“Tex, Nancy and Tito’s contribution,” she stated.
Alexis unfolded the paper.
It was a check for twenty-five hundred dollars.
Alexis gasped.
I gasped.
I mean, she didn’t even work at SC!
“And the tall GI Joe guy from that Nightingale shop said they were covering booze,” Martha kept on.
“The tall GI Joe guy” could mean any of them, but I was guessing she was referring to Mace, the managing partner of the Phoenix branch.
Patsy stood. “And I can’t pay for the flowers, but I can arrange them. I’m really good at it. I did my cousin’s wedding, and she was so happy. We’ll talk.”
If I wasn’t shocked enough at all that was going down, this was when Gabe spoke. “My cousin Ava is a graphic designer. She’s gonna do your invites. The Rock Chicks are paying for printing. She’ll call you.”
Alexis was sniffling, but Zach called grandly, “Bill!”
At that point, Bill whisked the sheet off one of the tall-ish, wide-ish things up front to expose a big easel, on which was a massive, colorful, professional illustration of right where we were sitting.
But on it, instead of a mish-mosh of chairs and a makeshift speaker, there were tidy lines of white chairs, extravagant sprays of flowers, ribbons, bunting adorning the upper balcony railings, and an exquisite arch.
And there was a bride and groom standing facing each other under that arch. She was blonde, he was black-haired and bearded, and they had more than a hint of looking like Alexis and Jacob.
Bill then went to the other stand and yanked off the sheet.
Such was his exuberance, the easel tipped over and the poster floated down, but he rushed to right it.
When he did, we saw it was another illustration, this time of the whole courtyard, but now the congregation chairs were gone, and in their place were tables and chairs, seating arrangements that included couches and spread rugs, fountains, more bunting and an abundance of flowers.
There were guests drawn in, all faceless, but among them were that blonde and dark-headed guy, sipping champagne.
Zach wrested the microphone from Martha and spoke into it.
“So, Bill and I have a friend who owns a party supply company, the kind that does all the chic stuff rich and famous people use, and they’re gonna give us half off rentals of whatever you pick. Though, we have to do transport, setup and return.”
Bill strode up to Zach and took the microphone from his partner. “Now, these are just ideas.”
Ideas?
They were professionally illustrated and poster-mounted in color and on easels with someone drawing Alexis and Jaccob in them.
“If you want to be in a church when you say, ‘I do,’ or have your reception somewhere else, we get it,” Bill said. “It’s your wedding. We all want you to have what you want.” He slung his arm out to the drawings like a model trying to get people to look at the car she was promoting, and not her in a bikini. “This can be whatever you want, and it can be set up wherever you want. This is just a ‘for example.’ We’ll sit down with the party supply people when you pick a venue.”
Shanti was at my ear, whispering, “You weren’t asked for a contribution because they knew you’d already gifted the cake.”
I nodded as I squeezed Alexis’s hand.
Then I released her hand and took her in my arms when her sob sounded.
I had to let her go when she doubled over, buried her face in her hands and kept sobbing.
A tick after she did that, Jacob was crouching in front her, reaching to stroke her back and murmuring, “Hey, baby, hey.”
Alexis didn’t straighten so Jacob did, and while he did, he lifted his woman in his arms.
