5"Are you excited?" Nick asked Tori, as they walked down the lane in the park, hand in hand.
She knew what he was talking about, of course. Their wedding was merely a week away. She had been anticipating the wedding for so long. She was now staying with him and his parents until their wedding. Ever since she and Nick had got together last year, they had always been so close, so intimate. And now they were getting married. Things were so perfect.
Tori smiled at him, her hazel-green eyes appearing to dance in the near- darkness. "Of course I'm excited," she replied, "Shouldn't you know that?"
"Why should I know that?" asked Nick, smiling also. He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned against the railing behind him. "We haven't been properly bonded yet."
Tori kissed him lightly on the mouth. "Just think. A week. We're going to be married in a week. And after that, we're off to Paris."
"Yeah."
"Anyway, we'd best be going to your parents' house now, otherwise we'd be late for dinner." They walked back through the park and up the street to the house.
Nick noticed a heart-shaped locket around Tori's neck. "Nice locket," commented Nick as they walked up the driveway to his parents' place. "What's in it?"
"Oh, this?" asked Tori, touching the locket lightly with a finger. "It's empty."
"Os are you intending to put something in it?" Nick asked, standing on the doorstep. He was certain she knew what he meant.
"Oh, I don't know." Tori looked thoughtful. "Maybe a picture of my cat?" She grinned, teasing him.
"Hey!" cried Nick indignantly. "I have to compete with a cat for your affections?"
She punched him lightly on the arm. "Did I let your pride down?"
At that moment, the door was opened by Nick's younger sister, Jenna. "Lovers' tiff?" she inquired. "Bickering like an old married couple already?
Nick, Tori and Jenna walked into the house together, laughing.
**********************
The next morning Nick was joined at the kitchen table by a sleepy-eyed, tousle-haired Tori.
"Morning," she yawned, sitting down opposite him.
"Any plans for today?" he asked.
She rubbed her eyes, and helped herself to a biscuit from the box in the middle of the table. "Not really," she said, "But I want to have a good look around this place. It's somewhat humiliating to know that I've lived my whole life three hundred kilometers away and have never been here."
Nick laughed. "It's not that different from Sydney," he replied. "Just a little smaller, a bit cleaner, cheaper. Tell you what, I'll drive you around the town, if you like."
Tori nodded. "Sounds good," she said. She regarded herself through the mirror hanging in the hallway just outside the kitchen. She was dressed, but her long, brown hair was in need of management. "I suppose I'll have to go get my hairbrush, then."
Nick stood up helpfully. "I'll get it," he suggested.
He walked out of the kitchen and up the staircase to Tori's room. It was filled with that smell he knew so well. The smell of her - the perfume she always wore mingled with her unique smell. And he loved the smell - well, he loved Tori, everything about her. From first sight she had intrigued him, even though she was still with her old boyfriend Tony then. She intrigued him simply for sitting there and looking gorgeous in her red dress. From then on he hadn't stopped thinking of her.
If there was one thing in the world he was sure of, it was his proposal to Tori. He would never, ever regret this.
He walked over to the dressing table and found himself looking at a jumble of 'women's products' - cosmetics, jewellery, fragrances. Nick shook his head in amusement. Women were supposed to be neater than men, but it was near impossible to be neat with so many possessions. He quickly located the hairbrush and turned to leave when something gold and glinting caught his eye.
It was the gold heart-shaped locket Tori was wearing the night before. He grinned, remembering the conversation they'd had about her cat, and, half out of curiosity, half because he wanted to prove that it really wasn't Ginger's photo inside, he flipped open the locket.
It wasn't empty, as she had told him. On one side of the locket there was a picture of Tori, laughing, looking just as stunning as she always did. On the other side of the locket, looking up at him, bordered in a heart-shaped frame was her ex-boyfriend, Tony.
Suddenly Nick felt cold all over. This wasn't what he had expected. Well, he didn't know what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. He looked at Tony's picture again. It was smirking, the same smirk he had seen, known and mistrusted. He didn't know what Tori saw in the guy. What she still sees in him.
