6: Eleven-Ten-Nine
The previous night’s rain had cast a damp chill over the city of New York, most of the city’s occupants scurrying into one building or another. But not Justin. He was reveling in the epitome of autumn in New York, feeling like he was on top of the world as he roamed the streets with his mother, the two of them searching for the ensemble she would wear to his marriage ceremony that evening.
“I still can’t believe you’re gonna ditch your wedding,” his mother, Lynn, was saying as they strolled into one of the many shops at the Time Warner Center. She was a cheerful woman, for the most part, but her son’s decision to get married on some random gloomy November day really didn’t please her. “Is this really something you both want?” she wondered.
“This is what we both want,” he assured her, taking her hand into his. “The day doesn’t matter. It’s everything else, isn’t it?”
“That’s true,” she sighed for what felt like the hundredth time to him. He called her up from Memphis because he knew that she would be devastated if she missed his official ceremony, but since she’d arrived the night before, all she had done was express her dislike for their choice. “I just don’t understand why you’ve spent six months planning a wedding just to scrap it all at the last minute.”
“We’re not scrapping it. We just feel like we’d rather be married first. Before the big party.”
“But why?” Lynn pressed. Knowing her son and how he operated, it just didn’t add up to her. “What’s the sudden rush?”
“Because we’re simple, mom. Always have been. The wedding, the reception, that’s all for you and Melanie and all the other guests. We don’t get down like that.”
“And it took you half a year to come to that conclusion?”
“Well… yeah,” he half-lied. Truth be told, the idea was prompted by his fight with Zooey, but there was nothing disingenuous about it. He would be married in just a few hours, and as crazy as it sounded, he couldn’t wait for it to become a reality. True enough, marriage hadn’t been an active dream of his for most of his life as it was for most people, but it had certainly been an abstract goal since Scarlett came into his world. There had never once been any doubt in his mind that she was the person he wanted to spend eternity with, and there was no reason to prolong it, as far as he was concerned.
“Justin, there is something wrong,” his mother prophesized, pulling him into J. Crew with her. “But you know that I’ll support you in whatever you want.”
“That’s all I ask, ma.”
With just a few hours between then and the ceremony, Lynn knew that she didn’t have much time to waste arguing with her son over a few weeks and a few wasted dollars, so she decided to ignore her instincts and find a dress. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
Justin wasn’t one to question himself very often. He was one of few people his age that did know what he was doing. He knew what he wanted out of life, where he wanted to be within a given amount of time, and had a general guide on how to get there. He never showed the slightest lack of self-assurance, which was why so many people trusted him and his judgment. But now, as his mother stood there doubting him, he found himself unable to completely trust his own instincts as well. Was this what he wanted? The mere thought kind of scared him, but he also found it… exhilarating.
____________________
Even though they were forfeiting their original wedding plan, Scarlett did insist that some traditions remain in place. Her mother absolutely had to be there, she wanted to wear a white dress, and Justin was in no way, shape, or form allowed to see her the day of their nuptials. He quietly agreed, knowing how lucky he was to have a woman that didn’t care about the spectacle. He knew that most women who’d spent the better part of a year planning a wedding in Mexico wouldn’t even entertain the idea of eloping, but not Scarlett. She didn’t care one way or another, so long as she got to spend her life with him.
Justin smiled at this poignant thought as he waited for his bride atop the roof of his “ or more aptly, their “ apartment building. It was on the chilly side, yes, and the sky a bit dull because the sun hadn’t come out to play that day and darkness was settling over the city, but they didn’t care. They had mulled over several options of where to actually get married “ city hall, one of the many parks in the city, several restaurants, Yankee Stadium, and Madison Square Garden “ but none of them seemed as sincere as doing it on home. Why not be married at the place where you’d be embarking on a new stage of your lives together?
