Page 98 of Yours, Now and Always
Tim and Marin went rogue and set it up. An entire table labeled“Emotional Support Stickers”with phrases like“Wife Energy”,“Emotionally married to Gage Black”,“Don’t look at me, I’m in love with Gage too”,and“Big Tim Energy.”Pretty sure Tim came up with all those.
Then there’s the snack bar Gage designed without telling me—an exact replica of my comfort food stash, complete with popcorn, cheese, pickle spears, and three kinds of sour candy. The sign above it saysMrs. Black’s Midnight Menu, which is generous because I’m probably going to be asleep by ten.
He thought of everything. Again. But it doesn’t feel like too much. It feels likehim.It feels like all the ways he loves me, made visible.
It’s fun. It’s chaotic. It’s loud. It’s perfect. And for a few hours, we dance and drink and eat and let everyone love on us.
I catch a moment alone with my parents. I don’t cry. (Okay, I do. But only a little.)
I drink champagne with the girls while we laugh and gossip and take photobooth photos. Even Blair—Gage’s family lawyer and the woman Marin keeps calling her new bisexual awakening—who I’veliterally never seen laugh, holds a prop sign that says “MILF Mode Activated” and gets wild with us.
I kiss my husband a hundred times.
And then I watch him slow dance with Luna while she stands on his feet and holds his hands and tries very hard not to cry too.
I didn’t know I could feel this full. This held. This crazy in love. Not just with my husband, but with our whole, wild family. Turns out, I can.
We cut the cake and then my parents call it a night at nine thirty. Ingrid offers to get Sarah and Luna to bed just after that, so we say our goodnights to the girls.
Ingrid hugs me tight and whispers, “I have had the most wonderful day. Welcome to our family, darling girl.”
I tear up and hug her back. “I’m so sorry I got you high.”
She just laughs and squeezes my hand. “You gave me a front-row seat to my son marrying the love of his life. That’s what I’ll remember about today.”
Gage gets pulled away by his brothers and his dad after that. Something about whiskey and cigars and “just a quick moment.” I let him go and somehow end up at the edge of the dance floor with a glass of champagne in one hand and Marin in my ear explaining how she nearly threw hands with a cater waiter who tried to remove her cake plate before she was done.
“They tried to take itmid-bite,babes. I almost manifested their downfall on the spot,” she says. “I didn’t survive the flop era of Twitter and three mental breakdowns over fuckbois for someone to disrespect cake like that.” Her eyes are wide. “Tim had to intervene. I was three seconds away from a main character cancellation.”
There’s a moment of silence while I mentally try to translate every word she just said. I get “cake.” I get “Tim.” The rest? No idea. I think I’ve just been hit with a cultural drive-by. I smile and think about how language has evolved without me.
“Amelia, babe, be so fucking real right now,” Marin says as Olivia and Blair join us. “Tell me I’m not wrong.”
“No, yeah, you’re completely right,” I say, trying to channel her energy. Trying to remember words she’s used before. “That’s straight-up flop era energy. A total red slay.”
She frowns. “You mean red flag?”
“Do I?”
Blair snorts. “You can’t just mad-lib your way through Gen Z, Amelia.”
I shrug, unfazed. “I peaked ten years ago and I’m not afraid to admit it. Also, I’m in my wife era. Facts don’t apply to me anymore.”
Blair eyes me for a beat, then lifts her glass. “Carry on, unbothered queen.”
Olivia clinks her glass to mine. “You’ve officially been Blair-certified. That’s rarer than a Black brother giving up control.”
I’m distracted when I spot Gage and his brothers coming our way. Gage’s jacket is gone. His vest is still on, but his tie’s loosened, sleeves rolled, and he’s got that end-of-night feral husband energy that makes my knees forget their job.
Callan’s holding a bottle of whiskey, laughing at something Gage just said. Ethan and Bradford are a few steps behind them, deep in conversation. And Hayden’s next to them, tapping something into his phone—until Blair says something to me as he gets closer and his eyes flick up and zero in on her, lingering like he can’t look away.
My brain is in the middle of trying to process whatever that is when Gage comes to me and slides his hand around my waist. He leans in and murmurs, “The girls are asleep.”
I rest my head against his shoulder, breathing in that deep, woody scent that smells like Gage and power and the best kind of sex. “I need to be asleep.”
He chuckles. “I’ve been waiting for that.”
I glance up at him and smile sleepily. “That’s because you’ve been waiting to get me all to yourself.”
