Page 131 of The Fake Dating War

The gazebo is dripping with them, as are the long tablescapes beyond it, so hedonistically full of flower arrangements, vases, cakes, drinks, and treats that the white of the tablecloth is obscured.

“I can’t believe she did all this,” I say with another gasp.

“It wasn’t her.”

I turn to look at Jake. He’s standing there with his hands slipped into his pockets, watching my reaction so carefully.

“Youdid this?”

He nods. “For you.”

Turning back around, I get closer. There are tables full of tasty canapés, a lot of them flavors I recognize and love. Goat cheese, apricot, bruschetta… and is that the Ritz cracker one I made for Jake a few months ago? The one I ate too many plates of because I couldn’t get enough?

Going closer, I see dishware, flatware, beautiful string lighting, and a dance floor. I can’t stop staring at everything in disbelief, warm under the toasty sun, breathing in the flowery garden air, eyes feeling damp all of a sudden.

Jake comes up behind me. He turns me gently around.

“Is this ourwedding?” I whisper.

“Only if you want it to be,” he says in a voice choked with emotion. “You don’t have to marry me. There’s no pressure. It can be a party and nothing more. For I’ve loved every second of this past year and if all our years are like this one, I’m the happiest man.Youmake me the happiest man. And I know you don’t have good experiences of being married—and you might not want to do it again—but I wanted you to know I’m here. I’ll always be here if you’ll have me. That for the rest of our lives, I’ll be by your side.”

He continues, “And if you need time to think about it, consider this a trial run. I can plan everything for us. All you have to do is show up and be happy, if that’s what you want?”

The conversation we had in the hotel room so long ago, I remember it now. Back when we were fools denying everything between us. I had told him a far-fetched (to me, at the time) vision of the wedding I longed for. A wish hidden in the nooks of my repressed heart. It was for my partner to put everything together, so I wouldn’t have to shoulder any of the burden and?—

He’s given it all to me.

Jake Coleman remembered and has gifted it to me, but without any expectation that I will say yes. No, he’s told me I have all the power and I don’t ever have to get married again if that’s what I want.

“You did this for me,” I whisper.

“I’d do anything for you Reema, but there’s no pressure. I never want to pressure you. You don’t have to?—”

I leap into his arms. “Yes!”

He swings me around. “Yes? You want to marry me?”

“You make me so happy–I–of course–I want forever with you. Yes to all of it!”

He puts me down, pulls me close, and kisses me. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

“There’s a ring.” He pulls it out of his pocket, goes on one knee, and holds it up for me to see. It’s an antique diamond wrapped in a halo of smaller diamonds. The light strikes off the stones, stippling us with dazzle.

Now my hands are shaking. “It’s beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful.” He holds my hand and slides it on.

It’s a perfect fit and as soon as it’s on, the back doors of the house burst open with our family and friends pouring out, screaming with joy.

My sister reaches me first. Gurinder follows behind with their son in his arms. “I told you so,” she declares. “Iknewyou were going to marry him!”

Behind them, my mother is sobbing into my father’s shoulder, and on the other side of her is Jake’s mother, dabbing her tears.

Serena is here, too.

“I thought you were supposed to be in Japan! You flew in?” I say incredulously.

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