The Player's Happy Ever After

Chapter 31 - The Wedding

Lauren's POV

It was the morning of the Wedding, 10am to be exact only 6.5 hours to go and counting. This was going to be an absolutely crazy day in our family home. We had so many people coming and going in efforts of making it a truly perfect day for Maree and Stephen.

My relationship with Ethan had been strained since the episode with Amanda. He had begged me to believe him that he had no interest in her whatsoever. But that wasn't the reason why I felt so anxious and heavy in his presence of late. I lost my ability to have faith in him because despite the fact that he stated he didn't cheat, I felt like he did. Amanda said they kissed. He told me that he was passed out and she probably kissed him and it seemed impossible that he kissed her back considering he was passed out. It made sense.

We hadn't really resolved much in the past two weeks. It felt like an on-going battle between the two of us to make this work. There were always drama's with little to no resolve. Ethan's way of dealing with resolution was make up sex. If you tried to talk to him after, he'd say but we just had sex so it's all ok now we're back to normal. He didn't want to deal with the emotional stuff and he just kept pushing me away. In reality that was my problem. Everything was left unresolved in efforts of the issue just passing.

The day I got out of hospital Ethan was still with me. He hadn't left my side since arriving. I hoped that when I woke he'd be gone for work. He insisted on driving me home, the car ride was silent. He insisted on staying with me that day, the conversation was lacking. I was too tired to invest anymore effort into whatever this was. To always be putting in 100% was so draining when your partner could only invest in the parts he wanted like the sex. 

As per doctors orders I took a couple of days off work. Initially, I just ignore Ethan's text messages, his calls and when he visited we were silent. He tried talking to me brushing over the important things but I kind of pulled back, I was no longer wanting to be the only one investing the effort to make this work. I'd just turn my head away placing earphones on and listen to music. I always felt music was the best way to forget. I suppose the fact that he was still there wanting me gave me that ego boost to feel like I had a competitive edge over him. He was still feeling guilty knowing that he was 90% the reason how I ended up in hospital.

Today I had to focus on the Wedding, so I pushed my thoughts of Ethan aside. He was going to be the Best Man at Michael's Wedding today at 12pm. It was a Civil Ceremony in a pub he'd hired out for the day, then the drinks and cocktail food would follow. There was about 60 people attending mostly family and close friends. He said the whole the formal part of the day would be well and truly over by the time Maree & Stephen's Ceremony started at 430pm and he promised to be there. I was doubtful.

Maree and Stephen had opted for a more formal affair. A Greek Church Ceremony then a beautiful sit down dinner at a stunning reception venue overlooking Bondi Beach. There was going to be about 300 people in attendance. That may seem like a huge wedding, but in the traditional sense it was a medium size wedding. Back in Cyprus they were known to invite an entire Village. Thousands would be in attendance. The Wedding would start in the street until the formalities of the Church commenced then the Party would continue on in the Village. Each family would bring a dish to share. If you had wealth a Centre would be organised and catered for where thousands of people would attend.

"Lauren, where are you Sweet?" My Mum was sounding a little stressed the strain of the day was already taking its toll.

"Here Mum, what's wrong". I walked over to her in the kitchen, she had a number of dishes going for all the people who were here. This was unnecessary and would only add to the stress of her day but it's what was supposed to happen. Mum was way too caught up on doing the same things that others had done so it was expected in her mind. I don't know why we just didn't ask Pete to cater for the event.