So in spite of the time or place, the weather, the guest list, or what anyone else thought of it, Justin was ecstatic to be standing there, beneath the glow of street lights and Christmas lights strewn above them, waiting for his bride. She finally appeared on that rooftop, dressed in a vintage full-skirted tea-length white Chanel dress, adorned with an open swing coat in satiny white. Her wavy blonde hair was swept up from her face and neck, while her makeup was warm but dramatic, which matched her bouquet of orange and red lilies and roses. Justin had to fight back tears as he realized that this was “it.”
“She looks beautiful,” Lynn commented, watching from her son’s side as Scarlett, alongside her own mother, carefully sidestepped the puddles in the tar to make it to her groom.
“You’re breathtaking,” he noted softly when she finally made it to him.
Beaming as she eyed him in his brand new Hugo Boss tux, she replied, “You’re not so bad yourself.”
Unable to wait anymore, they both turned to their wedding officiant so that they could begin. “Family, we have been invited here this evening to share with Scarlett and Justin a very important moment in their lives. In the years they have been together, their love and understanding of one another has grown and matured, and now, they have decided to begin their lives together as husband and wife.”
Justin smiled to his bride at the mere fact that the dream was becoming a reality, while the mothers of the bride and groom looked on nervously, hoping that this was the best decision for their respective children. Eloping wasn’t always a sign of trouble or a reason to worry, but for two people who had no reason to rush, they couldn’t help but question it. Lynn and Melanie, who had become good friends quickly after their children began a relationship, had discussed the situation at length, but neither one of them had come to a satisfying conclusion. Maybe their kids really did decide they didn’t want the hullabaloo. Still, it was all a bit curious for two people with no financial worries or pressing obligations to elope two weeks before their scheduled wedding.
“Who supports this couple in their marriage?” the officiant asked of the four people on the roof.
Both Lynn and Melanie smiled, in spite of their reservations, and replied, “We do.”
“In that case,” the judge went on, “congratulations! Today is your day, you’re off to great places, you’re off and away. You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own and you know what you know and you are the couple who’ll decide where to go. You’ll look up and down streets, look them over with care. About some, you will say, ‘We don’t choose to go there.’
With your heads full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street. And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air. Out there, things can happen, and frequently do, to people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don’t worry, don’t stew. Just go right along, you’ll start happening too. Oh, the places you’ll go!”
Scarlett and Justin couldn’t help but chuckle at one another as their wedding reading came out of the judge’s mouth. Sure, they had chosen a Dr. Seuss passage, but listening to how awesomely ridiculous it sounded out loud made them giggle.
“You’ll be on your way up,” he went on enthusiastically. “You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to great heights. You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have all the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. Except when you don’t, because sometimes, you won’t. You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with so many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step, step with great care and great tact, and remember that life’s a great balancing act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft, and never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? Yes! You will indeed. Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed. Kids, you’ll move mountains!
So, be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray, or Scarlett Tess Johansson or Justin Randall Timberlake, you’re off to great places. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so… get on your way!” He paused, waiting for the light laughter to subside and then asked, “Did I do it right?”
“You did it right,” Scarlett assured him with a mile-wide smile.
Grinning proudly himself, he went on to announce, “And now, the couple has written their own vows that they would like to share with one another at this time…”
“Shit,” Scarlett hissed, looking guiltily at her soon-to-be husband, realizing that she had completely glossed over a major detail of their wedding.
“What’s wrong?” Justin wondered, seeing a panic take over her blue-green eyes.
“I forgot to write my vows!”
“Oh… Well, it--.”
“How the hell did I forget this part? This is the most important part!” she reprimanded herself. “Oh, my god.”
“Scar, calm down,” he smiled at her warmly. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay! This is the opposite of okay!”
“It’s okay,” he insisted. “We can wing it.”
“No, we can’t!”
“Yes, we can, babe.” He took her cool hand into his, hoping it would soothe her a bit. “If you’re feeling it, it’ll come out.”
“I’m so sorry,” she maintained, still feeling horrible for forgetting.
“Think nothing of it.”
