AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Prologue
The Wedding
She was the ideal.
When she glided across the platform to the microphone, all eyes affixed on her and mouths dropped open in awe. Seriously? She was flawless. If a magician had waved a wand and commanded, “Perfection!”, this was the woman who would have appeared out of a pink cloud of smoke. From the silky hair that undulated in perfect waves halfway down her back, to her perfect brown eyes with the long lashes, to her body with the perfectly placed curves under the white dress—yes, she was the ideal. You could hear sighs of admiration and envy from every corner of the big room.
No, it wasn’t common for the bride to make the first speech at the reception, but of course, there was nothing common about my sister Aubin. First, and most obviously, there was her beauty. She really was stunning, and if you were looking for something wrong with her to pick apart, you weren’t going to find it. She was smart and had graduated near the top of her classes both in high school and in college, and she was talented, too. She hadn’t gotten to be the head cheerleader of a professional football team without incredible strength, poise, and dance skills.
That was how she’d met her new husband, by the way. Bill was an athletic trainer, not a football player, but they’d run into each other at Woodsmen Stadium and of course, he’d been smitten. Everyone was.
“Thank you all for coming today to celebrate our marriage,” Aubin said. She smiled around the room and it was like a spotlight shone on the guests. She’d been born with teeth like that, no orthodontics at all. “Billy and I couldn’t be happier and we’re so glad that you get to share it with us. This is truly the best day of all of our lives, the day when I became Mrs. William Papakonstantinou.”
She wasn’t really, because my sister had decided not to change her name. She was still Aubin Frazier. At first, that had been a problem for Bill because he’d wanted all of them, including their future children, to have the same surname. But my sister had stuck out her bottom lip a little and said, “Oh, Billy, come on!” Then she’d kissed him. That had been enough for him to change his mind and agree that it didn’t really matter what her last name was.
I’d heard the other bridesmaids discussing how Aubin wasn’t planning on kids, though. Her husband didn’t know yet that children weren’t going to be a possibility, but I bet that she would do the “oh, Billy” thing again and he would be ok with that, too. He loved her so much.
I thought it was a good move that she had introduced herself as Mrs. Papakonstantinou to the guests, since the whole Papakonstantinou family was here watching and listening. They applauded like everyone else at Aubin’s words but I saw Bill’s mother and father studying her carefully, and maybe they clapped but they weren’t smiling like the hundreds of other guests arranged around the big ballroom in this beautiful hotel.
It was a gigantic venue, the largest that our area of northern Michigan had to offer, and it was full of tables, people, and floral arrangements. The number of roses it had taken to decorate the space was mind-boggling, and I didn’t even want to think of what the final cost for them would be. I’d offered to pay the floral bill as one of my contributions to the wedding and this was what my sister had wanted. It was going to be expensive, but it looked perfect.
Aubin kept talking and I kept surveying the room, glancing over the hundreds of invitees. Bill had a huge family, and Aubin knew everyone. Not only did she meet a ton of people through the various and varied activities she did, but she remembered them all and kept in touch, too. According to Erin, another bridesmaid, my sister and her then-fiancé had argued over the guest list leading up to this event. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it smaller!” she’d apparently told Bill when he’d said that they absolutely had to cut it down. She had taken a few names off and everyone did fit in here, but it had been a squeeze.
“If you all could come to the dance floor,” Aubin said into the microphone, and then turned her head when Bill whispered something. “What? Oh, right! We’ll do our first dance in just a moment. We need to hear from the best man and the maid of honor! Giorgos, come on up here.” A handsome, dark-haired guy joined her on the platform. “And…” Her eyes hunted through the crowd and I made myself step away from the wall where I’d been daydreaming before my sister had started to speak. It had been about me as a princess dressed in a gown just like Aubin’s. Somehow it had looked nice on me, too, and I’d been thanking everyone for their compliments.
I held up my hand and she spotted me. “Sissy,” she said. “There you are.”
