The Best Friend's Wedding
Present day!Roger Taylor x Reader
Summary: The one in which R!Reader and Roger get married but it’s also a description of how R!Reader and B!Reader became friends.
Warnings: Slight angst at the beginning but then it is all fluff, I swear.
A/N: I kinda imagine B!Reader spends a lot of time in Scotland (we shall get more on that soon)... I am not a big fan of weddings for some reason, but I wanted to give R!Reader out there a beautiful story too! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!
| Guide to The Original Timeline |
• 7 hours before the wedding
"Oh, come on!" The brunette smiled at her best friend, a coffee cup in her hand.
“I am not making a fuss!” The young bride cried into the air throwing her head back.
“It’s nothin’! A tiny pimple, no big deal really...” Her friend tapped the r.
“Are you gonna talk like that from now on?” The annoyed blonde turned back to her friend from the image bothering her in the mirror.
R!Reader bit back a smile and opened her eyes wide at the other woman in her hotel room.
The two stood facing each other in their pajamas, staring as one made fun of the other first thing in the morning.
“You don’t have to be mean about it.” She blushed, taking a step back and clearing her throat to remind herself of the usual way in which she spoke. “I spent almost an entire year working with Scots, something had to stick, right?”
“History!” R!Reader stuck out her hip and brought her hand to her side. “You are the poshest little thing since Regattas!”
“Ugh, that’s nonsense!” She shook her head much like her husband often did. “And such a rich comment coming from the one who spent her summer on a boat in Ibiza...”
B!Reader rolled her eyes and strolled around the suite until she could put her coffee down on the small table across the room.
“Roger likes boats, what can I say?” She shrugged.
R!Reader looked back at herself in the mirror and returned to her primary concern of the morning. A pimple on the side of her jawline. A horrible surprise for her wedding day. She had pictured that everything would go as planned this day; with her hair and makeup getting done right before lunch she would have the chance to really get through her morning routine without any rush. She had invited B!Reader for dinner the night before, she came along with Lola and Rory, but the young Taylors left before it got too late, making sure they would then be in top shape for the long day ahead with being maids of honour and all...
The only one who stayed behind was B!Reader. They probably should not have stayed up till late...but they did. They definitely did not have to eat crisps at 2 am either. And the opening of a bottle of sparkling white wine each was without a doubt uncalled for.
“I knew the snacks were a bad idea!” The blonde grunted.
“Ah, you’ll be fine!”
While the blonde bride moaned about in the bathroom, B!Reader went back to the room and threw herself face-first into the bed. She was glad just then that R!Reader was not her friend when she got married to Brian, in that case, she would have for sure been sporting a hangover on her way down the aisle. For the time being, she knew she had to call Brian and let him know she was okay. If she knew him, he would have finished his morning routine on the bike by then.
“Do you know those bastards from the Sun called me “a shameless golddigger with a little mind and not much to offer but a pretty face ”?” I am actually quoting it, they wrote that after we made the announcement.”
B!Reader turned around on the fluffy bedsheets and duvet and looked at her friend with a crinkled nose and low brow.
There it was: the good reason for her insecurities. The press.
“They know nothing about you!” She sat up, pushing herself with her elbows and then straightening her spine. “Look at us, for instance! I wasn’t sure about you at first... and then when we started talking... I realised just how funny and smart you are! Clever too! R!Reader, you’ve done things I would never dare do... and now you’re here! Don’t let these people who don’t know you put you down - at least not today!”
The blonde crossed her arms over her chest and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.
“You hated me,” She declared with certain disdain.
“No, I didn’t hate you...” B!Reader explained shaking her head.
“You didn’t like me,” R!Reader nudged her friend and sat next to her while she agreed on that one.
The two women looked at the clock on the bedside table reading almost noon. The curtains were drawn closed and the room was still except for the tray of breakfast foods across from the pair, a steaming cup of coffee sat there. Grey lines of warmth drew shapes in the air floating around the elegant china, the French press coffee waited right next to it.
With a grin, R!Reader looked down at her left hand and had a look at her engagement ring. The large rock shinning in her finger was surrounded by other smaller and similarly glowing rocks. She turned her head and searched for B!Reader’s eyes.
“What do you mean...things you would never do?” She tilted her head the side, eyes narrowing at her friend’s shock.
The brunette’s face heated up with blush and she stuttered when she spoke again.
“Well, what I mean...what I wanted to say is... I-” She cut herself and blinked a few times before sighing and starting over. “What I mean doesn’t sound nice... I would have never cheated.”
R!Reader looked away feeling the weight of disappointment on the pit of her stomach once again. It had been a familiar feeling to her for over a year, although sometimes it still caught her off guard. It was the knowledge that she had been the other woman, and she did not like it...but it was the way it was. Many would judge for sleeping with a married man, touch and be touched by a man whose hands should have already been bound to someone else. Many people thought of her as a nasty woman. A worthless human who hurt people just because.
