Rent A Wife!!!

Chapter 37: May the best man win!

Chapter 37: May the best man win!

Jude's P.O.V:
The next morning all of us woke up early since my parents were coming back. We all had a breakfast and were sitting ready by the time my parents were back. My mom had called ahead in advance to let us know that they would be coming early and had asked Sean and Wade to wait back, they wanted to talk to all of us.

“So did they say why they wanted Sean and I to wait back?” asked Wade.

“Nope, just that they had something important to tell us”

“Hmm” said Sean, “they don’t know about the whole Stephanie fiasco do they?”

“I doubt it”

“Well then we re just going to have to wait and watch don’t we?”

“Yup”

Natasha went to my room to search for some courses in Interior Designing while Wade made some official calls. Sean called his boyfriend up and was chit chatting with him while I wondered what did mom and dad wanted to talk to all of us about.

We didn’t have to wait long because after an hour or so they came.

“Hi! How did the deal go dad?”

“As good as it could have been!”

“That’s great”

“Where is Natasha?” asked my mom.

“She’s inside doing some research for her interiors course”

“Oh how is she feeling now?”

“Much better she has almost recovered” I said.

“Aha”

Mom went in to meet Natasha.

“SO dad what did you and mom want to talk to us about?”

“Well what do you think?”

‘Your wedding of course!” mom said returning with Natasha.

I looked in shock at Natasha and the other two idiots which in this case were my brothers, and who by the way were grinning like idiots. Natasha looked a little nervous.

“Ok what about it?” I asked.

“Jude! Its time you guys decided where and how you want to get married and more importantly when!”

“Its been over a month you guys have been engaged now!”

“Mom its just been a month, not a year!” I said exasperated.

“Jude! Enough, you said during your engagement either you will decide within a month!”

“We did decide!”

“Well that is great then” my father spoke clearly looking uncomfortable because he didn’t want to push me but didn’t dare go against my mother either.

“When?” asked mom.

“After a year”

“What? That is outrageous! Jude we have waited long enough for you to decide, it cant be after a year no way. I want to be a grandmom soon while people can still say I look too young to be a grandmom”

Natasha smiled and then looked at me, “Why not next month Jude?”

I looked at her in surprise I had been procrastinating for her, in case she decides to change her mind, I wanted her to feel free to do so.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes”

It was decided then we would be getting married exactly a month from now. Wade and Sean yelled like idiots till mom asked them to shut up.

We all sat down at the table as mom pulled out a notebook and pen and started jotting down a to do list.

While we were discussing the venue the doorbell rang and I answered it. It was Gary.
“Hey! You couldn’t have come at a better time!”

“You have forgotten me ever since you got engaged!”

“Sorry man just too much been happening”

“Yeah yeah”

“Come on in wedding preparations are in full swing!”

“What? When are you getting married?”

“in about a month!”

We entered the living room to find mom talking excitedly on the phone to my aunt.
Dad rolled his eyes and said, “She is spreading the joy and letting everyone know you decided to get married”

“Oh”

“Hi Gary! How have you been?”

“Hi Mr. Smith I have been well I see the wedding preparations are in full swing!”

“Yes, it starts” he said gravely and Gary and I laughed.

Gary hugged Wade and Sean and sat down with us.

Once mom decided that she was done informing everyone she joined us all back at the table.

“Oh hi Gary dear”

“Hi Mrs. Smith you are looking gorgeous as usual”

My mom blushed and shushed him.

“So lets begin, where do you want to get married?”

I looked at Natasha and she looked at me enquiringly, “at a beach” I said, knowing Natasha’s love for water.

“Oh that’s lovely!” exclaimed my mom.

Soon she and dad were deep in discussion about which beach we should pick and soon dad was making all the necessary calls.

I looked at Natasha and whispered, “Is that ok?”

“Its perfect!” she said.

“Well now the wedding dress”

“Oh” spoke Sean, “leave that to me, I shall take her shopping tomorrow I am think a Vera Wang gown…..” and he trailed off happily talking about gowns and designers.

“Well that’s taken care of” said my mom.

“Wedding cake?”

“Er I don’t know mom you decide” said Natasha and my mother beamed at her.

“Oh I know exactly what to get you! Its going to be perfect!”

“I am sure it will be perfect!”

Mom continued making the list caterers, decorators, flowers and then she came down to the rings.

“White gold or yellow gold?”

“White for me” I said.

Everyone looked expectantly at Natasha and she squirmed, “Um I am ok with anything”

“Sean be a darling and take Natasha to the jewelers as well when you go hunting for the dress so that she can decide what she wants.”

