Always Nervous at Weddings

Authors Note: First, I want to tank everyone for the reviews on my first story submission. Both positive and negative. I got some great nuggets of help from both the positive and negative reviews. The one great thing of Literotica is that it covers pretty much anything that floats your boat. So, some people will like what you write, and other people will criticize it for not going in the direction that the like. That is fine. If you are just starting to write. Remember that when you read the reviews. Where is the comment coming from.

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I am always nervous at weddings. Even more nervous when you are one of the participants. I pull my tux out of the suit bag and start to get changed.

My son Frank sticks his head in the door and asks, "Do you need any help?" He was already in his tux in full best-man mode.

I shake my head.

He says, "Well if you need anything, let me know. You don't want to make Lisa late."

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I guess we need to start about 4 years ago. My name is Bill Thompson. I am currently 63, but was 59 when Lisa came into my life. I live in a nice 4 bedroom house in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I just sold my accounting business, although I occasionally go back to consult for them to help them out.

My wife Susan had passed away from cancer 14 months earlier. We had just started talking of early retirement and travel when we received her cancer diagnosis. The cancer was an aggressive type and she passed 6 months later. Although I don't want to minimize how devastating this was, I was relieved that she didn't have to suffer too long. We were married for 21 years. We had dated for 2 years and then we had a shotgun wedding when she discovered that that she was pregnant.

I have a son Frank who is now 26, but was a 22 year old University of Toronto 4th year Mechanical Engineering student at the time. He could have gone to Waterloo or Laurier, but decided he wanted to live the university life away from home.

It was the dog days of August. The prior weekend, I moved him back to school so he could get an early start on his final year. We went out for dinner the night before the move and he asked for his mothers engagement ring. His mother had told him that he could have it if he found the right woman. He was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Teresa, that fall. We recounted stories of his mother and his hopes with his hopefully future fiancé. We cried and I told him how proud and happy I was for him. Teresa is also in 4th year taking Accounting at U of T.

It was Wednesday, just after lunch. I was reading a book and drinking a coffee on my front porch, when a car slammed to a stop a house down from me. I head screaming and yelling as a young woman jumped out of the car.

"You cheating bastard!", she yelled at the driver.

The driver got out of the car, "Lisa, it was just one time. It didn't mean anything."

Lisa yelled back, "Based on the texts it didn't look like a 'one time thing'. How can I trust you when you were fucking my best friend? Give me my bags we are through!"

The guy jumped out of the car and started pulling bags out of the car and throwing them on the side of the road. When he was done, he yelled, "she is a better lay than you anyhow." Hopped back in the car and drove off.

Lisa, piled her bags on the side of the road, sat on one of the bags and started to cry.

I stepped down off my porch and walked over. I asked, "Are you OK?" I knew she wasn't, but what else are you supposed to say.

She looked up at me, "I don't know what to do now."

I said, "Well, why don't we bring your bags on my porch. I will get you a drink and after you calm down, we can sit on my porch and talk things through."

Still crying, she nodded and said, "Thanks, that would be good."

We brought her bags onto the porch, and I told her that my name was Bill and asked her what she wanted to drink.

She just wanted a glass of water, so I went into the house and got her one. I then told her to tell me what was going on.

She told me that her name was Lisa Grant. She was going into her 2nd year and last year as a Business Finance student at Conestoga college. Her boyfriend, George, was working for a manufacturer in their hometown of Chatham but got a transfer to the Waterloo location so the two of them could live together while she finished her last year. They then hoped that she could then find a job in the Kitchener/Waterloo area, and they could settle down.

They had rented an apartment, but George got lost, you know the "I'm a guy and don't need a map stereotype". Lisa's phone was almost out of charge, so she went to pull up a map on George's phone. While she was entering the address of the apartment, a text came through from her best friend Jennifer. It was a picture of Jennifer and George naked in bed with the text "So you don't forget me". Lisa, in shock, scrolled through the messages and found photos dating back several weeks. That was when she started to scream at him, and the car screeched to a halt.

