Page 62 of That Wedding (That Boy 2)
"Yeah, Princess, we already had a song."
He puts an ear bud in his ear, then one in mine, restarts the song, pulls me into his arms, and dances with me. I cry happy tears through the song. All the words so sum up our relationship.
When the song is over, I wrap both my hands around Phillip's cheeks, look him straight in the eyes, and kiss him slowly.
A long, slow, amazing kiss.
The kind of kiss that feels like the stars.
The kind of kiss you want for infinity. Forget happily ever after. I'm going to be happy with Phillip for infinity.
"You know, I was going to bring you to this exact spot to ask you to marry me. Then I felt like it wasn't enough. Like it wasn't big enough, like it wouldn't impress you. I went way overboard. I'm gonna fix that. Do this right. The way I should have." He drops down on one knee in front of me, takes my hand, and says, "Will you marry me, Princess?"
I drop on my knees and throw my arms around his neck. "The answer to that question is always going to be yes."
Last night, Phillip held my face in his hands and looked me straight in the eyes. It was a little unnerving at first, but then he would kiss me, and run his hands through my hair, and tell me over and over how much he loved me.
And I wouldn't say we had sex. I wouldn't say we had make up sex. I would say for the first time in my life, I really understand the difference between having sex and making love.
Because I'm pretty sure that's what we did.
Like pretty much all night.
Slow, tender, amazing.
Phillip walks into the bedroom, coffee cups in hand.
He grins at me. "I love what you're wearing."
"Phillip, I'm pretty sure I'm not wearing a damn thing." I can't help but laugh.
Cuz I'm completely naked.
Shame on me.
He gently puts his finger on mine and tips my left hand up, so I can see that he snuck the engagement ring back on my finger while I was sleeping.
I smile what may be the biggest smile of my life. "I like what I'm wearing too."
He sits on the bed next to me and holds my hand up. "I want you to take a good look at this ring. This ring has nothing to do with the wedding, nothing to do with our commitments, none of that. This ring means one thing. That I love you. Promise me that no matter what, no matter if we fight, no matter how hopeless things may feel, that you will look at this ring and know that when you love someone, that's all that really matters. That we'll always figure it out together."
"I promise," I whisper as I pull him back into bed with me.
We walk into Pastor John's office. I squeeze Phillip's hand tightly. I'm gearing up mentally for a big fight.
We don't sit down in his stupid chairs. We stand in front of his desk and rapidly take turns telling him all the reasons why we don't give a shit what he or anyone else thinks.
"We know all our answers are different," Phillip says as he tosses our questionnaires on his desk.
"And we know we solve our conflicts with sex," I say.
"And we know we spend too much time together."
"And we know we're not perfect. We might even be a little messed up."
"But when you put us together, we're a perfect match," Phillip says.
"And we love each other," I say. "Deeply and passionately. And we don't care what you or anyone else thinks. We're getting married."
Pastor John leans back in his chair and claps his hands slowly three times. "Bravo. Bravo."
I'm instantly pissed. "Bravo?"
"This isn't an act. We're serious," Phillip says. He's pissed too.
"I know you are," Pastor replies. "And don't move. I want you both to remember this moment forever. How it feels. The two of you. Hand in hand. Fighting against something you think is trying to tear you apart. I was playing devil's advocate a bit. And honestly, after last week, the way you argued, your body language, I didn't think you'd make it. Thought you'd call off the wedding. What you're going to face in life is going to be a whole lot harder than facing what you did with me. My job is to try and prepare you for that. I remember your parents' funeral, JJ. It was the hardest one I'd ever done in my career. I was the same age as your parents, and fresh out of school when I married yours, Phillip. I'd become friends with them. Watched you both grow. They were so proud of you both. I didn't think I was going to make it through the service, but I looked out and saw you, JJ, standing there in the pew. Your eyes were dry. Your chin was up. I saw such strength. I wondered what your parents did that made you so strong at such a young age. But then I noticed you were holding Phillip's hand tightly, just like you are now, and I knew where all that strength came from. It's from each other. You get strength from each other. Whatever you face in life, I hope you face it like you are now. Hand in hand. United. If you do that, you'll make it. You'll have a wonderful marriage."
I turn my head into Phillip's chest and cry with relief.
"It'd also be my extreme honor to marry you." Pastor grins at us and holds up our save the date card. "I mean, you did give me an STD a couple months ago, you kinda owe me."
I squeeze Phillip's side, and we can't help it. We both start laughing.
I wake up with a start. I look at the clock. It's almost seven, so I wake Phillip up. "Phillip, I'm not sure we should go on our honeymoon. I'm pretty soon the plane is gonna crash."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, I just had this dream, and it was horrible."
He doesn't even roll his eyes. "Tell me about it."
"Okay, so we're already married, and all our wedding guests are on an airplane with us. I'm in my wedding dress, and you're in your tux. We're in the cockpit of the plane. You were flying."
"Sweet."
"I take that back, you were not flying. You were crashing."
"Well then, I promise not to fly or crash the plane on our honeymoon."
"What if it's a warning? Like a premonition?"
"I'm gonna be glad when we're finally married, so you can stop with the disaster dreams. And hopefully if that's the case, we crash on the way back from the honeymoon."
He smirks at me, and I playfully smack his arm. "Phillip, that's not funny!"
"Okay, fine. If all our wedding guests were on the plane, we couldn't have been going on our honeymoon anyway."
"Oh my gosh, Phillip. I didn't think of that. What could that mean?"
"Did we actually crash and die?"
"What? I don't know. I woke up when we were getting ready to crash, but no, we hadn't hit yet."
"You just didn't see the end of the dream then. I know what happened."
"No, you don't."
"I do. I took control of the plane, pulled up the steering wheel, and safely landed it. The wedding is going to be brilliant, and our honeymoon is going to be like a fantasy."
"I'm pretty sure it didn't end that way."
"My mom used to tell me when I had bad dreams that the ideas were coming from my brain, and if it was scary, I should just use my mind to change the dream. Like all those scary awful ones I used to have where you would attack me." He pretend shudders, so I make a sad face.
"What's with all the dreams?"
"I don't know, I've had vivid dreams my entire life. I guess the good news is they've moved from wedding disasters to honeymoon disasters."
"Our honeymoon is going to be amazing. You in nothing but some skimpy bikinis and some sexy lingerie all week sounds like heaven to me."
"You suck. Why won't you tell me where we're going?"
"Because I wanna surprise you. If I tell you, you'll look at it on the internet and know what to expect. Trust me. It's practically paradise. So hey, speaking of dreams. You ever have any about me?"
"Maybe a few."
"Tell me." He's holding my hand and slowly twisting his fingers through mine. It's like he can't be near me without touching some part of me.
"Remember that night I was out with Mark and whined to you while sitting on the kitchen is
land? I had a dream that when he brought me home, he turned into this werewolf/vampire creature. I don't remember, but it was scary. You saved me. Opened up the car door, stabbed him, and drug me safely away."
"Sounds a lot like real life. I was always rescuing you for some reason or other."
"Yeah, but unlike real life, after I was safe, I kissed you."
"Now this is getting better."
"Not really. I think it's like an unwritten princess contract of some kind that after you're rescued by a prince, you have to kiss him."
"I think you were just hot for me."
"Ask any little girl, and they'll tell you. It's in every Disney movie. You get rescued, you pay him with a kiss."
"Well that sucks."
"I might have had another one that I had, um, quite often actually."
"Is it a good one?"
"I think so. Remember that flag bikini day when our feet got accidentally tangled up, and we both fell down?"