These people could not be further from the truth. That whole situation was killing R!Reader slowly. Being the other woman did not mean she would wait for Roger to swing by and fuck. They did get carried away more than occasionally, yet it was not the root of their relationship. They would always speak for hours, sometimes Roger would arrive at R!Reader’s a little bit earlier than they had agreed and he would watch her make dinner, helping the slightest and distracting her the entire time. Some days she would feel ill, or be in a mood and Roger would have to swing by and hold her for a while to soothe her. Some other times he would be the one having a rough day, and the younger one would then let him rest his head on her chest and read for him. They could spend hours together and not even kiss... she knew that although for many that did not matter as much as the sex did, this need they had to be with each other was the actual cheating. The part that was wrong and that would hurt Roger’s wife. It made R!Reader’s stomach turn, and flip around inside her. She could feel her heart sink in her chest when Roger left in the evenings, leaving her to her quiet flat and empty bed. Her body always fell limp and her mouth went dry when her friends asked about her love life. “You are such a catch, why aren’t you seeing anyone?” Some would say. It hurt even worse when the comments came from Tigerlily or Rufus. She felt responsible, guilty.
As responsible and guilty as she felt right sitting there next to B!Reader. A woman who fell for a man obviously too old for her and did not care. A woman her age who never cheated.
“...I wanted to,” she admitted in a whisper, making the blonde’s neck snap back up, her eyes round in shock. “We probably had many chances... with Anita going on tour with her productions and me living on my own...” She shook her head and put her hand on R!Reader’s knee, “I was too scared. I loved him already. But what if he didn’t have the strength to leave his wife? I though... I didn’t want to push him to just- use me? I... don’t know. I figured Brian already had enough on his plate, didn’t need to add more guilt on top of everything.” They looked at each other, “I wasn’t brave enough. Strong enough.”
“You did the best for Brian, though.” The blonde whispered. “He is such a softy your husband...”
B!Reader broke into a smile and laughed, nodding with enthusiasm. “Yes, you can say that!”
After a moment, the bride spoke again.
“You know... in great part, Roger and I didn’t even have sex all the time! People like that to shame me for being his mistress or whatever... but mostly, we did what you used to do with Brian!”
“Hang out,” B!Reader smiled, “have fun.”
“Forget about the world!” R!Reader smiled up at the ceiling.
Her friend giggled and narrowed her eyes at her. “There must have been a lot of touching still.”
The blonde laughed, looking back at B!Reader, she was already leaning forward to stand up. “You know us!”
With a snort, B!Reader rushed her friend so she got into the shower so they could have breakfast once she came out. For the best part of the morning, they chatted and sat back to let the professionals do their hair and makeup. All of Roger’s girls, except for Rory were there that morning too, the older one had decided she would get ready on her own and assist her brothers and father with their own wedding day preparations.
R!Reader had never been a quiet girl. From a young age, she would get in trouble constantly for being too honest and too vocal about her opinions. it... it took her a few years of practice to read the people around her before speaking up, but even then she knew how to get away with small talk. Everyone buzzing about in her hotel suite was aware of all of this, which made them all think it was odd how she was so quiet and calm today.
She spent most of that time thinking while she was getting her hair and makeup done. She recalled her last conversation with Roger before his divorce. It had been nothing short of horrible. Their biggest argument yet. A full-on fight. She was desperate, clinging on to anything to stay afloat when it seemed that Roger was not going to go forward with ending his marriage...she felt dirty, broken and used. She called Roger “a disgusting piece of what used to be a man” because she was so hurt. He did not even defend himself, pursing his lips he let her blow like a bomb run out of time. That should have been the end of it; she thought when he left her place looking as mad as he had ever been, that there was no way they would see each other again.
But Roger came back.
After a moment, before she even finished calling him names and blaming him for their peculiar situation, Roger realised what the problem was. He saw her constantly closing her large sweater over her body, shielding her chest with her arms, found her eyes shining with tears and he knew. He knew those were not the result of anger but of pain. A pain he caused, there was no use in denying it like he would have done in his youth. So Roger took the verbal beating and left without saying a word.
They met that same weekend, Roger had dropped the bomb on his wife, and it was not a pleasant thing to do...but at least it helped his relationship with R!Reader. Only a few months later his divorce was settled and the first thing he did was show up at her place with a big rock in his pocket and propose.
• 3 hours before the wedding
“Earth to R!Reader!” Lola sang, moving her hand before her eyes. “You are so zen today!”
“Are you okay?” One of her childhood friends said from the makeup chair where she was getting her hair braided.
