What To Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection Part Two (197 page)

“I love you, Garrett.”

“I love you too,” he laughed. “God, I fucking love you.”

T
hree days later the night of the Bachelorette Party had arrived. Nicole told me to be ready at seven sharp. Nicole, Amy, Hillary, Katie and my mom all showed up at my apartment at seven on the dot. Everyone looked amazing. I was so excited, but extremely nervous. The thought of all these women in the same room, at the same time, anything could happen. We divided up into two separate cars and headed out. On the drive there, Nicole still wouldn’t give me a clue. “You will have to wait and see,” she said. “We are almost there now.”

I was beginning to recognize some landmarks, and I felt like I had been here before. “You are taking me to Sin Sity?” I blurted out.

A huge smile came across Nicole’s face. The smile gave it away.

“Sin Sity . . . Really? You do remember what happened the last time we were there don’t you?” I whined.

“Calm your tits!” Nicole snapped back. “This is supposed to be fun.”

I took a deep breath. “Ok, if you say so.” I had my doubts and my stomach began to turn.

We parked the car and waited for the others to arrive. I stood nervously outside Nicole’s car. Amy’s car pulled up next to us. As we headed towards the entrance my mom pulled me aside. “You alright? You don’t look too good.”

“I’m fine, just a little nervous. You never know what Nicole has planned” I smiled nervously.

My mom rubbed my back. “Don’t worry, she has taken good care of you.”

As we walked through the main entrance instead of going right into
Totally Rad,
we walked past that entrance and took a flight of stairs up to
Swingers,
the jazz and swing club. Walking through the entrance it was like we stepped back in time. Everything looked like it was straight out of a movie. The club was a deep red and very high end and was much smaller than
Totally Rad.
It was more of an intimate setting too.

The hostess greeted us and showed us to our table. As we walked towards the dance floor, we had to take a few steps down to get to the main floor. Against the far wall directly across from the entrance was a stage with red curtains and gold tassels holding the sides of the curtains open. It was something that you would see in an old theater. There was a swing band playing, and people were dancing on the dance floor right in front of the stage. Along the dance floor were small round tables. Further back against the walls were round circular booths. The hostess showed us to one of the booths in the far right-hand corner. We had a perfect view of the stage and the musicians. The music was at the perfect volume, so we could actually talk and not have to shout over the music.

Once we were seated, the hostess said our waitress, Lisa, would be right over to take our drink order shortly. Lisa arrived at our table and Nicole ordered everyone a round of apple martinis to start the night off. I was feeling antsy and was wishing I hadn’t let Nicole talk me into this silly bachelorette party. After our drinks arrived, I quickly became the center of attention and everyone began firing questions at me. What did my dress look like? Was I nervous? When were we moving to Hawaii? My head began to spin from all the questions. I gulped down my martini and flagged Lisa down for another.

Just as she brought my second drink the hostess who had seated us made her way to the stage. “Good evening, everyone. I personally would like to welcome you to Swingers. I have a couple of announcements to make this evening. We have a few special occasions being celebrated,” she said smiling casting her eyes in our direction.

I immediately began to blush and panic rushed through my body.
Oh, Christ,
what the hell did Nicole do? She better not make me get up on the stage and there better not be a stripper behind that curtain.
I took my martini and sucked it down. I was definitely going to need another one if there was a stripper back there.

“We have a Bachelorette Party here this evening,” the hostess announced extending her arm over to our table. The girls went wild hooting and hollering. “Wow! These ladies are wild,” she laughed into the microphone. “And for our Bachelorette Party, we have a very special performance. We also have a few birthdays here this evening. We have Tania, Catherine, and Yvonne all here celebrating their birthdays with us. And we have one couple here celebrating their anniversary, Sue and Murray. Everyone please give them a round of applause and we thank you for celebrating with us here at Swingers.”

The hostess turned back to our table. “We have a very special performance here tonight for our bride-to-be, Leila.” The lights went down and a single spotlight was on the stage. I was up and out of my seat in a flash. There was no way in hell I was going to let some stripper grind on me. I was annoyed at Nicole for bringing me and hiring a stripper. How could she do this to me? I told her under no circumstances was she to get a stripper. I ran up the stairs frantically looking for the nearest exit. As I came to the door and pushed it open I heard the strum of a guitar. The first few chords of a song, I knew very well. I stopped dead in my tracks, and my head flung around.

Sitting on a stool, strumming his guitar was Garrett. He was singing
my
song. I quickly glanced in Nicole’s direction and by the expression on her face, I knew she was behind this.

I couldn’t move. I was frozen. I jumped as I felt a hand come around my waist. It was my mom. “Come on, Sweetie. Come sit back down.” Still in complete shock, my eyes didn’t leave Garrett. I felt a stupid grin growing across my face. I was totally and completely in love with this man.

By the time I was back in my seat, tears of happiness were rolling down my cheeks. As I looked around at my table, everyone else was crying too. Actually, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Garrett was still strumming his guitar and singing, but now he was off his stool and he was making his way over to me.

He knelt down in front of me leaning his guitar again the booth. He took my hands. “
Darlin’ won’t you ease my worried mind,”
he whispered.

He put my hands on his face. “What are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow,” I cried happily.

