Page 52 of The Wedding

To watching every fantasy come true

Your chariot leaves at 6:30

Check the bedroom. Cinderella’s gown awaits.

Jamie dropped the card and went straight to the bedroom before someone could bring up her shopping bags.

There, sprawled out on the meticulously made bed, was a periwinkle… no, lavender…no, light purple tea dress that could have only been picked out by Etta herself. All right, maybe someone helped her. Like Monique.Or Amanda… or Adele…Jamie pulled the dress off the bed and held it up to herself. She ignored the man bringing in her bags and boxes. Until it was time to tip him, anyway. By that point, Jamie was so giddy that she pulled a Grant from her wallet and handed it to the man without a second thought. Suffice it to say, he left whistling.

“You are the best,”Jamie texted her girlfriend. She knew she wouldn’t get a response back, and she didn’t. It was five. Time to get ready with a bath and pamper herself like those people pampered her all day.

Rose-scented bubble bath. Music playing from her phone as she watched the sun set outside the window. The feel of comfortable lingerie covering her body after she got out of the tub and dried off. The dress slipping effortlessly over her limbs and hanging perfectly on her body.How did she know my size so well?Never let it be said that Etta didn’t pay attention to her girlfriend’s body.

Jamie could barely contain her giddiness as she prepared for her big date with her girlfriend.Where is she taking me?She slipped a diamond tennis bracelet over her wrist.What are we going to do after dinner?Jamie pulled out a pair of dangling amethyst earrings she rarely had the chance to wear and let them shine tonight.Will we make slow and sensual love tonight, or will she want to take me to new places?Her sheer socks protected her against the brand-new shoes Monique insisted she buy, and now she knew why they were the perfect match for a dress Jamie had yet to see.

When she turned to look at herself in the mirror, she was compelled to take out her phone and enjoy a celebratory selfie. Of course, it did not turn out as good as she thought she looked… but she sent it to a few friends anyway, including Monique.

“Have fun tonight,”Monique replied, probably from the backseat of her car as she made her way up into the mountains.“Remember, I want to hear all about it from you. Etta will leave out the best details.”

Natasha told her she looked radiant, and Seena chided her for showing off her goods, as usual. Jamie didn’t care. She was throwing her important items into a white handbag and perusing the closet for a perfect coat to wear that night. She went with black.

The sun was almost fully set by the time she stepped outside again. The building attendant gestured to Jamie’s car already parked by the curb, the driver waving to her and showing off what she hoped to be the last of the cards. She snatched it from his hand as he opened the door for her. She had already read it by the time he was in the driver’s seat.

This is it.

The time has come.

Cinderella in her chariot on the way to the ball.

Wearing her beautiful gown and looking more beautiful for it

My only hope is that I will be a fitting prince for my perfect princess.

“You all right, Ms. Jamie?” the driver asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.

She put the card in with the others, tucked delicately into the corner of her purse. “Yes. I’m fine. How long until we get there? I’m dying.”

“Depending on traffic, it should be about fifteen minutes. Ms. Coleman asked me to be there by seven. She gave us plenty of time.”

“Where are we going?”

“That’s a surprise, Miss.”

“Of course it is.”

Jamie had a newfound love for the lights twinkling outside the car windows. She watched them go by like fireflies blinking in the twilight.I played with some fireflies a long time ago.Once, when her parents took her down to Alabama to visit some friends. Every night for the whole week Jamie was there, fireflies came out at dusk, illuminating the mystical hour while ten-year-old Jamie twirled in their midst. She felt like that again. A twenty-six-year-old reliving the fantasies of childhood. Of girlhood.

Deep inside, she knew what was about to happen. Yet a part of her was still so jaded, so cynical that she refused to believe it. Those sorts of dreams didn’t come true. Jamie might call a woman like Etta Coleman her girlfriend, but she knew it would never be more than living with her while she paraded Jamie around at functions and then went home for a drink and a roll in bed. Fairy tales didn’t come true. Not to that extent. There was no cake to have and eat as well. Jamie might be a princess in the world’s eyes now, but she would never be a queen.

Nevertheless, she thought of those dreams she had as a child. Of the fairy tales her mother used to read to her. Of the beautiful world that existed outside of herself, outside of Etta, and outside of the life they slowly built together.

She still didn’t believe it when the driver pulled up to a place on the outskirts of town.A planetarium?That’s what it was, but it was also a place people rented for parties and other shindigs. Jamie didn’t see a notice on the front board, but she did see the smartly dressed man waiting for the driver by the front entrance.

“Good evening, Ms. Joy,” the elderly gentleman said. He extended his hand the moment the driver opened Jamie’s door. “Ms. Coleman has asked me to meet you here. She’s inside, waiting for you.”

“Oh, thank you.” Jamie took his hand, eyes never leaving the large dome looming above them. “Call me Jamie, please.”

“Very well, Jamie. That’s a lovely name, by the way. Ourdirector, Jamie Sanchez, has just begun a beautiful jasmine exhibit in one of our main halls.”