Dawning (Dysmorphia Series #3)

The Wedding Manual

"Cherie, welcome to my humble abode!"

Maria Phillipe stood in front of her staggeringly large white mansion spreading her arms out in a welcoming manner.

"Wow..." 

Andrew muttered under his breath, Florence nudged him gently if Maria the most chased after wedding organiser this side of the country wanted to play at being modest, they should probably let her.

Maria smelled strongly of cinnamon, it wasn't the worst smell but it certainly wasn't the best.

The wedding planner swooped in and kissed her two times on the cheek with a wide grin, she had a mass of curly black hair that sat on top of her head like a ravens nest, small eyes and a bright orange minidress paired with black fishnets and stilettos, on paper this strange combination wouldn't have worked but Maria somehow made it look stylish.

"You must be the happy to be weds! Lovely to see and meet you both, Charlie told me your not quite sure on the theme of the wedding but thats fine, its what I'm here for!"

Florence still couldn't believe Charlie had done her such a massive favour and given her Maria's extremely hard to get number, the two of them had worked together in the past on the decoration for table pieces so knew each other pretty well.

"We kind of just wanted to go traditional, right Andrew?"

Andrew was still gazing at the house with awe, she could practically see the pound signs bouncing around in his head.

"Yes! Traditional, Florence wants the full do for our wedding"

She couldn't be mad at him for not paying full attention to Maria, she knew that she was more concerned with how the wedding would look to the outside world.

"I don't usually do this but seeing as your here, I hope you won't find this rude in any way"

Maria pulled out a copy of Dysmorphia from her clutch.

"My niece is a real big fan of yours Miss Clarke, she tells me all the time that she's going to be a writer, she was going to be a zoologist had it all planned out until she read your book, now she knows that an author is the job for her"

Happiness settled itself inside Florence, this was what she loved the most about being a writer, those unexpected moments where you learned your book had made its impact on the world.

"Here" 

Andrew took out one of his ballpoint pens and handed it to her with a wink, she could tell her knew how happy these encounters made her, he'd stood there as many a teenage girl bombarded her with questions on weekends away from the campus and squealed with delight once she handed them back a signed book.

You see that was love, being so inexplicably happy for someone else, your emotions being so deeply wired together that you could make yourself feel the same joy as the person you loved.

She took the pen with a flourish.

"Her name's Pearl"

Florence wrote in shiny black ink:

Dear Pearl,

 I'm so glad you want to become a writer like me one day, never listen to negativity, you can be whoever you want to be, carry on writing  and reading and if you hold onto it hard enough your dream will come true!

Love

Florence 

She closed the book and handed it back to a smiling Maria.

"Thank you my darling! Now onto the wedding planning"

They hadn't expected a day of wedding preparations to be so fun, but it was the day was full of laughter, first they had to approve a restaurant and a menu.

A dozen waiters brought them platters of starters, mains, desserts and then a whole separate cake testing, it was the hardest thing ever to have so much glorious food in front of them and have to narrow it down to six dishes and three layers of cake.

At first there tactic was to try two spoonfuls of each but after ten minutes they realised this plan was futile, the food was extremely rich and filling, one teaspoon was the best way to go, Andrew was a massive foodie and gave her a hilarious analysis of each dish as they weighed up the pro's and cons of having canapés.

Before they'd arrived Florence hadn't realised how many flavours of cake existed in the world, and after sampling red velvet, chocolate, butterscotch, lemon, blueberry, french vanilla, carrot and chocolate fudge, by the end of the sampling Andrew had loosened his belt and she was sitting back with her hands on her stomach groaning, everything had been delicious but she doubted she would eat in a week.

Maria had arranged for them to go to a dress and suit fitting afterwards but both of them resolutely agreed that with their stomachs this full it wasn't a good idea to be squeezed and measured.

They had their menu, and their drinks menu sorted and that was enough for today, today was a good day and she felt giddy on life as they said their goodbyes to Maria who at that point decided to hand her the heaviest book in human existence which read The Wedding Manual.

"This wedding malarkey isn't too hard to grasp is it, not when I have you to enjoy it with"

Andrew actually held a world record for saying the sweetest things in the world.

"Too right"

She smiled his way.

"I had a dream last night" she didn't know why now was the time to tell him this, but she was going to tell him anyway.

"So you remember the first day when I came into the class and you warned me about Mr Gupta?"

He nodded.

"I had a dream that this had all been a dream, that our first meeting had never happened, it was more of a nightmare actually and then I woke up out of breath and petrified thinking this was all going to be taken away from me but then I saw you sleeping next to me, I matched my breaths to your and that calmed me down, if that had been three years ago I would probably have had a panic attack and then shut myself in my room and shut out the world for a week, and then it hit me Andrew, you've made me into the new Florence without making me change the old Florence"

She was breathless now, it was one of those moments where you realised the words you had been speaking aloud had been thoughts in your mind for weeks.

"Well you don't ever have to shut anyone out again Florence"

He took his larger hand in hers.

"You'll always have me, beside you and there's absolutely nothing to ever be afraid of, if the demons come calling again I'll fight them off and thats a promise"

And he kissed her hand.

She didn't need a wedding manual or even a wedding planner, a fancy wedding with amazing high definition shots of the happy couple, she needed moments like this to remind her of the beauty of the world and the amazing outcome that against the odds she was sat in this car with this man and this ring glinting on her finger.