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“Relax,” Cara said, giving my leg a little squeeze that almost made me jump out of my chair.
I could do that. I was going to do that.
“To Loren and Cara, my daughter and now my other daughter. May you have health, wealth, happiness, and joy in your life together. We love you. Cheers!”
“Cheers!” We all said and drank.
“Do we have to make speeches?” I asked.
“No, no, we don’t have to do all that. I just wanted to say a little something. Your father and I also have a little something for the two of you.” Dad pulled a card out of his coat pocket and handed it to me. I grit my teeth and hoped there wasn’t money in there. My parents didn’t have money to give to me, and I didn’t need it now. I was getting my payday next week.
I opened the card and a bunch of gift cards fell out into my lap. Cara gathered them up and I read the card. Everyone had signed it and written little notes for us. My eyes blurred with tears. Why was I crying so much today?
I passed the card to Cara and stacked up the gift cards. They were from everyone.
“Thank you all,” I said, instead of scolding them for spending money on us. See? I could do this.
Cara sniffed and wiped at her eyes with her napkin.
“Seriously, thank you. This means the world that you support us.” I blew my nose and Ansel called for another toast. At this rate I was going to be under the table soon. Champagne always hit me hard for some reason.
We went back to our food, which was now a little cold, but no one cared. Everyone stuffed their faces and talked and laughed and drank and I hadn’t had such a good time in ages. I had a tendency to pull away from my friends sometimes, completely unintentionally, but I needed to connect with them more. Now that Cara and I were living together, we could become a sort of home base and have parties and movie nights. When I lived with Lisa, having anyone over was a crapshoot. No more passive aggressive staring as she went to the bathroom, or peering out at us from her bedroom near the living room. I never wanted to see or hear about Lisa again.
After the food, Dad got the speakers going and Ansel was in charge of the music.
“Thanks for the exit song, by the way,” I said as we got up from the tables and tossed our paper and plastic utensils away.
“Yeah, I figured that would be a good one. I didn’t have much time to choose. I was DJ-ing on the fly.” He grinned and headed to another small table that used to sit in the yard with a few chairs that we used in the summer when the weather was nice.
“It was a great song,” I said, and Cara agreed. He gave us both hugs and went to do his thing.
Cara and I shuffled our way to the dance floor, kicking off our shoes. We’d both worn ballet flats for the wedding, figuring we’d rather be comfortable and not fall down when walking down the aisle. It had been a good plan and my feet weren’t killing me now. They probably would be by the end of the night. I was going to dance my ass off.
“May I have your attention,” Ansel said, his voice blasting through the speakers.
“Okay, who gave him a microphone,” Cara said, laughing.
“I heard that,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “Since I am in charge of the music for this shindig, I have chosen a song for the couple’s first dance.” I looked at Cara.
“Are we doing that?” I asked her, and she nodded.
“Of course.”
I’d danced with girls a few times, but never with one shorter than me. Cara giggled as we tried to figure out what to do with our arms. We ended up with one of our hands linked, and one hand on the other’s back. It worked.
Ansel started the song and I smiled at Cara. Mary Lambert, “She Keeps Me Warm”. How appropriate.
I started singing and Cara joined in as we swayed back and forth to the beat. Cara loved this song ever since I sent it to her a few years ago. Ansel had to know that.
Cara and I danced around until the song ended and then another started and we waved everyone to join us. Even my parents came out to groove. I tried not to cringe as my dad pulled out some of his sweet moves. I got sweaty almost immediately because the barn was stuffy and hot, but it didn’t matter. I twirled Cara around and around until she stumbled from dizziness and then pulled her close. Our skin was damp and so were our dresses, but I didn’t care. She pressed against me as we swayed and shimmied and made total fools of ourselves.
