Adventures in Marriage: Part One

Hey Everyone! Below is my first story, in a four-part series. Hope you enjoy! 

  

Adventures in Marriage: Maggie and Tom 

Part One

Skirts of tulle and silk floated toward the clouds as her husband lifted her up for another photo. He held her until he heard the click of the camera then quickly set her down, commenting the gown must have added twenty pounds to his bride. The wedding coordinator hurried them inside the antebellum mansion where the couple would be announced to their guests as husband and wife. The photographer snapped one more photo of them standing next to the towering white columns standing guard on the porch before they whirled inside.

Inside candles illuminated the couple’s smiling cheeks. They followed the coordinator down a hallway that forced them to walk in single-file before it opened up to the main room of the house.

“And now ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Oswald!”

The evening spun by in a sea of champagne toasts, cake, dancing, hugging and laughter.

As the couple ran outside toward their car at the end of the night bubbles danced over their heads and guests shouted “congratulations!” They grasped each others' hands and giggled like they were back in high school.

Sighing, they fell into the seats of their Jeep, graciously decorated by the groomsmen with streamers wrapped around the frame and “Just Married” in white on the tire cover. Tom turned to his beaming wife and said “we did it, darlin’”

Maggie leaned over and left a pink lipstick mark on Tom’s cheek.

With luggage bouncing in the back seat they made their way in silent wonderment to their hotel that neighbored the airport. Maggie looked at her groom as he drove through the crowded downtown streets and remembered how crazy their lives had been up until this moment. She had loved him since she was seventeen, always thinking of him during the difficult years when they had split and grown without each other. But it was those years of dating, fighting, making up and forming their unbreakable bond that made her smile to herself and reach over for Tom’s hand.

“Do you remember that night we spent on the beach for my nineteenth birthday?”

Tom squeezed her hand. “And I played that cheesy forties music for you?”

“It’s not cheesy. I love Frank Sinatra.”

Tom laughed. “I know you do.”

After a moment Tom asked “What about the night I first showed you where Orion was? That wasn’t so cheesy.”

“Well….”

Tom reached over and tickled Maggie’s knee and she squealed loud enough for people on the street to stop and look.

She smacked Tom on the arm “Thanks a lot! Now they think I’m some sort of weirdo.”

“Well…..”

Maggie had to fight the urge to tickle Tom as he took the exit onto the highway. Instead she clicked on the radio and began dancing in her seat. Tom smiled as she lifted her arms above her head and sang off key to words she kind of knew.

The Jeep cruised down the highway, wind coasting over the couple as they sang out of tune together. Tom felt a sudden jerk in the steering wheel and then heard rubber slapping against the asphalt.

“Shoot.”

He eased off the highway and turned off the engine.

“You wanna help?” Tom grinned at Maggie.

Maggie looked down at her white gown then shook her head.

Tom hopped out and made his way to the back for the spare tire. Over the sound of cars flying past Maggie heard Tom’s exasperated “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What’s wrong?” she hollered back to him.

“The guys took out my spare and filled the cover up with silly string!”

Maggie thought she’d tumble out onto the grass from laughing. She gasped for air as Tom walked back to the driver’s seat to call AAA. He knew his groomsmen were in no condition to bring him back his spare.

“Now we just have to wait.”

Maggie cuddled up to Tom and let the whoosh of the cars on the highway lull her into a state of calm. Tom pulled her into his chest and brushed his lips over her forehead. They both thought they would drift off to sleep until a tractor trailer rumbled by and shook them out of rest. Maggie held Tom tighter. No matter where they were he made her feel safe.  

Tom let his eyes drift to the night hovering above them. He found the Big Dipper and the North Star, but that’s not what his gaze desired tonight. Finally he found it and pointed up at three sparkling dots.

“Orion’s Belt” Maggie gazed up with the same wonder as she had ten years ago.

The memories came back again and Maggie leaned over to kiss her groom. It didn’t matter that they were stranded on the side of the road, that their wedding day flew by too fast or even the time they spent apart so many years ago. What mattered was nothing could take away the joy she was feeling at that moment. She had married her high school sweetheart, the first and only boy she ever truly loved.

Even after an hour and a half of waiting it was too soon for Maggie to break away from Tom. She walked in the grass as the mechanic helped Tom change the tire. She gazed back up into the heavens and counted her blessings on the stars of Orion.