Green Tea (24 page)

Disheartened, we decided to take the scenic route back to my apartment, have lunch there, then hang out and wait for Jordan to be done at school.

It’s a brand new world when there is going to be such a huge family event, and we aren’t running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

I was just about to point that out, when I saw something.

“Pull over!”

“Here?”

“Yep.”

“Cara, this is light industrial. What are you gonna do, get the car painted? Buy some mini blinds?”

“I think I saw something, go up and pull around to the back, on the left.”

“This is a waste of time.”

“Do you have something better to do?”

“Fine.”

“There, pull in.”

“What, are you gonna buy them lawn furniture?”

“No, next to them. See, there is a sign that says they can laser engrave anything in 24 hours. They do industrial engraving, they can do silver, gold, steel, or even glass. They do etching.”

“What are you going to get engraved?”

“I don’t know; I just need to go in there and look around.”

“You’re nuts.”

“You gonna wait in the car, or do you want to come in?”

“Oh, this I gotta see.”

We walked into the place. I’ll admit, on first inspection, it looked more like a machine shop than a place you would find the perfect wedding gift. A biker-looking guy came out from somewhere in the back, where machines were making lots of noise.

“Yeah?”

“Hi, I saw your sign and thought I’d come in and get an idea of just what kind of engraving you do.”

“Like it says on the sign. We engrave anything.”

“Okay, here’s my problem. I can’t find a wedding gift for my brother. I want it to be special. I want it to be unique. I was driving by and saw your sign and for some reason known only to God, I just had to come in here. I don’t suppose you do anything wedding gift-ee, do you?”

“Hang on. I gotta show you somethin’”

We stood.

Minutes later, after a little muffled crashing around in the back, he carried in his pride and joy.

“I made this for my ol’ lady. We was gonna get married. She took off with my best friend, so I never got to use it, but I still like the idea. What ‘cha think?”

He held up a shadow box.

“See, we can put anything you want in there, then I engrave the glass that we put on the front, but I do it in reverse, so the engraving is on the inside, don’t have to worry about dust or nothin’ gettin’ on the stuff inside.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Wait, I got another one.”

He ran to the back.

Teagan hissed, “That thing was ugly. Too busy. Too much crap shoved in there.”

“But I like the idea. It has potential.”

He came out and gave Teagan a look, maybe she was louder than we thought, he continued. “We could do something like this.” He held up a piece of glass. It was engraved with such intricacy it was amazing. The picture he had engraved was a motorcycle with a rather well endowed young woman splayed in a rather suggestive pose. Everyone has a different idea of art I guess. “We could do any picture you want. I could rough up the edges; that looks real classy. I could do it for a wall or maybe for a tabletop. I can do it on glass, or metal, or Plexiglas. Whatever you want.”

Teagan was wandering around the place. “What’s this?”

“Those are nameplates that haven’t been engraved yet.”

“Cara, what if you guys make this about twice the size and engrave it with their vows and the date and exact time.”

He answered, “We could do that. Ya know what you might want to do, is we can attach this…” He reached under the counter, moved some stuff around, then held up a beautifully etched box with a clear lid “We could stand it up or lay it down, whatever you want, and you could buy one of those pocket watches, we could engrave their names on the inside of the watch, then we could display it open, stopped on the exact second they got married.”

I almost hugged him.

That would work for me.

We headed back to the mall.

I looked everywhere for a pocket watch with three time zones. I figured I’d stop it on one when Liam said his vows, another when Morgan said her vows, and if they didn’t have Jordan say anything, I’d figure out something else to do with the third.

Turns out, in that whole huge really high-end mall, not a single pocket watch with three time zones. I did find a really nice one I could kind of fake it with. It had two time zones and a second hand. Problem was it was thirty-nine hundred dollars.

Teagan needed sustenance.

Turns out that right by the food court, there is a clock shop. I went in and they had a big selection of clocks appropriate for your office desk, with three time zones. There was a beautiful one that caught my eye. Three brass clocks in mahogany, I was tempted, but then I saw one that was basically a big glass nameplate, with three clocks across the bottom. The sales clerk said they could send it out to have it engraved. I figured my biker guy could engrave something outrageously beautiful, maybe their names, or the date, or something, maybe even a picture.

We went straight back to the engraving place, asked if he could engrave it. Definitely. Asked if he could have it done by tomorrow morning, or better yet, if we could pick it up on the way to the rehearsal dinner, he looked at me like I’d grown another head.

