She gasped for air, sweat trickling down her face. Her muscles burned, and she didn’t know how much longer she could go on.
“That’s it, two more!”
Casey groaned. “Omar. I. Am. Going. To. Kill. You,” she panted, arms screaming as she lifted the barbell one last time.
“C’mon,” he said, grinning. “You don’t mean that.” He made sure she got the barbell safely racked, then checked something off on his clipboard.
“I really do,” she said, dropping her arms. “Once I can lift my arms again, you are toast.”
Omar just laughed. “You wanted me to help you get in shape before our wedding. You could blame yourself, or you could be happy with all the progress you’ve made.” He tapped the weights mocking her from the ends of the barbell. “At the beginning, you could barely lift the bar by itself. Now look at you!”
“I don’t know if it’s worth it,” she said, her breathing slowly starting to even out.
“You’ve already talked about how much better you feel, since we started the exercise and meal planning,” he smirked.
“Don’t remind me of what I said. I’m an unreliable source.” She sat up with another groan, and grabbed her water bottle, taking a few small sips.
Omar held his hands up in defeat. “Whatever you say, dear.”
“Oh, don’t even,” she shot back, but her wide grin took the bite out of her words.
“Let’s get outta here,” he said, offering his hand to help her up. “We can clean up a bit, then go to that vegan place over on 4th.”
“Or we could get cheeseburgers,” Casey said, hopefully. “Or pizza, or oooh, how about tacos and a beer?”
“I suppose we could have a cheat day,” Omar said. “It’ll slow down your progress, but…”
“Screw progress,” she snorted.
They reached the small, complimentary lockers, and Casey pulled out her phone and keys.
“That’s weird,” she said, frowning at her phone.
“What?”
“I have a ton of missed calls. And texts. Hang on…” Her stomach dropped.
“It’s… wait… I need to call my mom.”
Casey bolted from the gym, Omar jogging to catch up.
“Case, wait. Wait!” He grabbed her, stopping her before she walked in front of an approaching car in the parking lot. “What is going on?”
“It’s my dad,” she said, eyes welling with tears. “He’s in the hospital.”
–
Casey fidgeted with her dress, clamping the black fabric behind her back. It was a too big now, after all that time in the gym, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to go shopping.
She heard a knock at the door, and Omar’s voice. “You okay in there?”
“Yeah,” she said, sighing. “Come on in.”
Omar walked over to her, his black suit matching her dress. An untied forest green tie drooped from his collar.
“Hey,” he said, coming up behind her and hugging her, watching her face in the mirror. “How you holding up?”
“I’m fine,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “I’m fine!” she insisted, noticing his skeptical expression.
“It’s okay if you aren’t,” he said, but she stopped him.
“I’m fine right now; I know I’ll be a wreck when we,” she swallowed, “when we get there.” She leaned her head back, feeling his heartbeat beside hers.
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else, but closed it again.
“He won’t be at the wedding,” she said, her voice breaking. “I know that’s a stupid thing to be worrying about, but I can’t get it out of my head. It’s the most important day in our lives, at least for now, and he won’t be there.” A tear slid down her face, and she brushed it away. “And what about everything else? What if we have kids? He’ll never get to meet them. And he would have been such a great grandpa…” The tears were coming faster now, even as she struggled to keep them contained.
“I know,” Omar said, holding her tighter and swaying slightly. “But we can tell them stories about him, like how he always insisted on going canoeing with the whole family every summer, even though everyone hated it.”
Casey laughed a little. “And like how we always wore stupid matching sweaters for Thanksgiving, and took a family picture for the holiday card.”
Omar nodded. “And we can tell them about how much he loved his family, and how much he would have loved them.”
Casey nodded with a watery smile. “Yeah. He did.” She patted Omar’s arm. “That includes you, you know.”
He smiled. “I know.”
Casey laughed a little. “Wow, we’re already planning on all these kids, huh? We’re not even married yet.”
Omar laughed too, glad that she seemed to be feeling a little better. “Two boys and a girl, right?”
She started to wiggle out of his embrace. “Three? Hang on, are you having these kids?”
He held her for a moment more, then let go. “I love you.”
She smiled, unfazed by his shift in tone. “I know.” She checked the clock across the room, and yelped. “We gotta go! Mom will kill me if we’re late.” She paused, realizing her word choice, then burst out laughing. Grief really was an odd thing, she mused, as they hurried from the house and out to the car, and then, the cemetery.
–
“Okay, get me out of this thing,” Casey said as soon as the hotel room door shut behind them, holding up the heavy white skirt of her dress.
“Really?” Omar asked, wiggling his eyebrows as he pulled of his suit jacket.
“Not like that,” she giggled, turning around so he could get at the laces in the back. “This thing has been compressing my organs all day.”
She felt him come closer, standing right behind her. She expected him to go right for the laces of her dress, but shivers spread across her skin as he gently kissed her neck, his fingers slowly traced their way down her back. And then his quick fingers unlaced her bodice, and she groaned as it sagged away from her body.
“Oh, my god. I think we’re going to have to wait to seal the deal, bud, because I don’t think you could top how amazing that felt.”
“So no pressure, huh?” he chuckled, passing her the silk robe draped across a nearby chair.
“The only thing that could make this better would be pizza,” she said, tying the robe loosely and turning to smile at him. “It was a great party, but I swear I didn’t get a chance to eat anything.”
There was a brisk knock at the door.
“No, I can’t do it,” she said, dramatically waving her arms at the door. “I can’t handle one more person saying congratulations, or asking when we are having kids.”
“Let’s just see who it is,” Omar suggested, grinning his I-have-a-surprise grin. He opened the door, and his brother stood there, grinning just as widely.
“Special delivery for the lovebirds,” he said, holding out a large pizza box.
“Thanks, Oz, you can go now,” Omar said, grabbing the box and closing the door on his brother’s laughter.
“Oh, there is no way you can compete now,” Casey teased, opening the box and moaning as the smell of hot cheese and pepperoni wafted into the room. “Did you plan this?”
“I figured you’d be hungry,” he said, shrugging with a grin on his face.
“I am so glad I married you,” she replied, kissing him before tugging the box away.
They spent the next half an hour eating pizza and gossiping about the wedding and their family and friends.
“You know,” Casey finally said, popping the last piece of crust in her mouth. “I don’t think I could have survived that party if we hadn’t gone to the gym so much the last few months. Who knew how much endurance a wedding required?”
“Ha! And you said it wasn’t worth it almost every time we were there.” He dodged the napkin she threw at him easily.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, and her smile slowly slid from her face.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. I don’t want to ruin tonight.”
Omar reached over and held her hand. “It’s not nothing.” He waited for her to elaborate, before tentatively asking, “is it about your dad?”
She nodded, biting her lip. “I just wish he could have been here,” she sighed. “I was planning on walking myself down the aisle, anyway, but not having the choice? And then everything he missed, and everything he’s going to miss…”
“I miss him, too,” Omar said. “But in some ways, he’ll always be here, right? In us, in our memories.”
She nodded, then smiled her own I’ve-got-a-secret smile. “You know how we talked about what we’d tell our kids about him?”
“Yeah,” Omar asked, his eyes getting brighter.
“Well,” she said, “we’re going to have to come up with those stories sooner rather than later.”
“No,” he gasped, eyes going from her face to her stomach and back.
“Yes,” she said, eyes filling with happy tears this time. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now… Yeah.”
Omar let out a whoop, jumping to his feet and pulling Casey to hers, twirling around the room.
She laughed, joy for the future softening the pain of the past in her heart.
© The Lightning Tower, 2020