Page 51 of Promise Yule Be Mine
"Ah, oh…yeah…what else? I'd have someone I love officiate the wedding and my pets would be involved. Heck, two of them could even be carried down the aisle instead of flowers, but Jenna isn't so keen on animals so she'd never go for it."
Nova grimaced. "Uhm…isn't her mom a vet?"
"A vet tech, yeah," I said.
"Weird that I didn't know that, but then again we never had pets growing up so I wouldn't know. Anyway, how...how would thatwork with you two? Won't they be a problem when you move in together?"
Oh, that.
We hadn't even talked about that yet. In fact, we'd talked about the plan for the future very little since we’d gotten engaged. Hence how unprepared we were for the wedding.
We really had to sit down and decide where we'd live, when, how. Figure out when we could start IVF and all that jazz.
"Ah…I…" I tried to find something, anything, to say but no excuse, no lie would come to me.
"How is everything, you guys?" The waitress appeared at the perfect moment to save me from utter humiliation.
"So what's your ideal wedding?" I asked when we reassured her everything was good, and she refilled our coffees.
I hoped he hadn't noticed me evading the subject. If he did, he was too kind to mention it, which worked just fine with me.
"Small, intimate, floral, romantic," he said. "I actually love your idea of a perfect wedding."
Of course he did. Because he was the perfect groom. The perfect man.
"Th-thanks," I managed to say.
"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to show off my crafty hand and make it memorable, but…" he shrugged. "I've done so many big, extravagant weddings with over a hundred, two hundred guests and they always feel…" His wrinkled his nose from side to side until he settled on a word, "alien."
"That's right. Exactly. Like even if you know that many people how can you connect with them on your special day?"
He shared more ideas of things he loved, things he hated, his ideal color palette.
"Of course things would be different if it was a Christmas wedding. Oh, now that would be perfect," he said. Then as if he remembered himself, he cleared his throat, shuffled in his seat and sighed. "Of course marriage isn't even in the album, let alone the picture so none of it matters right now."
Before I even thought of it or could control it, I reached for his hand, brushing the soft spot between his thumb and index slowly.
"I'm sorry. But we can always dream, right?"
Like dream of finding the perfect man when one hadn't made a promise to their best friend to marry them.
"Y-yes," he choked, staring at me.
"Any man would be lucky to have you."
He swallowed with some difficulty and without breaking eye contact said, "I…I'm not that easy to be with."
I was so enthralled by his wonderful dark eyes, the way they seemed to tear right through my clothes, pierce my skin and burrow right into my heart with such ease, such art.
"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard," I said, my voice barely a whisper.
"Are you guys finished?"
For the second time, the waitress popped up, only now she had come at the worst possible moment. Which was probably for the best because who knew what else I would have done if she hadn't interrupted.
Nova pulled his hand back and I immediately felt its absence. But there was nothing I could do about that. All I could do was clear the way so the waitress could collect our plates and avoid his gaze until I'd paid up.
"Thanks for getting that. You really shouldn't?—"
