Page 97 of The Accidental Dating Experiment
“Open it,” he urges once more.
With a thumping heart and excited fingers, I tug off the top of the box. On a jewelry pillow, a silver chain sits, bright and shiny. Gently, I pull it out, and my breath catches.
It’s a necklace with a charm on it of a little house, like the cottage Eleanor gave us, the home that brought us back together. “Oh Monroe,” I say, a lump rising in my throat.
This man is so romantic. I don’t know why I’m surprised. He’s surrounded by it on our podcast, in his practice. But still, I’m thrilled and lucky that he is.
“It seemed…fitting,” he says.
I unclasp it. “I want to wear it today.”
“Yeah?” He sounds enchanted.
“I do.”
“Let me help,” he says, then moves behind me, as I brush my hair off my neck. Carefully, he drapes the chain around my throat, his fingertips dusting my skin as he hangs it just so, then as he links it together. “There. It’s where I fell in love with you.”
I shiver and smile all at once. “I know. I fell in love with you too.”
A soft kiss from him makes my skin tingle. “Correction: fell in love with you again.”
Correction: my skin doesn’t just tingle. It sizzles.
I murmur as he kisses my neck on Main Street in the town where he grew up. The town where we fell in love again. Thanks to a house. “It’s perfect.”
When I spin around, I’m in his arms, where I belong. “Where’s the candle?”
“I’ve got that too. It was just a cover up.”
I laugh. “I figured as much once you gave me this. You had it all planned out?”
He nods toward the store. “That guy’s big into giving gifts to his woman too. He helped me out with the switcheroo.”
“You planned this to that degree?”
“I planned all our dates. Of course I planned this,” he says.
Yes, of course. Since that’s who he is.
We walk through town on this warm summer day till we reach Ripley’s farm. There, Vikas and Bowen stand in front of their friends and family and pledge to love each other always.
“I now pronounce you together always,” the officiant says, and I love that their vows are uniquely them. “You may now kiss your groom.”
As they kiss, we all clap. I scan the guests, spotting Ripley in the back, her tattoos on display in her sleeveless dress. She looks relieved and happy, like she’s glad she pulled off this wedding. A few rows away, a strapping man with the kind of watchful eyes that see everything is looking her way. “He looks like,” I begin, whispering to Monroe as I nod to them.
“A bodyguard? Yeah, that’s Banks,” he says. “And he knocked some sense into me the day of my dad’s party.”
“Oh, I like him then. And I wonder if he likes Ripley? Or if he’s watching out for her?”
“He’s definitely watching her quite close,” Monroe says. “And like he wants to know what she looks like naked.” He swipes my hair off my neck. “It’s a look I’m familiar with since it’s how I look at you.”
I love that look for me and as for Ripley and Banks, I’ll have to ask her later.
For now, I turn all my focus back to the two handsome men walking down the makeshift aisle together. As they stop to say hi to all their guests including me.
Bowen looks me up and down with a knowing grin. “Looks like you’re getting your happily ever after,” he says. “Told you so, hun.”
Then Vikas turns to Monroe, a stern look on his features. “Be good to her. She’s one in a million.”