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“Besides,” he said. “There will be security and remember, the reception is indoors. Nobody will be able to take photographs with gigantic lenses, hiding in the greenery or something.”
“You’re so calm about all this,” I said in wonder. “I mean, I thought you’d hate the fuss too.”
“I’m used to it,” he said quietly. “When you are a well-known individual, they use you to sell stories, to get clicks. If there is no story, they make it up. Just denying it creates a content stream. You have no idea how much has been written about me.”
Actually, I did. I had Googled him before working for him and then later, when we stopped seeing each other, I was always looking up his name on social media.
“None of that matters,” he said quietly.
“Only you and me matter. What we have. If you want to cancel the wedding, I have no problem doing that. As long as we stay together, as long as we are still us.”
“We’ll always be us,” I said. I was sure of that. This was one thing I had absolutely no doubt about.
In the end, we did get married that Saturday afternoon.
It was a day drenched in golden sunlight, the vineyards glowing in the warmth of the afternoon sun as I made my way down the aisle. When I saw Tate waiting for me at the top of the church, my heart was beating faster.
This was it. This was our moment.
No matter what happened in the future, no matter if we had fights about whose folks we were going to for Christmas or why he was late again from work or if he’d spent too much money on a new Porsche or whatever, we would always have this.
A moment of utter beauty.
An afternoon where time stood still as our friends and family looked at us, smiling, their hearts filled with love and happiness for us as we turned to each other, took each other’s hand and whispered the words to forever like a key to unlock a magic future. Maybe I’d watched too many Hallmark movies but when Tate slipped the ring on my finger and said in a voice breaking with emotion, “With this ring, I thee wed…” tears started running down my face.
This was happiness.
Someone who wanted me for me, who saw me for the person I was. Not just the baby of my family, or the PA who was a spreadsheet wizard. He wanted to be with me for better or for worse, but mostly, forever. Someone who knew that love didn’t always come packaged the way you thought it would. That it looked and felt different to everyone.
But that only made it better.
Love, in the end, is its own reward.
And it was more than enough.
*****
