Spiral Bound Journal

Ready to celebrate?

Making sure the garment bag laid flat in the trunk, Felicia tucked a tote on the side and lowered the lid.

"Ready?" Angie asked while jingling the keys to the rental Nissan.

Felicia nodded and turned to Adrian and Marcus.

"Have you decided who's riding shotgun?" she asked.

Both of the guys shook their heads. Marcus then perked up and turned to Adrian.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" he asked.

Adrian shrugged. "Sure."

Angie snickered before she and Felicia focused on the guys' game. Felicia smirked as Adrian's rock smashed Marcus' scissors.

"Guess that answers that question" Angie announced. "Let's hit the road."

The ride from the hotel to Bok involved Adrian playing deejay, filling the Nissan with mid-noughties pop oddities and the occasional love song. Most of the chatter was light and centered on the respective bachelor parties they'd attended a couple nights prior. Felicia and Marcus were supposed to be the responsible ones at Marlon's Orlando shindig, but only one of them succeeded. Felicia remarked on how she owed Travis a drink for getting everyone out of the bar safely. As she remarked on this, she could feel Marcus brush her left hand with a featherlight touch. Meanwhile, Angie and Adrian had enjoyed a somewhat more laid back Top Golf adventure. This chatter lasted up until their check in at the Bok admission gate.

Once they were checked in as wedding attendees, they followed the winding path to the visitor's center. Since it was 4:00 PM, there were still everyday visitors milling around and even entering the parking lot at the same time. Angie snagged a space near the main visitor building. They staggered out of the car, and everyone except Felicia fussed with brushing away any stray wrinkles in their semi-formal outfits.

"Is the trunk open?" Felicia asked.

"One sec," Angie replied before flipping a switch by the driver's seat.

When she heard the pop, Felicia almost bolted for the trunk. She pushed the lid up and assessed the garment bag. She grabbed the tote first and slung it over her shoulder. As she reached for the garment bag, she found Adrian at her side.

"Need some help?" he asked.

Felicia pondered this. "Yeah, I could use extra hands getting this dress in. Lord knows where I'll be able to get dressed."

"Maybe the staff has a special spot for you."

"We shall see."

After getting Felicia's dress out of the trunk and locking everything up, the four of them headed to the visitor's center. They walked in just as the second shooter approached the desk, adjusting the camera bag slung over her left shoulder. Angie trotted to catch up as best as she could in kitten heels and got her attention.

"Bella!" she greeted her.

The shooter pivoted. "Hey, Angie. I see the gang's all here."

Felicia looked over the part of the garment bag she held and half-waved. "Yeah, we made it. Soon we'll find out how my dress fared.

Bella chuckled. "I'm sure it's just fine."

They all descended on the information desk. To everyone's relief, the older woman at the desk had all their notes ready and called up a second person to assist. That's how Felicia found herself walking to a random room in the visitor's center. Stepping inside, Felicia and Adrian found a rolling clothes rack by one wall and two plush accent chairs in the middle of the room.

"Unfortunately, we don't have a mirror here, so if you need a mirror you will need to use the bathroom," the employee told her.

Felicia nodded. "That should work. I already did my makeup and what not. I just didn't want to crush a bunch of lace by sitting in a car while wearing it."

"That's understandable. If you need anything, my name is Betty. Ilsa will be helping as well."

"Thank you."

When Betty left, Felicia and Adrian looked first at the bag and then each other.

"Let's get this thing out of our hands first," Adrian suggested.

"Yeah."

They maneuvered themselves over to the clothing rack and hung up the dress. This gave Felicia a chance to shake out her wrists and check her watch.

"Looks like I have about 15 minutes before I need to consider getting changed," she announced. "Want to sit for a bit?"

"Sure!"

With that, the flopped into the chairs. Felicia dragged the tote bag onto her lap to ensure the iPad didn't get smooshed against the chair.

"How are you feeling?" Adrian asked.

Felicia wrung her hands. "Nervous, for sure. I'm still kind of dumbfounded Garrett and Marlon asked me to do this."

"At least you had a chance to figure out how to get past a flub during rehearsal."

"True enough, and Marcus has been really helpful in making sure I keep perspective on this."

Adrian smirked. "I'm sure he's been helpful in lots of ways."

"No comment."

"Hehhehheh. But seriously, I think you'll do great, certainly better than myself."

"I'm so torn between bringing a small water bottle out there with me or waiting to rehydrate so I don't have to pee mid-ceremony."

"Ooh, that is a toughie."

Felicia giggled and flopped her arms on the armrests.

After some time, Felicia decided to get dressed. She unbuttoned the blouse she was wearing and tugged off the shorts she'd thrown on over her tights. She then unzipped the garment bag to reveal her trusty navy blue lace dress. She recalled the first time she put it on while on the Bok Tower Gardens grounds. Little did she know that night was only the first chapter in this dress' adventures. The room she was in now was a bit less fancy but comfortable nonetheless. This time, she also had Adrian's help in zipping it up over the bustier. Lifting up the skirt, she slid her feet back into the navy flats she had worn into the place.

"Looks great!" Adrian cheered.

"Aw, thanks," Felicia replied, "but I still have a couple things left to do. I may use the bathroom for this."

"What's that?"

Felicia held up the bag. "Jewelry. Didn't feel like putting it on at the hotel. It might have been irritating during the car ride."

"Ah."

With that, Felicia took the tote and left the room.

When she arrived in the bathroom, she found one pair of feet in a stall. Relieved at the relative emptiness, she set her tote on a shelf and found a space in front of the mirror. She started by taking out a black faux leather box and picking out two diamond solitaire earrings. She stuck her hand under the faucet long enough to get her fingers wet so she could dampen her earlobes. This made popping in the earrings super quick. With that out of the way, she swapped boxes. The longer of the two contained a platinum necklace with a sapphire pendant framed by tiny diamonds. It took her a couple tries to fasten the necklace, but when she was done she found the pendant hit just below the lace bodice of her dress.

"Yeah," she whispered to herself. "That'll do."

She managed to step out of the bathroom before the other person even left the stall. As she ventured into the main hallway, she spotted Angie and Marcus heading for her. She smiled at Marcus' blatant interest.

"Better behave yourself during the ceremony," she chided him.

"Oh bother," Angie mock-moaned around a chuckle.

"Sounds like neither one of you will let me get away with anything," Marcus piped up.

"Well, it'll have to be more on Angie," Felicia told him. "I kind of have more important things to do this evening."

"Indeed you do. Speaking of which, we'll probably need to start heading to the garden soon. Are you ready for this?"

At that, Felicia looked Marcus dead in the eyes and said, "Mister, I was born for it."