Wilmington Woman's Club Ch. 33

"Come on Val, you have to say something for the camera!" said Phil, the best man as he pulled her away from the dance floor and out into the lobby. The videographer was there, and he was interviewing Janet's parents.

"Just remember, dear. We love you very very much. We are so happy for you and Nick. You looked so beautiful up there. Our little girl, all grown up..." her mother went on as her dad rolled her eyes.

Phil brought Val in front of the camera. She smoothed out her dress, and tried to look more sober than she felt.

"Hi Janet. I wish... Um, wow... I had something all planned, but after a few Cosmos, those thoughts just go right out of your head. Whoosh, okay.... Janet, I've known you for like 8 years now, and I've never seen you so happy. I truly mean that. You know that you are like a sister to me. And I guess that makes Nick, my brother. So he'd better stop ogling me." Val stopped because she was laughing way too hard at this.

"In all seriousness. You two are wonderful. Janet I can't believe that you're married... anyway, I wish nothing but happiness for both of you for the rest of your...." Suddenly there were arms around her shoulders, and Bernie was there talking into the camera. "Hello sweetie," she said to Val as she looked into the camera, "And hello married people. I want to thank you both for a delightful wedding. It truly was special. I've... I've... I've never seen two people look happier." She was starting to slur her words more and more, and Val started to get worried about the look on her face.

"I wish you health, wealth, and happiness," she continued, "Nick, you probably want to make sure that your honeymoon suite is far away from everyone else, cause Janet is a screamer... Ha, ha! And, Janet, I love you sweetie, so much. But if you ever make me wear purple again, I will hunt you down and kill you. Both of us will, won't we sweetheart?"

Val turned beet red, as she knew that this was probably going to be watched by Janet's family at some point in time, and she didn't want those to be the words they were remembered by.

"No, I mean..." Val yelled out over Bernie's shoulder. "Janet, maybe I wouldn't have chosen purple, but it's your day, Janet. Not ours. And you looked lovely up there."

"Traitor!" Bernie mockingly screamed into the camera, "She hates the dress just like I do. I can't wait to get it off. In fact, maybe I'll get the dress off the old fashioned way." She laughed to herself and sauntered off, back into the banquet area.

Val walked away from the camera, and returned to the reception trying to find Bernie. As she walked into the room, an obnoxious friend of her husband's named Rich walked in front of her.

"Hey, there you are!" he said politely, "I've been looking all over for you. You promised me a dance."

"Oh, Rich... Definitely..." Val replied, "I want to dance with you, but I need to find Bernie first. She's really acting strange, even for her. So I just want to."

"Come on now, Val. Bernie is a big girl. She can take care of herself. Let's enjoy ourselves." Rich extended his hand to Val, and with some reluctance she accepted it, and walked out with him onto the dance floor. The song changed to a slow number by Kenny G. Val was distracted the entire time, first looking everywhere for Bernie, then on feeling Rich's erection poking into her, worried about him thinking she might be available.

"Rich, I expect Joe to cut in on us."

"He won't," Rich said.

"Are you sure?" Val asked, a touch a uncertainty in her voice.

"Yeah, that redhead he's dancing with is draped all over him."

Val found them off in a corner of the dance floor. Rich had been right, she was all over him and Joe seemed to be enjoying it. Her concern for Bernie evaporated as she tried to figure out a way of extracating herself from Rich's tight embrace without causing scene or hard feelings.

That's a laugh, she thought, anyone's got hard feelings here it's Rich with his pogo stick. The song ended. Val smiled up at Rich, "That was nice," she said.

"Yeah," he replied, "I bet it would be even nicer if you would come with me to the hat-check room for ten minutes."

"Rich! That sounds like an indecent proposition!"

"It is," he said, but wasn't smiling. "C'mon, Val, you were socking it to me out there. What are you, some kind of tease?"

"No Rich, I'm not some kind of tease. I'm a happily married woman who you're insulting. Now get out of here, before I tell Joe."

She went back to her table to find no one there. Many of the couples were out on the dance floor, and others had left for the evening. Val noticed Bernie's bag wasn't on the chair anymore. She looked under the table to be sure, but it definitely was missing. Val was sure that it meant that either Bernie had gone to the bathroom, or left the banquet area.

Val started to walk out, when she bumped into Janet's sister. "Leah!" she exclaimed, "Have you seen Bernie?"

"She's the blonde girl, right? I think I saw her leave a little while ago with some guy."

"Guy? What guy?"

"I don't know. She was hanging on his arm pretty tight, though."

Val looked out on the dance floor and saw the blonde with Joe's hands on her ass. Furious at him and Bernie, she raced out of the banquet hall area. She an idea who Bernie might have left with, and if so her friend was doing it for all the wrong reasons. Joe could wait, she'd fix his horny ass later, and it was obvious that Bernie was doing things for the wrong reasons.

***

Val hurriedly walked down the hall towards the rooms where the bridal party was staying. She listened for any signs of Bernie, and finding none thought she would check the room they had used to change clothes in. Val heard Bernie laughing as she approached the room. She swallowed any embarrassment that might come as a result of barging in on them unannounced, and opened the door with her key, walked in and found Bernie making out with Jon. Well, more than making out. She had his cock in her hand, jerking him off.

"Hey, look Jon, it's Val! Val honey wanna join us? We'll have us a purple threesome! It'll be wild!"

More worried than appalled, Val tried to make it seem like she had accidentally wandered into the room. "Whoops! What are you two doing here?" she said casually, trying to sound a little tipsy.

"What do you think we're doing, Val! Don't you knock?" said Jon.

"First off, Jon, this is my room. Our room, Bernie's and mine. What are you doing here?"

