Chapter 19 – Vegas Wedding (Part One)

Two months later – July 20, 2014 – Las Vegas, Nevada

“Mama.”

Addy opened a single eye at the sound of the tiny voice calling to her. She barely caught a glimpse of her little boy standing beside her bed before she winced, his palm landing on her cheek.

“Mama seep?”

“Well, mama was asleep,” she responded, lifting her head from the pillow and rubbing her eyes.

“Liam Aiden.”

She looked up as Lance walked out from the bathroom, his wet hair sticking to his forehead.

“Sorry, babe,” he said, picking up Liam in his arms. “I was going to let you sleep in but I had to take a shower and he must have snuck away from me.”

“S'okay,” Addy said, sitting up in bed.

She leaned her head in her hands, groaning tiredly.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Nine?” Lance said loudly from the bathroom. She heard the water run and him spit his toothpaste into the sink.

“I haven't slept past seven for...well, probably since I was a baby,” she said.

“You've been exhausted,” Lance said, and he appeared from the bathroom again, with Liam in his arms. “We don't have to leave until ten, so I was going to let you sleep another half hour.”

“Well, good to know you were going to leave me very little time to actually get ready,” she said. She groaned and put her hand to her head. “My head is killing me.”

“The wedding doesn't even start until five,” Lance said. “You're getting hair and makeup done at the venue and you won't put on your dress until right before the ceremony. For all anyone cares, you could roll out of bed and stay in your pajamas.”

“A shower might be necessary,” she said, throwing her legs over the side of the bed, pausing a moment. “Stephanie will probably protest if her maid-of-honor smells of the stench of overworked pop star tour assistant.”

She had just gotten to her feet and was about to step off to the bathroom when her vision went fuzzy, then gradually black. Her body suddenly felt heavy, and she felt herself fall over – but she was just able to catch herself on the table next to her when her vision returned, bumping the hotel alarm clock and the contents of the table.

Hearing the scuffle, Lance turned around to see her knees buckled, holding herself up by the end table.

“Whoa,” he said, setting Liam quickly in the pop-up crib. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, using the table to gather her composure before sitting down on the bed. “Wow, I just got...really lightheaded for a minute there.”

“Maybe you should rethink that shower,” Lance said, coming to stand next to her. “In fact, maybe you should rethink the wedding altogether.”

“I am not missing my best friend's wedding,” she said. “I'll be fine. I just have this massive migraine.”

“I don't think Steph's gonna accept a 'headache' as a valid excuse for you not to be on the dance floor tonight,” he said.

She groaned. “Ugh. I forgot. How much dancing?”

“She spent three days putting together the playlist with the DJ,” he said. “JC's paying him more than the florist. My suggestion is to wear comfortable heels.”

She sighed as she lifted herself off the bed and headed off towards the bathroom.

“Her second husband better be a lot less tolerant,” she said as he laughed.

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“Are you absolutely sure about this?”

Adeline peeked her head over the back of Stephanie's shoulder, looking at her friend in the mirror.

“Wow,” she said, in mock amazement. “I never thought I'd see the day Stephanie was unsure of something.”

“JC likes my hair down,” Stephanie said, shuffling her feet.

“Sweetheart, trust me,” Addy said, going back to working on the buttons of Stephanie's gown. “I got married in Atlantic City in an evening gown – less than the glamorous wedding I dreamed of. Do you think Lance was any less speechless when I walked through the door of the Justice's office? If JC's the right man, you can walk down the aisle naked and all he'll be able to think is 'I can't believe I'm marrying that girl'.”

Stephanie shuffled her weight again, and Addy dropped her hands.

“Would you quit squirming?” she huffed. “Unless you'd like to walk down the aisle with your panties peeking out when I button your train to your bustier.”

“This dress is insane, I don't know why I ever let you talk me into this one,” Stephanie said, lifting up the bottom of her gown slightly.

“Ha,” Addy said with a loud chuckle. “I think you have that backwards. I told you to go with the simple one because I knew I'd be the one helping you into it and buttoning it up. You know who is to blame for this.”

“My mother,” Stephanie hissed, as Adeline let 'your mother' escape out of her mouth at the same time.

Addy laughed. “At least she caved on something a little simpler for the reception.”

