Page 60 of Wish For Me

“Bodhi. What’s going on?”

He sighs, and I hear another soft thud—I’m pretty sure that was his forehead coming to rest on the door. “This entire wedding has been a disaster.”

“What are you talking about? Everything has been great. I mean, besides the venue, obviously.”

He lets out a peal of slightly hysterical laughter. “The venue was only one of the many things to go wrong. First there was the photographer getting hurt. Then our candles got lost—”

“For the gift boxes? But we put those together this week, they all looked great.”

“Because your cousins spent a whole week making new candles,” he says. His voice is doing that ranty thing he does sometimes, where he knows he should calm down but he can’t quite manage it. Usually I think it’s really cute, but today I feel a little sick.

“And then there was your dress,” he says in a strangled voice.

“What about my dress?”

“And the other fire today when the whole sound system shorted out, which Levi thinks he fixed but it’s probably going to like, explode or something when the DJ tries to start the music. And my freaking dad won’t stop texting me about Mom’s new boyfriend, and I really think I might punch him.”

“Bodhi.”

“And then there’s Alex’s foot. And Vega getting stuck in an elevator!”

“Vega getting stuck in what elevator?”

“And, of course, can’t forget that our original venue fucking burned down,” he shouts the last few words. “It’s like we’re cursed!”

“Okay, I’m coming in there.”

“What? No, you can’t.” I go to push the door the rest of the way open but he holds it shut. “It’s bad luck to see the bride!”

I snort out an unamused laugh. “Well, according to you, we’ve already had all the bad luck in the world. How much worse could it get?” I push on the door. “Let me in.”

He sighs and steps away. I stride into the room. “You have a lot of explaining to do, Mr. Lakra. What were you thinking, not telling me any of this?”

I turn to glare at him and see he’s standing there with his mouth wide open, staring at me. “Holy shit,” he whispers. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Some of the anger goes out of me, and I allow him to pull me close. He cradles my head against his chest, holding me like I’m something precious or breakable, and I allow myself to take in a deep breath of his familiar Bodhi scent.

“You should have told me all of this.”

He sighs. “I know. I just wanted it to be perfect for you. You deserve for it to be perfect.”

“This is my fault,” I mutter. “I put all this pressure on you—”

He pulls back and stares down at me, his hands coming up to cup my cheeks. “Lele, no. You didn’t pressure anyone. I wanted an amazing wedding as much as you did. Everyone wanted to help us have that, because they all love you so much.”

“They all loveus,” I correct. “Both of us, Bodhi.”

He nods, closing his eyes. “I’m sorry I lost my shit and made you feel like you needed to come up here.”

“It sounds like you’ve been dealing with a lot. On your own,” I say pointedly.

He attempts a grin. “I’m starting to realize that I should have told you about this stuff as it was happening. If for no other reason than not blurting it all out like that five minutes before we’re supposed to get married.” He grimaces. “I probably freaked you out.”

“I’m fine,” I assure him. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.” I look up into his beautiful brown eyes, the eyes I’m lucky enough to be able to look into every day for the rest of my life. “You didn’t really sound okay there, Bodhi.”

“The pants were just the last straw,” he says. “The fire was tiny, but still—another fucking fire! Levi wasn’t sure if he could even fix the sound system issues, and you know it has to be bad if he can’t handle it. And then I found out the caterer left half the appetizers back at the hotel—”

“She did?”