“Aye aye captain!” Sean mock saluted.

“SO now it comes down to two things”

We all looked at mom and she smiled brightly at me.

“Bridesmaids and best man!”

“Well I want Joanna to be my bride of honor” said Natasha “and Jude’s cousins if the want to be my bridesmaids”

“Oh honey they will be delighted!”

“Well that’s decided then, Jude who will your best man be?”

I looked up and gulped, I saw Wade, Sean and Gary all looking at me expectantly.

Damn if I knew who it was going to be!

“Err wow that is a tough one!”

No one smiled and everyone looked at me, Natasha bit her lip as she realized the predicament I was in. Gary was my best buddy, I mean he helped me out so much when Stephanie had left me! Wade and Sean had stood by me like strong pillars during this whole ordeal and when I told them about my plan with Natasha. All of them were my best men but I had to pick out one. It was frustrating!

“Ahem” I said clearing my throat, “well err”

“Do you have to decide now?” spoke up Natasha. I sighed in relief, “we could decide that later too”

“Yeah you’re right!”

We all had lunch quickly after that and mom and dad left soon. Mom told us that she wanted us to write our own vows. More joy for me I sucked at writing!

After they left all three boys turned to me.

“I will make a great best man you know” Said Wade not beating around the bush.

“ME too” said Gary, “I mean you will be my best man when I get married!”

“About that”

“Hey I have been your partner I crime always! I am your ideal best man” said Sean.

“Guys” said Natasha, “let him decide give him a day or two. Its not like we are getting married tomorrow!”

“Of course, of course!” they all said and backed off. I sighed in relief and sent a grateful look to Natasha and she smiled back.

Soon everyone left and I was finally alone with Natasha who looked better today.

“You seem to have recovered”

“Yes I feel good”

“That’s nice you need to be ok with the activity that I have on my mind right now”

I watched her smile falter and she looked at me nervously, “wh-what?”

“Help me decide who should be my best man!”

“Oh yeah about that sorry you’re on your own right now. Only you can decide”

“Oh come on!”

“Nope Jude sorry not helping, you know Gary is your best friend but I am partial to Wade and Sean. It wouldn’t be fair”

“Oh well do I just toss?”

“How?” asked Natasha laughing, “There are just two sides to a coin not three!”

I smacked my hand to my forehead in frustration, “aaaahhhhhhhh getting married is tough! My heart goes out to the poor suckers who got married before me and I will advice the lucky un hitched men to not get married!”

“Hahahhahahahaha stop! You will make the right decision” said Natasha kissing me on my forehead and then she went to call Joanna.

“Eenie meenie mynah moe” I said and assigned one finger each to Gary, Wade and Sean.
This is stupid and frustrating, I thought. My phone beeped and I saw it was a text from Gary: I am the perfect best man. I groaned as my phone beeped twice and I saw they were texts from Wade and Sean.

Wade: I’m sexy and you know it! Come on I would make the best best man. Pun intended. I rolled my eyes and scrolled down to the text from Sean.

Sean: I would make the ideal best man and you know it, I don’t need to sell myself to you! It was followed by a winking smiley.

Oh Lord what was I going to do? I can hardly have three best men at the wedding that would be ridiculous!

I resigned myself to my fate and switched on the TV while Natasha gushed on the phone with how great the wedding was going to be. Well lucky for her she didn’t have to choose from three bridesmaids to choose the maid of honor. Some people have all the luck.

“So have you decided?” asked Natasha.

“Not yet!”

We were driving around town because Natasha wanted to get out of the house after being confined to it for 2 days in a row. So after dinner we were just driving around, I thought I would take her out for ice cream.

“Well you know that you have to decide soon right?”

“Yeah tell me about it”

“You’ll figure it out”

“Yeah I don’t think so”

“Hey if they ruly love you they will understand if you don’t choose them”

“Really? Sean will blackmail me emotionally and I don’t even want to think what Wade and Gary would do!”

“Well yeah sucks to be you!” said Natasha.

I scowled at her as we stopped by a Haagen Daz store.

“Oh Belgian chocolate ice cream” said Natasha.

I smiled at her enthusiasm and we entered the store, I bought a plain old Vanilla and Belgian chocolate for Natasha and we sat on the hood of my car eating it. Natasha sighed happily as she licked the ice cream.

