Always Nervous at Weddings

I notice that after my dance with Lisa, Cliff started to monopolise her time for the rest of the evening. They seem to really hit it off. I spend most of rest of the evening talking with Teresa's parents, discussing our hopes for grandchildren in the not too far away future.

After the wedding, Frank and Teresa left for their honeymoon in Antigua. When they return, they will both be starting to work at their respective jobs in Toronto and get on with their lives.

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Life at home continued. Lisa was still staying with me as she started working at my old firm. Cliff got a job close by at one of the Insurance companies while he worked through his Actuarial Exams. He and Lisa became inseparable.

One day, Lisa comes home all excited. I ask "What's going on?

She replies, "One of our clients is a women's clothing store and they are looking for a new store manager. I think Mom would be perfect. I am going to ask her if she is interested."

Her mother is interested. Francesca liked the idea of living closer to Lisa. She got an interview and came down to meet with the owner. She stayed at my place. It was good to see her.

A few days later, they told her that she had the job. I told her that she could stay at my place while she looked for a place to live. Since she owned her home in Chatham, she put it up for sale and found a three-bedroom house that she liked here in Waterloo and bought it. Since Waterloo's house prices are higher than Chatham, she unfortunately needed to get a mortgage on the new house. When her husband passed, the insurance settlement with his employer paid for her house, so she hadn't had to deal with mortgage payments before.

Unfortunately, this meant that Lisa was going to move out and pay rent to her mother to help with the mortgage. I was going to be alone in the house again. Fortunately, I think I was finally in a decent mental state to take care of the house on my own. I can thank Lisa for that.

After the movers moved all of Francesca's furniture into the new house from Chatham, Cliff and I came over to help Francesca and Lisa settle in.

Things settled into my new normal. I had Lisa, Cliff, and Francesca over for dinner the odd time and I was invited over to Francesca and Lisa's place for dinner as well.

About a year later, Cliff and Lisa attended a friend's wedding. Cliff went to high school with Joan and Steve, the bride and groom. The day after the wedding, Lisa and Cliff called to let me know that they were engaged. Usually, you don't upstage a wedding, with your own announcement, but it sort of happened by accident.

Cliff was planning on proposing to Lisa but hadn't bought the ring yet and was planning on a dinner a month or so from now. At the wedding, two of the bridesmaids had been enjoying themselves a bit too much. They had started drinking during the photos after the ceremony and continued heavily into the reception. Somewhere they got the idea of betting which one of them could get Cliff into bed that night. They knew that Cliff was dating Lisa but thought he could be lured away.

During the dance, they kept asking Cliff to dance, or trying to cut in while he was dancing with Lisa. Eventually, both Cliff and Lisa started to get frustrated with the situation.

Cliff told Lisa, "Just sit and I will go and talk to them and try and get them to stop." So, he went over to them and started to explain, "Look, I don't know what you two are up to, but I am with Lisa, and I am not interested in either of you. Can you just move on to one of the single guys and let us enjoy the rest of the evening." Of course, due to the music, he had to speak a bit louder than normal so they could hear him.

One of the girls started to argue, "But how do you know that you wouldn't be interested in one of us."

Now, what Cliff didn't know was that the bide and groom were about to announce that the desert buffet was ready and that anyone that was hungry was welcome to go and enjoy it. So, in his frustration, he yelled back to the bridesmaids, "Look, I'm not interested, and I am planning to propose to Lisa." The music had cut out for the announcement just before the last 7 words and the entire room, including Lisa heard him.

Cliff turned a bright red when he realised that everyone heard what he said, and he turned to Lisa with a panicked look on his face. Lisa was white with shock looking back at him.

The bride and the groom on stage had these big smiles on their faces. The groom on stage spoke up, "Well we were just going to announce that desert buffet was open, but Cliff, it sounds like you have something more urgent on your mind? I think you have a question for Lisa?"

Recognizing that he only had one path forward, Cliff walked over to Lisa, bent onto one knee and said, "Lisa, this wasn't exactly the way I had been planning this. I don't even have the ring yet, but since the cat is now out of the bag." There was some laughter at that. "Since you came into my life, I can't imagine my life without you. Will you marry me?"

Lisa, grabbed him for a big hug and kiss and exclaimed, "Yes!"

The groom then spoke, "I would then like to ask everyone to raise a glass and congratulate our good friends Cliff and Lisa on their engagement." Everyone came over to congratulate them. Lisa said to everyone, "We really thank you all, but let's get back to why we are here. To celebrate and party with Joan and Steve." The reception quickly got back on track and the bridesmaids seem to have disappeared after all that.

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8 months later we were back to the start of our story.

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."

You see, since Lisa's father had passed away when she was young, she didn't have her father to walk her down the aisle. She thought that since I had done so much for her since that fateful day which brought us together, that she wanted me to walk her down the aisle for her wedding. Since I only had a son, that was an honour that I didn't think I would ever have the privilege to have. I gratefully accepted and was nervously waiting for that moment. Frank was Cliff's best man and Teresa was the maid of honour as Lisa and her had gotten quite close.

I managed to keep it together for her and got her to Cliff at the front of the church. When I sat down beside Francesca, she squeezed my hand in appreciation. The ceremony went perfectly as they said their vows and kissed.

At the reception, there were the typical speeches. Lisa even stood up and made a toast to her ex-boyfriend and his cheating which led her to Cliff.

Lisa and Cliff had their first dance. Then Cliff's parents, and Francesca and I joined them for the second song.

Francesca and I had many dances together and then she asked me if I wanted to step out for some fresh air. We found a quiet place to sit and started talking about how lucky we were with our kids. We then started to reminisce about our spouses and the tears started to flow. I guess we were gone long enough to be missed because I spotted Lisa and Frank walking around the corner looking for us. When I spotted them I gave them a nod and a thumbs up to indicate that we were OK. They went back to the reception.

After a few more minutes, Francesca and I got it together and went back to the reception. I guess it was a reflex and I couldn't remember doing it, but Frank told me later that they noticed that Francesca and I were holding hands when we wlaked back into the room.

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Lisa and Cliff had decided to move in with Francesca. Their rent helped her with the mortgage payments and the rent was much cheaper than if they were in a place on their own. They were saving for a place of their own.

Over the next few months, Francesca and I started to spend more and more time together. Eventually, Francesca started to stay the night. I guess that discussion we had at the wedding gave me the final closure that I could move on from Susan.

After a few more months I was ready. I had Francesca over for dinner. After dinner, I asked her to dance. I put the same song on that was played for that first dance that we had at Lisa's wedding. When the dance was finished I asked Francesca if she could get me my glass of wine. When she returned, I was on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes.

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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 couldn't think of anyone better for my best man.

I shake my head.

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

I wasn't late for her...and we enjoyed our life together.

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Authors Note: Thank you for reading story number 2. I'm looking forward to your feedback.