Where do we go from here?

Darius slammed the limo door shut, and he and Adele stood there in stunned silence.  Finally, Adele spoke.  "This is APPALLING!" she said.  Darius bit his bottom lip and began pacing back and forth beside the limo.  Adele watched him with the same stunned expression on her face.  Palmer stumbled out of the limo a short time later, his shirt untucked in the back.  He assisted Zalika as she emerged from the limo.  Adele noted that the bow on the front of her dress was slightly off-center now.  

Adele shook her head and turned towards Darius and said "Well, you said that you liked the fact that she is spontaneous, HOW DO YOU LIKE HER SPONTANEITY NOW?"  Darius saw that this already awkward situation was about to potentially spiral out of control, so he hoped that he would be able to calm Adele down and quickly.  Calmly, he said "Adele..." but she cut him off.  "Of course YOU may call it being spontaneous, but I call it being a SLU..."  Before she could fully get the word out, Palmer turned to her and said sharply "You need to watch your mouth!"  Darius jerked as if he had been struck and said to Palmer "Don't speak to her that way!" and Palmer stepped towards Darius and said "Then you'd better tell her to shut her mouth!"

In the next moment, Darius and Palmer were standing toe to toe shouting at one another.  Darius towered over Palmer, but Palmer was not the least bit intimidated and did not back down.  As Adele watched Palmer puffing out his chest while yelling at Darius, she thought wow, is this the same guy that sat there flaccidly when Darius called me pretentious?

Zalika forced her way in between the two men, saying "Hey, hey!  Ok, that's enough.  Calm down."  The men reluctantly stopped arguing and took a few steps back.  Zalika said "Ok.  We should just go.  We should just get out of here.  We can still make it to the reception."  Adele rolled her eyes and said "Oh come on!  You can not honestly think that we are going to the reception now?  Let's just end this nightmare!"  Zalika said "Well, that's up to you.  These are your friends.  We can just go home."  Adele declared "I am not stepping foot in that limo!  I will make other arrangements to get home."  Adele began fumbling around in her purse for her cell phone.  Darius said "You know that we're too far from home for you to simply take a cab."  Adele snapped "Of course I know that!  I'll catch a plane.  I'll do something."  Darius said "It is very unlikely that you will be able to catch a plane on such short notice.  You'll end up staying all night here.  I don't want you heading out on your own.  I'd worry about you."  "Then why don't you come with me?" Adele asked.  Darius replied "Because I paid for this limo!"  Adele just shook her head at him.  She wasn't going to have this same argument twice in one day.

Darius said "If anyone should make alternate arrangements, it should be these two." as he gestured towards Zalika and Palmer.  Zalika said "Wait a minute, you bring us all the way here, treat us to a day of arguing and bickering, and now you want to leave us stranded here?  We don't even know anyone here!  No way!  I'm going home in that limo."  Palmer nodded in agreement and said "I did not come here prepared to make other arrangements to get home, and I will not be left stranded here."

Darius walked away and Adele followed.  Darius stopped a short distance away and began biting his bottom lip and pacing again, while Adele watched.  Finally, Adele said "Well this is really a mess."  Darius replied "You really have a knack for stating the obvious."  Just then, they saw Zalika approaching.  Zalika said to Adele "Pardon me MISS, do you mind if I speak to Darius for a moment...alone?"  Adele responded "Actually, I do mind."  Zalika had run out of patience with Adele and had taken a deep breath and opened her mouth wide and was about to give Adele a piece of her mind, when Darius said "It's okay.  Adele, give us a few minutes."  Adele hesitated, then walked away.

As Adele walked away, she saw Palmer making his way towards her.  For a split second, she thought about running, but of course that would be out of the question with the shoes that she was wearing.  She stopped and said to him "Just walk away Palmer!"  Palmer kept coming and said "I just want to talk to you."  Adele said "I don't want to talk to you.  Just leave me alone!"  Palmer said "I just need a few minutes." and Adele promptly replied "No!"  Palmer showed no signs that he was leaving, much to Adele's frustration.  He said "Just give me 5 minutes."  Adele let out a big sigh and said "You have 1 minute."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the parking lot, Zalika stood awkwardly in front of Darius.  She said "Sooooo, I guess that a second date is out of the question for us, huh?"  They both laughed.  Zalika acknowledged that it was a terrible joke.  She then apologized to Darius for the scene at the limo, but tried to explain things from her perspective.  When Darius had asked her to the wedding, he said that they would be going with a friend of his and her date.  He did not say that it was his ex, who he clearly still had feelings for.  She had put up with bickering and fighting and Adele's rude behavior towards her all day, and tried to make the best of it.  Palmer was the only thing that kept this from being a perfectly miserable day for her.  The two of them had found each other, and the timing wasn't perfect, but Zalika did not regret it.  She reminded Darius how he and Adele had gone off alone for a lengthy period of time.  She told him that taking all of that into consideration, she knew that he knew that it was wrong of him to even contemplate leaving without her and Palmer.

