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“Photo time!” my mum said brightly, looking up from the camera. She patted my dad’s arm, shooting him an expectant look, and he rolled his eyes good-naturedly in return. Lifting the camera, he snapped several photos of us, my mum pausing to inspect each one on the camera screen, and then they left us alone.
“Ready to go?” Ander began steering me towards the door.
“Where are we going?” It was pointless to ask him, really—it was obvious he was enjoying the mystery way too much if the huge, excited grin on his face was anything to go by.
“You’ll see,” was all he said. We ended up in his car, and I couldn’t work out where we were going until the sign for the golf club appeared and Ander turned into the entrance.
The car park was busy, and along with the usual December festive decorations, it appeared like it was decorated for a wedding or some extravagant party.
Ander parked a little way away from the other cars in a corner shadowed by a large oak tree. “Ready?” he asked, and before I could reply, he climbed out of the car, slamming his door behind him. I’d only just unbuckled my seat belt when my door was thrown open, and Ander was there, holding out his hand to me.
I placed my hand in his warm, solid grip, and he pulled me up to him, closing the door behind me. The automatic locking beep sounded as we began walking in the direction of the golf club, our hands still clasped.
When we made it onto the terrace that led into the golf club’s function room, Ander placed his mouth to my ear. “Act like you belong here,” he murmured. “Like you know the people inside.”
My head shot around to his, my eyes widening. “Ander! Tell me we’re not crashing someone’s party.”
“Uhhh. No, we’re definitely not crashing someone’s party.” He wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“Ander.”
“We’re, uh…we’re crashing a wedding. It’s okay, though. It’s a big one—I checked. Half the people here should be well on their way to being drunk by now, so they won’t know or care, and the others will just assume we’re guests because of the way we’re dressed.”
I groaned. This had the potential to go horribly wrong. “If this ends up being like the time we tried to sneak into Bobby’s eighteenth and we not only got caught by his parents, but I spent the whole night throwing up blue sick from that bloody vodka drink, then Iwillkill you.”
“That one was your idea.” He met my gaze, a smirk on his lips, and I wanted to simultaneously kiss him and strangle him. Okay, it was like 90 percent kiss and 10 percent strangle, but you know how it is when your loved one acts like a bit of a bellend.
“It wasnotmy idea,” I hissed. “Anyway, please tell me why we’re crashing someone’s wedding.”
His next words had my admittedly minor irritation-slash-anxiety melting away in an instant, replaced by a wave of love so fierce, I could’ve happily drowned in it.
“Because you deserve another go at the prom. I know it’s not a replacement for everything you missed out on, but I don’t want you to be sad anymore when we drive past. We’re going in there, and you and me are going to dance together and be all in love, and then we’ll take some selfies before we go.”
The sudden lump in my throat was too big for me to speak, but Ander seemed to get it; he gave me a soft smile and squeezed my hand before leading me inside.
Thankfully, he was right about it being a big wedding. As I looked around at the groups of guests—a large number already inebriated, lit by colourful sweeping lights—I relaxed. We headed straight over to the dance floor, where we spent at least forty minutes just dancing and making fools of ourselves, interspersed with a quick bar break to quench our thirst.
After Ander had quite an impressive go at the Cha Cha Slide along with the drunken bride and groom while I recorded the entire thing on my phone, we headed outside for a minute to get some air. Standing next to one of the patio heaters that dotted the terrace, we wrapped our arms around each other. I lowered my head to his shoulder, pressing my cold nose into the side of his throat.
“Thank you for this. This was exactly what I needed, but I didn’t know it.”
He rubbed his hands up and down my back. “Good memories from now on.”
“The best,” I agreed softly.
“There’s just one more thing before we take our selfies. Actually, no, let’s take a selfie here first.” Tugging his phone from his pocket, he held it in front of us. Our faces were lit by the glow of the fairy lights that were strung around the terrace, and the patio heater flames sent flickering shadows dancing across us. We’d already taken several selfies this evening, but Ander was fixated on taking some right before we left, which made me fucking melt inside. The things I’d told him about our leavers’ prom…I hadn’t even planned to tell him, but it had all spilled out in the car. I’d never meant to make him feel guilty or feel like he needed to make it up to me because he’d done nothing wrong, but he’d taken my words to heart.
We wore matching wide smiles as I pressed the side of my face against his, our faces appearing on his phone screen. He snapped a photo, and then gasped, making me jump.
“Wait. I almost forgot.” Rummaging in his pocket with his brows pulled together, he muttered, “Where is it?” When he lifted his hand, his fist was closed, and I raised my brows, eyeing him with suspicion.
“What are you doing?”
He grinned at me. “Adding the finishing touches. Remember how our prom had all those green decorations for our school colour?” I didn’t have a chance to reply before he opened his fist, tiny green star-shaped confetti raining down on us.
This man. He’d thought of everything. “You’re amazing, you know? I love you.” I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of finally being able to say those words to him. The words I never thought I’d get to say outside the context of friendship.
“Same. I love you back.” Brushing a kiss across my lips, he took one more photo, then pocketed his phone. “Let’s go back inside for this final part of the plan. Then we can go and kiss in my car and maybe wank each other off because I don’t think there’s room for us to do anything else in there.”
