Page 65 of Ever After
I’m nervous about seeing what I look like. I told my mom I wanted nothing fancy. The wedding should be simple. She and Lia insisted on doing my hair and makeup.
One month before our first anniversary, Jay proposed to me. He wanted to propose on our one-year mark, but he also decided that he wanted to set our wedding date on that day instead. Jay was willing to marry me the second we made it official. I told him no. Before we made that commitment, I wanted us to live together. I told him to at least give us a year to see how things went. Since I said no to getting married right away, I couldn’t say no to him asking me to move in. I had to compromise somewhere.
In the hotel room we set up as a bride’s suite, I get up and walk over to the bathroom. The three of us girls have been staying in this room. Jay and Alex got their room on a different floor. They made us do that so we would have fewer chances of running into each other on the day of the wedding. Jay and I kept rolling our eyes every time we heard something new they planned. We didn’t want a big wedding. We both have been there and done that. All we wanted was for our closest friends to be with us, including my mom. Alex even got ordained to officiate our wedding.
When Jay and I flew back to Utah to pack up my stuff, I finally had my mom come over and meet him. After I told her what I was doing, she looked at us like we were crazy. But she trusted my decision. She has always had trust in me. That’s what made us close as mother and daughter. Her trust in me gave us less to fight about. Some mothers and daughters bicker all the time because the mom never trusts her daughter and the decisions she makes, and that drives the relationship away. We took our time packing everything. Which was good because it gave my mom a chance to get to know Jay. She was grateful for that. She spent a lot of time with us, and I could see her worry ease off a little each day.
I was trying to throw as much away as possible without leaving Lia with nothing. Lia left her furniture at her old apartment. It was a blessing that she brought little furniture with her. It’s hard to combine households. I didn’t want to do that with her and then with Jay. Aiden took little with him when he moved all his stuff out. He said he wanted a fresh start.
I haven’t seen or heard from Aiden much. He came and moved his stuff out a few weeks after he signed the papers. He was hurting more than he let on and needed some time after that night. We ended up being civil with each other. Holding no one responsible for losing our marriage. He was still a little devastated after moving everything out.
My smile spreads across my face as I look at myself in the mirror. I am so beautiful. My makeup looks natural, surprisingly, even though they spent hours on it. My hair is down and curled in big, beautiful waves. It looks like me. Nothing is over the top.
“How do you like it?” Lia asks walking through the bathroom.
I turn to her and give her a hug. “I love it. You guys didn’t make me look like a pinup model.”
Laughter comes through the background. “We told you we wouldn’t make you look too extravagant!” my mom yells.
Lia, on the other hand, went all out. She looks like she is the one getting married and not me. She gave herself a smokey eye look with a nude lip.
My mom comes into the bathroom with our dresses in hand. We picked out dresses together before flying out to Hawaii. Lia and my mom both flew down to Texas, and we went dress shopping. All three of us found cute summer dresses to wear. Mine is a white dress with thin straps that cut down to my chest in the shape of a V. It clings to my curves perfectly. Not too tight and not too loose. It hangs a little past my knees from the back and opens in the front with a slit coming up to my thigh.
“Are you girls ready to put on our dresses?”
Grabbing my dress from my mom, I say. “You guys will have to help me get into this, so I don’t get makeup on it.”
“Let’s do it outside the bathroom. Where we have more room.” My mom leads the way out to the bathroom. I walk over to the dresser and take another sip of my champagne.
All three of us are examining our new dresses in the mirror.
“I don’t know why we have to ruin our dresses with sandals,” Lia says.
“The plan was to walk on the beach barefoot. You try wearing heels in the sand. You’ll sink right down. We’re walking down there, anyway. Our feet will hurt by the time we get to the beach. But you can wear whatever you want,” I say, facing Lia.
She rolls her eyes at me. Jay and I wanted our wedding to be as simple as possible. Including our attire. Jay and Alex are wearing light tan shorts with simple white T-shirts. They are also wearing sandals to go with their outfits, but we wanted everyone to be barefoot on the beach.
Anxiousness fills me as we get closer to the beach. Lia made sure that the boys were at the beach before we walked down. We all stop once we hit the sand. I look straight ahead, closer to the water, and see Jay and Alex. They look like two small people, making it hard to recognize who they are. I’m not worried about Jay seeing me. I didn’t even care for him to see me before the wedding. This was all my mom and Lia’s doing.
My mom turns to me and wraps her arms around me. “I love you, sweetie,” she says.
I reciprocate the hug and tell her, “Thank you for always trusting my decisions, even though they have been questionable this past year.”
“You have one life to live. I never want to hold you back on anything you wish to do. I will always be here for you. Even when I question your decisions.” We both pull away and look at each other and smile. She gives me a wink before stepping back and letting me go.
Within a matter of seconds, Lia pulls me into an enormous hug and squeals. “I can’t believe you’re finally doing this. You could have let Jay sweep you off your feet the first time you guys met in Hawaii and saved yourself all the shit you put yourself through. It would have saved you a lot of trouble. You both deserve this, though. Finally.”
I laugh, finally feeling weightless. “Thanks for your heartfelt speech.”
Lia releases me. “Anytime. That’s what I’m here for.”
My mom reaches up and grabs Lia’s hand. “Ready?” Lia nods and takes my mom’s hand into hers. They both turn their backs on me and walk toward the ocean.
I’m standing on top of the sand barefoot, waiting anxiously to walk down. I lift my wrist and look at my watch. Only ten more minutes until midnight hits. My mom and Lia finally made it down. Now it’s my turn. The time could not be moving any slower. My heart is racing, waiting until I take the next steps down. I’m not sure why Jay and I chose midnight to get married. The first time we came to this beach was around two in the morning. We both wanted it to be very intimate and midnight seemed like the perfect time with no one around. My foot sinks into the sand as I take my first step. Each step I take my heart rate increases. The sound of the waves hitting the shore and flowing back up is the perfect harmony for our wedding song.
After we say our vows, Alex and Lia pass around champagne. My mom orders two special flutes for Jay and I that readEver After. Our names are on each of them—it makes me swoon when I see my new last name on the glass. We all sit around passing around stories and laughing. Most of the stories that come from our three guests are about how Jay and I met and what each one thought about the whole thing. They all thought we were crazy, and nothing surprises them at this point.
I reach over to Jay and link my arm with his as I rest my head against his shoulder. Jay plants a kiss on top of my head, and I look around. I can’t help but laugh along about everything that happened to get us to this point. Our path was anything but normal, but I wouldn’t change any of it.
It’s perfect. It’s us. Our ever after.
Mia enjoys spending time with her husband and two spoiled dogs. When she’s not home reading, writing, or binge-watching shows, she's traveling the world and spends every chance she can get outdoors in the summertime.