“I’m fine!” R!Reader rolled her eyes, “I’m just...” she licked her lips and sighed “overwhelmed.”
“Aw, that’s alright!” Tigerlily came up behind her and leaned on the sofa to wrap her arms around her shoulders and put her chin on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s a big day!”
“I kinda wish we had eloped...”
Her mother called her by her full name with a furrowed brow, making the rest of the women there laugh or giggle.
B!Reader clapped her hands and turned to the bride’s mother. “I guess it’s time to get her dressed...”
It was not the best day for a wedding, the weather was awful. Rain all day, clouds crowding the sky all afternoon. As R!Reader stepped into the car to get to the venue, she met her father at the door. She looked up for a second and smiled at her dad, shrugging like a child.
The bright white Cadillac awaited, her father held her for a second and helped her in. With her eyes, at last, ignoring the sky she turned to talk to her dad. A short conversation that put them both in a good mood. From the first time, she told her father that she liked a boy when she was only 5 to highschool dates and the last of them when she brought Roger home and nobody in the family knew why in the world was she dating a man almost 50 years older than her.
“It’s a weird thing... but you were always brave. Always head first into it!” He patted his daughter’s hand. “But you always made sense. You had your way to go about things, still, do.” He paused and looked out the window, seeing the venue appearing ahead, meaning they would have to get out of the car soon. “I trust you know what you’re doing. You are old enough to.”
R!Reader remained quiet for a moment and stretched out in the spacious car to wrap her arms around her father’s shoulders.
“Thank you.” She whispered into their embrace.
A moment later she stepped out of the car and stood at the end of a line with her father by her side. The walk down the aisle went by in a second to her. She watched as the guests sitting down turned their heads, necks stretching, to get a glimpse of her. The long veil covered her face and hands, going further down. She scanned through the big names, artists and famous people in the crowd. Roger could not help himself...the guest list seemed to be getting bigger and bigger every time they sat down to go over wedding details, in the end, they invited 800 people - somehow!
Roger looked brilliant. In a three-piece burgundy suit, he was also quite happy when his young bride arrived at the temporary altar and winked at him. The two smiling at each other. Her father pulled the veil off of his daughter’s face and kissed her cheek before letting her take Roger’s tattooed hand.
The wedding was beautiful, both Roger and R!Reader spent the entirety of the ceremony part giggling and stealing glances at each other. R!Reader at some point mouthed a “stop it!” at Rog when he winked at her and made her blush in front of one of the many cameras they had hired to film and photograph the event. Once Felix stepped forward and brought them the rings, he rolled his eyes at the couple, trust his dad to be fooling around in the middle of his own wedding... although it made sense and bothered no one who realised it: the odd couple had waited for too long to be able to be public and the treatment R!Reader got from the media left a lot to be desired. Now they did not care, and they were paying no attention to anyone else but each other today. Felix was almost completely ignored by the groom and bride, who grabbed the rings and put them on each other’s fingers without taking their eyes from each other. Roger did not bother hiding his smile as he did so, and his bride struggled to contain her joy in a smile through tight lips and gleaming eyes.
By the time the ceremony came to an end, R!Reader was sniffing, some tears had slipped but she wiped them quickly before turning to her husband. Oh, because they were now married. The knot was tied, and now they were free to not give a fuck about the press together. As it should have always been. And not one person in the guests’ list was surprised when Roger wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her close.
She put her arms around his neck and let her right wrist fall on top of the left one as she smiled up at him, grinning in pure joy before he kissed her lips long and hard. People behind them cheered and clapped, and she giggled, pecking his lips to put her forehead against his.
“I can’t believe it’s done...” She whispered.
To which Roger replied by saying: “easy as that!”
She cupped his cheek and pecked his lips again before the finally turned to their guests to walk outside to the smaller bar part of the venue so the planner and his crew could get the salon ready for the reception. It was in this time that R!Reader and Roger took a chance to go to a different salon and have their pictures taken, first only the couple and then with the maids of honour, all three of Roger’s daughters and B!Reader; and the best men, both Felix and Rufus, plus Adam and Brian.
The reception started a good fifteen minutes later with the couple being introduced as they came out to perform their first dance, the two stepped out to the piano playing the first few notes of the song the couple chose, the interpreters on stage, as a personal favour to Roger; Elton came through to play one song but not without giving R!Reader a small surprise by bringing his - almost - baby son Taron on stage to sing with him for them.
“It's a little bit funny, this feeling inside...” Elton sang from the piano as Roger held R!Reader.
She had no idea Roger had arranged for the interpreters of the song to be something else than a good recording... She was over the moon, singing along and holding on to her husband. The two would not stop singing to each other quietly.
“I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind That I put down in words How wonderful life is while you're in the world”
The two kissed as the last notes played and their guests clapped around them in an echo they could barely hear.
...