Both Angie and Kerry stood up at the same time. “Fuck that.” Kerry enunciated crisply. “Let me go kick him in the ass. I don't care if he's a priest.”
“Don't worry.” Mike waved them back. “Dar and her mom and dad got into it. It was really entertaining there for a minute but then they went into his office.”
“He's been on that kick.” One of the bridesmaids spoke up. “You know it, Ang – he was preaching about that last Sunday, that all the bad things happening, like 9/11, are because we're not living right.”
“Missed it.” Angie said. “Andy wasn't feeling well so we stayed home. Now I”m glad. Does he really think God sent terrorists to fly planes into New York because we aren't being pious enough?”
Kerry reseated herself and exhaled. “Well, who knows.” She muttered. “After all, I'm gay, you're an adulterer, and he's got a tattoo on his ass and a pierced nose.” She turned her head and regarded her sister. “Maybe you all should move to Miami.”
Angie started chuckling. The bridesmaids looked a little shocked, and Brian just laughed and shook his head. “Yeah.” He said. “People are weird.”
“So.” One of the other bridesmaids spoke up. “Kerry.”
“Mm?” Kerry eyed her.
“What's it like being gay?” The woman asked, in a mild tone that had no edge to it.
Kerry pondered that then shrugged. “I don't know. What's it like being straight?” She returned the question. “I guess, it was hard for me when I figured it out because of how I was raised.” She added. “But now? It's just... it's normal. I don't feel any different just because Dar's a woman not a guy. It's kind of cool, you know? Not having to explain things like my period, or worry about that Mars versus Venus thing.”
Angie chuckled. “You've got a point there.”
The other woman nodded. “My brother's gay.” She related, surprising everyone else in the room apparently. “He just came out to my parents. Really bad scene.” She added. “They flipped. I thought they were going to throw him out, but they didn't.”
“Scott's gay?” Angie asked, with a fascinated expression. “Really, Chris?”
Chris nodded. “Yeah. He's going to college next year, so I guess he figured he'd better get the word out before he came back with a boyfriend.” She stifled a yawn. “God I hope you have coffee at the reception, Ang.”
“Hope they can figure out how to heat it up.” Angie responded. “I can just imagine all that quiche gone cold.”
Kerry felt a sudden shift in perception, at the offhand discussion. She'd known Chris, and the other two women as friends of Angie's from years back, but this studied acceptance, honest or not of her relationship was an unexpected pleasure. She relaxed, extending her legs out and crossing them at the ankles.
The door opened again and one of the ushers poked his head in. “We're ready to start.” He said. “Could you take your places again, please?”
The wedding party filed out obediently and re-entered the chapel. The altar area had been lit up with candles of many sizes and shapes, and though it provided an irregular light, Kerry decided it was actually pretty charming. There was a dim glow from the narrow stained glass windows on the back wall and the illumination lent a beauty and mystery to the altar she hadn't felt before.
The pastor hadn't returned yet, but as she watched the guests file back in, she spotted Dar and her folks coming down the far aisle and sliding into place in their pew. Dar's temper was visibly bristling and as she met Kerry's eyes, she shook her head a little, sitting down and folding her arms over her chest.
Hm. Kerry folded her hands and flexed her fingers as the pastor came back in, his long face twitching in annoyance as he came to face Angie and Brian again.
For a moment, his eyes slipped past them and fell on Kerry, and the stark dislike in them chilled her. She wondered if he was going to start ranting at her, but after that brief pause, he twitched his robe straight and cleared his throat.
She saw her mother enter, but instead of going to the first pew, she went to the second, and seated herself next to Ceci, leaning close to whisper something to the shorter women.
Ceci patted her knee and then, looking pointedly at the priest's back, raised her hand and extended her middle finger at him, nearly making her daughter's pale blue eyes come out of her head.
Kerry suspected there were lots of things she was going to regret finding out just as soon as the service was over. She spotted reporters now in the back, and she straightened a little as flashbulbs started to pop, and found herself wishing very hard it was just done.
She heard the pastor going through the motions, and tried to focus on the service, willing to give respect to her sister's wish for a new life for herself, and for her kids, but also acknowledging a twinge of sadness that no matter how her own life contrasted to Angie's, she could never stand in that spot, and have a pastor of her own church read those words he was saying to her sister.
No matter her commitment ceremony was held in a far more beautiful space, with lots of her friends around her, and celebrated by an ordained pastor of her faith – it was not a marriage. It didn't give her and Dar the legal rights this simple ceremony would give them, even held in the clerk of courts office.
Did that matter? Kerry listened to Angie's quiet “I do.” Did it matter that her own, internal, until death do us part was far more binding in her heart than her sister's now second set of them were?
Did it matter it had taken months of laboriously drawn legal papers to give her and Dar the basic rights to each other's person, and property that this five minute exchange of words would for Angie and Brian?
“You may kiss the bride.”
And then the words tickled her sense of the absurd, because who in the hell was this old jerk to be giving permission for two people to kiss each other? Kerry regarded the candles, and stifled a smile, as the recessional started playing and she was watching Angie and Brian's back as they retreated up the aisle towards the doors, with people standing and tossing rice balls in gauze at them.
So it was over. Kerry relaxed a little, as Dar got up and headed her way, evading the milling guests as she dodged past the pastor. “Excuse me.” Her partner uttered, just missing crashing into him as he stepped back without looking.
The man turned and stiffened, recognizing her.
“Problem?” Dar straightened up to her full height, matching his.
He stared at her for a moment. “God has a problem with you. I would just prefer you out of his house.” He said, then turned and retreated towards the small door just to the left of the altar.
Kerry regarded her partner. “Sorry.” She said, with a sigh.
“Nice.” Dar shook her head. “How could God have problem with me if he gave me you?” She turned to her partner, putting a hand on her hip. “What a jackass.”
Kerry lifted her hands and handed Dar her corsage, ignoring the chatter of conversation as she only just resisted the urge to lean over and kiss her. “I really am sorry, hon. Wish we were home.”
“Peh.” Dar half shrugged. “I don't know if it's just what we went through but it's hard for me to let morons like that bother me, Ker.” She sniffed the flowers, and leaned a little against the blond woman. “He's just pissed because my mother ripped him a new one.”
Kerry let her hand rest on Dar's shoulder, glancing past her at the crowd, waiting for it to clear a little so they could escape.
Cameras were still popping, and she figured given their position she was probably going to be at least page 2 of the daily tomorrow. “So.” She watched Dar nibble on one of the roses, the warm candlelight gilding her skin. “What happened in there? Mike said you were going at it with him.”