After coming out of the shower clean and fresh, I got dressed and ready for the wedding. Jim had text me to say he would meet me at the reception of the hotel. Felicity called me to see how I was and check everything was ok.
I explained to her that I would soon be meeting Jim but had not heard from or seen Shaun, also that Mike his best man had not been able to get hold of him. She asked me to go check on him, on my way to the church. I messaged Jim asking him to hurry up so we could set off early to go past Shaun's dads house.
We met at reception in our matching outfits, a Prince Charlie jacket and vest, clan McLeod modern red tartan kilt finished off with dark grey sporran, the woolly socks were itchy as always but at least the Sgian Dhub (Scottish dagger) had a real blade not just the handle so could be used to scratch an itch, I went traditional underneath the kilt so wore no underwear.
We climbed into my car and headed off. Luckily Graham, Shaun's dad, didn't live to far from the hotel. We arrived quickly Jim got out and went up to the house and started knocking on the door. The house was not in a particular good state of repair which was a shame as it was a nice neighbourhood.
Graham answered the door, looking at Jim he groggily blurted "what do you want?"
"What the fuck do you think I want!" Jim replied angrily, "where the fuck is Shaun?".
"How the hell would I know?" replied Graham
"Because he was supposed to stay here last night, you really are a waste of oxygen, aren't you?" Jim stated
"Huh," the only reply Graham could come up with.
At that point Jim caught a sight of Shaun fast asleep on the couch. Jim started to lose it, he had always been the kind of guy who would do anything to help anyone a friendly giant, but if you wound him up it didn't usually end well for you.
"What the fuck is your game? he's right there you little prick!" I heard him shout so I raced out the car to the front door.
"Let's calm down and get him ready," I said, I walked past them and shook Shaun, then shouted at him to get up as he was not moving. I saw Jim go through to the kitchen, quickly returning with a basin of cold water.
Throwing it over Shaun he shouted "Get the fuck up Shaun it's your wedding day!" Then giving Graham an evil stare as it looked like he was about to complain about throwing water over his couch, he kept quite though as probably thought better of it considering the situation.
Shaun jumped off the couch "what the fuck, oh shit I'm going to be late!" he blurted out with a bit of a slur in his words. "Why didn't you wake me up Dad I thought you set an alarm?"
"I must have forgotten son, don't worry it's not life or death if you're late," he replied bluntly. He was giving off a strange vibe like he didn't want the wedding to go ahead.
"Just what is your game Graham? You didn't set an alarm, you lied to us about Shaun being here, do you not want this wedding to go ahead?" I asked and awaited a reply while he blankly stared at me.
I couldn't believe what he said next "It doesn't matter to me if he wants to throw his life down the pan by getting married, that's his choice. I just don't see why anyone would tie themselves down to one tart rather than playing the field, like I've always done and spending all that money on something else."
Shaun now half dressed quickly raced over to his Dad and started shouting in his face "Don't you dare call Jennifer a tart. Was this your fucking plan, to get me so drunk I would miss my own wedding? so any money I had you could try to convince me to gamble with?"
Graham just looked back at Shaun and turned white, I quickly moved between them as it looked like Shaun was about to hit him, I was right and was able to block the punch before it connected with Grahams face. He ran upstairs and we heard the bathroom door locking "You better stay up there, and don't bother showing up to the wedding either!" Shaun angrily shouted out.
He looked at Jim and I and said "Fuck bro's I've been so fucking stupid, he's almost ruined my relationship with Jennifer and my family, for what, money? Christ I've got a lot of making up to do." Then he told us "I've run up a load of debt which Jennifer has had to help with, god knows where she got the money from."
Jim thinking back to the night before started looking nervous, so I tried to calm the situation "Let's not worry about that now, get dressed asap we have to get to the church before Jennifer." I quickly phoned Mike and told him we were on our way. I also called Felicity and asked her to try to stall Jennifer as we were running late. She agreed and Mike said he was already there and was currently sorting out guests seating as they were arriving.
We climbed into my car and I quickly drove us to the church, Shaun was sat in the back. I heard a screwing noise and glancing in my mirror I noticed he was drinking from a flask, "I hope that's coffee or water in there," I stated.
"Nope it's a nice single malt whiskey." He replied, "I'd offer you some but you're driving," he sniggered
"Do you not think you had enough last night?" Jim questioned him "You still seem a little drunk"
"I'm ok I just need to take the edge off, put it down as wedding nerves and coping with what that dickhead has done to me." Shaun half-heartedly laughed.
"Well make sure you slow down, you know you get drunk to easily and you don't want to do anything stupid." I replied but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
We arrived at the church and started meeting some of the guests, the obvious jokes of "it's only supposed to be the bride who's late" were repeated as we tried to get to the altar. Mike came in and made us aware the bridal car had just arrived. Jim and I stepped back to the front row whilst Shaun and Mike stood waiting.
Suddenly the wedding march started playing, everyone looked back to see the bride, first in came the bridesmaids Felicity, Stacy and Jennifer's friends Kim and Gemma. They all looked amazing in their pink dresses, Stacy being the least appealing but she had still scrubbed up well.
Then the moment everyone was waiting for in came Jennifer and her Dad slowly walking down the aisle, her dad looked so proud, I couldn't help but think to myself if only he'd seen her last night or this morning that look would be a lot different. They got a little closer and that's when I saw Jennifer, she looked out of this world.
She wore her usual wavy red hair up for a change, which showed off more of her face or at least it did once the veil was lifted. She wore an Ivory white dress tight fitting around the torso with a court train, a scoop neckline and open up back. I was happy it was a summer wedding as she would be freezing in that in the winter.