I watch Eva walk out the door with the four ladies, waiting until the door is closed before I turn and look at Addison and then Stefano. “Okay,” I urge, holding up my hand, “let’s get it out of the way before she comes back.” What I really want to do right now is sit down and just take a second to breathe.
“Let’s get it out of the way,” Stefano repeats my words.
“Stefano,” Addison scolds him softly as she puts her hand on his arm. He turns to look at her. “Would you give him a chance?”
He watches her for a second before he turns to me. “This is…” He looks down at his shoes, shaking his head.
“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done,” I admit, “but it’s also the only thing I can do.”
“You are going to get married to her,” Stefano reminds me. “That’s a big deal.”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Addison states and he side-eyes her, his glare softer than he would give anyone else because he loves her more than life itself. Something I’ve never had; also I don’t think I’ve ever really wanted it. I mean, I love Stefano and I know I love Eva, obviously. I just don’t think I have it in me to love someone like that. Okay, fine, maybe that isn’t true because I would go to the ends of the earth for Eva. “It’s a big deal if you make it a big deal. If you were listening to them instead of being all Hulk, you would have heard them say it’s for Cici. You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t do the same thing for anyone in your family.”
“Yes,” he agrees with her, “but—” I don’t wait for him to add more; instead, I speak out.
“Stefano,” I say his name and he looks back over at me. “It’s Eva, she’s the most loyal person I know. She is the most selfless person I know. She is the most genuine person I know. There is no one else in this world I would do this for besides her.”
“Wow.” He snickers. “What if I needed you to marry me?”
“You’d better be down on one knee and have a big-ass ring for me,” I joke with him and my hand comes out to squeeze my neck. “But seriously, I know how important this is to her. I know how important her family is to her. I also know I’m not going to let her down.”
“I believe you,” Stefano states. “It’s just, it’s you.”
“Yeah, it’s me, and you should know I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“But what if, like, things get blurry?” he questions and Addison slaps him. “What?”
“It’s none of your business,” she hisses at him. “Literally not your concern. Remember the other day when Avery got upset because of something that happened that had nothing to do with her. What did you tell her?” She raises her eyebrows. “Not your monkey, not your circus.”
“It is my monkey and it’s my circus. It’s my concern. She’s my cousin,” he explains, “and he’s my best friend.”
“And they are two grown-ass adults who can make their own decisions,” Addison puts in. “Now what you need to do is ask them what they need.”
“Yes,” I agree with her. “You need to help me.”
“With what?” Stefano gawks.
“Realistically, how fast can we be married?” I ask Addison and she looks at Stefano before turning back to me.
“It’s just the two of you?” she asks.
“Yes.” I nod, knowing that whether he agrees with us or not, Stefano will also be there. There is no way he wouldn’t be. At least I hope he’s there.
“You don’t want any decorations, right?” She walks over to the desk, leaning over it and grabbing a pad from the top of it and a pen. She turns to look at me, waiting for me to answer.
“Well, yeah.” I look at her. “Obviously, let’s add some decoration.” Stefano looks at me and I’m not sure what he’s thinking. Frankly, I’m not even sure what I’m thinking. “I’m not a savage,” I quickly add. “Even if it’s fake, I’m not going to the courthouse with her, so I think we should add some decorations. She deserves better than that.” At this point, even I’m unsure of what I’m saying or why I’m saying it.
“Okay,” Addison says. “I’m assuming since you will be having decoration, you will also be wanting flowers.”
“Her favorite flowers are orchids, but I’m not sure how that would be in a bouquet,” I tell her. “She also loves roses but the cream or white ones or the light pink ones, not another color.” They both look at me shocked. “I bought her purple roses once, and let me tell you, I will not make that mistake ever again. And I don’t want one carnation either.” I shake my head. “I bought her those once and she asked why I hated her.” I laugh thinking back to when I bought that for her. It was at the beginning when we were getting to know each other, and if I have to be honest, I was falling for her. But then I knew if I went there with her, I would lose her friendship, so I put her in the do not even think about category since then, and that is where she is going to stay. Forever. I don’t have much in my life, relationship-wise. I have parents who I talk to maybe twice a year, Christmas and birthday. Then I have my work friends, who are more like colleagues. It’s not like I would tell them my deepest darkest secrets. So besides Stefano, who is my go-to all the time, Eva is my ride or die, and there is no way I’m losing any of that. “What else?”
“Well, food would be my next question.” Addison writes down something on the pad. “But it’s just the two of you.”
“Right,” I say, rolling back on my heels, “but you two will come, right?” I look at the both of them and they both nod their heads. “So it’ll be four of us, plus Avery.” I snap my fingers. “She can be the flower girl, or whatever it’s called.”
“She would love that, obviously,” Addison coos. “She gets to wear a fancy dress and probably a tiara, you might be her favorite person that day.”