“She's gonna shit bricks when I walk out to the dance floor in flip-flops when she specifically told me she would disown me if I brought flip-flops anywhere near this building on my wedding day,” Stephanie said.

Addy chuckled. “Lance has given me his full permission to go barefoot, for the entire reception if necessary – especially after seeing these three-inch monstrosities.”

Both girls went quiet as Addy continued buttoning up the back of Stephanie's dress, finally reaching the halfway point of the delicate fabric-covered buttons that were barely more than dots.

“I'm not sure I'm cut out for this,” Stephanie said quietly.

“Cut out for what?” Addy asked. “This dress? What the fuck ever happened to just zipping up--”

“For being a wife,” Stephanie interrupted.

Addy glanced up. “What do you mean? It's not exactly rocket science.”

“What if I hate being tied down to one person for the rest of my life?” Stephanie asked. She tried to stay still as she felt Addy continue working. “What if I'm just not made for this 'clean the house, do the laundry, cook the meals' thing?”

Addy sighed. “You worked for Lance for how long?”

“Three years.”

“And in that time, what were your job duties?”

“Making sure he was awake, making the coffee, getting him a little breakfast, getting him to his appointments on time, making sure he had food and clean clothes, sometimes bringing him dinner, and making sure he didn't drink himself into oblivion every night.”

“Lance didn't hire us as assistants,” Addy said, glancing up as she cinched the dress slightly tighter to fit two buttons together. “He hired us as stand-in wives – only I had to wait two years to get the pretty ring and you never got it.”

Stephanie lightly laughed.

“The only wife-like thing you didn't do with Lance was have sex with him,” Addy said. “Assuming you've already had sex with JC and passed the test...you've spent almost ten years training for being a wife.”

“Who told you I never had sex with Lance?”

Stephanie winced and yelped when the dress tightened over her bodice enough to cut off air for a moment.

“Whoops,” Addy said dryly. “A bit too tight there, sorry.”

“Bitch,” Stephanie said with a small laugh.

An hour later, once she was sure that Stephanie's dress was buttoned up correctly and every strand of hair and mascara-lathered eyelash was perfectly in place, Addy walked down the hall and opened the door to the boys' room, where she knew they would be lounging.

“Oh God,” she said the minute she opened the door and she was assaulted with the smell of cigars.

“Cheese it, it's mom!” Justin said, lowering the fat cigar from his mouth.

“Justin Randall Timberlake,” Addy said. “I know you're not dousing those tuxes in that nasty smell!”

“Noooooo,” Justin said innocently. “Not me.”

She walked towards him, ripping the cigar from his hand.

“Hey!” he said as she stuffed it out in the glass ashtray on the table next to him.

“You want it, take it outside,” she said, giving him the unlit cigar back. “And go bathe yourself in cologne so you don't smell like an ashtray when you walk down the aisle.”

Justin pursed his lips as he took the cigar from her. She looked to Justin's right, seeing Joey sitting in a chair, holding an unlit cigar loosely in his mouth.

“It wasn't for me,” Joey said, smiling a little. “I was holding it for Justin. I swear.”

“Uh-huh.” She looked around the room seeing Lance sitting on a sofa at the other end of the room, and JC wrapping his cummerbund around his waist in front of the mirror. “Joanie and Chachi are here, where's the Fonz?”

“Chris disappeared like half an hour ago,” Lance said. “Said he needed some air.”

“No wonder, this place smells like a dive bar,” Addy said, turning her nose up at the lingering smell of Justin's cigar.

“That's the smell of a man, darlin'!” Justin said as she turned to walk out of the door.

“Boys are gross,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

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It took her several minutes of searching, but she finally found Chris outside, sitting on the concrete sidewalk against the wall outside the garden, enjoying the quiet by himself.

“Hey.”

He looked up to see Adeline standing in front of him, in her bridesmaid's dress.

“Hey,” he said.

“I had to sneak away,” she said, walking towards him, her heels clicking on the ground. “It's madness back there.”

“The bride?”

“Justin,” she responded. “He's...well what can I say? He's being himself.”

Chris chuckled, looking over at her as she leaned down to kneel next to him.

“Are you sure you can handle this today, Chris?” she asked.

“Why wouldn't I?”