"Gonna fuck Bernie soon as I get it up," he said with a dignity Val found absurd.

"Get your own room, take her ther... oh, that's right, you probably don't have one. You're so fucking cheap!"

"Val!" Bernie cried, "don't be mad!"

"Come on, Bernie, let's go!" he said angrily. There was a long pause as Bernie looked between Val and Jon. "Go where?" Bernie asked reasonably enough. "I don't know," Jon said, "We can find some place."

"Where?" asked Val, "in the hatcheck room?"

He glared at Val. "You coming, Bernie?" he said with a tone of finality. A helpless look crossed Bernie's face as she sat on the bed, staring at him. She looked over at Val, saw the look of disappointment on her face. Bernie shook her head, and looked down on the awful green carpet.

"Fine!" he exclaimed, and grabbed his suit jacket off the bed, "Fucking cock teasing bitch!" he snarled, opened the door to the hall and left. Val walked over to the door, opened it and yelled down the hall, "I think that Janet's flower girl is available, if you want to hit on her, Jon!"

Val locked the door, and slowly walked back and sat down on the bed, across from Bernie. "Bernie?" Bernie didn't look up at her.

"Bernie?" Val asked again, and raised Bernie's chin. Bernie was crying. Her eyes were puffy and red. "Bernie, what's wrong? You're not upset that I kicked Jon out of here, are you?"

Bernie shook her head. "Talk to me, sweetie," Val said soothingly, "I can't help you if you don't talk. I know you got lonely downstairs at the wedding, but it's no reason to have sex with Jon of all people."

Bernie started to talk while fighting the tears from flowing. "I ...I just thought that it would be me who would be married first. It was supposed to be meeeee."

Val finally understood. The wedding... It was bringing forth the feelings that she had never expressed about Jon. She knew that Bernie was keeping it all in. And now it was all coming out.

"Hey... hey... stop that. Jon is a jerk. He cheated on you dozens of times. You don't still love him after all that, do you?"

"No," came the tearful response, "But being here, at Janet's wedding, wearing this awful dress. I mean, Jon and I talked about this. We talked about the colors that we would choose. About what music we would play. About the vows we would say. And... and when I finally left him, a part of that dream kind of died, but I didn't really feel that until tonight."

This stunned Val. She hadn't thought Bernie would ever consider marrying Jon and was surprised to hear that they had actually talked about it. Val remembered that the two of them were constantly fighting with each other, in public and in private. And he cheated on her so often, she cheated on him just to get back at him.

Val never saw the two of them as the settling down kind. She decided to change her tact, and help her friend by helping to resolve things with Jon. "Maybe if you tell him how you feel. Then, maybe things can change. I mean, I know he's going to have a kid soon, but there are crazier relationships than that."

"No, Val... there's no kid. She miscarried. At this Bernie stopped crying and began laughing.

"Bernie, I mean, I know your parents would hate you for it, but if you really love Jon then it would be worth it."

The laughing turned into furious crying. "He's getting married next month."

"What?"

"He's getting married to the little tramp he knocked-up. Yeah, next month. He had the nerve to send me an invitation to the damn thing. It's even going to be at the country club where we talked about having our wedding. I called him up, telling him he was the biggest fucking asshole in the world, to take our dream and give it to this two-bit, under-aged, whore!"

Val immediately jumped across the bed, took Bernie in her arms and hugged her. Val's face was wet with Bernie's tears. The confession had taken a lot out of both girls. Val sat down on Bernie's bed and the girls pressed their heads together. Bernie sobbed into the ruffled sleeves of Val's dress. As the two held each other, the dresses rustled together making noises. Val had to stifle her giggles. Bernie felt it too, and stopped crying for a minute

"These fucking dresses," she muttered. Val ruffled her skirt against Bernie's which made even more noise. Bernie sniffled and then started to laugh.

"They're not that bad. And we still look good in them," said Val.

"Yeah," said Bernie with a muffled response.

"Come on now.... better than most mortal men ever deserve," said Val.

"Damn right..." whispered Bernie, as she leaned in and kissed Bernie's cheek, and held her tight. The warmth of their bodies and the alcohol and the tears made both girls feel very nice.

"Bernie! You're going to be alright. You can do much better than Jon."

Bernie sobbed and nodded. "And you can do a hell of a lot better than Jon!"

Bernie laughed at this. "Yeah, but I just wanted to feel something other than loss, you know." Val nodded, and stood up. "Do you want some water?"

Bernie nodded, and Val walked to the bathroom. "Afterwards, we can go back to the reception."

"Do we have to?" came Bernie's voice. Val walked back between the beds with the glass of water and handed it to Bernie. "No, we don't have to. But let me at least go back and tell everyone. I don't want anyone to be worried."

"No... Please stay," Bernie pleaded.

Val hesitated, "Bernie I love you. You know that. But I left that fucking husband of mine on the dance floor with his hands on some blonde bimbo's ass. God knows where they are now. If they're still here. I have to find them, or him. Come with me. We find them and you help me kick his ass, then come home with us. Spend the night with me."

Bernie blew her nose into a tissue, nodded her agreement and they returned to the reception. Joe was sitting at his table. The blonde was dancing with Rich, which was fine with Val. Janet and Nick had left the reception and many others were in various stages of leaving as well. Val pulled Joe to his feet and told him in no uncertain terms that they were leaving and leaving now. He followed the women to the car docily, got into the backseat and fell asleep.

Val and Bernie, with Joe in between them, walked him into the house, and set him down on the sofa, then saw to the sitter and Caroline. All was well with the baby and the two women, arms around one another went into Val's bedroom still wearing their hideous purple gowns, collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.