to talk to her at that very moment.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" asked Dr. Parker who walked up to me with a wine glass. "These two tables were Sara's ideas. I hope Emily's table isn't too much of a burden for you. I did warn my daughter that you might be uncomfortable by this."

"No, it's fine. She certainly has pulled off a lot of surprised today."

He began snorting. "Son, let me just say to you that she's been planning this wedding since she was a little girl. And me being the loving father that I am, how could I deny her these things. There's a lot more she wanted for this wedding. Eventually, I had to stop her and remind her that her marriage to you was far more important than this expensive wedding that she wanted." He patted my shoulder. "You have a great wife, you know that?"

In the blink of an eye, it was time for our first dance. My wife confirmed that there would be no surprises for our first dance. It would go exactly how we planned. Each of us stood in the opposite corner of the dance floor before the dance.

"It might seem crazy what I'm 'bout to say.

Sunshine she's here, you can take a break."

Both of us shook our arms and nodded our heads while tapping our feet. I was excited to dance this dance that we both created together.

"Huh, because I'm happy.

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof."

Both of us began clapping our hands to the beat. With that beat, we continued tapping our feet and moving closer to each other. Once we got closure to each other, we began shaking our butts and continued clapping our hands and tapping our feet. We also made sure to smile every time Pharrell Williams announced that he was happy. Things began changing once the song began to go faster. I couldn't believe Sara agreed to a remix of this song. With the song getting faster, we clapped our hands faster along with tapping our feet and shaking our butt much faster. It was a fun dance that had to come to an end. After much dancing, it was time to make toasts. Dr. Parker was the first one to make one.

"Hello, most of you see me as Dr. Parker. But really, I'm Sara's father. It brings me great pleasure to see my little girl married. I was always worried that Sara would fall for the worst man imaginable with her being one of the nicest people anyone could have the pleasure to know. Over the years, I couldn't bear to see her heartbroken. Relief came when she started dating Jimmy. I was aware that Jimmy had been through a lot and really didn't feel a lot of love in his life. Sara came along and noticed Jimmy needed the love that Sara was able to provide because she needed the same love. It's as if they were designed for each other. And they were designed for each other. I couldn't be happier that Sara discovered Jimmy. Honestly, Jimmy is a son to me." Water began leaving his eyes and he reacted by wiping them off. "The Riders are going to live prosperous lives with each other until they die. My wife wants grandchildren Jimmy." He looked at me with a grin. "Be sure to get busy on your honeymoon." The crowd lost it in laughter leaving Sara to blush. "Anyways, I want to raise a toast to a long prosperous life to Jimmy and Sara."

Everybody raised their glasses. "A long and prosperous life," everyone repeated in unison.

What a happy chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!

Thoughts on the vows?

Will Sara get rid of the rest of her watches?

What did you think of the reception?