Chapter Twenty-Three
Erica
I knew even before Chase asked me to marry him, exactly how I wanted our wedding to go. Isn’t it every girl’s rite of passage to at one point in time think up her dream wedding? I was definitely one of those girls.
I had my diary from when I was fifteen stuffed under my arm as I walked into The Ink Well, twenty minutes late. I told Chase I had a meeting to go to and he should head to work without me. He had been spending every night at my house, so it had basically turned into our home. Chase moved his belongings one box at a time, and I wasn’t upset by it at all. The sooner he was moved in, the less time we would have to be a part, except for right now. Right now I needed him to be as far away as he could possibly be.
“You look determined.” Lilly shot me a glance over her computer when I walked onto the finance floor. I marched right over to her and slapped my diary down in front of her.
“I found it,” I said, a little out of breath from the adrenaline coursing through me.
“Found what?” she asked skeptically and turned over the old leather-bound book. Alexa came skipping over, having gotten the message I sent her to meet us here.
“You found it!” She clapped her hands together, excitement filling the air around us. I loved having two best friends who were complete opposites, because it made us this whole triangle that fit together perfectly. Where I was calm and introverted, Alexa was outgoing but level-headed, and Lilly was just an all-around spitfire who had no control.
“Wait. The diary?” Lilly picked up the book with a little more enthusiasm this time, flipping through the pages until she found the one I had dog eared.
“You better be glad that it’s only your diary, or this one over here would be lecturing you right now.”
I laughed, looking over at Alexa, who just shrugged, because it was true. Alexa was a resident book nerd and folding pages was only for monsters.
“So, what does it say?” Alexa reached over me to pluck the book out of Lilly’s hands, who had been reading it for a few measly seconds.
“I wasn’t finished with that.”
“Well, now you are, you were reading too slow.”
Lilly huffed and crossed her arms over her chest and slumped back into her chair, waiting for Alexa to give a little more than just the head nods she was producing.
“Out with it, woman, what does she want?”
“Is this it, Erica?” Alexa asked me first before answering Lilly. I nodded before she read aloud what I had written down so many years ago.
“Short white lace dress, a bouquet of daisies, and a flower crown. You want to have it at the most romantic place you can think of.” And then her words stopped. She reread the next sentence to herself before reading it aloud. “You want Chase to hold both of your hands in his as he says ‘I do’ and you want all your family and friends to be there with you.”
“Okay. That’s the sweetest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.” Greg’s voice came from behind me and I whipped around to see not just him, but Jack and Max too.
“Where’s Chase?” I asked, my gaze searching across the whole floor. I didn’t want him to know I was already planning the wedding without him. Knowing Chase, he would want something over the top and I really just wanted him with me and our family and friends surrounding us while we made the biggest commitment of our lives to one another.
“Don’t worry, he’s on the phone with a client upstairs.” Max assured me.
“I should get to work.” I snatched the book out of Alexa’s hand and moved over to my desk, starting up my computer as quickly as my mouse would let me.
“No need to stop on our account.” Jack popped his head over my cubicle and laughed while Max and Greg came around the other sides, boxing me in. I looked through the window to see Lilly and Alexa standing there with sorry looks on their faces.
“We’re good.”
“How soon are you planning it?” Max asked, placing a hand on the back of my chair, reaching for the notebook. He picked it up so quickly, I had no time to react to get to it before he did.
“You’ve been planning this for a long time,” he stated as he flipped to the page Alexa had been reading from.
“I have,” I said matter-of-factly while typing my password in to start my day. I had photos to edit and clients to contact, which may only take about three hours, but still, if it was an excuse, I would use it. I didn’t want the guys meddling in this, and the only reason I had gotten with Lilly and Alexa was because they had both already gotten married. They knew the basics I wanted to accomplish.
“How can we help?” Greg interjected into the conversation.
“We can keep secrets!” Jack spoke a little too loudly, causing a few heads from the other workers to turn toward us.
“Will you all just stop it?” I spun around and snatched the book out of Max’s hand, and turned toward back to the computer, typing up the first email I needed to send.
