Marrying Melissa

I almost cried, she would have every right to freak out and put the phone down, but here she was worrying about me, instead of the potential rival that was sitting feet away from me.

"Yes, I'm fine. She seems like she's maybe had a few drinks. She just keeps saying sorry over and over again, for being unfaithful to me."

"I'll have a word with Janette and see if she can call her or something," said my love before she added, "You know that I trust you completely, but thank you for letting me know. I love you more than I can ever possibly tell you, now go and try not to break her heart too much."

"Thank you, you beautiful creature," I replied, adding "I can't wait to call you Mrs. Atkinson."

"You must never call me Mrs Atkinson, Mrs. Atkinson is your mother," she teased, and we both said good night and that we loved each other.

Going back downstairs, I passed Mum in the hallway and she asked me how everything was going. I told her the situation, that I had told Melissa that she was here and she told me I was a good boy. I then went back to my crying ex, a little more composed than she was.

"Who were you talking to just now?" She asked, and I told her that it was my mum, and I had also spoken with Melissa on the phone.

She seemed to have composed herself significantly as she looked at me through red eyes and said, "What does she have that I don't?" Causing me to smile, as I could think of one or two things that Melissa has that she doesn't.

Laura had seen my smirk, getting a bit irate and demanding to know, "Tell me, What am I up against? What has this woman got that I don't? Even Jeanette gushes when she talks about her now!

"Laura," I sighed, "Let's not do this."

"Is it the long legs? Is it her blonde hair? Why were you laughing at me?"

And then she was crying again, with her head in her hands she was rhyming over and over about what Melissa had that she didn't. "I've Seen you together in the village, Apart from about 6 inches of height and 2 inches of hair, I'm far more stunning than her."

"Laura," I sighed, "It's not a competition. We had some amazing times, you will always be my first love but, life changes. And it's not that I haven't forgiven you for what happened. Yes, it hurt me more than anything ever has, causing me to move away. It just hurt too much to be where we used to hang out, or risk seeing you."

"So I drove you to her then?" She said, with the pain of a wounded animal.

"It was something I had to do."

"But, you wouldn't have did it, had I not slept with that guy?" She replied, looking at her hands.

"Probably not."

Laura's shoulders then started shaking up and down, as tears spilled in a constant flow from her eyes. Stupidly, I put my arm around the woman I would have previously taken a bullet for, and she nuzzled into my chest as I reminisced about times past.

I could quite clearly see down her top to the middle half of her breasts, and for a fleeting moment, I was transported back to that night when we gave our bodies to each other for the first time. Her trembling lips as I lay naked on her, seeing her then most perfect body with her full, perky breasts before me. And just like that, I selfishly realised that I didn't care anymore. That was then, now my life was forevermore with the greatest thing God ever created, and as I released Laura from my embrace, I said, "I hope you find happiness, Laura, like I have."

She gave me a small smile through her tears, and it was like a switch had flicked in her head. She still continued crying, but then asked, "Tell me what you love about her."

"What?" I replied, in shock.

"Tell me how perfect she is. I can see it in your eyes, like.....Way more than the way you used to look at me."

I asked her if she was sure, and as she nodded and wiped her nose with a tissue, I started to tell her about my love. I told her of seeing her that very first day of work, late for her own job as she'd been up drinking all night yet, somehow, still looked like a supermodel.

Laura smiled at that, "I hate her," she said, wiping her eyes, "I look like death after a drink."

I told her about bumping into Melissa, on the way home from the work Christmas party and convincing her to date me, something I'm still not quite sure how it happened.

The mood had definitely shifted, and when Laura asked me how I proposed, and I told her, she hugged me she then parted us. With a warm smile she said, "That's the most romantic thing I've ever heard. Damn her being so perfect! Couldn't you be, like, marrying a bitch that I could at least hate? Sometimes I think my best friend, Jeanette, is more best friends with her than me, after what your Melissa did for her and the baby."

"Can I tell you without it hurting you, I'm very much in love?" I asked, and she nodded.

"It helps seeing you so smitten. Though, don't get me wrong it still hurts like hell. I mean, couldn't you be gay or something that I couldn't feel inferior to?"