“If you want, you can bring this up during an argument in a couple of years and cash it in as your ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
“I would never…”
“You would.”
“Make me a promise,” he instructed lovingly, wanting her to put it out of her head.
“Okay, what?”
“No, you have to come up with one,” he chuckled. “Something you want to vow to me, right here and now.”
“Oh!”
“Like… I vow to never walk in front of you. And I’ll only walk behind you if there’s not enough room for two.”
Smiling as she caught onto what he was aiming for, she thought of her own pledge to make to him. “I promise--.”
“Vow,” he corrected softly.
“I vow… to laugh,” she answered, looking him squarely in the eyes. “I’m gonna laugh loud and I’m gonna laugh often, even if it isn’t that funny.”
“That could get annoying,” he grinned. “But I’ll take it.”
“I know you will.”
“I vow to stop going to dinner in jeans and sneakers when you’re dressed in a dress and heels,” he offered with a childlike giggle.
“I don’t mind you wearing jeans and sneakers.”
“I’m vowing to be on the same page with you here. Go with it.”
“Sorry!”
“Your turn.”
“Ummmmm,” she looked at the decorations above them and came up with another one. “I vow to decorate for Christmas. Especially when we have kids.”
He could only smile at the thought. “I vow to help you.”
“Have kids?” she asked jokingly. “You’re gonna have to.”
“That, too.”
“I vow to not wanna name our kids anything ridiculous.”
“Like, ‘Freckle Moonbeam Montana?’” he guessed.
“I was thinking more along the lines of… ‘Justin,’ honestly.”
“Fair enough.”
“I vow to not just agree with anything you say. I’m going to have input and be active and present and accountable for our lives.”
“I vow that, too,” she nodded seriously.
“I vow to turn off the TV before I come upstairs for bed.”
“I vow to leave the light above the steps on for you if I go to bed first.”
“I vow to come home for dinner,” he smiled.
“I vow to make dinner. Outside of the microwave. At least once every seven days that we spend together.”
“Seven consecutive days?”
“Yes,” she returned with a playful, knowing smirk.
“Bullshit vow. You know that’s never gonna ever happen.”
“Once every four days?”
“Three and a half,” he negotiated.
“You drive a hard bargain.”
“I vow to fight for you,” he promised earnestly. “Especially when you feel like giving up is the easiest option. When you’re sick of looking at me and there’s that little voice in your head chanting, ‘Go. Run. Now. Leave.’ I promise I’ll be in the doorway, blocking you, pushing you back in, insisting that you stay.”
“I vow to fight with you,” she croaked out as tears spilled onto her porcelain cheeks. “Even though we don’t fight, we will at some point, and I’ll be ready for a death match, if that’s what you want.”
“I vow to never stand in the way of something you want. Unless what you want is to leave me.”
“I vow to never wanna leave you.”
“I vow to bring you back pancakes when I go to breakfast. The Oreo ones that you’re scared to gorge on in public.”
“I vow to answer the phone whenever you call. So long as I’m not on set.”
He shook his head teasingly, knowing that she was more likely to be on a set than not. “I vow to put my Lakers games on pause if you tell me there’s a life or death situation a-brewin’.”
“I vow to not bother you during your Lakers games unless there’s a life or death situation a-brewin’.”
“I vow to always come home with something interesting to say.”
“I vow to always come home.”
“You better,” he laughed.
“You better.”
“I vow to make you happy.”
“I vow to make you a better man.”
“I vow to be honest with you. No matter how much it hurts.”
“I vow to be there when it hurts.”
“I vow to never try teaching you to golf again.”
“I vow to never ask to learn again,” she giggled, remembering that one horrible day…
“I vow to be your best friend.”
“You already are my best friend.”
“I vow to stay that way,” he smiled proudly.
“I vow to be yours, too.”
“I vow to be open-minded and understanding, to be caring and loving, to be intelligent and funny whenever you need me to be. When you look to your right, I vow to be standing there.”
“When you look to your left, I vow to be standing there.”
