Blushing Bride Chapter 1

"What we need is some girls," said Jake, a particularly ladish, masculine friend of mine for whom women and sex were never far from his mind, or his lips, "What are you getting at here, Mark, have you got us a stripper?"

"Something like that," he said, glancing significantly at me, "Some entertainment anyway. Could be pretty sexy, we'll have to see."

"What are you talking about?" asked Zach, one of my work colleagues who I knew had always had a bit of a thing for Gina even before I met her.

"Rich knows," Mark replied, all eyes turning to me, as I looked confusedly back at Mark, "Or maybe he doesn't know the whole of it, but he knows what it's about, don't you Rich?" Again, I mumbled something about not having a clue, but I was by now blushing and my protests were unconvincing as I began to worry he was about to reveal my confession. "Stay here," he said to the whole room, "I've got something to get for Rich. It's sort of an early wedding present, but you can only keep it for tonight, I'm afraid."

"You have got him a stripper, excellent," said Pete, a guy I had been to school with but hadn't seen for six years until I invited him to the wedding.

"A stripper? Are you sure that's a good idea," Sam butted in, he was a cautious, nervous kind of guy and that was reflected here by his being the only person other than me a little worried about where the conversation was headed, "I mean, what's Gina gonna think when she finds out?"

"We're not going to tell her, you bloody idiot," Jake replied, irritated with Sam's usual manner as he often was, "She never has to know what goes on between us, right, Rich?"

"It's only normal at this kind of thing," said Pete, trying to reassure Sam.

In the time that it had taken to have this conversation, Mark had been able to slip out of the room, upstairs and back again with his gift. Draped over his arms was a beautiful white dress, it could only be Gina's wedding dress that she had kept hidden from me somewhere I didn't even know where. I was beginning to see where this was headed and I didn't like it, or rather part of me was repulsed by it, but another part curious and excited.