“Watching another of us walk down the aisle,” she said. “It's hard enough being around it all the time on the bus. Lance, Joey, Jace, hell, even Justin – all of us happy with someone. You know, we try, but sometimes we just can't help but feel like we shove it in your face.”

“That doesn't bother me,” Chris said.

Adeline cocked her head. “Alright, Chris – you give me no choice. I'm not a moron. We found the ring.”

Chris's head perked up and his eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“Lance and I, we found the ring,” she said. “The engagement ring, in your jacket pocket, two months ago – we found it. We know.”

He shook his head slightly, in confusion.

“Okay, one – how did you guys find that,” he said. “And two – why did you wait two months to tell me?”

“Somehow it ended up on our bus,” she said. “I thought it was Justin's, Lance knew it was yours, he felt the box in the pocket. He didn't think we should tell you we found it, he didn't want to just bring up more shit for you to deal with.”

“Oh, and you agreed with him – until today,” Chris said, looking at her with a smirk. “The day of my best friend's wedding. Addy, you have impeccable timing.”

“I know,” she groaned with a chuckle. “If Lance asks, this never happened – he'll kill me.”

He chuckled. “It doesn't matter. Every day is the same anyway. Wedding or not – there isn't a moment I don't think about it.”

“Chris.”

He looked up when he felt her put her hand on his shoulder.

“One day...”

“Stop,” he said, grinning. “Don't say it, Addy. I'm tired of everyone saying that one day, she'll realize she misses me and she'll come back...because they can't say that.”

Her eyes fell.

“Because the only person that decision is up to is her,” he said. “She's the only one who can say that. For everybody else, it's just an empty promise they're making because they know it's what I want to hear, because they think it will pull me out of my depression, and because they just hope that by saying it over and over it may actually happen.”

“And because we believe it,” she said softly.

“Four months,” he said. “That's way past believing, Ad. Don't lie to me, because everybody else is in the same position I'm in – hope is the only thing left.”

She sighed. “Don't fall into that deep, dark hole, Chris. We don't want to lose you.”

“It's not a hole,” he said. “I'm recovering. I'm being a realist, Addy. I passed the point where waiting for her to run back home and tell me she loves me was good for me, two months ago. All blindly believing was doing was digging me further into the hole – when every night, despite knowing realistically it wasn't going to happen, I was disappointed that she didn't show up and run into my arms.”

“Don't lose hope,” she said.

“I haven't lost hope,” he responded. “I still hope more than ever she'll saunter in through that door. I've just succumbed to convincing myself today will be that day, and when it doesn't happen, ultimately, being surprised and upset that it wasn't.”

She sighed, moving the skirt of her dress out of the way and sitting down next to him.

“Three years ago,” she started. “I was sitting in a bar in Los Angeles doing the same thing you are right now. Waiting and watching the man I loved get ready to marry someone who wasn't me, telling myself it didn't matter and I was over it. And I was talking to some guy, making small talk, pouring that pathetic sob story out to him, waiting to get myself drunk enough to go home with him...hoping that would help me finally move on.”

“Does Lance know about this?” he asked with a slight smile.

“I was just drunk enough that I barely know about it,” she said softly, slipping him a coy smile. “I tried, Chris – God, I tried. There wasn't enough alcohol in the world.”

“There wasn't for him, either,” he said. “Though from what I hear, he gave it his best effort.”

“The phone call,” she said, laughing. “Mmm.”

They both paused, their laughter dying down.

“We weren't over it,” she said. “When I opened that door and saw him standing there...I still loved him and he still loved me. He tried to make it work with Mackenzie and I tried to make it work with the bar guy – but it didn't work, it couldn't work because we both knew we were just waiting around for our stubborn pride to catch up with what our hearts wanted.”

“What's your point?” Chris asked.

“You're not over it – and I'm willing to bet you anything that she isn't either,” Addy said. “Eventually, her stubborn pride, or whatever is keeping her away, will catch up with what her heart wants. You just have to give it more time.”

Chris briefly looked her in the eyes before looking away. Everything she said was true on his end...but he didn't know how much more time he could give it before his own heart gave up the fight.

“Let's go,” she said quietly, patting his hand and smiling slightly. “We've got an aisle to walk down.”