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“Oh, it’s Isabella!” Linda says, turning to the stage where Bella speaks on the microphone. “Hi, darling!”
Bella and her mom wave at each other as Alex and I come on stage. Bella looks intently at her phone while we settle beside her.
“Pay attention now!” she says, full of cheer. “Everybody please look up… Now!”
We look up. For a second, there’s nothing, and then there is a plane, and then everything comes behind: a pink trail of smoke comes from it, causing roars and applause among the guests.
“It’s a girl!” Bella jumps in place, but I have no time to look at her, because Alex reaches to me for a kiss, a kiss full of passion, complete with a dip and a loud gasp for air.
I look at my parents and Alex’s — Harlan is tugging at his grandma’s skirt, undeniable rejection on his face.
“But I wanted a baby brother!” he shouts, and I’m sure he is in good hands when Linda picks him up in her arms.
“Okay, mom and dad!” Bella comes to us with the microphone. “Are you happy with the results? Did you want a girl?”
She points the microphone to Alex first, but I take hold of it first and get ready to talk.
“I’m happy! I will confess that I wanted a girl…” I cover my mouth and grin.
Alex comes from behind me and takes the microphone from my hand, looking a bit too serious for my liking.
“I’m happy too,” he says with a smile and a scratch to his head. “I wanted to be surprised, and I got it. Now Harlan has a little princess to protect!”
“I’m not protecting anyone!” Harlan yells, much to the laughter of everyone.
“But if you, my friends and family, allow me to diverge from the baby subject for a moment, I have a question to ask.” He looks at me with the intensity of the sun. “A question I have asked twice already and got a ‘not yet’ as an answer, but maybe the third time is the charm.”
My stomach gets tied in knots. If this is what I’m thinking, there’s no way I can escape it now — and well, maybe I shouldn’t.
“Olivia,” he turns to me and holds my hand, looking deep into my eyes, and I am paralyzed, completely entranced by this man’s power and presence. “The moment I met you, until this very instant, have been the happiest I’ve been since tragedy struck my life. You’re courageous, full of vivacity, your cheer is always contagious and sometimes I want to die in your laughter. I thought I could never be happy again, and then you proved me wrong.”
He reaches into his pocket and brings on a little velvet box. He used a different ring the previous two times, let’s see what fate awaits me this time.
“For the third time, Olivia…” he drags on the words as if tired, then gets down to one knee and opens up the box. “Will you marry me?”
I take a look at the ring while I stall, not that it matters, but I need to focus on something. Yes, it’s a different one, this one bigger, with one huge rock in the middle and four smaller ones around it.
“Say yes!” somebody yells.
The choir comes after, and in no time, all the guests are shouting ‘say yes’, even Alex’s very elegant parents.
Bella comes to me with a second microphone, and I take it trembling, an audible sigh coming out of me.
“Yes,Alex!” wild cheering, roars, and applause come. I feel like a rockstar. “I will marry you!”
He smiles a smile that can be seen from the back of his head, and then puts the ring on my finger, hands also shaking. When he stands up and comes close to kiss me, I bring my arms around his neck and he lifts me up, my feet in the air.
And I realize that’s exactly how I feel, as if I’m walking on air.
Epilogue One
ALEX
“Okay,thispartyisfun!” Patrick says, slapping his thigh and looking at the bar around us. “But why have the bachelor and bachelorette party at the same time and in the same place?!”
I look at Liv, who’s sitting on my lap, and we both shrug.
“I have more fun with her beside me!” I say, squeezing Liv.