It was too much. Snapping the locket shut, he threw it back onto the dressing table, but he never took his eyes off it. Was Tori still in love with Tony? If she did - where did that leave him? And here he was, just a minute ago thinking that he would never regret being engaged to Tori. What if she was the one that thought otherwise? Would she leave him, devastated and helpless, and run off, laughing, with Tony?
Get a grip on yourself, he told himself. It might just be a mistake. One big mistake.
But he couldn't convince himself of this. Slowly he began to dread the wedding. He loved her, but did she love him?
********************
Over the week that span between that day and the wedding, Nick felt like he was constantly in a trance. He could not stop thinking about the gold locket, and how it contained Tony's face. Tony's face instead of his. Tori thought his vagueness was caused by nervousness for the big day. She didn't know about Nick's discovery, although Nick often wondered why he didn't confront her about it. Maybe because he was a coward.
As the wedding day came, Nick still hadn't told Tori about his finding the locket, and she still suspected nothing. His insides felt like a mixture of all sorts of feelings as he stood by the altar, facing the aisle which Tori was to walk up along.
It didn't help, either, that Tori was wearing the locket. She was walking confidently, bouquet of flowers in her hands, obviously not feeling the turmoil that Nick was feeling. The mixture of jealousy, hurt, devastation.
Tori joined Nick at the altar and the minister began to speak. He kept thinking about the locket. It was merely a half a metre or so away from him and the image of its contents kept flashing across his mind, haunting him.
"If there is anyone present who objects the marriage of Nicholas and Victoria, speak now or forever hold your peace."
Tony's face in the locket. Smirking at him as though they were contestants in the same competition. As if he was the winner. Tori loving Tony. Tori still in love with Tony, not him.
"I do," he blurted out, causing everyone in the church to stare at him.
The minister smiled. "Impatient, are we? Don't worry, we'll get to the vows soon enough."
Nick took a deep breath. "No, I mean, I feel that way." The church gasped as he turned to Tori beside him, who was looking as shocked as everyone else. "Tori, I need to speak to you. Alone."
*********************
"Nick?" Tori whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. They were in a room at the back of the church. Tori had taken her veil off, and was on the verge of crying. "Why?"
"You don't love me, do you?" Nick asked her, standing the breadth of the room away from her.
"What?"
"You still love Tony, don't you?" he asked again, feeling everything come out of his system, the frustration, the pain.
"Nick, I don't - "
"Yes, you do. You do love him. I saw it in your locket, the one you're wearing right now. You told me it was empty, and I believed you. You told me it was empty but I found him in there. You lied to me. How do I know that you're not lying to me now?"
Tori was sobbing. "Nick, look, you don't understand, I can explain - "
"What there to explain, except for why you agreed to marry me?" Nick exclaimed. "if you still love him, then why did you get involved with me? Did you just want to hurt me?" Now he just felt empty.
Tori was crying uncontrollably, her head in her hands.
Nick shook his head, and turned to head toward the door. He didn't want to hear what Tori had to say, in case it hurt him. He was almost at the door when Tori cried out.
"Look at this, Nick." Her eyes were red and tears were still streaming down her cheeks. She was holding the locket open with both hands. "Why are you doubting me?" She walked towards him and he looked down at the locket. Her picture was still there, on the left side of the locket, and he looked towards the right, expecting to see Tony's face, but it wasn't there. Instead, his picture was there. It was cut fro a photo they had taken together when they had lunch at Centrepoint Tower a few months ago. He saw his own face smiling back at him.
"I was going to show you tonight," she said, looking into his face. He looked back at her, his expression unreadable. "I didn't know you looked at the locket. I only found it last week, and I did believe it was empty when I told you. And after, when I opened it, I felt so ashamed."
She continued to look into his deep, green eyes and said, "I do love you, Nick. I always have, and I'm not going to stop."
Nick looked back down onto the still open locket and then back at Tori. So it was just a mistake. He was filled with warmth, looking at the one he loved, and hearing from her what he needed to hear - that she loved him too.
"I - I love you too," He said, and then he kissed her, wrapping his arms around her waist. He took her by surprise, but that was okay, she soon caught up, wrapping her own arms around his neck and kissing him back. They trusted each other, and they felt no regrets about getting married. It was love, pure and simple.
A cheer arose from outside the door. Clearly, the walls of the church were not sound-proof.