Page 34 of Longing for the Minotaur
VALENTINA
Are we getting married only eighteen months later because we absolutely adore each other and know we want to be together forever? Yes.
Is it a little bit so that we’re allowed to sleep in the same bedroom at our parents’ house? Also yes.
Some of our friends weren’t so understanding, but most of them came around to it. It was tougher to convince Rich, but ultimately he’s Banon’s best friend and wants the best for him. My buddies at college have all supported me, and I’m more than grateful. I graduated two months ago, and now I’m knee-deep in my summer internship doing data analysis. Banon has moved to football full-time, playing for his team as the new captain and coaching teens when he’s not playing. He plans to move all the way into coaching in a few years, when his time on the field is over.
Dad has agreed to walk me down the aisle, though some of the extended family refused to attend the ceremony. The cousins and uncles and aunts who are here, though, have plenty of awkward questions for us.
I just want to get this all over with so we can finally be alone later tonight.
I haven’t laid eyes on Banon since yesterday, and I can’t wait for him to see my dress. It’snotwhite, thank you very much. It’s black and red, with black lace detailing, and my silver and ruby pendant hanging from my neck. I look very much like an evil queen, and it’s exactly how I imagined myself getting married.
Banon’s waiting for me at the altar in a black suit with a red shirt and bowtie, so we match perfectly. One of my bridesmaids waits to hold my flowers as I come down the aisle, Dad’s arm wrapped around mine.
He’s come around to it, too, as time has gone on. He sees the way Banon keeps me close during movies, helps me cook dinner, holds my hand on family walks, and treats me with all the love and kindness in his big heart.
Especially the cheesy, lovey-dovey shit he says to me that gives my own dad’s dad jokes a run for their money.
I don’t even notice the altar or the flowers hanging from it as I approach my husband-to-be. Damn, he is so fine in that tuxedo, filling it out as far as it can possibly stand. He’s huge and broad and perfectly, wonderfully mine.
Banon holds out his hand to me, and I take it as Dad lets me go.
“I love you, honey,” Dad says as he takes his seat next to Marissa in the front row.
“I love you too, Dad.”
Then it’s time. I look into Banon’s blue eyes as the officiant speaks, and I barely hear anything she’s saying because I’m that deep in them. He smiles so affectionately, with so much love worn right on his sleeve, that I feel like I might cry.
This big minotaur lovesme.
Then he says his vows, and they might just be the most beautiful words possible, hearing every small thing he lovesabout me, from my fashion sense to my fake newspaper story. I cringe at that. He imagines our future lives together and all the joy we’ll find in it together. The pets we’ll have, and maybe the kids we’ll adopt someday.
By the time it’s my turn, I can barely speak through my tears. But I manage to say my own vows from memory, how I’m only complete because Banon is here with me. How he’s everything I dreamed of having for myself and more.
And then, the audience claps, and he kisses me. My minotaur wraps me up and bends me back as he conquers my lips, showing his love to me for all the world to see.
