Page 71 of Love, Take Two

"That's the one," I confirm. "Plus the villa in Santorini and the castle in Ireland. Our international vendor network is getting pretty impressive."

"It's getting pretty profitable too," she says with obvious satisfaction. "Did you see the quarterly numbers I put together?"

I did see them, and they're ridiculous in the best way. What started as a collaboration between a stressed travel blogger and an event planner has turned into a full-service luxury destination experience company with a six-month waiting list and profit margins that let us actually enjoy the places we travel to instead of constantly worrying about expenses.

"Unbelievable that we've only been doing this for a year," I say, looking around our home office that's become command central for planning celebrations all over the world.

"Crazy to think we've only been married for six months," Vada corrects with a smile that makes my chest warm.

Six months. Though technically it's been longer than that, if you count our secret island ceremony. But as far as the world knows, we're newlyweds who are absolutely killing it in business and completely obsessed with each other.

Both of those things happen to be true.

"What time's our call with the Amalfi Coast clients?" I ask, checking the calendar that's color-coded in a way only Vada could devise.

"Four our time, which gives us two hours to finish the Bali proposal," she says, already pulling up files on her computer. "Though I should probably mention that I got a text from Derek earlier."

"What does Derek want now?" I ask with the mixture of affection and mild dread that Derek-related news usually inspires.

"He's engaged," Vada says with obvious delight. "Apparently he met someone at our wedding reception and they've been dating long-distance since Tulum. He just proposed during a weekend in Portland."

"Derek found love at our wedding?" I can't help grinning at the irony. "That's actually pretty great."

"It gets better," Vada continues. "He wants to hire us to plan his engagement party. Specifically, he wants us to recreate the 'magic' of our Tulum celebration for his own announcement."

"Does he realize that would be like planning a Derek-themed party?" I ask. "Because that sounds exhausting."

"I already volunteered to handle Derek coordination," Vada laughs. "Consider it payback for all the times he provided running commentary on our relationship."

The afternoon passes quickly as we dive into client work. It's weirdly satisfying to coordinate celebrations for other couples now that we've figured out our own happiness. There'ssomething really cool about helping people create their perfect day while building our own perfect life together.

"Amalfi Coast call went well," I say after we finish our consultation with a couple planning their ten-year anniversary celebration. "They want the full experience—venue coordination, guest management, authentic documentation of the whole week."

"I love anniversary celebrations," Vada says, making notes in our client management system. "There's something really sweet about couples who want to celebrate what they've built together."

"Kind of like us?" I suggest, because even though we're technically newlyweds, sometimes it feels like we've been together forever in the best way.

"Exactly like us," she agrees, then pauses in her note-taking to look at me with an expression I can't quite read. "Can I tell you something?"

"Always," I say, rolling my chair closer to hers.

"I love our life," she says simply. "I love the business, I love the travel, I love that we get to help people celebrate love for a living. But mostly I love that we're building it together."

"Even when it means dealing with Derek's event planning requests?" I ask.

"Even then," she confirms with a laugh. "Though I reserve the right to complain about Derek-related logistics."

"Deal," I agree, leaning over to kiss her because I can, because she's my wife, because we've somehow managed to build exactly the life we both wanted.

My phone buzzes with a notification, and I check it automatically. "Holy shit," I say, staring at the screen.

"What?"

"Our Tulum wedding video just hit ten million views," I say, showing her the numbers. "Ten million people have watched us get married."

"That's insane," Vada says, though she's grinning as she says it. "Good thing it was such a good wedding."

"The best wedding," I agree, though something about her smile suggests she's thinking about more than our public celebration.

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