Page 98 of Tap Left
“What are you doing here?” she asks Mellie before turning to me. “Why are they all here? Is this an intervention or something?”
We all laugh at her misunderstanding, and Lola blushes. I wheel closer and try to be a smooth operator when I pull the ring from my pocket. She almost discovered it when she was tearing at my clothes tonight. Her face pales when she sees the little velvet box and starts to connect the dots. Everyone is here for a purpose, and she realizes that when she notices how they are dressed.
“I, uh—”
“Lola, it’s my turn to speak.”
“Right,” she murmurs. “Right.”
She looks like she’s about to fall over, so I gesture her closer. She doesn’t protest when I guide her onto my lap. “I’m not one to mince words,” I begin. “And I won’t pretend to be the romantic sort.”
She forces an awkward laugh.
“But I wouldn’t be doing you justice if I didn’t at least put some thought into what I’m about to say. So here it is, LB. You deserve a lot better than me, but for some reason, you seem hell-bent on caring about my prickly ass.”
Another awkward laugh.
“What it boils down to is this. Nobody else is ever going to make you as mad as I am. Nobody’s ever going to be as cruel as I’ve been. And nobody else is ever going to love you as much as I do.”
A soft sniffle, which she tries to hide. I tell her no. I want her emotions, all of them. I need to see them. I want to collect them and store them so I can keep them for an eternity.
“You’re awkward and a little crazy and incredibly unsure of yourself almost ninety-nine percent of the time. You annoy me, and I annoy you, but somehow, we work together. We fit, and I can’t let you go now. I can’t watch you walk away again. So, I’m asking you to stay, Lola. I’m asking you to let me annoy you for the rest of your life.”
Grazi starts bawling like a baby, and Lola’s reaction is much more subtle. Her voice is soft, and her eyes are watery, and she doesn’t need to think about it, and that’s all I care about.
“Yes. God, I can’t believe I’m agreeing to that. But yes.”
We kiss. People clap and congratulate us, and the hoopla goes on for about ten minutes or so before Mellie comes to whisk Lola away.
“Where are we going?” she asks.
“Inside. To get you dressed. So you can get married.”
“Tonight?” Lola pales again.
“Tonight,” I answer. “I don’t want to wait. But if you do—”
“No,” she says. “I mean I don’t want to wait. It’s just… wow, we’re really doing this tonight.”
I squeeze her hand, and she smiles, her nerves fading away. “Okay,” she tells Mellie. “Let’s go get me ready then.”
45
Lola
“Pinch me,” I say.
Mellie laughs, placing the finishing touches on my hair. “Still can’t believe it? I almost couldn’t either. You should have seen me when Daire came to visit me. I wasn’t certain whether I wanted to smash his legs in again or hug him.”
“How did he get you on board anyway?” I ask.
She shrugs. “He made a pretty convincing case. He told me how hard he’d been working on improving himself over the last couple months. He told me that losing you was the worst thing that had ever happened to him and nothing else mattered if he couldn’t make it right.”
“He really said that?”
“Yep.” Mellie nods. “And I believed him too. He opened up to me about his past, and for the first time since I’ve known him, we had a real and honest conversation.”
“Wow,” I murmur. “He must have really wanted this.”
