“Just be quiet and pour the whiskey, old man.”
Our glasses clink.
“Cheers.”
24
ELIZABETH
“How does it look out there?”
“Amazeballs,” Sloan declares.
“Are the lights low and the candles lit?”
“Check!” my friend Tiny cheerfully affirms.
“Is all my family in place?”
“Yes, Knox is sitting happily on your mom’s lap, Mr. Tibbs is at the front looking cute in his doggy tuxedo, and I think half the town of Penn-Washington is here.”
“So then there’s no reason for me to wait any longer.”
“Not unless you want to Thelma and Louise this bitch and run away,” Sloan says chuckling.
“Sloan!” Tiny exclaims.
“Never,” I assure them. “I’m more sure about what I’m about to do than I have been about anything before.”
“Then why haven’t you been answering your phone for the last thirty minutes?”
“I just needed a technology free moment on my wedding day.”
“Well, explain that to your Prince Charming, because he has left his suite at the Ritz and is driving at warp speed to get here. He’s been texting both me and Tiny, very nasty messages by the way, to make sure you’re okay.”
It was my idea for Roman and I to sleep apart over the last three days. I’m at home with Knox and he’s been staying at a hotel. We’re such a non-traditional couple in so many ways, I wanted us to be traditional about at least a few things. He hates the idea, and I admit it may not be one of my better ones. Being apart makes us both anxious, especially after the shooting.
“Aww, he takes such good care of me.”
“Take care of you? He’s texting like a maniac because he’s probably afraid you’re going to run.”
“Roman knows good and well that I’m not going anywhere.”
“Well, now that you’ve gone and had his love child, you can’t.” Sloan laughs. “That ship has sailed.”
I smooth the sides of my dress, which practically skims my every curve. It’s a modern, sleek, silk, full-length halter styled gown with a simple tulle veil that ends at my chin.
“You look amazing, Bitsy,” Tiny tells me.
I can’t believe I was ever worried about how I was going to look with my extra weight in a wedding gown. The seamstress did an excellent job of making sure the dress skimmed my curves and didn’t squish them in like a sausage.
“Yeah, girl, you make a stunning bride. The dark knight should consider himself the luckiest man alive today.”
No, I’m the luckiest.
“Go get my dad,” I tell my two maids of honor who are both dressed in strapless white cocktail dresses. “I’m ready.”
Roman and I are having a black and white wedding in Club Lotus on a Friday night for obvious sentimental reasons. Friday, because that’s our date night and the club because it’s where we first met (well, sort of).It’s a special place for us.
