“Hey, Tim!” I call through a door behind the bar. “Crank the music and pour the champagne! We’re getting married!”
The bartender enters from a back room and Tessa holds up her hand, displaying her sparkling rock. “Make it champagne for four, Tim!” Tessa shouts happily. “We’re gonna have ourselves a little party.”
“No, baby, we’re having ourselves abigparty.” I call to the bartender: “Make it champagne for twenty, Tim!”
Tessa looks at me quizzically.
“You’ll see,” I say.
Two seconds later, just as my chosen song (“Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias, of course) begins blasting overhead, the front door swings open and our engagement party bursts in: Josh, Kat, my parents, Colby, Keane, Zander, Dax, Fish, Colin, Jonas, Sarah, and Tessa’s family (her parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and niece).
Hugs and tears and kisses and high-fives abound and Tessa happily shows off her ring as champagne is passed out. Various introductions to Tessa’s family are made. Lots of chatting and laughing. And all the while, my hand is firmly clasped with Tessa’s, my heart bursting with joy.
Kat comes over to tell me Henn and Hannah sent their love, but couldn’t make the party due to Hannah’s little sister’s birthday dinner.
“Henn’s my brother for life,” I tell Kat, my arm around Tessa. “He didn’t find my girl for me, understandably, but that guy, more than anyone else, helped me keep the faith and listen to my heart.”
“Well, cheers to Peter Hennessy, then,” Kat says, raising her glass, and Tessa and I clink it.
“That reminds me,” I say. I turn to the party. “Hey, everyone! A toast!” I raise my glass, my arm snaked around Tessa’s waist, and everyone raises theirs, too. “First off, lemme just say, ‘Thank God this is a surprise engagement party, as planned, and not a ‘Consoling Ryan’ party.”
Everyone chuckles.
I aim my drink at Tessa’s family. “To the Rodriguez family: thank you for welcoming my family into yours.”
The Rodriguez family salutes me.
“To the Morgans,” I say. “You rock. You know it. Nothing more needs to be said.”
My family cheers.
“Thank you, Bob Gaskins, the man Wikipedia says is the inventor of Power Point. You rock, Bob, wherever you are—thanks for the dog and the wife.”
Everyone laughs and cheers.
“And, finally...” I look at Tessa. “Thank you to my beautiful fiancéefor saying yes. InMoby Dick,Herman Melville asks, ‘Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more?’ Well, Tessa, for the first time in my life, I know exactly where my ‘final harbor’ lies: with you—wherever you happen to be.”
Everyone claps and cheers and then descends upon us, offering hugs and kisses and congratulations. But after a few minutes, I can’t resist pulling Tessa into a corner for a celebratory kiss.
“You good?” I ask, nuzzling my nose into hers.
“I’ve never been better,” she whispers. “This is the best day of my life.”
“Mine, too. I can’t wait to—”
“Excuse me, Ryan,” Kat’s voice says behind me.
I disengage from Tessa and look toward Kat’s voice.
My stomach drops.
Olivia.
Kat’s got a fake smile plastered across her face and her arm around Olivia’s shoulders. “Look who texted me thirty minutes ago to complain you haven’t been returning her texts,” she says. “Look who begged me to tell her where she could find you so she could ‘pretend to run into you’ and ‘try to win you back.’” Kat turns to Olivia. “Oh, crap. Now that you’re here, honey, I just remembered a small detail I forgot to mention when I replied to you: Ryan’s at this bar for hisengagementparty. Olivia, meet Tessa—my brother’s future wife. Oh, wait, that’s right—you two have already met, the night you called my future sister a ‘cunt.’” Kat’s smile is sweet but her eyes are blazing with unmistakable menace. “Do I have that right, Tessa sweetie? Did Olivia here call you a ‘cunt’?”
“Why, yes, she did, Kitty Kat,” Tessa says, her tone as sweet as Kat’s.
Olivia clenches her jaw. “Fuck you, Kat. You ambushed me.”
