“Who said he just invited me?”
Bella took out that exquisite invitation, “See? It invited both of us.”
“Ok, then, let’s go there on the weekend.’
Kevin smiled and turned to the bathroom.
After he showered, he saw Bella standing in front of the window as if she was preoccupied.
He walked over and asked in jealousy, “What’s wrong? You seem unhappy? Are you frustrated over Quintin who is about to get married?”
Bella rolled her eyes, “No.”
“Then why? Only when you are in a low spirit will you stand in front of the window, looking at the stars and moon.”
“Master White has divorced Gillian.”
“Wasn’t that within your expectation?”
“Now she must hold more grudge against me.”
“You don’t have to worry about a bird with fractured wings. Are you afraid that she would eat you up?”
Bella sighed, “No, I’m just tired of those grudges. It seems that my life has more hatred than love ever since I started to understand things. Either I hate others or others hate me. It’s really exhausting.
“My poor Bella.”
Kevin held her, “Just hold on for a while, hold on a little bit longer. All those annoying flies will disappear. And since then, your life will be like the sunlight in March, warm and peaceful.”
On weekends, these two were all dressed up and heading to the airport. They were ready to join in Quintin’s wedding.
Quintin’s wedding was held in a vineyard. And all the procedures were westernized. With the melodious music, mellow wine and charming newlyweds, the wedding was buzzing with excitement and cheering. Before performing the ceremony, a priest invited from the church read the vows of love.
Now the wedding ceremony officially started. The best man and bridesmaid holding hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder walked through the aisle with the music blasting. The best man wore a dark color suit and the bridesmaid wore a pink dress draping on the floor with pinkish rose in hands.
Then two ring bearers entered, holding two red trays with a marriage certificate and rings on them.
In front of the wedding platform, the best man and bridesmaid stood on one side and the ring and flower bearers on the other.
The bridegroom unfolded the veil for the bride, then they hugged and kissed.
“Mr. Stewart, do you take Miss Howard as your lawful wedded wife and swear in public that for richer or poorer, in sickness or health, you will always love her, care for her, and be faithful to her without abandonment as long as you both shall live…”
“Yes, I do.”
And the bride said the same. That moment was moving. “Yes, I do.” not only contained their love for each other but the responsibility they are going to assume in their marriage. From the moment they vowed at the wedding, they were going to take care of each other for the rest of their life.
When the ceremony was over, Quintin took his bride to the front of Bella and Kevin.
“Bella, thank you for joining our wedding.”
When Quintin said this, the expression on his face was not as playful as before but serious in a way that she never saw.
She gently stepped forward and opened her arms to hug and congratulate him, “Quintin, I’m really happy for you when seeing you are in happiness.”
Quintin whispered something near her ears. But nobody heard it as his voice was so small.
“Congratulation.”
Kevin shook hands with Quintin, and he nodded, “Thank you.”
Bella said sincerely to the bride, “Quintin is a good man, you will live together till the very end.”
“We will.”
Holly chuckled and held Quintin’s arm.
Looking at the newlyweds in the sunlight, Bella was delighted genuinely. She had a connection with four men and all of them had a kind heart that was willing to help her when she was in predicament and let her go when she found her happiness. Louis loved her but married Alice to prevent his mother from bothering her. Quintin loved her but married Holly to set her free from guilt. Braxton loved her and even disturbed his parents’ plan for her. Bella was grateful for having these best male friends. Though what had happened to Braxton was heartbreaking, she believed that he would lead a good life in heaven.
Bella and Kevin were invited to Quintin’s house to tease the bride on the wedding night. With the house full of people, Quintin was concerned that the crowd would jostle Bella’s belly, so he found a spacious place so that she could sit down, urging her, “You stay there and just watch.”
Kevin sat beside her wife. A few active men started to tease the newlyweds, “Every minute of the wedding night is precious. If you want to take your precious time, you have to pass three tests that we set for you.”
“What tests? I warn you guys, don’t go too far.”
Quintin said bluntly to them as they were Quintin’s friends.
“The first test— The bottled water of the Farmer’s Sping is sweet.”
A man in a blue shirt walked to the newlyweds with a bottle of water in his hand. He asked Quintin to stand on the chair and clamping the bottle with his legs. Quintin clamped the bottle at his crotch, which made the bride abashed. And the man turned to the bride and whisper something, she blushed immediately but still did as he asked. First, she opened the lid by her mouth and drank water from there, then she said with her face flaming, “Quintin’s sping is sweet.”
Hahaha—
Suddenly, the crowd burst into an earth-shattering laugh. Bella also laughed with her belly fluttering.
“You’ve passed the first test. Now the second one—funny push-up.”
The man in the blue shirt walked up again. He asked the bride to lay down on the bed and put a balloon on her, then asked the bridegroom, “Now face down and do 100 pushups. If you collapsed the balloon exploded, then you fail and we have to add a new test.”
“100 pushups?” Quintin grabbed his collar, “You want to exhaust me?”
“What? You can’t do it? If you can’t, then tell us ‘I can’t’. If everybody is ok with that, then we skip this and go to the third test.”
“I can’t.” was very sensitive especially on the wedding night. So Quintin took a deep breath as a soldier preferred death to humiliation. He climbed over to the bride and she was nervous, said anxiously, “Quintin, please don’t collapse on me. I’m scared of the balloon blast.”
Quintin nodded, “Don’t worry, Holly, 100 pushups are a piece of cake to me.”
The crowd started to count, “One, two, three, four, five…”
Bella found it was quite interesting and counted in chorus. Kevin glanced at her with tender and saw the great joy in her eyes.
When Quintin did 50 pushups, he was struggling to continue. But looking at her pretty wife who was in a panic, he gritted his teeth and continued hanging in there. Finally, he collapsed with a “bang” at the 100th pushup, the bride screaming and the balloon exploding…
Then another burst of a laugh. Seeing the bride’s face was drained of blood, their laughter almost turned over the roof.
“The final test—Doing sweet talk to the bride till we all feel nauseating.”
“Now let’s welcome our bridegroom to do sweet talk to our bride until we feel enough.”
Quintin was exhausted. He regretted that he had invited these guys to his wedding. With his legs feeling limp, he didn’t the energy to enjoy his wedding night…
“Quintin is good at it.”
Bella turned to Kevin softly and said that while Kevin asked meaningfully, “How did you know?”
“You’ll know after you heart it.”
Quintin looked at his bride and started, “If we bumped into wild beasts in the woods, don’t panic. I can’t beat down the beast but I will feed him with my large body to keep you safe.”
“If you had never appeared in this world, I might have become a monk! Holly, please be my babe and let me take care of you.”
After hearing these two words, Kevin felt disgusting. He stood up, “Let’s get some fresh air.”
He took Bella and walked out of the house to a pavilion beside the villa. They sat shoulder to shoulder. With a cold breeze blowing by, he gathered Bella’s coat around her.
“Bellar, Do you envy that?”
“What? What do I envy?”
“I didn’t give you an interesting wedding.”
She laughed with a bit of anger, “So you know it.”
“I will make up to you after you give birth.”
“Ok.”
Then…
He leaned over to her, “When the ceremony was over in the morning, what did Quitin what did Quitin whisper when you hugged him?”
“You want to know?”
“Yeah.”
She gestured with her fingers, “Come closer.”
Kevin’s ear approached. She said word by word, “I-won’t-tell-you…”