| Chapter 18: Showers and Storms Lauralee was greeting guests as they filed into her house for Laura’s wedding shower, as the rest of the girls were serving food, Catherine was in the kitchen with Ursula fixing up trays, Charlene and Sandy were talking to the guests on hand. Alex, Jerry and Dominic made themselves scarce with them going to Universal Studios Theme Park, of course with Marcus, Alex’s bodyguard. Lauralee heard the doorbell ring as she went to the door and answered it. “Hey Celia.” “Hey,” Celia smiled. She handed Lauralee her present. “Am I late?” “No, Laura won’t be here with her mother for another 5 minutes. Come on in, I’ll introduce you.” She walked Celia into the living room. “Everyone, this is Celia Graveri, the manager for our club.” Celia exchanged hellos with everyone. “Come on, I want you to meet my mother.” Lauralee motioned Sandy to come over. “Mom, this is Celia. Celia, this is my mother, Sandy Deverson.” Celia shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Deverson.” Sandy put her hand up. “Please, Sandy. Lauralee has nothing but great things to say about you. I heard you’re an excellent manager.” “Well, she’s a great boss.” “Thank God I didn’t raise a slave driver,” Sandy laughed. “Why don’t I introduce you around.” “Thanks.” “Go on, I’m busy playing hostess.” Lauralee smiled as Sandy led Celia away. She heard the phone ring twice, and ran into the living room. “That’s the signal! Everyone hush!” The crowd quieted as Lauralee saw Laura’s car pull up in the driveway. She saw Laura and her mother, Sarah, get out of the car, walk up to the door and knock. Lauralee answered it. “Hey!” “Hi Lau!” Sarah gave Lauralee a big hug, since she hadn’t seen her since she got in. “Thanks for coming. I just wanted to go over any last minute details.” “Lau, you’ve been there through out the whole thing. Don’t get any maid of honor jitters on me,” Laura smiled “Just making sure everything’s set. Come into the living room.” Lauralee’s pace quickened a little as Laura walked into the room. “SURPRISE!” “Oh no!” Laura covered her eyes. “Now you didn’t think we could let you get married without a party,” Sarah gave Laura a hug. “Ha! Fooled you!” Lauralee gave Laura a hug. “You sure as hell did,” Laura smiled as the guests surrounded her with well wishes. Lauralee watched as Laura was being showered with congratulations and questions about the wedding. The crowd, which consisted of Laura’s family from New York, Kevin’s family from Kentucky, friends, and the girls with their families, was all smiles. Lauralee stood up and clinked her glass. “Everyone, the food is being served.” All helped themselves to a great meal courtesy of Ursula’s and Catherine’s cooking. Laura still looked like she was in a complete state of shock as she was making her rounds with the guests. After a short while, Lauralee got the living room ready for presents. She called everyone in as she sat next to Laura and assembled her “bouquet” of bows and ribbons for the wedding rehearsal. The presents were lovely: place settings, silverware, new bedding and accessories for Kevin and Laura’s house, which they planned to redecorate after the honeymoon. Sarah had given her a bridal doll, a tradition that had existed in Laura’s family for years: the new bride was given a porcelain doll with an exact replica of the wedding dress that was to be worn, which was made by the mother of the bride. Laura looked like she was in heaven, and Lauralee smiled at her reaction to each gift. The surprise had worked, and worked well. After the last present, Lauralee stood up. “As maid of honor, I would just like to thank everyone for coming today. And Laura,” she turned to her, “I’m gonna save the good stuff for Saturday, but I just want to say that I hope that you’re having a good time and I love you very much.” The group applauded as Laura hugged her with tears in her eyes. “I love you too Lau,” she whispered. “OK everyone, time for cake!” Lauralee exclaimed. ~*~ “You sure you don’t need any help cleaning up or anything?” Celia asked. “You being here was enough,” Laura gave her a hug. “And thanks