I nodded. Here I was, her little sister. Aubin called me “Sissy” because that was the nickname our mother had given me, and it had stuck with everyone else, too. I walked toward the stage where she stood smiling down at us, through the tables that they’d had to position a little too close together in order to accommodate all the guests, around the fluffy dresses because Aubin had encouraged everyone to wear big, multi-layered gowns, the fancier and larger the better.
It took me a while to wend through that blockade and Giorgos started giving his speech as I made my way forward. He was Bill’s cousin and had so many funny stories to tell about the two of them growing up together outside of Philadelphia, which was where almost everyone in their family had come from for the wedding today—come for today only.
“They’re not going to spend the night. They’re driving right out of Michigan after the reception,” another bridesmaid had whispered as we’d put on our peony pink (Aubin’s favorite color) dresses, and I’d overheard that remark. It didn’t seem to speak well of my sister’s relationship with her in-laws but I was confident that she’d win them over. She won everyone over.
That bridesmaid, Genesis, had been on the Wonderwomen squad with Aubin a few seasons before when they’d cheered for the Woodsmen football team. All the other girls in the bridal party besides me were also old friends, some from high school, some from college, but the most from when she’d been a professional cheerleader. There were fourteen of us bridesmaids, which had led to a very crowded experience at the front of the church. They all looked a lot like Aubin, too—not that she’d purposefully chosen friends who were tall and gorgeous, but it seemed to have ended up that way.
Like attracted like in terms of looks, I guessed. As I’d walked up the aisle earlier today to join them, the collective beauty standing next to the altar had been almost blinding. The bridal party was the perfect package. Except for me.
I wasn’t exactly ugly or short, but I was more medium. Medium in looks, medium in stature, and that was generally fine. It didn’t bother me or anything, but it did get to be an issue at times. Like when we did kick lines in dance, I always had to go on the end to make the height difference less obvious and so I wouldn’t pull down on the girls on either side.
My sister had realized that it was going to be a problem in the wedding photos, too. She hadn’t said it, but I knew what she was thinking: me in the middle of the rest of her bridesmaids was going to look like a daisy stuck in a bouquet of roses. At least we could do something about my lack of inches.
“You could stand on a little stool,” Jess had suggested when we had tried on our dresses at the bridal salon and had lined up in front of a mirrored wall, like at a dance studio. Jess should have been the maid of honor, probably, because she and Aubin were best friends and had been since they’d cheered together on the Woodsmen Wonderwomen squad. Now they had gone into business together, too.
But my sister had picked me to be her number-one bridesmaid, and I didn’t want to let her down. So rather than stand on a stool only for pictures, I’d chosen the highest heels I could find. I was almost on the same eye-level as the other girls when I had them on, but walking was a bit of a chore. It wasn’t just the layers of crinoline of the guests’ ball gowns and the tight maneuvers between the chairs that slowed me up as I made my way to the microphone; I was usually fine in heels since I’d been practicing in Aubin’s since I was little, but these were stilts.
By the time I got close, Giorgos was winding down. He started in on sentimental stuff and it was very sweet. Instead of listening in amusement, most of the guests were now saying “aw” and even sniffling. What a great speech! He’d done so well and I hoped that I could, too.
“Bill is not only my cousin, but he’s also my best friend,” Giorgos said, turning to the newlyweds. “I wish you all the happiness in the world with the woman you’ve chosen to spend your life with.” He raised his glass of champagne.
There was thunderous applause and I watched a lot of other women wipe their eyes. Not Bill’s mom, though.
“So to the beautiful bride and my cousin, the lucky groom—” He said something at that point which I knew had to be in Greek, and many of the Philadelphia contingent repeated it and also raised their glasses. Then Giorgos pointed out my approach. “And now, the maid of honor and Aubin’s sister, uh…” His face went blank as he stared first at me, and then he looked helplessly toward the crowd. “This is, uh…”
“Sissy,” I heard Aubin hiss.
“Sissy?” he repeated, his voice booming from the speakers. “That’s your real name?”
I nodded and smiled at him, and he shrugged and handed me the microphone. “Thank you, Giorgos,” I said into it. “Um, yes, hello, everyone. I’m Aubin’s little sister and she’s my big sister. That makes me her sissy, but my real name is Lissa. Lissa Frazier.”