“Nicole and I have been planning this for a little while,” he said glancing in her direction. “She knew you weren’t comfortable having this crazy Bachelorette Party, so she came up with this idea.”

I shot Nicole a look from across the table. She raised her martini glass in the air. “To you,” she said with a huge Cheshire grin on her face.

“I love you, Babe,” he said, kissing my hand. “I can’t wait to marry you.”

A
s the big day arrived, I stood in front of the mirror putting the final touches of my make-up on. Nicole stood behind me. “You look beautiful.” I had my dress on and my hair was pulled up on the sides and flowing down in the back.

My mom wasn’t thrilled about the idea at first. She did confide in me that after I had told her everything that had happened, she reached out to Garrett and apologized for her behavior on Thanksgiving. She made Garrett promise he wouldn’t tell me, she wanted to be the one. I was so grateful and relieved to hear her say this. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a husband and mother who hated each other. I had seen that television show about in-laws and spouses hating one another, and it made me sick to my stomach thinking about it. My mother and I were all we had. If we couldn’t share holidays together, it would have been very difficult for both of us.

I heard a knock at the door and my mom poked her head in. “Come on, it’s time to go. You don’t want to be late for your own wedding.” She was beaming like it was her wedding day.

I turned towards Nicole and rolled my eyes. “She’s acting like she’s the one getting married,” I laughed.

“Is it wrong of me to be excited to walk my only child down the aisle?” My mom gushed.

It was a warm June day. We planned an early evening ceremony. The humidity can get pretty bad in the summer. Once we arrived at Wales Park, we followed the line of cars parked near the ceremony site. We were last to arrive.

My mom turned to me. “You ready, Sweetie?”

I looked at her, nodded and smiled. “More than ready.”

As I stepped out of the car, I felt the warm summer night air hit my face, and the sun was slowly making its way down from the middle of the sky. The birds were chirping from the trees and the soft sound of an acoustic guitar playing in the background. Everything was perfect.

Our friends and family were seated in white folding chairs that created a small aisle for me to walk down. Garrett was waiting at the end of the aisle for me. He was wearing his military dress blues. A gorgeous navy blue jacket with beautiful gold buttons down the front, white pants, his military hat and white gloves on his hands. My heart stopped when I saw him.

My mother took my hand and we walked down the aisle. Once we reached Garrett he gave my mother a kiss on the cheek and whispered, “Don’t worry Mrs. C, I’ll take care of her.”

“I know you will, Garrett, I see how you look at my daughter. I am proud to be able to call you my son-in-law,” my mother said softly trying to hold back her tears. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek then kissed me on the cheek. “Baby, I know you are going to have your happily ever after.”

He gently took both of my hands, looked into my eyes and mouthed the words “I love you.”

We both turned towards the Justice of the Peace.

“We are gathered here today for the marriage of Leila Rose Corbett and Garrett Alexander Levine. The couple has chosen to write their own vows,” he said looking at us.

I could feel myself getting nervous and my hands began to shake. I took out a folded up piece of paper and opened it.

“Today I marry my best friend and the love of my life. My world stopped when we were apart. I felt like I had nothing to live for.” I had to stop to catch my breath. “Now you are back and . . .” I felt myself beginning to tear up. “Now you are back and I’m alive again. I promise to stand by your side in good times and in bad. I promise to communicate with you and not shut you out,” I said with a small smile. “I will care for you and love you always and forever. You are my heart and my life.”

I could see tears welling in his eyes as I blinked mine away.

The Justice of Peace turned to Garrett.

“I didn’t write anything down,” he whispered to me.

“Leila, I have loved since . . . Well, I can’t remember when I haven’t loved you,” he said with a small laugh. “You are my world. I want to be there when you go to bed at night and in the morning when you wake up. I want to have babies with you and watch our babies have babies.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, everything he was saying was so sincere and my heart was racing at his words.

“Leila, it’s you. It’s always been you.”

Garrett turned back to the Justice of Peace and nodded his head at him.

“Can someone please hand me the rings.”

Nicole came up with both rings and handed them to him.

“Garrett, take Leila’s left hand and repeat after me.”

“I Garrett. Take Leila Rose Corbett to be my wife.”

I could feel Garrett’s hand shake a little as he carefully slipped on the plain gold wedding band onto my finger.

“Leila, take Garrett’s left hand and repeat after me.”

“I Leila. Take Garrett Alexander Levine to be my husband.”

A sudden calm fell over me as I took his hand and carefully placed the ring on his finger. Everything that I had worried about disappeared. . . He was now my husband.

“By the power vested in me by the Commonwealth. I now pronounce you husband and wife. Garrett, you may now kiss your bride.”

“It’s about fucking time,” he whispered to me as he pulled me toward him.

Garrett and I stayed behind for our wedding pictures to be taken by Katie. When she found out I was moving she had to go out and hire another photographer. I was so honored that she cleared her schedule to photograph my wedding. It meant so much to me.

After pictures, we headed to Danny’s for our reception. Danny had outdone himself. The bar looked beautiful. He removed all the mirrors from the walls and took down the Corona beer banner that had hung over the bar. He had placed hurricane lamps with candles inside them on all the tables to make it look romantic. I was speechless.