She was smiling, and it then occurred to me that Jeanette actually hadn't told her about Melissa's secret which was something that I had thought she would have, at the very start. I searched her face, seeing if she was genuine in not already knowing. I had known Laura almost all of my life, and even though I didn't love her anymore, I knew what I had to tell her, for her own peace of mind. Scanning her face again, I then said, "Laura, Melissa is trans."

"NNNNNNNNOOOOOO!" She bellowed loudly, "You are kidding me, right?"

"She is, I didn't know it at first but, yeah. My perfect woman in trans."

"Oh my God, that's actually amazing, she's....I mean, she's beautiful!"

"Laura, what the fuck is happening here?" I said, confused at the sudden change in mood.

"Don't you see? I can't complete with her. You're in love with a woman who has something I can never give you!" she said, almost giddy with new found relief.

Of course, I didn't confirm intimate details of what Melissa has or hasn't, but I just said, "I'll certainly never have any complaints about her."

It made me happy to see Laura even a little more contented. Even though I wasn't in love with her anymore, she was still a large part of my life and the thought of her being unhappy made me sad. I then asked, "Laura, will you keep everything I've told you to yourself?"

"Of course," she replied, walking over to me and hugging me, squashing those boobs into me in such a way that I would have been poking her by now, a few years ago. As she released me, she smirked and said, "Fuck, a trans-woman in Ravensdale, there would be a village meeting if the locals knew. Sex is still in the middle ages here I think!"

"Thank you, Laura. Next time I'm home I want to hear how sickeningly happy you are in your life."

"What, like you, you mean?"

I nodded, as she turned and put her light jacket on and said, "Absolutely!"

We hugged again, and she was gone. Then, Mum came in and asked if everything was alright, I told her it was, giving my mum a big hug, taking her by surprise as she told me, "You handled that well. I did feel sorry for her."

####

I woke up next morning and looked at my phone, silencing the alarm as Melissa's face smiled back from my screen wallpaper. The picture was of us both, at the top of Table Mountain, just outside Cape Town in South Africa.

The morning was slow, Mum had made breakfast for, 'All her boys.' Dad had washed his classic E-Type Jaguar, that he had already washed yesterday, saying that he wanted it to look right for the big day. Richard would be driving me to the Town Hall in it, where the wedding was taking place before Melissa and I would drive the short distance to the hotel, for the reception.

We got dressed and Richard helped me with my tie, then I helped him. It was a small quirk I had with my twin, always saying it was easier to dress each other than ourselves, but we both knew it didn't matter how perfect our ties were, for as we went downstairs for inspection, Mum, of course, fixed our collars and ties, "There, two lovely boys," she'd always say.....and today was to be no exception, feeling like a warm hug as I looked down at her, putting the finishing touches to the look of my dark blue suit, and my dark red and black tie against the light blue shirt. She smiled, popping the little handkerchief into my pocket that matched the bridesmaids dark red-wine coloured dresses and said, "She's a lucky girl, is that Melissa."

Richard was wearing the white faced, Longines dress watch that our parents had given us both one of for our 18th birthday. "I bloody well lost mine," I said, admiring the clean looking watch compared to my rather bulkier, but more expensive timepiece. He offered it to me to borrow for the day, but I declined, though I did always miss it since it's absence, now almost 2 years ago.

We exited the house, Dad and Mum led the way in Dad's big Jag, and as we got to the end of the road, a car pulled up and Laura got out and Richard said, "Uh-oh!"

She was smiling, leaned into the E-Type and said, "I'm so glad I caught you. I wanted to give you this," and handed a small bag to me, tied at the top. I opened it and, there it was, the watch I had lost, ticking away at the correct time.

"I've been searching all over for this," I breathed.

"Sorry," she said, "I just hung onto it, hoping to.....you know." She then patted my shoulder and said, "Good luck," and I thanked her as we drove off.

"Mystery solved, maybe she won't interrogate me about you now, every time I see her with Jeanette," Richard said, not really smiling.

As it turned out, I didn't wear the watch. It felt kind of weird, wearing something just presented to me by my ex, so I put it in my pocket before giving it to Mum when we arrived at the venue, and she put it in her all eventuality covering handbag.

