CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Leo
The answer was thirty three days.
Through a few strokes of immense good luck and some serious elbow grease, we got there. We managed to give notice at the registrar’s office the very next day, after which point Sadie and I then swooped into action while everyone rallied around us. Em cancelled and rebooked appointments like it was her life’s purpose. Eli gave me a list of everything I needed to think of and check off as I went, which was worth its weight in gold. And Dean designed invitations with quirky yet elegant flowing calligraphy in record time.
Before Sadie and I got together, I always envisioned a massive fuck-off wedding with everyone I’d ever met as a guest, getting to watch me marry the best person in the world. A Michelin starred chef taking care of the catering. Sadie in a dress that cost thousands. The works.
But Sadie snorted derisively when I told her, and said she’d have run away screaming from a wedding like that, and didn’t I learn anything from our first proper date, where we hated theposh flouncy place and had a better time with fish and chips on the beach.
She was right. We didn’t need a huge, flouncy ceremony.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make it special for us anyways, and throw money at things to make them happen.
I bought flights for Mom, Theda and May, Tippi, and Auntie Woowoo and Uncle Kit. On the family Facetime call, Mom told me it was about goddamn time, and told me she’d pay for our honeymoon, for whenever and wherever we wanted. I get my generous impulses from her. And Auntie Woowoo nearly burst my eardrum squealing across the video. She’s stayed in regular touch with Sadie since she decided to keep the baby, offering advice and support both before her mother stepped up and afterwards.
Mondays are an unusual day to get married, but the local registry office managed to book us in on the day we wanted without me needing to charm anyone or reach into my wallet.
That was just to make our marriage legal, though. And that was family only.
Theweddingtook place by Aunt Lucinda and Uncle Angus’s bench overlooking the sea about a half hour after that. I paid through the ass for a rose arch and chairs and cordoning the whole thing off so we could enjoy the moment uninterrupted. And it was worth every single penny.
The last time I watched her walk down an aisle towards me, she was giving Emily away, and I worried that it would be the only time I’d ever see her do that.
But as she walked towards me on her mother’s arm, in a pink dress with a dramatic tulle skirt and a denim jacket, a huge bouquet of flowers held in front of her stomach…the punk elegance of the outfit so very Sadie…and with her already my wife… I felt an overwhelming sense of rightness. Of inevitability. She made me wait for it…and I’d do it all over again, a thousandtimes back to back, to get to the moment when her mother placed her hand in mine.
A wonderful, warm woman named Brittany did our ceremony, and I wasn’t in the least surprised when she and Sadie got on so well that she has an appointment for her first tattoo with Sades for next week.
It went past in a flash, and I wanted time to slow down just for a little while so I could take it all in. The words Brittany was saying that Sadie and I repeated back to each other. Click hopping down the aisle in the same tux he wore for Em and Eli’s wedding, our rings lightly stitched onto a pillow strapped to his back. Kissing my bride, dimly aware of the raucous cheers and catcalls from our nearest and dearest.
But at the same time, each moment was better than the last, so I couldn’t bring myself to be too sorry for the fast pace.
The more seconds I racked up as Sadie’s husband, the happier I would be.
We ateat one of Sadie’s favourite restaurants afterwards. I managed to book the place out entirely for us, and the buffet they laid on was fantastic. I think I ate at least one of everything, too excited to eat and too excited not to at the same time.
Now that we’re indoors, Gary can be a part of things safely. As soon as we let him out of the cage at the restaurant, he takes up his position on Sadie’s shoulder and stays there like an ornament, swearing only a little here and there. I think this might be Gary on his best behaviour, and it’s touching that the little dude is trying.
But not quite as touching as when Eli, Dean, Emily, and Liaden all show us their ankles, where they have matching tattoos. An infinity symbol with my name and Sadie’s, and today’s date. I look at their faces, the warmth, the glad smiles, and truly, I am the luckiest man in the world to have such a lot of love from these folks. Your blood relatives are such a crapshoot in life, I rolled all sixes with my cousins. Their partners are just as dear to me.
I’m not in the least surprised when Sadie wipes happy tears from under her eyes when she sees their new ink.
But Iamsurprised when she manages not to shed any until the very end of her toast speech. I have no such luck.
Liaden helpfully taps her glass with her fork for silence, and Sadie stands, using my hand for leverage; at this stage, she tends to stand one side at a time.
“I know it’s not usually the bride giving a speech first, or at all, but you all know me: gotta be heard.” There’s a fond laugh for her throughout the room, and her mother nods heartily. “But I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for coming, and for being a part of things, and for - ”
“Fuck, yeah,” Gary chooses to pipe up at that moment.
“Fuck, yeah,” Sadie agrees, giving his head a little tickle as we all crack up. “It’s definitely been a ‘fuck yeah’ kind of day. And I wanted to give enormous thanks to my mother, and my sisters, Emily and Liaden, for helping me sort everything I needed to in order to be all brided up for the day.” She gestures down at her dress. “Dress shopping while you’ve got a watermelon strapped to your stomach that you can’t take off is never a fun prospect, but we got there, and you were all so kind and patient and supportive. Like you always are. And,” she says, lifting her glass of mango juice towards my cousins, “thank you to the lads for all your help as well. I know you’ve done a lot to keep Leo on the straight and narrow over the past month or so, and kept himfrom going all Liberace on us.” I make a mock indignant face,as if I would, and she smirks.
“No mean feat,” Eli rumbles, and I flip him off as I laugh.
“No idea how I got this reputation,” I grumble playfully, and relish how everyone gasps at my audacity.
“Moving swiftly on, largely because there are so many examples of you being over the top that I can’t pick just one…” She grins and winks at me before turning back to the guests. “Thank you to the American contingent for hopping over the pond on such short notice.”
