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Nine
Jaxon
She’s been in the restroom for a little too long now. I wait for the catering manager to finish up her rant before excusing myself to go find Hollis.
I make my way toward the restroom hall and find myself in a predicament as I don’t want the enter the lady’s bathroom. These restrooms are separated compared to the ones back home at our favorite bar—where I’ve snuck her into plenty of times before. I press my ear to the door to see if I can hear her, but my efforts are wasted.
“Jax?” I hear her voice echo from the other side and I see that she’s reentering the building through one of the back entries at the end of the hall.
“I came to look for you. Thought you’d be in the bathroom.” She approaches me, and I can tell there’s something on her mind. “Is everything okay?”
She takes a deep, calculated breath before crossing her arms over her chest and spilling what’s been bothering her.
“Honestly, being here and seeing your friend and his fiancé, has me thinking about our future.”
“Oh. How so?” I press on.
She looks behind me to make sure no one else is in earshot but the festivities can be heard down the hall as everyone continues to enjoy the rehearsal dinner.
“What do you want?” she asks, and I give her a puzzled look.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you truly want out of this life? Out of our relationship?” She chews her bottom lip when I realize that she wants me to be anything but agreeable and to voice my true wants. But I don’t know if she’s come to terms with the fact that the only thing I want is to be with her no matter how that comes to be.
“Hollis,” I whisper her name and move in closer to grip her chin with my forefinger and thumb. “You don’t need to doubt what I want, Little Moon. I want this. Just this. Whatever comes or doesn’t come will make me happy. Weddings are emotional and I like to think that’s kind of the point. But this life with you is the only thing I know for sure. Would I love to marry you, put a ring on your finger, and give you my last name? Fuck yes. Would I love to make you the mother of my children? Absolutely. But I can promise you that even if none of those things happen, I’ll still die a happy as hell man as long as you are by my side. I wouldn’t say that if it weren’t true.” I lean down and kiss her lips, her eyelids flutter closed as I make contact.
She’s special to me. I won’t lose her a second time even if she thinks that my wants don’t align with hers, because they do. I need her more than I want the superficial or expected things in life. But sometimes those superficial things in life are more of a celebration or an intimate setting and some people find them not so superficial. I don’t mean to discredit anyone’s traditions or values, the way they celebrate love is valid in any sense. I just know Hollis too much to know that this is not what she would want. She’d only want if I do.
“Besides, I don’t think you give me enough credit, Holli. I know that even if we were to get married, you wouldn’t want a big wedding like this. I’d take you up to a mountain, or down to a vintage Vegas church, maybe even to the city in the middle of a rainstorm with the moon high in the sky and marry you right there. You’d want to elope. And if you want the truth, I don’t want a big wedding either. I’d want it to be just you and me. And I also know that you’d want to hyphenate your last name, because you're stubborn but also because you love your family name. I think Hollis Marie Mendoza-Monroe sounds fucking sexy on you.” She relaxes a little as we get lost in each other, tongues dancing and hands roaming. I almost forgot we’re in the presence of others until a clearing of someone’s throat sounds behind us.
“Sorry to interrupt, Callan was looking for you Jax.” Sterling walks up almost in tiptoes as Hollis and I break our embrace.
She tries to wipe tears that I didn’t even know she shed as I swipe at my lips to make sure I don’t have her lipstick smeared across my face. Sterling chuckles.
“Oh, hey Sterling. This is Hollis. I know you barely met at the door earlier,” I say awkwardly.
“Hi, Hollis. Nice to formally meet you.” Hollis reaches her hand out to meet Sterlings and the two shake hands.
“Everything was beautiful tonight and I had so much fun, and I can’t wait to see you in your gown tomorrow.” Hollis smiles her beautiful, strong smile and I can’t help but feel so lucky to have her here by myside for this.
“Thank you. And you are just as stunning as Jaxon’s made you out to be, if not more. He’s told me all about you. Well actually, Cal has because Jaxon talks to Callan about you a lot.” Sterling giggles as she looks my way before leaning into Hollis and whispering in her ear, “Between you and me. Jax is such a great guy and he’s very lucky to have you. And I’m very happy you could both make it.”
I pretend not to hear what they’re whispering about as I focus on Dakota’s boyfriend walking up the hall.
“Sterling?” he asks as he approaches us.
Sterling takes a step back from Hollis who then inches into me.
“Nolan!” Sterlings turns back to us. “Jax, Hollis. This is Nolan if you haven’t met yet.”
“Just briefly,” I say as I shake his hand. Nolan looks at Hollis who says, “Guess you’re my seating partner tomorrow.”
“Hope you don’t mind a baby and two rowdy girls,” he jokes with her, but Hollis just smiles and responds, “I’m sure I can manage.”
“Sterling, I wanted to actually talk to you about something. Mind if we…” Nolan hesitates as he tries to politely tell Hollis and I that they need to have a private conversation.
“Oh, of course. We’ll just head out then. I guess we’ll see everyone tomorrow.” Hollis pulls me along.
