Page 131 of The Fighter
“I do.”
“And you, Raven Pierson Boulder, do you take Leo da Vinci to be your husband?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you promise to honor, respect, and love him?”
“I do.”
“In that case, I now declare you husband and wife.”
Leo didn’t hesitate before stepping forward to cup my face and kiss me.
I lifted my hands and held on to his neck making our first kiss as man and wife deep and long. “I love you so fucking much,” he muttered into my mouth.
“And I love you!” When we pulled apart to breathe, we were smiling widely and turned to see the large crowd all cheering for us.
We kept close as people approached to congratulate us. Leo received a lot of pats on his shoulders and I received compliments about how pretty I looked. Some of our colleagues from Station Seven were there and Cameron joked that from now on he would only spar with me if Leo wasn’t in the room. “I don’t want your jealous husband breathing down my neck.”
Leo, who had seen me fight with Cameron, grinned. “I’m sure Raven can and will defend herself if anyone oversteps her boundaries.”
Cameron grinned back. “I fucking hope so with all the hours I’ve spent training her.”
The line of people who wanted to congratulate us seemed endless, and at one point I was hugging Willow and Darlene when their husbands Solo and Zasquash led Leo away.
“Where are you going?” I called after him, but he just blew me a kiss and gestured he would be back in a few minutes.
Looking down the long line of hundreds of people, I whispered to Willow and Darlene. “I wish I could sneak off too. Most of these people I don’t even know.”
Darlene and Willow craned their heads. “It’ll take you hours to greet all of them.”
I sighed. “Yes, I know.”
Mila came over at that moment and Darlene explained the situation to my best friend, who chewed on her lip for a second before she resolutely exclaimed, “I’ve got this. Go find Jonah. He’s over in that corner, I’ll join you in a minute.”
Willow and Darlene each hooked an arm under my elbow and served as buffers between me and all the strangers in the room.
We were moving through the crowd when I heard Mila’s voice in a microphone: “Hello, can you all hear me? On behalf of the bride and groom, I have an announcement. They truly appreciate that so many wish to congratulate them, but let’s not waste your evening with all of you standing in a long line to have a few seconds of polite conversation. Instead, you should have a drink, mingle, and make some new friends. That’s what parties are for. If you want to congratulate the couple, snap a photo and or a small video and upload it to the wedding site that we created.”
A lot of the people in the long line looked as relieved as I felt, and soon they all spread around the room again.
Jonah was standing with a drink in his hand when Willow, Darlene, and I came to join him.
“Can I give you a hug?” he asked me and looked around. “Mila warned me that married Nmen get a bit crazy so I thought I’d asked first in case Leo is around.”
“He’s not, and even if he was close, he wouldn’t mind me hugging you, Jonah.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.” I hugged him. “The Nmen don’t think of you as a threat. They know you’re not interested in us women like that.”
Jonah squeezed me before releasing me and pulling back to look into my eyes. “That’s a pretty big assumption and a generalization.”
I tilted my head. “Well, are you?”
At that moment Mila came to join us. “Did you see how it all worked out fine?”
Feeling grateful to her, I planted a kiss on Mila’s cheek. “You were amazing. I owe you one, sweetie.”
