My Life In Black and Blue

Chapter Eight: Can I Have This Dance?

Soon, wedding preparations overcame us. Since we had the biggest house and a beach front, Dean offered the house for the reception, something that surprised me since, though he welcomed his friends with wide open arms, he usually didn't like having too many people about.

He put up with it the best he could, but mostly left me in charge while he and the guys locked themselves in the den. In the end, Robin decided to go for a garden wedding – this was California, after all, and she wanted to take advantage of the good weather – but with a homey style, they wanted a small ceremony for just their closest friends and relatives, about 100 people in all.

Now, 100 people might not sound like a lot for a wedding until you try to fit them into your front lawn. Still, I liked helping Robin to plan the wedding, to spend hours discussing cake, flowers and pretty dresses instead of sound checks, bass lines and hearing the question "What rhymes with….?" Twenty times each day. I even had a secret project going on for the wedding, a surprise the guys and I had whipped up for the reception.

It was all pretty hectic for a while, but I still managed to make some time and put my new art supplies to good use. Maybe it was being surrounded by beautiful – if wedding-y – things, or maybe I had just waited too long to let these things out, but I spent most of my nights working on a few pieces, trying to make the deadline for the art show.

I was able to send my portfolio – I took and developed the pictures myself - with just one day to spare before Robin finally kidnaped me for the last leg of wedding preparations, which included a couple of days being pampered at a spa.

The wedding day came bright and sunny a beautiful, mid-summer day. Robin was radiant and beautiful in her dress, keeping her calm through a myriad of wedding-day little disasters like the flower-girl dropping grape juice on her dress (Robin, knowing her little niece and her stain-magnet status, had bought a second dress just in case), and a misplaced bouquet, and the florist being stuck in a traffic jam and being late with the last of the centerpieces for the tables.

I was wearing a lavender-gray dress that matched the sash of Robin's dress and flowers in my hair to go with the garden theme of the wedding. Robin was the most beautiful bride I had ever seen up-close, and that included certain famous startles that had recently gotten married. Dean always took me as his date to such events, as he felt taking one of the girls he dated would read "Serious Relationship" and he didn't want that.

Anyway, once the small disasters were sorted and everything was ready, the wedding coordinator came for Robin and me. The ceremony was to be held at a small rose harbor in the far side of the garden, and everyone was already there by the time we arrived. I walked down the aisle on my own, and stood across the aisle from Dean – who had won the right to be the best man by offering to host the wedding and in exchange of letting Dan and Rick plan the bachelor's party - he smiled at me and then the wedding march started and we all turned to see the bride.

I had just seen Robin, but she seemed even more beautiful as she beamed down the aisle in the arm of her brother. For a moment, I turned to see Keith and his eyes sparkled like all his dreams had suddenly come true right in front of his eyes, and I was sure this was a marriage that would last.

The priest started the ceremony with a few words about marriage, the groom and bride and what it meant to be a married couple; all fairly standard until it was time for the vows. That's when the water-works started.

Keith called Robin "the wonder that keeps my world together"; while Robin sniffled and said she had never been "more glad for anything than she was for the moment when you crashed, literally, into my life."

Then they made their way through the whole, with this right I tee wed- part, and shared a passionate kiss to seal the deal, Keith didn't even wait for the priest to pronounce them man and wife.

Then we stood around for pictures for a moment before proceeding toward the massive tent in the main lawn where the reception was to be held. I even managed to take some pictures myself, which made me quite happy, it was one of those days that was so happy that you just had to capture it for posterity's sake.

Once in the tent, Robin and Keith were sitting together at a sweetheart's table, with their families on one side, sharing a table, and me and the band at the other side. We had opted to sit close together so we could finish the details of our surprise, waiting until the band signaled it was time for the first dance.

We stood up all at once and clustered together in front of the band, while Dean took the microphone from the singer of the band and cleared his throat while someone gave me another microphone, and Dan and Rick took up their instruments.

"For your first dance, we have prepared something special." Dean called out to Keith and Robin. "Keith, as you recall, when you told me you took Robin to see High School Musical 3 on your first date I laughed. When you started to hum this song out of the blue, I mocked your mercilessly. But you said Robin liked this song, that it was your song and I knew just how much you loved Robin. And since Robin decided to love you back, here we are 2 years later.

"So, here's to love and expert blackmailing from certain maid of honor in possession of compromising pictures of us in our days as a hair-band." Dean added, throwing a look in my direction.

