ABBIE
It wasn't the wedding I'd imagined all those years when I was a kid. Back then, I'd had images of majestic castles, hundreds of people filling the pews, elegance at every turn. Back then, I'd been pining for Prince Charming to ride in on his white steed and sweep me off my feet – you know, the sort of stuff little girls fantasize about. The sort of stuff you grow out of over time. For the most part.
This wasn't the wedding I'd imagined, but in its own way, it was absolutely perfect.
We weren't in an ancient castle with a heavenly sounding choir playing – instead, we were actually in King's bar.
We were months removed from the incident with the Incas. It had taken a little time to sort everything out, but we'd managed to make it through. King had gotten out of the life, handing the reins over to Roy, his second in command. So, like the tide and the universe, the Cossacks went on.
King had poured all of his energy into fixing up his bar. I could tell by the passion and zeal he attacked it with that it was a labor of love. He'd closed down for a couple of weeks to make sure he had the time to do it right. He painted everything, repaired and improved a million little things, and I could see that with the painstaking attention to detail he gave everything in that bar – big or small – that he was doing it with love and joy.
The end result had been stunning to me. While he managed to retain that rustic, gritty charm of a biker bar, it was clean and modern. And once he'd finished with the sprucing the place up, he'd turned it over to me to let me work my magic.
I used my knowledge and skills in the PR world to help transform King's bar from nothing but a locals only, hole in the wall, biker bar, into the single most successful bar in the city. We had turned it into a destination for people.
And the thing I loved most about what we'd done was that we'd opened it up to service a broad cross section of people. No longer was it just bikers or grease monkeys who populated it. It was also the after work, need a drink crowd. It was the Friday night hangout for some of the hipsters and millennials who liked to socialize. It was even the place to be for some groups to meet for pub trivia and the like.
It took King a little bit of time to get used to seeing so many diverse cross-sections of people in his bar – and he wasn't sure he liked them all – but when he started making money hand over fist, he learned to love everybody.
And after six months or so of successful, non-stop operation, we'd decided to close the bar down for an afternoon to hold our wedding. It was hard for me to explain to people who were somewhat dismayed by our choice in locale, but somehow, it just felt – right. After pouring so much of our heart and soul into the place to get it to where it was, the bar felt like home. It felt like a part of us. And it only felt natural to take our vows there.
No, it wasn't a gorgeous medieval castle, but it was a home to us – and that's what mattered to me the most.
My stomach was in my throat and my hands were trembling as I made my way down the aisle. A small string quartet had set up on the stage and was playing a gorgeous version of the wedding march, but I could barely focus on the music. I looked at all of the smiling faces looking back at me, and my stomach simply roiled. I was half afraid I was going to throw up right there.
But then I looked up and saw King's smiling face looking back at me. Immediately, my nerves began to settle and calm. He was my lighthouse in the storm. The safe spot I could always go to for comfort or soothing. King was my rock and the one person I knew I could always turn to when the chips were down. He'd become my everything. Just as I'd become his everything.
When I reached the head of the aisle and smiled at him from beneath my veil, I felt my heart flutter. He was beautiful and had somewhat surprisingly, ditched all trace of his membership in the club. Though he stepped down, he still hung out with the guys and went riding with them, and when he did, he'd wear his club stuff. He just wasn't officially part of them anymore. He was simply King. My soon to be husband.
“You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen,” he said softly as he took my hand.
The tenderness and sincerity in his voice made the tears well up in my eyes, but I was able to fight them off. At least, for now. We turned as one to face the pastor and he began what was a beautiful ceremony – the sort of ceremony that not even an ancient castle could have made better.
With the ceremony done, the celebration began. In earnest. We danced. We drank. And we partied all day long. It was honestly, the most fun I'd ever had in my life. It was a day filled with nothing but laughter and love – it was perfect. But as the sun began to set, King looked over at me and smiled. It was time to go.
We needed to get home, get our things, and get to the airport. I may not have had that fairy tale castle for my wedding day, but King was going to make sure I had it for my honeymoon. Our honeymoon was going to be a tour of some of the most beautiful castles in all of Europe. He'd planned it in secret and had only told me about it a couple of days ago.
Needless to say, I was beyond excited.
He took my hand and we began to make our way toward the doors. Word spread throughout the room that it was time, so everybody pushed by us, smiling and laughing. By the time we stepped outside, there was a line of people on both sides of us that stretched from the bar, all the way to the parking lot where King's bike awaited us.
He looked over at me, shrugged and smiled. “It looks like your chariot awaits, my love.”
“Well, let's not keep it waiting too long, then.”
As the crowd cheered and threw rice at us, we dashed down to the bike. King handed me a helmet that had been decorated to look like a wedding veil, which made me laugh. I slipped it on and hiked my dress up as I climbed aboard the back of the bike. King got on and I wrapped one arm around his waist and as he fired up the bike, I started to wave to all of our friends and family who were watching us with smiles – and some tears of joy, of course.
King gave them all a wave and a smile. “Hold on tight,” he said to me.
I squeezed him tight as he gunned the engine and we tore off into the dimming light of dusk. My wedding train fluttered behind me in the wind and I laughed as joy filled my heart. We were an incredibly unlikely pair – or at least, we had been at one time – but somehow, we'd found a way to come together as one. Two imperfect people who had become perfect for one another.
And now that we were, I was anxious to start this new chapter of my life with this man I loved.
THE END
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