She then sighed and looked around and said, "I don't know what I am going to do now. I don't want to live with that bastard, but now I don't have a place to stay."

I said, "Do you have anyone you can call?"

She responded, "Can I plug in my phone so I can call my mother?"

I told her to go ahead and showed her the outlet on the front porch. I went inside to give her some privacy.

While she made some calls, I went to my office to plug away at a few files that my old business sent me to look at. After about 20 minutes, I heard her call out. I came to the porch, and she asked, "Do you know where I could stay for a few days? I talked to my Mom, but really going home isn't an option since I need to be here for classes. I called some of my friends, but they don't move in until the weekend."

I thought about it and knowing that I am alone in a 4-bedroom house, I said, "Well, since it is just until the weekend, I have a guest bedroom that you can stay in for a few days if that would help. I can talk to your mother if you want."

She looked like I took a load of stress off her and said, "Thank you, you are a godsend. I promise, I won't cause any problems and will stay out of your way. I will immediately start to look for another place to stay. I will call my mom and you can talk to her so she knows what is going on."

I talked to her mother on the phone, for some assurance, I referred her to my old companies website where there is still a picture of me with a brief biography showing me as a consultant. At least she had a better idea as to whom her daughter would be staying with for a few days.

I helped Lisa bring her bags into the house. We left some on the main floor and she took what she needed to the guest room. As I had an ensuite bathroom, I showed her to the bathroom that the other rooms shared. I moved some of my son's toiletries to his room, so she had some space.

When she settled in, I asked her what she was interested in for dinner. Since I wasn't expecting company, I figured I would order in. We settled on a pizza. She insisted on paying and since I was letting her stay here, I let her.

I apologised for the conditions around the house. I told her a little bit about myself and that I kind of let things go for the last couple of months as the anniversary of my wife's passing had come and gone, and I wasn't feeling up to it. My son had helped, but he was also pre-occupied with getting ready to return to school.

Lisa made calls on Thursday and Friday, looking for something in her budget. One of her classmates responded that he was in a house with 3 other guys but have another room if she is interested. Since nothing else was panning out and since she knew he was a good guy, she decided to take it. She had seen the place in first year.

On Saturday, I drove her and her stuff over and helped her move in. It was a typical student house. The place looked way passed its expiry date, but they all seem to look that way, even after just a couple of years housing students. I left her to get settled in, wishing her the best of luck in her last year at college and went home.

I settled in for the night. Had a quiet dinner and went to sleep around 11.

At 2am, my phone started ringing. I was half asleep when I answered.

"Bill, I need help." Being half asleep, it took me a minute to wake up enough to place the voice.

"Lisa, is that you? What's wrong?" I asked.

"One of the guys here is drunk and keeps trying to break into my room. He keeps saying that he wants to personally welcome me to the house and keeps commenting about my body." she exclaimed. "No one else is here. What should I do?"

I said, "I'll be right there. Give me 20 minutes. If he starts to become more aggressive, call 911."

"Bill, thanks. Please hurry.", she said. She sounded relieved that I was coming over.

I quickly got dressed and got into the car. I got there and could here someone yelling inside the house and pounding on a door. The voice was drunk, and I couldn't make out what was being said. I pounded on the door, and the yelling stopped. Eventually, the door opened, and I saw a very drunk looking college student. His voice was slurring, "What the fuck do you want?"

I said, "I am here for Lisa. Where is she?"

He replied, "Who the hell are you?"

I didn't want to get into a debate with this drunk, so lied and said, "I am Lisa's Dad."

He blinked, and said, "Well, why the hell didn't you says so..." which made no sense and continued, "...welcome on in."

I made my way to Lisa's door. "Lisa, it's Bill."

Lisa opened the door, "Thank you for coming. I didn't know what to do, and I was terrified of what he could have done."

I asked, "What do you want to do? He seems to have calmed; and I think he may have passed out over there. Do you want to stay?"

