Memories and Promises, Chapter 3

Gwen felt a rush of exhilaration as she twirled around, causing the white dress to billow up slightly and examined her reflection in the mirror.

After some exhaustive research, they found the perfect place to hold both the wedding and following reception: the Toronto Botanical Gardens. It was perfect. It should have been impossible to book a wedding there during this time of year, but they were lucky; another couple who was supposed to get married at the Gardens had to cancel due to some kind of moose-related accident.

She had managed to change and put on make-up by herself fairly quickly, since she'd been doing it alone most of her life anyways. Of course, getting ready would have gone faster if her mother didn't have excuse herself every five minutes to go cry.

Almost unconsciously, she let her hand slip to her upper back just below the neck, where she'd had physical proof of her love for Eva for several years now…

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Eva held Gwen's hand as they paused and looked at the sign of their destination while the cold winter wind blew around them."You're sure you still want to do this," she asked.

Gwen wordlessly nodded. Hand-in-hand, they walked into the tattoo studio.

After reuniting at the graduation party, Gwen and Eva had spent almost the entire summer together getting to know each other better; they hung out together, shared stories, and sometimes just cuddled together on the couch. It was their own summer of love.

When the summer was over, both girls went to school in Toronto. Eva attended the University of Toronto where she was majoring in Kinesiology and quickly became the star player on the women's field hockey team. Gwen pursued Fine Art at the Toronto School of Art and was very well-regarded for her drawing skills. After their second year, they moved into an apartment together which they managed to pay for with Gwen selling some drawings and Eva competed in weightlifting and kickboxing competitions and took a contract as a fitness model.

Gwen loved being with Eva. With Eva, Gwen felt she had someone she could really open up with. She also liked to use Eva as a model in her sketches; some of her fellow students jokingly referred to them as the "Amazon series". She had noticed some changes in Eva as well since they got together. The bigger girl seemed to smile more easily and less prone to losing her temper with everyone and everything.

Then during the Christmas break, Gwen came up with a crazy idea: she wanted her and Eva to get tattoos together of each others' names. Fortunately, Gwen knew a good place to do it; two of her old goth friends from high school, Marilyn and Reaper, owned and operated a tattoo studio, the same one they were now visiting. In the relatively short time they had it, they had built a good reputation for maintaining a clean and hygienic workspace and a high degree of artistic talent.

This wouldn't be the first tattoo Gwen got; she already had several, including the kanji symbol for "freedom" on her ankle and some small angel wings on her back. But she had never really gotten used to the needle. Eva also had some; she had the kanji symbol for "strength" on her upper left arm and "leadership" on the right. The needle didn't bother her at all.

The cheerful jingle of the bell announced their arrival as they walked in. Marilyn was already at the front counter flipping through a magazine waiting for them. She and Reaper had become a couple toward the end of high school. She looked different; she had stopped powdering her face ghostly-white, but she still had her pink hair which had grown out and was now braided into dreadlocks. She greeted Gwen and Eva with a smile. "Hi, Gwen. So, is this your girlfriend I've been hearing about," she asked.

"Yeah, this is Eva. Eva, Marilyn," Gwen said, introducing them.

"Glad to meet you," Marilyn said as she reached across the counter to shake Eva's hand. "So, did you bring them?"

"Here you go," Gwen said as she fished two pieces of paper out of her coat pocket. Gwen had taken it upon herself to design the tattoos they would be getting today.

Marilyn looked them over and smiled. "Perfectly doable," she said, then turned to the back and hollered, "Reaper! Gwen and her girlfriend are here, so get ready!"

Reaper came out. His long spiky hair was now straight and tied back into a ponytail. He greeted and briefly hugged Gwen as well before he and Marilyn escorted their customers back to the tattooing area. There was a pair of tattooing tables set up next to each other along with Reaper and Marilyn's workstations.

"Where do you guys want these done," Reaper asked.

"On our backs," Eva replied.

"Just below our necks," Gwen added.

"Alright, you guys lie down and we'll get started," Reaper told them as he and Marilyn sat down on their respective stools to check their equipment.

Gwen and Eva lay face-down on the tables and lifted the backs of their shirts over their heads but kept them on with their arms in the sleeves along with their bras. They held hands as they watched each other.

Marilyn rolled up to Gwen while Reaper took Eva. "And what colors do want these in," Reaper asked them as he clipped the paper with design for Eva on a stand for him to see.

"Black," Gwen and Eva said simultaneously.

"Works for us," Marilyn said.

There was a loud buzzing sound, and Gwen winced and shut her eyes as she felt the needle pierce her skin. But she felt Eva hold her hand tighter and opened her eyes to see Eva smile at her and silently mouth, "It's okay."

Gwen smiled back and kept her focus on her lover, never letting go of her hand. After a few minutes, the pain subsided into almost nothing. She and Eva just kept their eyes on each other as the ink was etched into their skin.

It seemed like almost no time had passed for them before Reaper announced, "All done. Do you guys want to see it before we slap on the bandages?"

Gwen faced away from a mirror and Marilyn held up a hand-held mirror. She saw the tattoo. It was Eva's name, printed in English but with bold Cyrillic-style lettering. Gwen felt an involuntary shiver of pleasure up her spine as she looked at Eva's name on her skin.

Gwen then looked over at Eva's tattoo. It was her name in gothic script. It felt delightfully primal, like a blood oath to each other; a sacred promise that they now belonged to each other.

Both artists gently rubbed some antibacterial ointment over the tattoos before applying bandages. They handed them a sheet of paper with aftercare instructions on them. After promising to get together and hang out and catch up with each other sometime, Gwen and Eva paid and left.

As they stood on the curb waiting for a cab to hail, Eva very gently kissed the bandaged area. Gwen felt a brief shock of pain that was replaced with pleasurable comfort as Eva hugged her from behind and whispered in her ear, "You were right; this was a good idea…"

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The door opened, snapping Gwen out of her flashback. She looked in the mirror to see her mom come in. She was still holding her handkerchief and her eyes were red, but at least she had stopped crying; for the moment, anyways. "Gwen, are you okay? You must be okay because you look okay, soyou'reokaysoImustbeokaybecauseIw asneverthiscalmonmyweddingso …" she rambled, her words getting jumbled up while speaking as fast as possible.

Gwen cut her mom off and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Mom, breath, just breathe," she said trying calm her mother before she lost her mind and starting crying again. When it seemed she had collected herself, Gwen smiled at her. "Really, mom; I'm fine. Nervous, but more happy than scared."

Gwen's mom smiled back. But all of a sudden, she burst into tears. Again. "Oh, my little girl is getting married," she wailed.

Gwen sighed, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands up in frustration. "Mom, what are going crazy for? I'm the one who's getting married today and you're the one who can't stop bawling her eyes out."

Gwen's mom's reply was lost in a series of incomprehensible sobs as she excused herself again. Gwen rolled her eyes and sighed again as she turned to face her reflection again to check her makeup and hair once more.

As Gwen's mom was leaving, her brother was just coming in. He stood to the side to let her pass before he came in. "Is mom still crying?" Gwen nodded and he sighed, too. "Anyway, how are you doing?"

Gwen smiled and hugged him, despite her exasperation at being asked that same question. She and her brother had always been close since they were kids; she could talk with him about anything. He had been very supportive of his sister's relationship with Eva, despite a few cheeky comments about how he liked seeing girls make out with each other. "Really, I'm nervous but I'm fine; I just want to see Eva again and get through this day."

Her brother hugged her back. "Well, we'd better get going if we want to beat the traffic."

Gwen rubbed the inked area one last time and smiled as she walked out the door with him to face destiny…