Dad asked, "How are the nerves?" and I held up my hand, holding it out and intentionally shaking it, "Never better!"

Dad isn't the emotional type, so we were shocked when he called my brother and I over, and facing us, put a hand on our shoulders and said, "You two boys make me very proud, I don't say it enough...but you know I love you both."

He then looked at us both and said, "Your mum tells me I have too many Jaguars, how about you both hang onto the keys of that one," whilst dropping the spare set of keys into my hands.

"Dad, you can't! You've had that for decades," we both protested.

"Your mother and I enjoyed it in our younger years. It needs to be enjoyed and driven, and it only tosses my hair," he laughed, patting his bald head.

"Thank you, we love you," we both told him.

####

Heavenly Visions

I went into the venue, our little Town Hall, a local Ravensdale quirk as it's technically always been a village. It's very old, has a little spire containing a clock tower, painted pale blue with darker surround that strangely matched my wedding suits.

I was just pondering this fact when the familiar voice of Anne, Melissa's Mum, broke my musings, saying how great I looked. I asked her if she had waterproof mascara on like my mum, and she smiled, telling me that she was fine, but Tau, her husband, was an emotional wreck. "He's so protective of both his children, but with Melissa.....you know it's different."

"I know, I consider it an honour that I wasn't chased away at gunpoint immediately, that first time I came to visit," I laughed, as I hugged my future mother in law.

"Don't joke! I had hidden the keys to his gun cabinet, just in case," the 5ft nothing, dark haired woman said of her rather large, frightening husband.

The photographers were taking pictures of everyone, firstly getting one of us beside the E-Type, then with just Richard and I, as if just arriving.

Melissa's brother then shook my hand, dressed in the wedding theme and looking quite dapper then, soon, it was time to get married and we went inside the small building, me taking my place at the front, with Richard.

The Registrar walked to the front, he told me to keep looking ahead and not backwards when the bride was walking down the isle. I thought this was odd, but was happy to go along with it as he knew these things better than I.

Richard asked, "Nervous, little brother?" always taking the opportunity to remind me that he's 5 minutes older.

"Actually ok," I replied, feeling relaxed.

"Aaaaaw.....youngsters today," he replied, as I responded my calling him, 'Dick!'

The Registrar then then asked if everyone would be upstanding, and her choosing of the traditional, 'Here Comes The Bride,' was played. I could clearly hear an audible gasp, rolling up through the one hundred guests as she came up the isle, and as I felt her presence beside me, I looked around, and was completely floored.

Her hair, lighter blonde than normal, and parted above her right eye, down over her left eye and cascaded down her shoulders, with slightly shorter locks than before. Her face was like a Picasso painting, with makeup to the perfect application. I couldn't help it, instinctively I looked down into the deep V of her dress on her chest, and down to the fishtail of her long legs, and said, "Wow!" out loud.

Everyone who could hear it just laughed, as she replied, "You're so handsome."

It continued, soon we were saying our vows as a little excited child in me said, "This is finally happening!"

"Do you take Melissa Anne Munro, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

"Do promise to love and cherish her, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her, for so long as you both shall live?

"I do," I answered, hardly able to focus on anything other than her beautiful, tearful eyes.

He then asked Melissa the same, and she could hardly speak, such was the emotion and that ever growing smile now adorning her upturned lips, as she held the finger that she had just placed the ring on, whilst now saying her vows.

Then, painstakingly slowly as it seamed, the registrar said, "It gives me utmost pleasure, to pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.

Applause erupted from our carefully selected group of family, friends and a few work colleagues, as I engulfed the most beautiful thing I had ever seen (For a least a few hours - but we'll get to that,) and we lost ourselves and everyone around us as we kissed like first time lovers. She then held my face in her dainty hands and told me, "I still can't believe this, we're married, you're my husband!"

"I know! You're far too hot to be married to me," I replied, framing her beautifully contoured face with my hands, as Gabby appeared and said, "I'll second that!" hugging us both in her arms.

As hugs were exchanged, Melissa's family came over, along with an aunt I hadn't met. Her Dad, who's name literally translates to Lion, always had an, 'I may have killed before,' aura about him, having been in the military, now was indeed an emotional wreck, visibly welling up as he hugged his daughter for a ridiculous, but beautiful, length of time. Breaking off, he shook my hand and patted me on the shoulder and said, "Welcome to my family, my son," which stunned me strangely, and I could just barely remember the word, "Thanks."

