Then Luan comes walking toward me, though he gets distracted by the snow for a hot second. I still can’t believe that last year was the first time he’s seen snow. He looks at me, stopping in his tracks, then slowly lifts his arm only to end up flipping me off.
It’s moments like these that I wonder why I ever married him in the first place, but then I think about what my life would be like without that weird guy in my life and suddenly, getting flipped off every other second, or having been forced to put up yellow decorations in our apartment doesn’t seem half as bad anymore. I still think black interiors and yellow decorations don’t fit all that well, but then again, people would say the same about my relationship, and we make it work anyway.
Nope, I cannot compare interior design with my relationship, that’s as wrong as saying soccer is better than ice hockey.
When Luan finally stands before me, I feel a little relieved because I know this whole thing will be over soon. I really don’t like the attention, having everyone stare at me. I wouldn’t say we have a small number of guests because our whole circle is bigger than what I ever thought my social circle would be, but at least there aren’t any truly unnecessary people here. Well, apart from my sister’s boyfriend.
Luan leans into me, not to kiss me I realize. “Congratulations, Grey Davis, you get to marry me a second time. There aren’t a lot of people who are awesome enough to marry me even once.”
“So, how many husbands do you have?”
I expect everything to come out of Luan’s mouth. A number somewhere between one to a million, but what comes instead leaves me speechless. “Two. You and Miles. I get the feeling I married him the second I married you.”
I don’t get to agree or disagree because the officiant gets impatient. “Shall we?”
I turn to look at him like he just ruined my whole day with that stupid question. I mean, we’re paying that guy to be here, so he might as well be patient enough and let me and my husband have a private conversation before we get started.
“Just so you know, I didn’t prepare any vows because I refuse to offer my friends free ammo to make fun of me,” I tell my husband, then nod for the officiant to go ahead.
Luan chuckles, then pulls out a piece of paper from his sweatpants.
Oh, did I mention that we’re not even wearing a suit? Luan insisted we wear something comfortable, something that’s unusual for a wedding, so we’re wearing our matching hoodies, his yellow, mine dark gray. He’s wearing white sweatpants while I wear black cargo pants.
When for most weddings the guests aren’t allowed to wear white, we made the rule that nobody is allowed to wear black or yellow.
Luan unfolds the paper. “Good thing I found your vows this morning. I’ll just read them out for you.” He taps a finger to the first line and clears his throat. “I vow—”
“We didn’t even start the ceremony yet,” the officiant interrupts.
Luan drops his arms, laughing. “Right. You may proceed. Or start. Wait, should I walk down that aisle again? Should we just start over from like theverybeginning? Brooke and Eden could—”
I press my lips to Luan’s, shutting him up.
As usual, we’re doing everything with a little extra confusion on top, even getting married.
Epilogue
“and I’m not scared to say those words, with you, I’m safe”—Falling Like The Stars by James Arthur
January 2034
“But like, don’t tellMom, okay, Uncle Grey?” Eden jumps off the couch, ready to go give his “girlfriend” a visit at nine p.m. If he thought I’d let that happen, he thought wrong. Eden’s only twelve. Correction, he’s still eleven, turning twelve this September.
Honestly, I’m not even sure Miles or Emory know Eden’s having somewhat of a crush on this girl in his English class. Unlike Brooke, Eden tells neither of his parents anything. Although Brooke is turning seventeen this year—yes,seventeen—she tells Miles every single detail about her life. She doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut.
The good side to that is, Miles not once had to worry about her because he always knows where she’s going. But I don’t think he wants to know about everything his daughter does. I mean, Brooke even tells him about her bathroom breaks at school, or how Reece and her snuck out of class just to make out in the hallway.
It’s a miracle Miles didn’t pull Brooke out of school and far away from Reece the second he learned that Brooke’s now dating him, though I suppose we all knew it was coming anyway.
But Miles isn’t me, so I can imagine he somewhat likes knowing most about his daughter’s life. I, on the other hand, when I picture Sage coming up to me in twelve years only to tell me she skipped one class to make out with her partner, I’d most definitely throw that person and her into jail myself. Don’t know what for, but I’ll find something.
My husband would probably cheer her on though.
Oh, Sage.
Luan and I wereextremelylucky when we finally chose to have kids. Although we planned to adopt, we decided to try a surrogate first. Okay, it was only because Luan desperately wanted either a son or daughter that looked like me, God knows why, but I said if he gets a mini me, I want a mini him. And so here we are.
We wanted them to have the same biological mother, so we decided the first baby should be biologically Luan’s since he’s older than me. Only by a year but who cares?