“Fuck, it was her idea,” Lil says with a laugh. “It sort of started as a joke, but it makes sense. You know I don’t say please often, but please, Luca.”
I pull my cousin in for a hug and am once again thankful for her being in my life—and Ariana’s. “Okay. I love it. Figure it out, make it work.”
Ariana pokes her head back around the corner. “Hey, come on. Trying on a billion dresses made me hungry.”
At dinner, Mia talks about the wedding plans they spent all day on. I spent way too much of my day debating whether or not to invite my parents. I have no one from back home I want to invite, and it reminds me how empty my life was before coming here. And how much my life has changed.
“Do you want me to have tuxes delivered here like I did dresses, or do you want to go to them?” Mia asks Marco.
“We can go to them unless you ladies want to approve?—”
Ariana cuts him off, holding up a hand. “Nope. You guys figure it out. I’m tapped out.”
Marco chuckles. “We’ll take care of it, sweetheart.”
“I need to find someone to officiate the ceremony tomorrow. I was so busy with everything else today I didn’t get to it,” Mia says.
“I told you I’m doing it, and I mean it,” Lil declares, with maybe the most serious look I’ve ever seen on her face.
Mia sighs. “Lil?—”
“Mom. I’m going to be the Best Maid of Honor. I’m going to stand up there with my two best friends and then marry them to each other.” Mia looks at me and then Ari. This is the first I’ve heard about Lil officiating the ceremony, but if Ariana’s happy, I’m happy.
“Okay, but you’re not doing the damn half-tux thing, Lilith.” Mia huffs and points a fork at Lil.
“Nah, I’m good with the dress we picked today. It has pockets.”
A few hours later, Ariana snuggles closer to me on the couch as we watch dumb videos on my phone and wait for Lil to get back from a snack run.
“That cake looks so good. What is that? I should add it to the list of test flavors to make.”
“You’re making the cake yourself?” I don’t know why I’m surprised by the news. God, I love my wild girl.
“Becca will help. And Lil. Kinda.” She yawns and shrugs a shoulder. “It’ll be a good distraction for me.”
I hold her tighter, hating that she needs to be distracted from the stalker bullshit. “What can I do?”
Tilting her chin, she smiles up at me. “Taste-test and help pick a flavor.”
Unable to resist, I press my lips against hers. “You got it, baby. It’s going to be hard, though. Everything you make is fucking fantastic.”
“Well you weren’t here for the chocolate cake I made a few years ago.”
“What was wrong with it?”
She gigglesnorts. “Lil and I got way too high and thought it would be a good idea to bake a chocolate cake. With every single variety of chocolate in the house. Mixed together. It was so rich. It was like this terrible chocolate bomb.”
“You two are ridiculous.”
“Yeah, but we’re fun,” she says with a grin.
“Who’s fun?” Lil asks as she walks into the room.
“You and me,” Ari answers, holding her hand up. Lil taps it with hers.
“Oh, well, yeah. Duh. We’re hella fun. Anyone who says otherwise is boring.”
“Night Lil, you know where to find us if you need us,” Ariana says with a yawn as we head into my room, which I’ve started to think of as our room.
