by Mia Ford
“You… you want me to be your wife?”
“I sure do. Like I said to you, I’m in now, and you’re mine. What is there to wait for?”
She looks so happy as she turns to our friends. “Can you come? It wouldn’t be the same without you?”
“Are you serious?” Tamara screeches. “You’re actually going to do this? Just on a whim? Of course we’ll come. I’ll just contact the sitter now… wow, Katherine, you really have changed. I like this version of you.”
“Yeah,” she murmurs into my chest. “I like this side of me too. Even if it’s wild.”
I dip my head down and kiss her hard. On a whim, wild and free, all words I love to associate with Katherine Plummer. I’m also pretty convinced that I’m going to like calling her my wife as well…
The guy in a tacky white suit smiles down at us expectantly from where he stands on his alter, if you can really call it that. “Do you have your own vows prepared?” he asks smugly, almost as if he can see that we don’t.
“Vows? We don’t even have rings yet. We only decided this today. But I can speak from the heart.” I look into my bride’s eyes, admiring the light yellow summer dress that swings around her body. We couldn’t be less prepared for this but it just doesn’t matter. It’s all about love. “Katherine Plummer,” I start. “My Kitty Kat. You truly are the love of my life. I never thought that I would ever want to get married before I met you, but you changed me. You made me grow up and bloom, you transformed me. Because of that, I promise to be the best husband I can be. I don’t know what that entails, but I’m hoping I’ll figure this out along the way. I’m sure our life will be exciting anyway, full of thrills. Maybe it’ll be hard sometimes, but we can get through it. I will do what I can to be the person you deserve anyway, and I hope I make you proud. That’s all I really want.”
“Alistair Chance,” she shoots back just as quickly, clearly needing to get her words out. “I love you like I never thought possible. I love you so much that I followed you to Vegas to get married on a whim for crying out loud.” We all laugh at that. “I know that we’ll be married forever, I can tell that we have what it takes. I promise to do what I can to make you happy too. We’re in this forever now. Forever and always, me and you.”
“You can exchange the rings… oh no, wait.” He shakes his head. “We need to skip that part.”
“We’ll buy rings later.” I wave my hand dismissively. “It’s fine, isn’t it, Katherine?” She nods.
“Okay, so onto the next part. I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”
I clamp my lips down onto Katherine’s my heart filling with joy as I do. Joy floods me, it fills me up completely, I feel happier and more secure than ever before. The old version of me who thought it was better to play about and be disconnected from the world is dead. Now, I’m someone else, someone better. I’m more.
“Hey there, wifey,” I murmur between her lips. “How’s it going?”
“Hi, husband.” She smacks her hand against my ass. “What do you say you get out of here? Do some celebrating? We have Tamara and Logan all night long so why not take advantage of being in Vegas? Could be fun, right? There’s plenty to do here, or so I’ve heard…”
“With you Anything is fun!” I tug on her hand. “Come on then, lets get the hell out.”
Epilogue
One Year Later…
Katherine
“Oh, my goodness, what is this?” I gasp as I walk into our kitchen. God, I love thinking our kitchen, it’s awesome. Once we got married it only made sense that we got a place of our own as well, somewhere to live out our married lives together. Both the apartments we lived in before then were too small so we went on the house hunt. I love the place we chose, it’s perfect for us. “What’s going on here?”
“It’s our wedding anniversary, don’t tell me you forgot?”
“Oh no!” I clap my hands to my mouth, acting like I have. “Are you sure?”
He cocks his head to one side curiously. “You are joking, right? You always remember everything!” He shakes his head, forgetting about that. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I remembered and I’ve organized a good night for us. A nice meal, some wine, a nice movie for us to watch later on… a lovely night in. Sound good?”
“Yeah, that sounds awesome actually.” I rub my forehead wearily. “Just what I need.”
“You working hard?”
“I have to… I’m the boss now.”
Putting my head down and ignoring the sexism for a while has now put me in a position where I can fight it, and fight it I do. It will not happen under my command. I hope my lead will cause other companies to follow suit. I would love it if no one had to work in an environment where nastiness is allowed anymore.
Anyone who does it while I’m charge is warned and then fired.
“Well, I’m knackered too. Working for Logan is hard. To think he always used to be a bit of a slacker!”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Yeah, I can only imagine. He’s so passionate now.”
“It’s good though. Him and Tamara want us over for a meal this weekend, as if I don’t see enough of him.”
I laugh and take my seat while smiling up expectantly at my man. “Dinner smells delicious.”
“Yes, I know you’re always hungry when you first finish work, but first I have a gift for you.”
My eyes light up. “A present? Oh, my goodness. I love gifts. What is it? I’m so excited.”
He hands me a package which I tear open greedily. Inside I find the sweetest, prettiest necklace I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s gold, to match my wedding ring, with a nice diamond design woven through it.
“Oh wow, this is amazing. I love it! Thank you so much for getting it for me.”
I jump back up and throw my arms around my husband, feeling a stirring in my stomach as I do. I cannot believe that once upon a time I thought the fire would fade. If anything, the passion intensifies with every passion moment. That pull gets stronger and stronger. If anything, I only want him more every damn day.
But now isn’t the time for that.
“Actually,” I tell him coyly. “I didn’t forget our anniversary, I was just teasing you about that.”
“I knew it! You never forget anything.” He rolls his eyes and belly laughs. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”
“Well, I only did it because I have the best gift ever for you.”
“You do?” He cocks his head curiously. “Even better than the jewelry? Because I have to tell you I spent ages picking that out. I drove Logan and Tamara mad.”
“You got them to help you?”
“Hey! We helped them enough, it’s only fair.”
“Yeah, that’s true. And I love it so you clearly did very well.”
“At least I picked out our wedding rings alone.”
“Hmmm, also very true.”
“So, what’s my gift then? I’m intrigued to see what you managed to get that’s so much better than my gift.”
I hand him the parcel which is just a small paper back. It isn’t wrapped, there’s nothing about it that’s fancy, but that hardly matters. It’s what’s inside that counts. I can barely contain myself while he peels it open much too slowly. It’s hard for me not to rip it off of him to prize it open for him.
I suppose patience has never been my strong point. I barely managed it with him.
“What is this?” He pulls out the white plastic and examines it closely. “Huh? I don’t get it… it…”
His eyes open wide and his face pales. Finally, it looks like he’s getting it. A giggle bubbles in my throat, it takes a second before it bursts free and that’s only because I cannot contain myself any longer.
“Is this what I think it is?” He stares at me, demandingly. “Are you actually… Are we…?”
“Yes!” I declare gleefully. “Can you believe it., we’re having a baby.”
We haven’t necessarily been trying but we’ve stopped b
eing careful. Plus, we’ve had idly discussions about how nice it would be and now that time has arrived. It’s happening for us, and at the same time that Tamara and Logan are having their next baby too. It couldn’t be more perfect.
“We’re having a baby!” Alistair whoops. “Oh my God, I have to be the luckiest man alive. I’m going to be a father.” He grabs me and kisses me hard. “Oh, wow, you are the best woman in the world. I love you.”
“I love you too,” I laugh. “And I’m excited too. Our own little baby. It’s going to be amazing.”
I found it at last, my very own happy ever after with a man I love more than anything in the world. I want wait to extend our family, to make that journey come true. I took a different path but I have it now and I’m never letting it go.