“I can’t believe it’s Alena!” Maya squeals.
“And she’s right in front of us!” Zahra cries.
We are sitting at the host table at the very front of the room and right up close to the stage, so yes, Alena is, like, twenty feet away from us. I want to die.
The band starts her song, and then Alena’s opening notes give me chills. I almost start crying. Asher wraps his arms around me and pulls me in toward him.
“Surprise, baby,” he says, giving me a kiss on my neck.
“You booked Alena? For me?”
“She’s your favorite.”
This is the surprise everyone is so worried about?
Why? This is a dream come true!
I turn and face Asher, placing my hands along his jaw. “You are . . . I don’t even know! How is this real? How are you real?”
“I’m real.”
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
I press my lips to his. “Thank you. Thank you for being the worst liar in history.”
“What?” he asks with a laugh, confused.
“You told me when this all started that you weren’t relationship material and that you’d probably be terrible at this. That was either a gross underestimation or an outright lie. Either way, you were wrong. You’re incredible at this, Mr. Langford, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”
He leans down and kisses me, slow and sweet, and I don’t care that we’re in a room full of people. I don’t care how this all started. All I can focus on is him and how amazing he is. When we pull away from our kiss, he turns me around and wraps his arms around me. We sway in our seats and sing along to this semi-private concert.
I’ve never felt so alive in my life.
“Thank you! Thank you!”Alena says, bowing and smiling to the crowd. Her set was amazing, and the room is buzzing on the high of her concert. She made eye contact with me and smiled at me several times while singing, and I think that if I died tonight, I’d die a happy woman.
Alena brings her microphone back up to her lips, and the crowd quiets as she starts to speak. “It has been an honor to be here tonight, but I have one more order of business, one more song to sing before I go.”
“We can talk about everything after the ball,” Asher whispers in my ear. “Just trust me.”
I look back at him, confused, but turn back when Alena starts speaking again. “For my last song, I’m going to dedicate it to a very special couple. I need Asher Langford and Ella Hale to come up here!”
“What?” I gasp as shock travels through me.
“Let’s go, baby,” Asher says, grabbing my hand and pulling me after him.
The crowd cheers and looks on as we walk to the stage. Cameras flash from all directions, and just like Emily said, a professional photographer snaps several photos of us climbing the stairs.
As soon as we’re on stage, Alena hugs me, and my soul leaves my body. I still can’t believe this is real. And I have noidea what Asher and I are doing up here.
“I hear it’s a long-standing tradition in the Langford family for the men to present their women with a meaningful gift,” Alena says. The crowd quiets to almost a hush for several seconds, then roars, and as I look out over them, I see a room full of shocked and wide-eyed faces.
Butterflies leap inside me as Harrington, carrying a deep blue velvet jewelry box, and Catherine walk onto the stage. Alena hands Harrington the microphone, and cameras continue to flash over and over again.
“Thank you. We’re so happy to have you all here for this extraordinary evening,” Harrington says to the crowd. “The Langfords have many long and meaningful traditions, but tonight we are excited to celebrate one that has arguably the strongest significance to our family because of what it represents.”
The crowd now fully loses it, cheering and clapping, and it seems as though every phone is out and pointed in our direction, recording. So, Alena wasn’t the surprise. This is. Whatever thisis.
