Fat Cat Takes The Cake

FORTY

“I’m sorry, Quincy,” Chase said. “I promise we’ll have a tree next year.”

Quincy loved the small artificial tree Chase usually put up in her apartment. He didn’t love the tree so much, though, as he liked batting the ornaments off and seeing where he could hide them.

This was the first year Chase hadn’t had a Christmas tree. She hadn’t had time, between going out to dinner with Mike twice, baking far into the night after that and every day since the Minny Batter Battle, and getting last-minute wedding tasks done in her spare moments. The reception seating was constantly being redone as regrets and acceptances came in. Some people “informed” Anna they would be bringing extra people. Had they never had to manage a wedding? It was almost impossible to fit in extra people unless enough guests canceled. Something had to give and it was her own tree.

Since the dresses had arrived two days before the wedding and Chase and Julie were at Anna’s late the last two nights getting them fitted, there had been no chance for a bachelorette party. Julie promised they would have one after the wedding, somehow, somewhere.

Now, getting ready to walk down the aisle of the wedding chapel, she knew everything was worth it. Julie stood in front of her, her more petite figure showing off the asymmetrical one-shoulder design a bit better than Chase’s did, or so Chase thought.

Chase peeked around Julie’s shoulder to see the men lined up in front. Bill’s son, Rick, stood beside his father. Next to Rick was an old friend of Bill’s whom Chase and Julie had met half an hour before the wedding. Bill was appropriately pale and nervous in his handsome dark suit.

The padded pews held Anna’s and Bill’s dearest friends and a few distant relatives.

Anna stood behind them and around the corner, out of sight of her intended until the proper, dramatic moment.

The music changed to Edvard Grieg’s ethereal “Morning Mood,” the cue for Julie and Chase to start down the aisle. Chase waited for Julie to get four rows ahead, then she started the slow, unnatural, bridesmaid’s gait: step, pause, step, pause.

Anna had tried to figure out a way for Quincy to act as ring bearer, but Chase prevailed in talking her out of that. What chaos that would have been!

Mike looked up at Chase as she passed, melting her heart with his smile and those deep chocolate eyes. Mallory, close beside Tanner in the next row, sat with her left hand casually on top of her right, displaying the diamond promise ring he had given her two days ago at Bar None. Inger sat with them, smiling and happy, her baby bump getting larger every day.

Professor Andy Fear sat with his arm protectively around Hilda Bjorn. Hilda gave Julie a huge smile as she passed. The older woman never tired of telling Julie how grateful she was that Julie had saved her from selling her house and had put “that bad man” in jail.

That wasn’t technically correct. Both Snelson and Hail were still awaiting trial and were free on bond, but they would eventually be there, Chase was sure. When the news reported that Principal Snelson’s wife had hauled his clothing to the city dump on Sunday, the day after she had kicked him out, he became a topic of derisive conversation on the news media and in the Bar None shop. Footage of him fleeing reporters who were shoving microphones in his face replayed over and over on the nightly news. He had dropped out of sight, though. Maybe he was staying with Hail now, until their trials. If he hadn’t turned out to be such a sleazeball, Chase could almost feel sorry for him.

When they reached the end of the aisle and turned to face the back of the chapel, Chase spied Grace Pilsen sitting alone in the last row. Her nose was still red and she wasn’t completely healthy, but it was nice she had shown up. And very nice she was sitting far away from everyone else so she wouldn’t infect them.

The music changed again. This time Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” rang out.

Anna, resplendent in the biggest smile Chase had ever seen and shimmering in a silk silvery, gray-on-gray dress, slowly walked down the aisle to become Mrs. William Shandy.