Page 48 of Accidental Wedding Crasher
Mia breathed down the annoyance that surged in her. It wasn’t this man’s fault that the cab was late, and he had no way of knowing how badly Mia wanted to leave the wedding.
“Thank you,” she managed. “Grazie.”
“Ciao,” he said brightly, and the line went dead. Mia set her bag on the floor and sank onto the bed. She’d been so close to leaving, but now everything was delayed. That increased the chances that she’d run into one of the Hirsts or even Evan himself, and she couldn’t handle that right now. Worse, it was already starting to get dark outside. She was hungry, tired, and stressed, and it would be night soon. She couldn’t be here when night properly fell. She couldn’t stay another day.
All Mia wanted was to be home, in her familiar apartment, surrounded by her own things and near her own friends and family. There was so much she had to figure out, and being stuck here made her feel itchy and impatient. She knitted and unknitted her hands, half-wondering if she should take a bicycle and see how far she made it.Don’t be ridiculous,she thought, but it was still tempting.
Deciding to make the best of this waiting time, Mia got out her phone and googled flights back to San Francisco. Her mouth dropped open at the prices. Having never flown internationally before, she was shocked by the high prices for same-day flights. “There’s no way I can afford this,” Mia muttered to herself, scrolling through the list of flights. “No way at all.”
At the very bottom of the list, there was one flight she could possibly afford, but it had a twenty-eight-hour layover in Heathrow and a thirty-minute one in Charles De Gaulle, neither of which seemed good at all. Mia sank her head into her hands, discouraged. It had seemed so simple to call a cab and flee, and she’d been ready to dip into her savings, but bankrupting herself right before having a child seemed like a terrible idea.
Still. She didn’t have any other option. There was no way she could keep pretending to be Evan’s girlfriend after he’d walked away from her when she’d needed him most.
Mia straightened up, took a breath, and tapped on the terrible but relatively inexpensive flight. She was about to fill in her information when she heard something that made her tilt her head and furrow her brow. It was very faint, but it sounded like music. Was it coming from the wedding? It seemed to be coming from the other side of the building from where the venue was, though.
She stood and went to the window, cracking it slightly. She was able to make out the words to the song now. It was “On This Starry Night,” the first song she and Evan had danced to. Tears sprang to her eyes as she remembered how it had felt to sway in his arms, grinning and flirting and feeling free and happy. Then she remembered how he’d said he didn’t like the song. He’d been upfront with her right from the beginning that he didn’t like love or sappy things, so what had she expected?
Mia was about to close the window and drown out the sound of the song that was making her heart ache. Before she could, though, she glanced outside and saw a familiar figure standing beside the pool. She did a double-take. It couldn’t be… could it?
But that was Evan. He was standing next to the pool, holding a speaker over his head, from which the song was playing. And he was surrounded by fairy lights and flowers. He still wore his best-man suit, but he’d loosened the collar and undone the tuxedo jacket buttons. His hair was messy, as though he’d been running a hand through it, and he was looking up at the building a little to Mia’s right, his expression hopeful.
Mia’s hand flew to her mouth. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
Forgetting her bag, her phone, everything, she ran out of the room, closing the door behind her. She took the stairs two at a time, skidding through the lobby, and raced out into the pool area. There, she came to a stop right in front of Evan, who slowly lowered the speaker as the last strains of “On This Starry Night” rang out.
“Hi there,” he said, his voice full of warmth, and Mia’s knees went weak. She crossed her arms over her stomach.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I thought it was obvious.” Evan gestured to the speaker, the fairy lights, and the flowers. “I’m doing all that romantic stuff that I always thought was pointless.”
“And why?” Mia prompted. She couldn’t let herself believe that this was really happening.
“Because I don’t think it’s pointless anymore.” Evan set the speaker down and crossed to her, his intense blue eyes never leaving hers. “Mia, I messed up when I left you alone on the bench. I should have stayed to talk to you. I should have reassured you that we were going to figure things out. But I was scared, because a baby was never part of my plan.”
“I’m aware of that.” Mia stepped closer and they met in the middle. The sweet scent of flowers filled the air around them as the fairy lights twinkled in the growing dusk. “I wasn’t asking you to change your whole life. I wasn’t even asking you to be a dad. I was telling you what was happening.”
“I realize that now,” Evan said. He reached out and took her hands. “Youwere never in my plans, either. I had a whole vision of what my future would be like, and that’s gone out the window because of you.”
“What do you mean?” Mia let him hold her hands, her heart racing. She could barely meet his eyes as a mixture of hope and worry swirled in her stomach.
“Well, I thought I’d always be alone,” Evan admitted. “I thought that relationships ruined careers, but I realize now that I was wrong. I don’t care about my work as much anymore, now that I met you.”
He hesitated. “What I’m trying to say, Mia, is that you turned my life upside down in the best possible way. You showed me that there’s more to life than work. You showed me that I can have fun and enjoy myself and put my computer aside. When I’m with you, I feel like the best possible version of myself, and that’s thanks to you.”
Evan squeezed her hands. “My initial reaction was wrong, and I’m sorry for that. But I know what I want now: I want you. I want our baby.”
At that, a wall of emotion slammed into Mia, bringing tears to her eyes even as her heart sang. She felt weak and full of boisterous joy all in the same instant, and Evan’s eyes widened. He reached out and used his thumb to wipe away a stray tear that had escaped her eyes. His touch was gentle.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said.
“I’m not.” Mia laughed softly. “I mean, I am, but not because I’m sad. I … I never expected to hear that, not from you. Do you mean it?”
“I do. I want a future together, Mia. I want a future with you and our baby. I want to go on vacations and dance under the stars and hold up a speaker to play music for you. I want to fight and make up, plan a future together, wash dishes at night in our pajamas — all that relationship stuff. And I want to learn how to be parents together, change diapers and pick out onesies and all that. If that’s what you want.”
Mia nodded. “It is, Evan. It really is.”
“There’s just one thing, though.” His face grew serious. “I’m ready to cut back on work. I’ve already handed a lot of things over this week, and I think I don’t need to take much of it back. But I don’t want to give up work entirely.”
