Nick and Markos snickered, obviously two great friends who couldn't be together without laughing.
“So I’m seated next to two troublemakers, is what you’re telling me?” Joanna teased.
Nick and Markos nodded at the same time emphatically.
“But we’re also the smartest ones here,” Nick said. “So you get and you give,” he added.
“He means it’s a give-and-take,” Markos chuckled.
Outside a few people clapped and cheered, and then silence quickly followed.
A few minutes later, the air seemed to settle, and a hush fell amongst the crowd. Joanna turned around to see a young man and woman, dressed in typical bridal attire, begin to walk down the aisle.
The man looked similar to Markos— broad chested, muscular— but had less of a mischievous air about him. The woman— could easily be Joanna’s younger sister. Dark curly black hair, average height, round face. She was beautiful. Her eyes sparked something within Joanna and her stomach twisted a little.
She whispered to Nick, “We’re sure she’s not my sister?”
Nick made a face and shook his head no.
Maybe they knew each other in a past life? And were destined to cross paths again.
Joanna tried to relax in her seat, realizing that all of Nick’s mystical talk about Greek gods and destiny was getting to her.
The ceremony started and she tried to follow as best as she could. The priest spoke slowly and purposefully, resting a large bible on his arms as if it were a platter. He turned the pages as he spoke, but seemed to have the entire ceremony memorized as he rarely looked at it.
The bride’s mother, just like a mother would in any other country, became a sobbing mess, and the bride turned to her sympathetically, tears streaming from her eyes, too. It was during this brief exchange that she looked up and she and Joanna locked eyes.
She feels it, too, Joanna thought, unsettled.
The bride seemed reticent to look away from Joanna, but went back to the priest when he turned the page.
“You’re absolutely positive we’re not sisters?” she whispered to Nick again.
“Hush, Joanna. I am positive.” She duly felt like a scolded little girl, and remained quiet through the rest of the ceremony.
The priest took the rings out and placed them on the couple’s fingers, then two people (best man and maid of honor?) swapped the rings a few times between the couple. It was very formal until the best man accidentally almost dropped the bride’s ring and the entire church chuckled at him. He managed to keep his cool, but his entire face flushed red.
The priest resumed talking, and then brought out to two… Joanna cocked her head. She couldn’t tell what they were.
Nick leaned into her and whispered, “Stefanas. Floral crowns.”
The stefanas were linked together by a ribbon, and again, the best man and maid of honor exchanged the crowns back and forth between the groom and bride.
The priest said another prayer and suddenly the entire church rose up and started clapping and whistling.
Nick handed her a pouch packed with rose petals. “Let them have it!”
Joanna tossed her petals and they landed gingerly upon the newly husband and wife, while again she and the bride locked eyes as she walked past
The church emptied outside.
“Time to go catch the bouquet!” Markos shouted enthusiastically. Catch it Joanna, and tie Nick down,” he added grinning. “Nothing would make me happier.”
She tried to object, but Markos guided her along with all of the other unmarried women outside where the bride was already waiting. She had her back to all of them when she tossed her bouquet high into the air.
Joanna had no intention of catching it and had only just gotten her bearings when the mass of flowers smacked her in the face and landed in her arms.
If any of the women had known her, they probably would have tried to snatch it away from her. As it was, they all just looked at her and seemed confused as to who she was.