“My parents are in town,” Stefano reminds me.
I close my eyes for just a moment before letting out a huge breath. “Your father is going to kick my ass.”
Stefano smirks at me. “Yes.” He nods at the same time, his smirk going to a full-blown smile. “But the good news is he’s a bit older now, so it’ll hurt a touch less.”
“Well, that depends,” I waffle. “Who else is in town besides your dad and mom? Your family usually travels in packs.”
Addison can’t help but laugh. “That’s a good one.” She points her pen at me. “They do travel in packs. When he told his parents about Avery, ten people showed up.”
Stefano rolls his eyes. “It wasn’t ten, it was six,” he corrects. “But you can add my parents.”
“Okay,” Addison says, writing down on the pad. “So food for twenty?” My eyes go big. “About. I’ll get better numbers when I talk to Vivienne.”
“Don’t talk to my mother,” Stefano suggests right away. “It’s going to be a small gathering of one hundred people. Let this guy…” He points at me. “…talk to my father and we will get a better range of how many people are coming.”
“I’m going to put twenty as a minimum,” she says. “I know this isn’t a big deal, but to me it is. What were you thinking about for cake?”
“Red velvet is her favorite,” I share, “but with cream cheese frosting and not vanilla.”
Addison just looks up at me, shocked maybe that I know so much about her.
“Right,” she goes on, “rings?”
I look over at Stefano. “We’ll go out later to get something. I’m assuming there is someplace in town that has rings and stuff.” There is no way I’m not getting her a ring. I also know she’s going to freak out, and I’m going to have to pull out the do-me-a-favor card. But considering that the last favor she asked me I said yes to, I’m thinking she’s not going to give me a hard time.
“There is someplace in town that has rings and stuff,” Addison repeats what I just said, trying to hide her smile.
“Good.” I nod. “So how fast?” I ask. “Professionally speaking, of course.”
“We have to get you a marriage license but that doesn’t take any time, you can get it immediately. I have to make some calls to make sure I can get the cake on time. The flowers shouldn’t be a problem and I’m sure we can snag Luke to do the food, depending on how many people there are coming. So realistically, I can have this ironed out by tomorrow. Which means you can get married the day after.” She smiles at me, folding her arms in front of her. “You guys have clothes, right?”
“I told her to pack a couple of things,” I tell her, “and she has a bag, but I have no idea.”
Addison laughs at me. “I was talking about you, really. You do have a suit, right?”
My eyebrows pinch together. “Um,” I start to say, “I didn’t pack a suit.”
“Lucky for you we also have suits.” She shakes her head. “Comes to get married, doesn’t bring a suit,” she mumbles under her breath, making Stefano laugh. He walks over to her and bends to kiss her lips. “We have someone in town who does last-minute alterations. We are going to see what Eva chooses for a dress and you can choose your suit.”
I nod at her. “See, crisis averted,” I joke and she glares, “it’ll be fine.”
“It could be pricey,” she awkwardly says.
“Whatever it is, I’ll cover it,” I tell her, then look over her shoulder to make sure we are alone. “But just don’t tell her. She doesn’t need the added stress. Even for the dress, don’t show her any prices. If she likes it, just get it.”
She smiles at me. “Sounds good.” She looks over at Stefano, raising her eyebrows. “Now are we, and by we—I mean are you calmer now that you know the full story?”
“I know why he’s doing it,” Stefano replies, putting his arm around her shoulders. “I just don’t want them to, you know, get hurt.”
“Stefano, we both know the score.” I ignore the tightness in my chest. I don’t have a chance to think about it because we hear laughter coming from outside.
The back door opens and she comes into the room, laughing with the sisters. It’s been a whirlwind couple of days and anyone else would have been in a puddle of tears. They would have been curled up in a ball, but not Eva. Not Eva, she’s like let me dust myself off and I’ll be ready to go in ten minutes. And she’ll do it flawlessly.
“Hey.” She looks at me as she comes into the room. “No bloodshed?” She looks around. “I like it, I like it.” She looks over at Stefano. “No bruised knuckles?”
“This isn’t fight club,” he jokes with her.
“Wow.” She folds her arms over her chest. “It’s like you don’t even care he’s going to marry me,” she states with a straight face and Stefano takes a step forward shocked. “I’m kidding.” She laughs. “Now how are the plans going?”
“Good,” I answer her. “I think we can get married in two days.”
“Ugh, okay, fine I guess.” She tilts her head to the side and walks over to me, wrapping her arm around my waist, putting a hand to my chest, smiling up at me. This time her smile hits her eyes a little bit. “Isn’t that love?” She rolls her lips and I can see my Eva is coming back. She turns to look at everyone in the room. “He can’t wait to marry me.”
