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Epilogue
“I have gotto take these shoes off,” I said, sitting down next to Esme and slipping off the rose gold shoes that matched my bridesmaid’s dress. The shoes had been fine when I bought them for Linley’s wedding a few months ago, but standing and dancing my ass off for hours was going to take a toll, no matter what I had on my feet.
“Poor Paige. I’ll give you a foot massage later,” Esme said. She was looking hot as hell in a backless black dress that showed off her new tattoos. It wasn’t my imagination that more than a few of the wedding guests had been checking her out the whole evening. That happened all the time, and I’d gotten used to it in the past year and a half we’d been together.
“I can’t tell who’s happier, Linley or her mom,” I said, leaning against Esme.
“I’m going with Martha. I thought she was going to faint when they finally said ‘I do.’”
I laughed. “I know! Now she’ll start the countdown for grandbabies.” Poor Linley was never going to hear the end of it until she produced an heir to the Sweet’s bakery empire.
“Yes, and we know nothing about that kind of pressure,” Esme said, rolling her eyes. Between my mom and her dad, we had our own set of parental pressures to deal with. After some initial reluctance, my mom had fallen so in love with Esme, she’d become best friends with Butch. Personally, I thought they were banging on the side, but Esme said she didn’t want to even think about that, so I didn’t bring it up anymore.
Esme kept randomly twitching and it was getting distracting. I didn’t know why she was being so jumpy. The wedding was over, and she hadn’t even been in it. Why was she so nervous?
“Oh, Linley’s going to throw the bouquet,” I said, as people started to gather on the dance floor and fight for it.I was prepared to sit back and watch the mayhem.
“Come on,” Esme said, getting up.
I shook my head. “No way. I’m not participating in that. I don’t want to lose an eye,” I said.
Esme kept looking at the crowd and then back at me.
“Oh, come on, we’ll stay in the back,” she said. Esme was being weird about this, but whatever. If she wanted to participate, then that was fine. I was just grateful Linley didn’t do the whole garter thing. Gross.
Esme and I took up residence in the back, far away from the bouquet. There was literally no way that either of us was going to get it.
“One, two, three!” Linley yelled and I waited to see the bouquet flying through the air and people bumping into each other to reach for it.
“What’s happening?” I asked, as I watched Linley run over to us and shove the bouquet at me, a huge smile on her face.
I couldn’t understand what was going on. What was the point of the toss if she was just going to give it to me?
“Take it,” Linley said.
“Okay?” I said.
I took the bouquet and literally everyone was staring at me. What the fuck?
Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to the side to see Esme down on one knee, holding out a ring box.
“Oh my god what the fuck?” I said, dropping the bouquet.
“I love you so much, Paige. You’re everything to me. I can’t wait to spend every day of the rest of our lives together. Will you marry me?” she said.
I was crying so hard I couldn’t speak, but I was able to nod as everyone cheered and I held out a shaky hand to let Esme slip the ring on. I barely even looked at it as she swept me up in her arms and spun me around and kissed me over and over.
The DJ started playing “La Vie En Rose,” and Esme set me down.
“You never said yes,” Esme pointed out.
“Yes, fuck yes, I will marry the hell out of you.”
We swayed back and forth for a few seconds in bliss. Everything felt like a dream.
Our parents came over to congratulate us and then it was an avalanche of people hugging us and offering their support and me yelling at Linley and everyone else for hiding this from me.
At last, I got to go back and dance with my new fiancée.