She said, "I don't feel safe. My friend went to a party and crashed at his girlfriends. I think this was a bad idea. Could I come back to your place and stay the night until I figure this out?"

Look, I'm not an insensitive asshole. She needed help, so of course I said, "No problem. Are you planning on coming back, or you know that you don't want to live here?"

"I don't feel safe knowing what he tried to do. I want out of here.", she said.

"OK, I'm sure you haven't unpacked everything. Do you want to gather it up now and move you out, or come back tomorrow?" She looked around. It took 30 minutes and we had everything back in her bags and put it all back in the car and 40 minutes later she was unpacking again in my guest room.

I was beat, so headed to bed. She ran up and gave me a hug and said, "Thank you" and headed back to the guest room.

Lisa's friend refunded her the deposit on the place and apologised for his roommate. He knew his roommate was a bit of an asshole but thought, after he talked to him prior to her moving in, that he knew to behave. Of course, he didn't.

For the next week, she called around looking for another place to stay, but wasn't having luck with anything that she could afford. Her mother offered help so she had more money for rent, but she still couldn't find a place that could work for her.

By the end of that week, she approached me as I was eating dinner. "Bill, I have been looking, but as my budget was depending on living with my ex, I can't find any other place that I can afford. Could I stay here? I can pay you and then do some chores around the house?"

I had already talked to my son about the situation. I wanted him to know that someone was staying here. We had talked through this scenario. He actually had brought her staying long term up, thinking that maybe if someone was around, I wouldn't be so lonely and maybe would start taking better care of myself.

I told her, "OK, but under a few conditions." Then we discussed how this would work. She would pay me the rent amount that she had budgeted and would help me with the chores. I told her that we could put a lock on her door if she wanted.

I also said that if she wanted to have people over that I needed advanced warning. I could setup the basement if she wanted to have friends over. I said that if she wanted to have someone stay overnight, we would need to have a discussion before hand, and I would need to meet that person before that could happen.

We got into a routine after that. We pretty much lived out our own lives and due to classes timing, some days we didn't even see much of each other.

About a month in, I went to visit my son and his girlfriend for dinner in Toronto. I brought a few things that Frank forgot and we had a great dinner. Frank kidded me about how things were going with my "girlfriend" Lisa. Teresa thinking that maybe more was going on than she thought started to quiz me, but I put that all to rest and assured her that nothing untoward was going on.

As we finished up dinner, Teresa went to the washroom and Frank leaned over to me that "it" was happening this week. I grinned at him and wished him luck and again told him that I was proud of him.

I got the phone call a few days later from Frank and Teresa that they were now engaged. Being an accounting student, Teresa had attended a seminar on depreciation. The presenter was a friend of one of Frank's engineering professors, and Frank had asked if they could do him a favour. At the end of the presentation, the presenter had asked if there was someone named Teresa was in the room. Teresa raised her hand. The presenter asked her to come to the front of the room. The presenter said to her, "I know that we have been talking about depreciation, but I have a question for you about another subject. What do you know about appreciation?". The presenter then clicked on the next slide and a diamond ring was displayed. Frank then appeared on the stage and went down on one knee.

Frank then said on the phone that he had this long speech planned before popping the question, but between her classmates cheering and Teresa jumping on him and the two of them falling onto the floor together, he never had the chance to say it. She grabbed the ring, placed it on her own finger and started kissing him....

"So basically, she really hasn't actually said 'yes' yet, now that I think of it?", and Teresa then giggled and said, "I guess if you need it, then 'Yes!'"

She also thanked me for allowing her to receive Susan's ring. I said that Susan would be more than happy that she was wearing it.

I congratulated them and welcomed Teresa to the family. They said that they had lots of time to figure out when they were getting married. I told them there is no hurry, just concentrate on graduating and then they would have the rest of their lives ahead of them to figure things out.

