All persons engaging in sexual activity are over 18
I'm the luckiest sonofabitch in the world.
I hope every groom thinks that, as he watches his bride-to-be walk down the aisle. But I know it's true for me. Ashley is one in a billion.
We stood on the terrace at the beautiful Grove Park Inn, the timeless
mountains behind us, on a perfect spring day. As a joke, I had suggested morning suits for the guys, but somehow that joke had gained life and here we were. I must admit, my dad and my friends looked pretty damn sharp!
But the bridesmaids -- they were all simply gorgeous. The sequined halter dresses managed to be sexy and classy all at once. I caught the eye of Kimmy, Ash's maid of honor, and grinned at her, thinking about our plans for the night. She winked and stuck her tongue out at me.
Ashley and I think differently. While I was in high school, my folks had told me that they had an open marriage. I guess I was icked by that at first, but seeing how much they obviously love each other, and seeing so many of my friends with parents who were always at war with each other or divorced, it started to make sense to me -- like maybe that's the way marriages should work.
Ash came from a very conservative family, though. She hadn't dated at all until she got to college. She and Zack, her first boyfriend, dated our whole freshman year and everyone thought they'd get married. Then she came back after the summer and proclaimed herself on the market. And a few months later, she and I started getting serious.
As we got to our final semester in school, we started talking about our future. Which meant I had to tell her about my thoughts on marriage.
She didn't slap me. She didn't run from the room in tears. I counted that as a victory. She just looked seriously at me. "Wow, Luke, that's a lot to take in. I need to think about it."
She thought and we talked, and she thought some more and we talked some more. Then one day out of the blue...
"You think Jessie is hot, right?"
There is no logical way to answer that question safely. "I mean, she's very attractive." I sounded like an old man.
"She's got the hots for you. And I think Stephen is a real sweetheart. If you think we ought to have an open marriage, let's start now. With them."
I looked for signs of sarcasm or that she was putting me on. But she seemed completely serious.
So that's how we started. And we found that we liked it, Ash as much, maybe more, than me. She quickly became the boundary-pusher and I just tried to keep up. And I had a hell of a good time doing it.
"What could be hotter than a foursome on our wedding night, babe? Won't that be starting our marriage right?"
Maybe I wasn't quite as enthusiastic as she was, but I was crazy about the little wildcat I had released and was ready to do things however she wanted. The wedding day is for the bride, isn't it?
So I winked at Ashley's beautiful Asian maid of honor across the aisle and had to fight hard to quell an erection. Bad form when the bride has yet to appear.
I saw the preacher look up as the strains of "The Wedding March" came from the electric organ. And there she was. And my heart stopped for at least a minute.
Ashley is tall -- with her heels and her veil, she looked taller than her dad as he walked her to the altar. Her blonde hair was up except for a few ringlets framing her face under her veil. Her wedding gown was a beautiful combination of sexy and demure, with a high neck in front and a non-existent back. A couple of nieces very proudly held her long train. She looked like a princess.
The ceremony was a blur for me. I managed not to fumble the ring hand-off from Dad and I made it through our vows without prompting, but all I remember is looking into Ashley's warm blue eyes the whole time.
I think we cut the photographer off long before she was through, but we were in a hurry to spend the required minimum time at the reception and then grab our friends and head to the bridal suite.
A few of the bridal party had changed into very short dresses for dancing, so after the first few family dances, the ballroom floor became a swirling mass of pastel colors and very coiffed hair.
I was looking right at Ashley's dad when he took the arm of the bridesmaid he'd been talking to and pulled her, laughing, out towards one of the wings of the hotel. I brought it to Ashley's attention, and she was not pleased.
"That's going to set both Mom and Hannah off. That asshole!"
Sure enough, a few minutes later we noticed Ashley's stepmom Hannah sitting at a table by herself, surrounded by two or three dead soldiers. Her champagne glass was empty.
I got Mom and Dad's attention and asked them to take care of Hannah so that Ash and I could focus on something else. Like fucking our friends and then living happily ever after.
In fact, within half an hour after my parents rescued Ashley's stepmom, we started making our way to the elevators. There were some definite looks when Kimmy and Jamaal left with us, along with some knowing smirks.
As we walked through the Great Hall lobby, we saw Zack walking towards us. "Have any of you seen Lynne?"
