I nod.
Rio takes my hand. “So will you say yes?”
I look down at the Cracker Jack ring glinting from the sun pouring in from the window.
Silly, cheap, yet perfect at the same time.
More important than the most expensive diamond ring in the world.
"Yes," I say, throwing my arms around him. “I’m yours. Forever and ever.”
EPILOGUE
MADDIE
“Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous,” says Janie, standing back from the full-length mirror of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
We’re not in Rio’s apartment, even though it’s a $20 million penthouse.
Instead, we’re in the bridal suite of the hotel. It’s located on a lower floor. Yet it has a more direct view of Central Park, with its charming horse-drawn carriages and laughing children.
Having my best friend and now former roommate at my side gives me courage.
“If Joseph saw you just now, I bet he’d kick himself for leaving you at the altar,” Janie says. “
I shudder to think that if he had the courage to go through with it that one time, you wouldn’t be here today marrying Rio.“
“Life has a way of working out.”
“Did he at least let you keep that ring from his second proposal?
“Didn’t want it. Gave it back,” I say. Joseph did insist I keep it. Said it was the least he could do.
But I didn’t want that ring to remind me of an experience I’d rather forget.
I turn my attention to my wedding dress. It’s the same one Bianca Jagger wore to her marriage to Mick way back in 1971.
“This dress is so lovely,” I tell the pint-sized vintage fashion expert who found it for me. She goes by the impossible moniker of Pip.
“But I’m not as tall as Bianca. Do you think I can really carry it off?”
Pip’s petite like me. She’s the wife of one of Rio’s best friends, DJ Snickers.
Even before she met Snickers, Pip made a name for herself finding and restoring vintage clothes.
Bianca’s wedding dresswas a particularly lucky find.
I know I should be grateful to be wearing it now, on the morning of our wedding day.
“Of course you can carry it off,” says Pip.
I look at myself in the mirror. The dress is showy. I would have preferred something more simple.
“Aside from not being tall enough. I’m not beautiful enough,” I finally say, revealing my self-doubts.
“This dress was designed for the stunning bride of the Rolling Stones frontman.”
Janie spins me around to face her.