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Lisa and I had been getting along. She was in the routine of her classes, and I was still doing some consulting work for my old firm. The house was looking in much better shape with Lisa's help and her nagging me whenever she thought I could do something to keep the house in better shape. I think when she leaves at the end of the school year, I will be in better shape to look after the house by myself.

She found Susan's stack of board games and puzzles in the basement, and we started to have a games night about once a week.

A few weeks after the proposal, Lisa asked if she could have someone stay over the following weekend. I had been kind of dreading this, but then she said her mother wanted to come for a visit. Relieved, I said no problem.

Her mother arrived on the Friday. I offered to make up another room, but Lisa said that she could stay with her. They used to go to a friend of her mother's cottage during the summer and they always stayed in the same room, so it would be like old times.

Her mother, Francesca, is about 10 years younger than me and, now that I think of it, rather good-looking woman for her age.

I introduced myself and she thanked me for helping her daughter out. I told her that it was my pleasure and then let the two of them settle into Lisa's room. They were out and about all weekend. They ate out most meals. But on Sunday at lunch, I insisted on making her some lunch before she headed home.

She told me a little about herself. She manages a woman's clothing store in Chatham. She had been working there since her husband died in an industrial accident when Lisa was 7. Lisa was her whole life and she had a hard time when Lisa left the house for the first time for college, but seeing how well Lisa was doing made her so happy.

We then said goodbye. Lisa was a bit sad as her mother drove off. I gave her a hug to make her feel better and she then headed to her room to work on some school projects.

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After Christmas, I was working on another file for my old firm. I had taken over the file because one of the accountants had to leave due to a family illness and there was a tight deadline on the file. I was going through all the records, but something wasn't adding up. I reached out to the firm, and they couldn't find the summary detail which would have helped me make sense of the records. They reached out to the accountant, and they said it should be there, but no one could find it.

It would take a lot of manual effort to review everything, and we had such a tight deadline that I wouldn't have the time to review everything the way it needed to be. I had a brainwave. I have an accounting student here in the house.

I asked Lisa if she had some time to help me out and make a bit of money as well. I would pay her to go through the records to summarise the details to ensure that everything matched. She did an all nighter and between the two of us, we went through the records and discovered the issue. I had Lisa put together the corrected summary and we got the audit completed before the deadline.

When I sent in the audit, I made it clear which parts that Lisa completed in case they wanted to review it.

They were happy with their work and asked Lisa if she would be available to assist if they had other work in the future. Lisa was ecstatic to get some real work experience.

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In mid-January, Frank called to tell me that he and Teresa would like to have a wedding in early May and had already reached out to a wedding planner. They wanted to get married as soon as they finished school so they could get on with their lives. Since neither side had a lot of family, they just wanted a small wedding and reception. Less than 50 people total. They wanted it on the University grounds. The ceremony in the cafeteria area of the residence where they met and a reception at the restaurant that they went to for their first date. There was an opening in early May before the residence started to be used for summer programs. I told them that I could cover any costs (I did sell my old firm for a decent amount of money), so told them not to be worried about the expense.

Winter passed and we move into Spring. Fred, Terresa, and Lisa all graduated out of their respected programs. My old firm was happy with the part time work that Lisa did, so they extended an offer as a Junior clerk at the firm. She was ecstatic and gave me a big hug when she got the offer.

The wedding plans were all in place and we all gathered in Toronto for the wedding. As I didn't have a "date", I asked Lisa if she wanted to attend with me.

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I am always nervous at weddings. Even more nervous when you are one of the participants. I pull my tux out of the suit bag and start to get changed.

The best-man Cliff sticks his head in the door and asks, "Do you need any help?". I shake my head.

"Great.", he says. "I have enough to do keeping track of Frank." He gives me a wink and disappeared.

The ceremony goes off without a hitch and after photos.... too many photos....we head to the reception at the restaurant. We give our speeches and I welcome Teresa to the family. The bride and groom have their first dance and then Teresa's parents, and Lisa and myself joined them on the dance floor.