Page 167 of Butterfly Effect

“Why would I think?—”

Her words evaporate into a gasp. Garlands of gardenia hang from the string lights, a twilight glowing against the lush green space. Decorative palms and tropical plants create walls, crawling ivy covering the entire back. It smells of her, matches her. Gabe steps into it, hands swiping at the strands as she passes.

“Hey, Freckles?” I call for her attention.

When she turns, her eyes light up at the sudden semi-circle created by our loved ones. Her dad, my mom. Indi and Landonholding Akhila. Denise and her partner. Mel. Skylar and Jaeger next to Fletcher.

“What are you guys doing here?”

I lower to one knee.

Indi points to me, and finally, Gabe notices my perched stance.

My hands reach for hers, brushing her knuckles with my thumbs. “I’ve done so many impulsive, reckless things in my life for attention. To be loved and cherished, at the top of someone’s list. I sought it in all the wrong places. And then you showed up in that press room. Everything I thought I wanted or believed I was satisfied with evaporated into thin air. All I wanted was you, and you weren’t mine to have.” I swallow the knot in my throat.

“I wouldn’t wish what you’ve been through on anyone, but I’m so grateful it was me who got caught up in you. I thank the universe for the way you hate-kissed me on New Year’s Eve four years ago. How lucky was it that I convinced you to come up to my hotel room after Landon and Indi’s wedding? It can’t be a coincidence that our shared past—each one of those times—set off another chaotic series of events that led us through so many realizations about ourselves and each other and brought us here, to this point. It can’t be anything but a butterfly effect cutting our seemingly well-balanced world to shreds.”

Water floods her darkened lower lids.

“Maman once told me if I ever find the person who finds me as annoying as I find them, and despite that, we’re able to prioritize each other above anything else, then I should marry them. Happy to announce on my 25th birthday, that’s you, Freckles. You are the most maddening, infuriating, insufferable person I’ve ever met.”

“Oh, my God.” Gabe pushes out a short laugh.

“Iknow, for a fact, that I annoy the living daylights out of you. I love you, Gabe Finch. I respect you. And I don’t want to live without you. Put me out of my misery and marry me.”

Adoration gleams back at me from her weepy eyes.

My hands part from hers to dig the velvet box from my pocket. I snap it open. A four-carat marquise emerald and its vining diamond petals cast shadows onto my pinched-together forefinger and thumb.

“So, what do you think, Freckles?”

Gabe wipes away her sniffle with a wrist. “You wanna marry me because I annoy you?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“God, you’re an idiot,” she shakes her head, “but you’remyidiot.”

“That’s all I wanted to be.”

“An idiot?”

“Yours.”

Gabe bends forward, caging my neck between her hands as she speaks against my lips.

“Alright, Pretty Boy. I’ll marry you.”

Epilogue

Wade

Three Years Later

I haven’t seenGabe weep with joy like this since our trip to India.

We’d gone to the Maldives on honeymoon, but the surprise trip to Mumbai had been somewhat of a culture shock to us both. Every sense was overstimulated beyond limits. Being there during Ganeshotsav was part of the plan, but the pictures and videos don’t do the havoc justice.

Shoulder-to-shoulder, limb-to-limb, we were two insignificant dots within a crowd of thousands headed down Linking Road to Juhu Beach, chanting and singing in chorus. A cacophony of cymbals and drums pealed out, inspiring some to throw colored powder into the air to join the smell ofsandalwood and sweat. Its orange dust covered the tops of our heads, our kurtas, and cotton pajama-style pants.

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