We then announced that it was picture time, and drinks and canapés would be served in an hour at the hotel, just a short drive away.

We drove to the grounds where the pictures are would be taken, an old castle in beautiful, rugged ruin, but was the perfect for our permanent record of our day.

####

Evening All

We arrived back at the hotel around 6pm, after a short drive together in the car that, thankfully, now had a roof on it.

She held my hand as I drove, both silently happy just being together and officially, forever. We stopped at a familiar beauty spot and got out, kissing beside the little yellow car, and I told Melissa it was now half ours.

"I've never been so happy," she breathed, as I hugged her like I'd never let go, embracing her tightly around the waist as she hung onto me by the neck.

"It can't be real, I'll wake up soon. But before I do, I love you, Mrs Melissa Atkinson," I said, before kissing her again.

"I guess I'll get used to it, how about Atkinson-Munro?"

"Melissa, you can call yourself the Easter Bunny if you still come home to me," I beamed, still waiting to wake up.

She smiled and then her look turned serious and she said, "Gabby's pregnant."

Shocked, it took a moment to realise what this meant, but when the penny dropped, I lifted her up and spun her round and round until I feared I'd drop her, due to dizziness.

"You're happy then?" She giggled, and I just kissed her, before we really had to go back to the wedding, after driving back hand in hand.

Getting out of the car, I told her to stay seated while I came round to the passenger's side. Opening the door, I helped her out by the hand, getting a smile and a kiss for my trouble, as Gabby and Rebekah's voices harmonised, "Get a room!"

Melissa walked over to them and embraced them both, as I unashamedly marvelled at her curves that were encased in this beautiful white dress. As I followed her, she told them, "I couldn't wait....I told him," and we all congratulated one and other in my hottest ever group hug.....no, seriously, the two of them were unbelievable, Rebekah's tiny frame with her black hair and visible baby bump, almost perfectly framed Gabby's huge boobs and her height just in the middle between Rebekah and Melissa.

Soon it was time to take our place for dinner and, of course, the speeches. I wasn't worried, Mum would scold Richard if he embarrassed me too much, and I was pleasantly surprised when the worst I got was the time I 'Washed' Dad's car with a block of sandpaper, to try and clean a spot off the wheel. "I think that cost me £300," dad helpfully contributed, to a laugh at my expense. Richard also talked about my first drinking escapade, ending with him smuggling me in through the back door while I sang, "I ain't heavy, I'm your brother," to my cringing embarrassment. He also spoke of my wife, mainly how he had never known me to be so happy, "And I've known him 9 months longer than all you lot," he quipped.

His speech had been a great uplift, after the beautifully emotional one given by Tau, Melissa's Dad. He had previously asked her if he could mention her transition, and as everyone in attendance was well aware, she had no problems with it - but was slightly nervous all the same.

Tau spoke at length of how proud he was, that he had always been proud of both his children. "I never thought I would ever have a daughter," he said, and Melissa gripped my leg under the table. "I was a happy father of two mischievous boys, one who was into playing rugby and chasing girls, the other...not so much," he said.

She relaxed her grip as a laugh rippled through the room, smiling as her Dad looked over and he continued, "Then, in time, we were slowly introduced to our daughter, Melissa, who had strangely been there all along, and with help from her very strong, very good friend Gabby, this.....stunningly beautiful....powerful woman....." he stuttered, welling up with emotion.

It was at this point that he stopped, seeing Melissa get up and edging behind the seats at our top table, until she was hugging him tightly, to a church like sigh of, "Aaaw," from all the guests. As Melissa wiped his tears with a tissue, then her own, he continued while holding her tightly with his left arm, "You are the strongest person I think I'll ever know, and now, since Ade came into your life, he has added the finishing touches to the woman that is now Mrs Melissa Atkinson."

"She says it's Atkinson-Mumro," I heckled, and everyone laughed politely, all still with tears in their eyes, I guess.

Tau then held his glass aloft, "To my beautiful daughter and her husband. Melissa and Ade."