for the setting.” “No problem. I’ll see you on Saturday.” Laura smiled. “I’ll be the one with the white dress and veil at the front.” Celia said goodbye to everyone and gave Laura one last hug as she left the house. Laura flopped on the couch with Bianca, Elizabeth, Sarah, Catherine, Charlene, Sandy, and Lauralee. “Boy, do you guys know how to throw a bash,” Laura sighed. “Damn right. An Elegance party is the best party,” Elizabeth agreed. Everyone laughed. “I just can’t believe how surprised you were. I thought you would know somehow,” Bianca said. Laura shook her head. “Not for a second. Did Kevin know?” “How did you think I could get you out? You’ve been staring at each other for the past week,” Sarah laughed. “Sorry,” Laura smiled. “God, the day after tomorrow. It’s surreal.” “I know. I still think that you’re going to come over my house and pick Lau up for another wild night of scheming,” Sandy shook her head. “It’s not like those days are over you know. Just because I’m gonna be hitched doesn’t mean that I’m not gonna be crazy.” “And I hope you’ll never change,” Catherine smiled. “Well, big day tomorrow,” Laura got up. “We better get going so I can show Kev all of the goodies we got.” “We should go too,” Elizabeth stretched. “I’m exhausted.” They finished cleaning up, helped Laura and Sarah load all of the presents into the car and said goodbye as they all left. Lauralee and her family were about to start cleaning as they heard Alex’s truck pull up in the driveway. Jerry, Dominic and Alex walked in the door. “Hey guys,” Lauralee gave Alex and Dominic a hug. “Y’all have fun?” “Heck yeah!” Dominic exclaimed. Jerry put his hand to his forehead and smiled. “Now I know what having a kid is like.” Lauralee gave him a hard stare. Alex looked back at Lauralee. “So did the shower go alright?” “Yup,” Charlene smiled. “Smooth as silk.” “Good,” Jerry said as he gave Sandy a kiss on the cheek. “Feel like going on a nighttime drive, just the two of us?” Sandy gave Jerry a smile. “Love to. Lau, can we borrow your car?” “Yeah, sure, keys are on the counter,” Lauralee said through clenched teeth. “You OK hun?” “Oh yeah,” Lauralee faked a smile. “Just tired from all of today’s excitement.” “OK,” Sandy got her purse and she gave Jerry the keys from the counter. “I won’t keep her out late,” Jerry winked. They closed the door behind them. “Well,” Charlene looked down at Dominic. “You have a good time with Alex and Jerry?” “Mom, Universal Studios was so cool! Alex took me to Nickelodeon Studios, and they let me look around cause he knew people. Did you know he had a mohawk on a TV show there?” Catherine laughed and turned to Alex. “You did?” Alex rolled his eyes. “Ask Grandma, she’s the only one with pictures from it. Actually it was cool. I got to see some old friends from my acting days.” Dominic put his stuff on the couch. “And Jerry took me to the City Walk and played video games with me. He’s good at Tomb Raider, almost better than me.” “Wow, the neighborhood champion of Tomb Raider has a challenge?” Charlene smiled. Dominic nodded. “I told him we would have to restart it when we got to New York.” “Well, on that note,” Catherine got her bag. “I’m off to Ursula’s for another poker night with some of her friends.” She heard Ursula’s horn honking. “I’m off!” They said goodbye to Catherine. “OK guy, let’s put all of this stuff in the bedroom.” Charlene helped him gather his souvenirs. “OK,” Dominic turned to Alex. “Thanks Alex. I had a lot of fun.” “No problem bud,” he slapped Dominic a high five. Dominic got his stuff and went with Charlene to their room. Alex put his arms around Lauralee. “You OK?” “Huh?” Lauralee looked down. He put his fingers under her chin and lifted her face up. “You know, with what Jerry said about was having a kid would be like?” “Yeah,” Lauralee snuggled to Alex’s body and let the tears flow. “Damn him and his lies!” “Shh, they’ll hear you,” Alex smoothed his hand over her hair. “You’ll get through this babe. You’ll know the truth soon.” “Hope so, because I don’t know how long I can take this,” Lauralee whispered. Chapter 19 Contents Chapter 17 |