“Hey Jude look at all the stars in the sky”

I looked up an saw that she was right there were a lot of starts out tonight, it was a moonless night but there weren’t any clouds either. We sat there for sometime and Natasha put her head on my shoulder. I smiled like an idiot at the little gesture and intertwined my fingers with her.

“Natasha!” a voice broke us out of our reverie.

We both looked up to see a good looking brown haired guy walk towards us.

“Jeremy! What, what are you doing here?”

I looked at their exchange curiously and saw Jeremy’s eyes narrow as he saw mine and Natasha’s intertwined fingers.

“Hi, so I see you are dating someone”

“Yes” said Natasha in a shaky voice, she seemed annoyed with this guy for some reason.
“Oh finally someone who can put up with your waterworks!”

“Hi” I said getting off the car, “I am Jude, Natasha’s fiancée”

Jeremy did a double take, “fiancée?”

“Yep”

He recovered quickly to sneer at Natasha and say, “wow finally someone who will put up with your sob stories huh Natasha?”

“Hey you better watch your mouth, you are talking to my wife to be”

“Hey I don’t mean any harm pretty boy just a fair warning”

“Here’s the thing loser” I said now really losing my cool, Natasha looked as if she had frozen and had nothing to say to this pile of shit who kept insulting her. I mean ever since I had known Natasha she had been a strong girl and broke down only when she met her mother. Till then she kept it together.

“I don’t know what the hell is your problem but you couldn’t hold on to a gem like Natasha that’s your problem, you want to get all bitter about it be my guest. But go feel sad somewhere else because if you say one thing against my girl I will break your jaw!”

Jeremy looked at me in panic and attempted bravado, “Your loss man” and backed away. I turned to look at Natasha who looked at me as if I was superman and whispered, “you’re my hero”

I smiled and said, “I’ll be you knight in shining armor forever”

Natasha’s face brightened up with a smile and she jumped off the car and kissed me. She kissed me passionately and all I could think during the kiss was ‘she kissed me!’

I sat her on the hood and kissed her back. We only broke the kiss when a random stranger yelled, “Oi! This is a family place!” We then came back down to earth and realized we were still in front of the ice cream parlor.

Natasha got off the hood blushing and we drove away giggling like teenagers.

“Who was that?”

“Jeremy? My stupid, insensitive ex boyfriend!”

“Aha he seemed bitter about losing you though”

“Oh I highly doubt that, his ego took a beating”

“Why?”

“Because I found a much better man and me will never find a woman better than me even if he tries!”

“That’s true” I said grinning.

We reached home and Natasha cleaned the spare room just in case someone drops by. She had plans to meet Joanna and decide what she was going to wear and they were going to design the bridesmaids dresses.

More joy for her I thought wryly as I changed into my night clothes meanwhile I had yet to decide who was going to be my best man.

Natasha crept into the bed and lay her head on my shoulder and an arm across my chest. I smiled and kissed her forehead and encircled her waist with my arm.

The ext morning I woke and saw that Natasha was still asleep and her hair was splayed across my chest. I brushed her hair aside and saw her frown a little as the sunlight fell on her face. I brushed my thumb across her eyelids, nose and lips. I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed her palm.

She opened her eyes and smiled. She sat up and pecked my lips.

“Good morning prêt- sorry good morning wife”

“Not your wife yet” I pulled her down to me and said, “but soon you will be”

She just smiled and stuck her tongue out, she went to freshen up. I glanced at my watch and started, I was late for work. When Natasha got out I told her I would be going to office today and she said she was going to meet Joanna.

I got dressed and left quickly. Once I reached office I rushed to my cabin dreading the pile of papers waiting for my review.

“I got your favorite coffee!”

“Aaahhhhhhhh” I yelled clutching my chest.

“Jesus! Gary, don’t do that.”

“Well I decided to stop by and help you kick start you day.”

“thanks I was craving caffeine!”

“Ha I knew it.”

I sipped the coffee gratefully. “See I know you every need just like a good best man should” he added discreetly.

I looked at him and he said, “I’m just saying, no pressure though” he said backing out of my cabin and then rushed in and said, “just remember though I would’ve pickd you as my best man” and then he rushed away.

I groaned and put my head on the table. Pete entered and I looked up, “Hey Pete are you married?”

“Er no sir”

“Hmm so hey how many best friends do you have?”

“Two”

“Wow I feel bad for you. Just a word of caution Pete don’t get married!”

“But why sir?”

“Have you decided who your best man will be?”

“No, I plan to get married next year so there is plenty of time for that”

“Aha and are you sure if you choose one the other won’t mind?”