“Stalker.”
Still beaming, tears still rolling down her face, she winked at him. “Every breath you take…”
And as he realized his new life was beginning, he finished by saying, “I love you, Scarlett.”
“And I vow to love you.”
Carefully pulling her ring from his pocked, he rubbed her hand gently as he placed the platinum Neil Lane band around her third finger, looking at her tearfully. “Blah, blah, blah, in sickness and in health… I do.”
And she smiled in reply, pulling his ring from her own coat pocket, softly placing it on his finger. “And yada, yada, yada, for better or for worse, I do, too.”
And that was it. Scarlett and Justin were married.
____________________
The newlyweds, after bidding good night to their mothers, decided to have a celebratory dinner in the heart of the city at a chic little sushi restaurant called Masa. It was arguably the most popular and expensive restaurant in New York, but Justin made sure that he and his bride would get a bit of privacy on their wedding night, paying to have the whole place shut down for the night.
Hand in hand, he escorted his new wife into the posh Time Warner Center, leading her to the bar, where the illustrious Masa Takayama would simultaneously entertain and serve them dinner. The bar, which had been decorated for the two of them, was set to perfection and polished with a congratulatory $3200-dollar bottle of 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion to top it off.
As they settled into their seats, the two of them side by side, Justin couldn’t help but stare at Scarlett, her face radiated by the candlelight. “What are you thinking?” he wanted to know.
“Well…”
“Be honest. Now that we’re married, is the magic gone?”
“It’s funny that you ask that. Because ever since the wedding…” she paused for effect.
“Just say it.”
“Well, I just… find you kind of… repulsive?”
“That’s honest,” he commented with a long sigh. “All right, so… divorce then?”
“I think so.”
“It was really fun while it lasted.”
“Okay then,” she answered sarcastically, though her smile was anything but. “See you later.”
He then pretended to leave, getting up from the bar and heading out of the restaurant completely, only to return a few moments later, toting a gift for his new wife. ”For you, future-ex-wife.”
“And I didn’t get you anything!”
“Oh, well then lemme take this back,” he grinned.
She dropped her mouth in pretend shock and took the small box into her hand. “Well I’m guessing this isn’t the dog I wanted, so…”
He didn’t say anything, but watched anxiously as she tore the wrapping from the box and pulled it open to reveal a small metal collar.
“Shut the front door!” she shrieked hoarsely.
“It is the dog you wanted,” he looked her up and down teasingly. “Now what.”
“It’s a girl?”
“Well I wouldn’t name a boy ‘Consuela Bananahammock,” he rolled his happy blue eyes, referring to the name on the collar. Friends was one of Scarlett’s all-time favorite shows, he couldn’t help himself. “Clearly.”
“Clearly,” she chuckled. “What kind of dog is she?”
“Well, I know you have enough Boxers in your life. Consuela is a Westie.”
“Oh god, I bet she’s adorable.”
“She is.”
“When do I get to meet her?”
“She’ll be there when we get home.”
“Home here or home LA?”
“Home here.”
“Thank god.”
“This better not become a situation where you love her more than you love me,” he charged, knowing how quickly Scarlett had attached herself to Buckley and Brennan. She loved dogs.
“You know how I am about my dogs.”
“I do.”
“But I don’t think I could ever or will ever love anything more than I do you.”
Wiping fake tears from his face, he looked at his wife happily. “Girl, you gon’ make me cry.”
Justin was so pleased and content in that moment that he almost couldn’t believe this was his life. It was so… easy. He questioned himself earlier in the day, yes, but nothing that made him actually hesitate to take that leap and say his vows that evening. But he did wonder how all of it was possible. How did he not have cold feet? No talking himself out of going through with it? Nothing in the pit of his stomach, nagging him, saying that this was the wrong thing to do? As he sat there, staring at Scarlett, who seemed to be nauseatingly perfect, he started to wonder if it was all a little too easy.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Sooo... yeah. Don't kill me for this one, y'all. 8o
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