Bittersweet

“Baaaaaam!” Lenny fairly floated into his editing room the next day. He looked up with a smile. This wedding planning stuff sure had her happy, he thought smugly. Dunn had been so wrong. He knew his girl so well.

“What's up, baby doll?”

“I've made some decisions, and I want you to come down and see.”
“Sure,” wow, she sure did know how to move quick. Bam pulled himself out of the chair and caught her around her waist. Lenny giggled while he spun her around and kissed her.

“Come on!” she tugged his wrist.

Bam followed Lenny downstairs. He was preparing his gloat in his head, and wondering what date she had picked.

“What the FUCK is this?” Bam gasped. One of Lenny's friends was standing in the most hideous dress he had ever seen. Bubblegum pink with ruffles everywhere, a matching hat and flowers heavy enough to make him worry about the girl's neck.

“That's the bridesmaids dresses! I went ahead and picked out the groomsmen outfits too!” cue Dico coming into the room, throwing up super model poses. He too was in a bubble gum pink tux, complete with eighties shoulders and white shoes.
“I was going to do a lighter pink, but this looks so much better.”

“Lenny, I really don't--.” Bam began.

“Don't worry! They'll be okay with it. And the flowers are all bubble gum colored. I found out the florist could dye them whatever I wanted! Isn't that great news? And I'm going to walk down the aisle to my favorite Hanson song from when I was growing up.”

“Hanson?” Bam repeated weakly.

“Yes! But that's after I arrive on the carriage pulled by three horses. I want them dyed pink, too.” she had a slightly crazed look in her eye.

“Do I---.” He tried again.

“You get to tell them when to release the moths! I want moths to fly all around me, to symbolize my metamorphosis into a woman. Ooh, I hope there are enough people to carry my train. I want a HUGE train.” she bounced on her toes. Bam stared.

“This is fucking ugly.” he said flatly. Her face dropped.

“Wh-what?”

“I SAID this is ALL fucking UGLY!”

“BAM!” tears filled her eyes. Dico and the girl both gasped. The girl put her hand to her mouth.
“How could you be so mean!”

“Lenny, I thought you had taste. And you hate pink. What the hell is going on? Did you really think I'd like any of this?”

Lenny buried her face in her hands. Her tiny whimpers filled the room while her fiancé continued to stare at the atrocities she had picked for their nuptials. He shook his head a few times in disbelief.

“You had taste. Where did it go? What happened to it?”

“Bam,” Dico crossed over to the sobbing woman and folded her in his arms. The skater ran his hand through his hair.

“I refuse to have this sort of wedding! Where were you going to have it, in the VFW hall?” the telling silence that followed gave him all the affirmation he needed. Bam threw his hands in the air.
“How could you possibly think any of this was going to be a good idea?”

“How could you possibly thing I'd want to plan our wedding on my own?” Lenny broke away from Dico with a grin on her face. She hadn't been crying at all, Bam noted, his jaw dropping.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“This is what our wedding will be like if you make me plan it on my own. I might not like it either, but I will be damned if I spent all my time putting together a beautiful ceremony for you to enjoy.” she put her finger into his chest and poked with every few words.
“Now, I will go and take Sarah to get that dumb dress off her.”

Bam watched, feeling dazed, as his future wife took her friend up to their room to get changed. The girls were giggling so hard, they almost couldn't walk. He turned his gaze to Dico, who was doubled over in guffaws.

“What just happened here?”

“Your woman put her foot down the best way she knew how.” Dico gasped through his laughter.

“Jesus!” Bam shook his head. “Please don't tell Dunn.”

“Too late!”Dunn's head popped up from behind the couch. “I told you that she wasn't going to like that.”

“Shut up.” Bam growled before slumping back off to his editing room.

**

Later that night, he carefully opened the door. Lenny was laying down, a book in front of her face. Bam stepped in, waiting for the explosion. When the book didn't even move, he closed the door behind him.

“Baby?”

“Brandon,” a page of the book turned. Ouch, definite Ice Queen mode. Bam crept towards the bed and knelt down next to her.

“So I'm really sorry I tried to make you do all the planning and everything.”

“Mmm,” she turned another page. There was no way she was reading that fast, she was just trying to annoy him.

“Baaaaabe,” he sounded whiny. He ripped the paperback from her hands. “Come on, forgive me?”

“Why should I? You tried to stick me with planning a whole wedding, Bam! I'm twenty years old!”

“I know.”

“So you know that I can't do that on my own. Besides, what if I really did pick a bunch of stuff you didn't like? I didn't want this wedding to be something that you cringe about for the rest of your life.”

“It won't be.” he said, reassuringly as he nestled down next to her. “I promise to help, okay, baby? I promise. Promise promise.”

“Okay.” she turned to wrap her arms around him and bury her face in his neck. “I sure got you good though, didn't I?”

“Shut up!” he groaned, rolling so she was resting on his stomach. “But yeah, you did get me pretty good. Point made.”

“See the lengths that I have to go through to tell you things?”

“Shut up.” he said again, this time tenderly as he leaned up to press a kiss to her lips.