Page 180 of Happily Never After

“You need to pull this tape. It’s not the right one.”

The teen crossed his arms. “Mr. Islestorm assured me that it’s the right one.”

“How could he have? He’s not even here.”

“He dropped it off earlier. It’s the right one.” The teen slammed the door.

What the hell? This was humiliating. This was supposed to be a celebration of Luke’s documentary and an opportunity to remember the victims. Instead they were showing a video of a wedding for someone the families didn’t even know.

She glanced at the screen again. Now it was playing behind-the-scenes footage of Claire on location for Kyle and Nicole’s proposal. Before she could blink, it switched to her pirouetting on the beach with an ice cream cone, laughing into the wind. A dozen more clips flashed—Claire rolling her eyes as her mother read tarot cards. Browsing the aisles at Sephora. Dancing in the living room with her sisters. Shuffling some papers into a fresh binder. Aggressively mashing potatoes on Thanksgiving. What was this? Was this some elaborate plan to humiliate her for making him have a premiere?

Hang on—was something falling from the sky? Brightly colored spots floated down from beyond the treetops. The drone of a plane hummed in the distance. She hadn’t cleared a planeorrandom glowing debris. Was there some kind of sky lantern festival going on in West Haven? It hadn’t been on the community calendar. And more importantly, where the hell was Luke? Everything was falling apart.

One of the lanterns drifted and settled on the ground at her feet. She bent to pick it up. Great, now there was refuse littering Luke’s premiere. People should really be more careful. She was about to blow out the candle when the hand-painted image on the side of the lantern was thrown into sharp relief. It was her and Luke on his birthday, hoisting the beef jerky trophy. Hermouth fell open. Another lantern landed a few feet away. It was also painted, this time with a picture of them dancing at Kyle and Nicole’s wedding.

Claire glanced up. A familiar redhead smiled at her from the taco truck. Jane and Aaron, former proposal clients, waved mischievously. She rolled the lantern in her hand. Jane’s signature was scrawled at the bottom. She must have painted the lanterns. But why?

Claire waved back, dumbstruck. On the movie screen, the video flashed to a title card that said “The Proposal Planner.” The image froze. What was that sound? An engine revved from somewhere in the woods. Suddenly, there was a smell of sulfur. Was the forest burning down? Did they need to evacuate?

At that moment, fireworks exploded into the air. Someone crashed through the movie screen on a dirt bike and roared to a stop just before the first row of seats.

Her heart fell into her feet. There was no way they were getting their security deposit back now. The screen gaped and flapped weakly in the wind.

The rider took his helmet off and waved. The crowd cheered. Hold on. The rider was Steve, another past client. Claire had planned a Jet Ski proposal for him last spring. It was one of the first things Luke had ever mocked her for. And those fireworks had looked identical to the ones they shot off to celebrate Tyler and Ericka’s patriotic proposal not long after. What was happening?

Music started playing. Not just music—an instrumental version of Claire’s favorite song from the heavy metal band Nightsmear. All through the audience, people got out of their chairs. Nicole and Mindy materialized out of nowhere and began to dance in front of her. It was a stupid, wiggly dance they had invented in college after too many shots of tequila.

“What the—” But a grin was growing on Claire’s face. This couldn’t have all been a wild accident. Something was happening.

Seconds later, Tanya and Jack swooped in. Jack spun Tanya out and performed an elegant dip before they moved off to the side, exposing Roy and Alice. They incorporated a quick salsa number. Alice’s breasts nearly tumbled out of her low-cut gown. Their grins would have been visible from space.

Suddenly almost everyone was dancing in a great big mob in front of her. Kayley Herrold’s wife waltzed around the perimeter of the crowd with Jennifer Heiser’s husband. Marco, the pawn shop broker who often found specialty items for Claire, danced by with his wife. Even Rachel and George marched to the front of the crowd and did approximately two seconds of “the wave” before stomping off to the side.

As the song came to the last chorus, a horse-drawn carriage emerged from the crowd. Claire laughed and clapped her hands. This was absolutely insane.

Victoria, Barney’s former fiancée, hopped down from the carriage and walked over. Claire’s heart jumped into her throat. She hadn’t seen her in person since the proposal, but she had wanted to reach out a thousand times. Even the sympathy basket she had sent was a poor replacement for a proper phone call.

Victoria handed over a single red rose and pulled her in for a tight hug. She said nothing, but Claire could feel the well of emotions inside her. The horse-drawn carriage clopped off. Something was falling from the sky again. A flashing light approached them at high speed. The Edison bulbs came back to full power, and light suddenly sprang up from the ground.

Claire glanced down at her feet. Yards of battery-powered fairy lights had been arranged in concentric circles. She was standing right in the middle of them without even noticing. She was losing her touch.

The blinking light drew closer. It crested over the tattered movie screen, andfinally,there he was. Luke Islestorm in a freakin’ tuxedo skydiving into his movie premiere. But it wasn’t a movie premiere after all.

The parachute streamed out behind him as he drifted gently over the rows of seats. As the song faded out, he cut the cord on his parachute and stepped smoothly into the ring of lights. A double baby Bjorn was strapped to him. Rosie panted happily, a pair of miniature goggles on her furry face.

If they were with Luke, what dogs had been on the camera at home? She didn’t have time to worry about it. Luke let her and Winston out of the harness, and they ran for Claire. He took two steps and dropped down on one knee in front of her.

“Oh my god,” she said, and her hands flew to her mouth in a gesture she had witnessed and carefully cultivated a hundred times.

He laughed and took her hand. “Was this enough dramatic flair for you?”

“I—I don’t even—you idiot!” She slapped him lightly on the shoulder.

The crowd chuckled.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to propose to someone who plans proposals for a living? You should have seen the binder we had to make for this project.” His green eyes shone brightly in the light from the fairy lights.

“This was supposed to be for you,” she said, gesturing at the tattered screen. “We didn’t even get to play your episode.”

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