I went with the only thing I had, “I can’t guarantee you any extra business, but I can tell you that I come from a really big family, we have family members working in just about every area of every industry you can think of, and I promise every single one of them will know what you did for me.”

“I appreciate that, but I want to give you my best work, and I gotta try a few things, I can’t just go for it on the clocks the first time. Besides, do people really open their presents at the wedding? Don’t they wait until they get back from their honeymoon?”

“I’m not sure. We’ve done it both ways in our family. I think my cousin actually opened his at his Mom’s after the rehearsal dinner.”

“Then what you’re sayin’ is that your family can be flexible. It
don’t
matter if it’s a couple days late, if they can enjoy it their whole married life. You know exactly what you want printed on there?”

“Yes. Their wedding vows.”

“You know what they are gonna say?”

“They are going to recite the traditional Irish vows, I’ll write them down for you.”

I had him read it back to make sure he could read my writing.

I actually have very good penmanship, thank you Sister Dominic Mary.

We got to Jordan’s school with plenty of time to spare. Headed for Mom and Daddy’s house so that he could try on his tux.

“I forgot my shoes.”

“That’s okay Sweetie, you can still try on the tux.”

“Can I use your phone to call home and see if either one of them is there? I want to see the tux with my shoes.”

“Sure.”

I handed him my phone. He phoned home. Explained to whoever answered that he’d forgotten his shoes. It was obvious that whoever answered assured him that his shoes were safe and sound and on the way to Grandma’s. He relaxed.

When we got back to Mom’s there were about a gazillion cars parked everywhere.

Wedding central was humming.

Jordan bolted in the front door. Liam caught him on the fly.

“Did you bring ‘em?”

“I did.”

“Can I put ‘em on?”

“Not till you have your suit on.”

“I thought we were wearing tuxes.”

“That is a kind of a suit. Grandma said you could get dressed in her room with me and Grandpa. You ready?”

“I’m ready.”

Liam, Jordan and my Dad walked toward the bedrooms. Mom had a huge smile on her face. “Girls, come in the family room.”

On the couch were Morgan’s parents; a lovely older woman I assumed was her grandma and Morgan, barely contained, sitting on the ottoman.

“Hey.”

Introductions all around.

Teagan ran down the list of things we’d gotten done. Morgan took a deep breath and thanked us. Teagan explained that we had invited a couple of people to the wedding, then explained who and why. As always, Morgan was gracious. We were grateful.

Jovana was hovering and taking pictures and sounding more southern every second.

AJ and Jessie showed up at about the same time.

The flashes started popping; it looked like the guys were being pursued by paparazzi. Jordan, never shy, was loving it. His grandparents, all four, delighted in him. It was great.

I’m sure they got some really great pictures.

A friend of Morgan’s showed up with her little girl. She’s going to be the flower girl, but had already tried her dress on, so we wouldn’t get a preview.

“Now Pa?”

“Ask Mom.”

Morgan smiled, “Yes, now.”

Jordan grabbed Liam’s hand and dragged him into the other room. A few minutes later, Jordan and Liam reappeared wearing their matching wedding tennis shoes. Not just any tennis shoes, matching custom made shoes. They’d gone online, designed and ordered the shoes. Liam likes shoes. Jordan likes to look like Liam. Morgan was beaming. It was good all the way around.

“Everyone ready to head to the ballroom?”

“Just need a few minutes to change.”

Morgan and Mom called out at the same time “Liam, hang them up carefully!” which brought a whole new round of laughter.

The ballroom was empty. Made it look even bigger than I remembered. Morgan showed her mother and father around, including the area where she would get dressed tomorrow.

The rehearsal was short and sweet.

They would have the ballroom divided into two areas, one area where the wedding itself would take place, with chairs set up on either side of an aisle.

The flower girl practiced walking down the aisle. Liam moved to the front to wait for Morgan. As is custom, Mom was escorted down the aisle first, followed by the bride’s mother. Then the best man walked down the aisle. Then Morgan’s dad escorted her down the aisle. The usual blah blah blah. You may now kiss your bride. We all cheered. Morgan, Jordan and Liam came back down the aisle. It was great. Whole thing took less than half an hour.

I was trying to figure out how to ask the obvious, when Sinead beat me to it. “What time are we supposed to be here to decorate?”

Jovana answered, “The girls at the bar are gonna take care of that. They’ve all just fallen in love with Morgan. It is their wedding present to the happy couple. There isn’t a thing to worry about, we’ll take care of it all.”