Finding Merida had proven to be more difficult than Mulan thought. She turns around for five seconds and Merida decides to disappear. The post ceremony part of the wedding was under a tent on a lawn. Her first stop was the buffet table and even though the pans were shut, she opened one up and grabbed a small bacon wrapped sausage to eat.
"Hi Mulan!" Aurora's joyful voice came from behind her. She quickly turned around almost dropping her snack.
"I'm sorry. I just haven't eaten anything in hours and-" Aurora laughed.
"It's fine Mulan. I just wanted to come see how you were doing."
"I'm great and I'm so happy for you!"
"Thank you! I'm so glad you're here. It wouldn't have been the same if my best friend weren't at my wedding. And I want you to have fun tonight okay?"
"I will"
"Good, promise?"
"I promise" Aurora gave another big smile before she left to find Philip.
After turning around again Mulan saw one of the caterers grinning at her. She was a tall brunette with beautiful big blue eyes.
"I'm sorry I took some food too early." The woman laughed.
"Don't worry about it. It's an appetizer, so I guess I was just too late to offer the food."
"It was very good."
"Thank you."
"I need to uh- go find, my friend."
"I'll see you around then. I am gonna be here all night. Or almost all night."
She adjusted the bottom of her shorter than usual dress which Aurora had picked out for her when they went shopping together since she had nothing to wear for the wedding. She had to admit, she liked how it looked on her; it was black and form fitting which wasn't something she was used to wearing but one of her best friends was getting married so she learned to live with being slightly uncomfortable. The heels also weren't the most comfortable shoes so she'd usually lean on anything she found that was high enough and at this moment it was the small high table that the wedding cake was on.
She stared at Aurora, dancing with Philip and laughing. It was her wedding day so she should be happy. She felt happy for her but there was always this feeling of regret that she had whenever thinking about Aurora. If only she had told her how she felt about her sooner; that she was in love with her. Before Philip, it was just the two of them living in the apartment.They were inseparable best friends Then Aurora met Philip that she and Mulan were at and a few months later he moved into the apartment and slept in Aurora's room with her. And after all this time they were getting married and moving into their own house leaving Mulan alone and in need of a roommate, even though Aurora insisted on paying her own share until Mulan found a new roommate. She would have asked Merida but she was staying with Emma who now had an extra vacant room after Mary Margaret moved in with her long-term boyfriend David.
Mulan met Merida years ago but she moved back to Scotland after her father had died for a while to be with her family. She had come back into Mulan's life a few months after Aurora and Philip started dating which was perfect timing since Aurora started spending less time with Mulan. She apologized for it and Mulan understood her reasons but it still bothered her. She would never tell Aurora about it so Merida returning helped Mulan and Merida made sure Mulan never sat alone in her room moping.
Mulan was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't notice how long she was leaning on the table or how much pressure she was putting on it with her elbow. All of a sudden the table tipped over and the wedding cake which was a three-tiered cake, fell on top of her. The top part hit her face and the middle tier fell on to her dress as she fell to the ground. Most of the people in the dancing crowd stopped and stared at her with shocked expressions. Aurora and Philip also witnessed the whole embarrassing event and Aurora walked over to her.
"Are you okay?" she helped her get up. Her face and dress were covered in cake.
"I am so sorry Aurora."
"It's okay-"
"It's not a problem. I'll bring out the spare cake." A third voice entered the short conversation. Mulan looked to her right to see who it was and it was the caterer from earlier. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up." She gestured for Mulan to follow her.
"Are you sure you're okay? You didn't hurt yourself or anything when you fell did you?"
"I'm fine Aurora. Go back to Philip. I'll just get cleaned up." Aurora nodded and walked back to the dance floor with Philip. The rest of the crowd had already started dancing again as if nothing had happened. Mulan followed the caterer to the back of the large tent into a small building where all the catering stuff was set up. The woman grabbed a small towel and started wiping the cake off of Mulan's face.
"Again, I'm SO sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it, it's not that big of a deal. There's a reason we make two cakes. Accidents happen. I never caught your name."
"Mulan"
"That's a pretty name. I'm Ruby."
"It's nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too. Hold on, this might hurt." Some cake on Mulan's arm wouldn't come off so Ruby had to scrub it harder.
"It must have taken so long to make."
"Just four and a half hours. You didn't look to in the celebratory wedding mood though, soI couldn't be mad."
"Were you watching me?" Mulan grinned.
"Not exactly watching. More like observing. It's hard not to." She smiled" So you seem like you're really close with the bride."
"We've been best friends for years. How long have you been catering?"
"I started out as a waitress at my grandmother's diner when I was a teenager. She taught me everything I know about baking and cooking and the whole business of running a diner. I wanted to branch out more so catering was my next move. I've been doing it for about two three years. What do you do?"
"Martial arts instructor."
"Wow! How did that happen? You know what? Don't tell me?" Mulan felt like she said something wrong. Ruby put the towel down on a table since she finished cleaning up Mulan. Mulan felt anxious and confused. Why would ruby want to stop talking? She thought they were getting along well.
"Hum why not?"
"So we can talk about it later."
"Later?"
"Yeah. We'll meet up in the bar across the street for a drink. I want to hear everything about you. Unless you don't want to." Mulan let out a sigh of relief and smiled.
"No I really do! I'll just have to find my friend and get changed first." She gestured at her dress that was stained by cake.
"Great."
Mulan saw Merida ahead, talking to an old woman who she had probably just met. "That's my friend" She said gesturing towards Merida. "I'll see you later then."
"Yeah. I'm looking forward to it"
"Me too." She gave Ruby a warm smile before she walked over to Merida. "Merida! Where have you been? I've been looking for you for hours."
"Here, there and about. I also had to comfort a crying girl I found in the bathroom. Something about her boyfriend wanting to break up with her but it was actually just her thinking that he did. Besides, you seem like you found good company." She gestured with her head towards Ruby who was cleaning up one of the buffet tables. "And is that cake on your dress?"
"The wedding cake kind of fell one me and Ruby helped me clean myself up. And we're kind of going out to a bar later." She blushed.
"You fancy her don't you?" she jokingly elbowed Mulan.
"Yeah."
"Well then, we should get back to the hotel and get you cleaned up before your date." Mulan nodded and was trying to hide just how excited she was feeling.