Darius acknowledged that he had not put his best foot forward that day, and that he regretted that he had lost his cool a couple of times.  He told Zalika that prior to the scene at the limo, he had made up his mind that he was going to apologize to her for how the day had turned out.  Zalika asked "But not now?"  Darius said "Noooo, I won't be apologizing now."  Darius said that as he was walking from the church to the limo, he was thinking of ways to make it up to Zalika.  "Of course, that's out of the question now." he said, and Zalika replied "Of course."  Zalika told him that she didn't care about that, and that she just wanted to get through the rest of the evening as peacefully as possible.  Darius said that he was willing for them all to ride home together, but that Adele had to agree to come as well, because he wasn't willing to leave her there alone, and he was not willing to stay there with her either.  Zalika shook her head and said "There's no way that she will agree to ride with all of us."  Darius said "I'll have to try to convince her."

Zalika and Darius walked back to the limo, and Darius thought of things that he might say to Adele to smooth things over enough to where they could all have a somewhat peaceful journey home.  First, he would remind Adele of their discussion in the church office, and tell her that it would be rather hypocritical to remain upset with Palmer and Zalika, when she was trying to get back with him just moments before. Adele and Palmer were already standing outside of the limo as Darius and Zalika approached.  Adele said "So, are we ready to go home?"  Darius and Zalika looked at each other with shock, and Darius responded "Yes, let's go."  He wanted to ask Adele what had changed her mind, but thought it would be best to save that discussion for another day.  As Darius and Adele entered the limo, Zalika quietly asked Palmer "How in the world did you change her mind?"  Palmer said "I'm a politician, so I know a thing or two about negotiating." and he winked at Zalika.

Adele was relieved to be on the road home, but was extremely annoyed at the constant chatter from Zalika and Palmer.  They were blathering away like old friends, and giggling like giddy school children.  She wished so much that she had brought her earphones.  She tried turning up the music inside the limo, but they only talked louder.  Darius just sat there silently, staring into the distance as if none of this bothered him.  Adele came to realize why Zalika and Palmer got along so well, because they really did have a lot in common.  They communicated effortlessly.  They would probably go on to have a great relationship.

Suddenly, Adele threw her head back and let out a loud belly laugh.  It was so loud and sudden that she startled the other passengers.  The driver even rolled down the tinted glass partition between them and gazed at Adele in the rear-view mirror for a moment.  Tears welled up in Adele's eyes and Darius thought that she would pull out her handkerchief at any moment, but she didn't.  Adele gasped for air and tried to speak "It's just so funny..." she said before she was overtaken by laughter again.  

By this point tears were streaming down her cheeks, and Darius watched in amazement.  "Here we are at the end of our relationship, we've come here to celebrate our friends taking their relationship to the next level, and we get to witness the birth of this new relationship..." Adele laughed some more.  Darius watched as make-up stained teardrops hung precariously from Adele's chin.  At any moment, they are going to drop onto her dress, and she will not be happy, or so he thought.  The tears fell and Adele kept laughing.  She said "I mean it really is ironic, don't you think?"  Zalika turned to Palmer and sang under her breath in her best Alanis Morissette impression "It's like raaaaaaiiiinnnn on your wedding day..."  Palmer stifled his laughter and nudged Zalika.  Adele said to Zalika and Palmer "If the two of you end up getting married, then you should make me and Darius your maid of honor and best man, because you wouldn't even be together if it wasn't for us!"

Adele kept going on and on about relationships and their stages, and the laughter kept coming and so did the tears.  At this point, Darius had difficulty in determining whether she was laughing or crying (maybe a bit of both).  He had never known her to display her emotions this way.  He looked at her with her tear-streaked face, and he thought that she looked beautiful.  He reached for her hand, held it and squeezed it for a moment, and then let go.  They gazed at each other and smiled.  Adele laid her wet face on Darius' shoulder, and her make-up stained his tailor-made suit.

Adele let out a huge sigh and said "Let's go to the reception."