"You know you love me," I said to him and turned to the happy couple. "And you know we love you. Now, is with great pleasure that I introduce to you, for the first time," I said, speaking to the room at large, "Keith and Robin Connors!"

Everyone clapped as the music started and Keith and Robin took the center of the dance floor. I cleared my voice, cursed myself for thinking this up and opened my mouth, starting to sing, keeping my voice soft and letting the mic do the work of projecting it.

I barely kept my voice from shaking during the first few verses of the song, didn't manage to relax until Dean began to sing with me. Dean hated this song but went along with it, for his friends and for me.

Won't you promise me?

(Now won't you promise me, that you'll never forget)

We'll keep dancing (to keep dancing) where we go next.

It's like catching lighting; the chances of finding someone like you.

It's one in a million the chances of feeling the way we do.

And with every step together, we just keep on getting better.

So can I have this dance? (Can I have this dance?)

Can I have this dance?

How could I not love a guy that betrayed his rock-music-loving-heart to sing a pop song for his friend's wedding? To please me?

We finished the song together, with the Dan and Rick joining in the last chorus. Everyone clapped – I'm sure more due to emotion than because I was any good, though the guys sounded great, as always – and Keith and Robin came to hug us while we gave control of the music back to the band.

The singer of the band called everyone to join the happy couple in the dance floor for a second dance, and Dean asked me to stay with him, taking me into his arms as the music started.

"What would our song be if we had one?" I asked.

Dean was silent for a moment before replying "Wonderwall. The Noel version, Liam's voice irritates me."

"Oasis, interesting." I said. "And you're right about Liam's voice."

"It was the song they were playing when we arrived at our senior prom, remember?" Dean said.

"Right! You scared off my date and had to take me yourself." I said with a laugh. Dean felt about prom the same way that he felt about weddings, so he hadn't asked any girl to senior prom, didn't even plan to go. Until my date, Leo canceled on me thanks to Dean badgering him with questions and demanding Leo had me back at the house no later than 12 or there would be consequences. Leo thought I was too much trouble and dumped me.

But I had bought a pretty dress for the occasion and was not about to let it go to waste.

"You have to agree we had a good time." Dean said, twirling me just for fun.

"We always have fun together."

..

As the party went on, wine and liquor flowed and I have to admit I was getting a bit tipsy, so Dean kept me by his side so he could watch me, but it was all fun.

Soon after midnight, Keith and Robin retired from the party and guests began to leave, but it was after two before Dean and I said goodbye to the wedding coordinator and cleaning crew and could lock our selves inside.

I could hear Dean move around in his room as I took off my shoes and stockings and let my hair down, pleasantly weary from the day. Then I started to take off my dress and remembered it zipped at the back. I fumbled with the zipper for a bit but I had little success in sliding it down and lots of success in getting it stuck.

"Dean!" I called,

"Yeah?"

"Can you help me? My zipper is stuck." I said as I walked into his room. He was already barefoot, his shirt was off and his pants unbuttoned. I tried not to stare, but it was hard.

Dean was startled for a moment but then shook his head as if to clear it. "Let's see." He said, standing behind me and reaching for the zipper, the sound of it sliding down was loud in the quiet of the room. "You know, in a way this is classic, the whole best man undressing the maid of honor."

"Because you can't get your hands off me." I said sarcastically, tensing slightly when Dean didn't answer with a laugh. "I think I can get it from there," I added, nervous as his hands lingered somewhere mid my back.

"Ticklish?" He said teasingly, sneaking his hand inside my dress, his fingers cool.

"Dean!" I squealed, whirling around and smacking him in the chest.

"Don't be mad. I was teasing." He said, pulling me in for a hug, picking me up and twirling me when I resisted. I began to laugh.

Somehow we ended up on his bed, laughing and fighting. Then my dress was on the floor next to Dean's pants and we were making out. How I had missed doing this with Dean. Had it really been ten years since that fateful summer camp?

Was I still so sappily in love that I thought this was a good idea?

Apparently so because soon I was pushing Dean's boxers down and I could see my panties out of the corner of my eyes, already hanging drunkenly from a bedside lamp.

"You sure?" Dean asked suddenly, reaching into his bedside table for the condom stash he kept here.

"Shut up and hurry," I said impatiently.

I had waited too long for this, I was not letting something as annoying as sanity get in the way of what I wanted. Not now.

-000-

End of Chapter 8