“Why don’t you come to bed, my love?” Naomi murmured, still stroking my back. And God, the touch felt like heaven. “I still have the curtains down, so it’s super dark. Maybe rest your eyes a little?”
“Thank you, baby, but I just have a little more to do,” I said, feeling recharged. However, itwastempting. Ever since my incident with the loose tile almost ended my whole being alive streak, I’d started looking into better solutions because I wanted to cuddle with my girlfriend and not be forced to use my coffin so often. It had taken a while, but I’d found a vampire contractor who put in rolling, metal curtains over my skylight and windows that covered the area around each as well. It just required a click of a button on a remote and all of the possible ways light could get into my house were sealed within ten seconds.
I still had my fabric curtains, of course, just in case something malfunctioned, but I now felt much safer in my bed.
“Are you sure?”
“I am.”
“Are youreallysure?”
“I am.”
I felt her stiffen behind me, but she relaxed soon after. “Okay, handsome man. How about another half hour, and then you come rest?”
“That sounds good to me.”
She gave me a kiss on the top of my head and I heard her retreat. It was difficult to refocus, but the wine helped with that. Still had nothing on my lovely fiancée, but it was better than running on empty. Or near empty, rather.
With all the catastrophes handled, I moved on to the other important, but less nuclear tasks. Finalizing our flower selection for the tables in the reception, a few of the periphery décor, and the ribbon color for the backs of the chairs. Before planning this wedding, I had no idea there were so many options for modern accoutrements, but between gift baskets, cake toppers, thank you cards, name tags, guest books, I’ve learned there were about one million little details that all needed to be decided with great care.
I knew Naomi would be happy with whatever we did—she’d confided in me she thought I would never want to get legally married—but her just being happy wasn’t quite enough for me. I wanted her to be ecstatic. I wanted our wedding to be her dream celebration, where she was able to share our love with everyone she cared about. And while once that would have been a very small group of people who could have been counted on a single hand, now that circle had grown to include so many more.
Including two of her brothers, which was one of the changes that I really was the most grateful for. Even though a woman didn’thaveto be given away by any means, I couldn’t help but think it was better if she chose not to have that tradition rather than not having any options. And I knew my darling Naomi was looking forward to all of those traditions she had been told would never be for her.
So yeah, maybe I was pushing myself, maybe I was worrying over the details, but it was all worth it if my love could have the day she wanted. Besides, usually she was putting in just as much work as I did. This night was more of an anomaly than anything else. Damned headache.
In all my eagerness to make sure that I was on track, I might have lost track of time. Which I only realized when Naomi called down from the stairs, her voice bemused but with the tiniest hint of admonishment in it.
“I opened the skylight,” she said.
“That’s nice, dear,” I said, glancing at the clock and realizing that it had been almost an hour. Whoops. “I promise I’m almost done, really. I apologize that this is taking so long.”
“It’s okay. But goodness, my ring is sparkling so prettily in the starlight. It kinda looks like one itself.”
That hit me right in my pride, which I was sure was Naomi’s intention. I was never into jewels or finery all that much, but I had splurged on her ring to get something that suited her beauty and grace. The idea that she was looking at it now, admiring the beauty of it as it reflected endless celestial wonders, filled me with a sort of contentment and flattery that I hadn’t been expecting.
“That’s wonderful!”
Honestly, it almost made me wish that I could see it in the sun. I was sure that the flex of illumination would hit the golden tan of Naomi’s skin like the stroke of a master’s brush. Maybe I’d ask her to take a video for me when summer hit. I was sure the honey-gold her hair was now would look like a literal halo. Granted, that was if she kept the hair color that long. She had been talking about being a redhead for our wedding, and I hadn’t seen a shade that didn’t look utterly scrumptious on her.
“I don’t normally notice it, ya know?”
“Uh-huh,” I said while I tabbed over to my checklist spreadsheet and marked off what I’d accomplished.
“But it’s probably easier to spot now since it’s the only thing I’m wearing. Distractions, ya know?”
“Abso—”
Hold on.
What did she say?
“Naomi?” I called, forgetting all about the spreadsheet as I stood.
“Yes, my love?”
“Would you mind repeating yourself?”
