“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, immediately abandoning the photograph to move deeper into the church.
As they settled into a pew, Retta’s knee started bouncing with no evidence of slowing down.
He playfully squeezed her thigh and eyed her shoe with the aggressive heel. “You’re going to make a hole in the floorboards.”
She smiled and crossed her legs, trapping his hand. But even the little flirting couldn’t distract him from how long everything was taking. He kept looking at his phone; they were twenty minutes behind schedule. Sweat was starting to build around his torso, and he now knew why the programs were fashioned into fans. The church had no central air conditioning. He waved the fan back and forth, making sure he got Retta as well.
“What time are these things supposed to start?” he asked not too quietly.
“Baby, this is a Black wedding. We’re early,” the woman sitting beside them said.
After several minutes, Retta’s mother snuck toward them from the front of the church, waving at people but definitely on a mission.
“Sweetheart, could you run this to Irene?” her mother asked, holding out a pair of earrings. “I can ask someone else if—”
“She’s here?” Retta asked, frowning.
“Yeah. They had a whole mix-up at the hotel about checkout time, so she’s finishing her preparation in the church’s nursery.”
“I’ll be back,” Retta said to him, scooting out of the pew. He watched her exit the auditorium, wishing he could escape too.
The woman seated next to him tapped his shoulder. “Here,” she said, holding out a wrapped hard candy. “To pass the time.”
As Retta walked through the halls of the church, she greeted the people she recognized. The farther she walked, however, the quieter it became. None of the doors were labeled, so she knocked on each one before entering.
“Irene?” she called into a vacant, dark space that held extra chairs and tables.
In another room she found the harpist tuning her instrument for the ceremony. Retta marveled at how big the instrument was in person.
The musician looked her way, and Retta backed out apologetically. “It’s beautiful,” she said as she closed the door behind her.
When she arrived at the last room, she hoped it was the correct one. It was much too hot to be speed walking through the hallway like she was.
She knocked and peeked inside but only found an empty nursery. Instead of immediately heading back to the auditorium, she exited the building through the back entrance, hoping to catch a breeze. She stepped outside and found stagnant air and a small field, unkempt with overgrown grass and an abandoned pew.
Retta moved to return indoors and report back to her mother when she spotted something white move in her peripheral vision.
Her cousin was standing against the side of the building vaping in her poofy wedding dress.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Retta said as she approached Irene.
“I’m here,” her cousin replied brightly, but it wasn’t until Irene sniffled and ran her fingers underneath her eyes that Retta recognized her cousin had been crying.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Irene said, laughing but her laugh got cut off by a gulp that involuntarily turned into a sob.
“Oh my God,” Retta said as she neared and awkwardly patted her cousin’s back.
When Irene’s tears subsided, she looked up. Her makeup was slightly smudged, and her eyelashes definitely would need to be glued down again before she walked down the aisle, but as usual, she looked great.
“I’m sorry,” Irene said, taking another inhale from her vape. “It’s the nerves, you know?”
“Of course,” Retta replied, withdrawing her comforting hand. “It’s okay.”
Irene nodded, gazing into the shabby field.
Remembering her assignment, Retta produced the dainty hooped earrings. “I was told to give you these.”