Pete gulped as he realized the implications, you see girls weren’t the only one who were sensitive when it came to their friends picking out the bridesmaids, boys were worse. At least girls had one chick they were close to but we boys, well we were a tight knit group one for all and all for one and all that.

“Oh well I will just have to figure that out sir”

“Yeah pick one and hope that the other can’t make it”

Pete just shrugged and went on explaining what work they had been doing and what needed to be reviewed.

I got to work and didn’t realize that it was already lunch time well not until Wade barged in anyway.

“Hey!”

“Erm hi?”

“Why that long face? I got you food!”

“Thanks bro”

“No problem that’s what brothers are for” and then added, “and best man”

I looked up from my chowmein box, suddenly I felt a loss of appetite.

“Just saying” said Wade quickly.

“Ok buddy I need to get back to work”

“Sure sure just saying that I will make the best best man”

I rolled my eyes at him as he shut the door. I ate quickly and got to work again making a few corrections and approving some plans. I called Natasha once to ask what she was doing and she said that she was catching up with Joanna and was deciding colors for the bridesmaids’ outfits.

“Ok” said Sean waltzing into my cabin just as I hung up.

“Guys give me a break!”

Sean sat on the couch in my cabin primly and said, “I am not going to beat around the bush Jude”

“Thank you Sean”

“All I am going to say is that remember the endless times I have been there for you? Stuck around when you were being a bitch and put up with your tantrums?”

“What? I cant believe you’re playing the guilt card!”

“Well a man has got to do what he’s got to do”

“Sean” I said pleadingly but to no avail.

“Anyway all I am saying is remember all of it and keep it in your mind when you decide to choose the best man, that’s all” e got up and brushed his pants and said “no pressure though” and walked out.

Yeah right I thought and got back to work. By the time I get off work I had yet not decided who the best man was going to be. It was irritating and frustrating to say the least. I decided to do it the old fashioned way. I was going to write their names on three pieces of paper and ask Natasha to pick one. Whoever’s name it was would be the best man and the other two would just have to deal with it.

When I reached home Joanna had already left and Natasha opened the door with a huge smile.

“Why the long face?’ she asked.

I sat down as she got me water and I told her about all three boys’ visit and all she did was laughed.

“Don’t laugh!”

“But its so funny! Especially Sean”

‘Yeah funny is his middle name, anyway what did you do today?”

“Nothing Joey and I finalized the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses”

“That is great!” I said in a false cheery voice.

“Oh come on cheer uo I came up with a perfect solution for you”

“Really?” I asked her disbelief.

“Really” she said and proceeded to tell me what to do. I looked at her and smiled in relief, “I don’t know hat I would do without you!”

“Well its good that you won’t have to find out”

I almost told her I loved her right then but something held me back. I picked up my phone and called all three boys and asked them to come home.

Meanwhile I decided to change and freshen up it was the first time since the best man topic had come out that I felt relieved. Natasha had asked me to call the boys for dinner so she set about making preparations.

Wade and Sean came together. Sean was bunking at Wade’s home.

“Hey! What’s the occasion?”

“Wait we are waiting for someone else too”

“Aha and who may that be?”

Just then the bell rang once more and Natasha went to open the door and Gary walked in.

“Ok” said Sean, “what’s going on here?”

“Jude you can’t have all three of us as best men!”

“I know settle down” I said as Natasha set the table.

“So who is it?” asked Wade.

Natasha joined us at the table and smiled at me.

I looked at all three of them and said “Its Gary” and before I could say anything else Gary got up and started doing a victory dance.

“Sit down Gary!”

“Well Wade, Sean” said Natasha, “I wanted you guys to myself”

“What?” said Wade horrified, “I am not going to be a bridesmaid!”

“Interesting as it sounds Natasha” said Sean, “I won’t be one either” 

“Well no of course not! I have enough bridesmaids as it is”

“Then?”

“I want you two to give me away”

I watched as Sean and Wade stared at her speechless an Natasha continued, “Please? You two are the closest thing I have to family. My dad’s dead and I have no brothers.”

Suddenly Sean and Wade got up and started doing a little victory dancing of their own. Gary rolled their eyes at them. Wade and Sean came and hugged Natasha, “We would love to!”

“Well” I sad to myself, “all that’s well ends well” as the others chattered happily about the wedding plans.

A/N: SO I uploadeed. The story is so close to wraping up I could cry :( But i have another story in mind which I hoe you guys will love. Wedding shopping in the next chapter :D Let me know what you think of this one. Comment and vote if you liked it :) Love u all <3