Epilogue
EPILOGUE
SIXTEEN MONTHS LATER
Oscar
“You know, this is the first wedding in ages that I’ve been excited to go to,” Ilias said as we stepped inside the enormous, old mill Eli and Tristan had chosen as their wedding venue.
It was a dramatic, four-story building that combined a stripped back, industrial feel with clever, cosy touches like large, squishy sofas in the open, downstairs area. There were two bold floral arrangements on either side of a sign welcoming us and asking us to turn our phones off. I assumed their friend Leo had done the flowers.
“Is that because you don’t think you’re going to be interrogated?”
“Yes. Your family is charming, and they love me. They’re not going to spend the whole day demanding to know when it’ll be our turn and casually mentioning that I’m not getting any younger. I’m not a fucking punnet of strawberries! I’m not going mouldy.”
I laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls. “Mouldy strawberries?”
“I don’t want to be a rotten tomato, so strawberries it is.”
“I think I’ve missed something here,” Lewis said, popping up next to me with Jason in tow. It was almost strange seeing Lewis in a suit instead of his usual pastel shorts, long socks, and vest top combination.
“Ilias was just saying how much he’s looking forward to the wedding,” I said with a wry smile. Lewis frowned, but as he opened his mouth to ask another question, I distracted him by asking, “Is it true there’s a variety show this evening?”
“Apparently,” Lewis said. “I offered to help organise it, but Eli wanted it to be a surprise. I don’t even know who’s performing.”
Behind him, Jason’s lip twitched, and my eyes widened. Jason put a finger to his mouth, glancing down at his husband. I grinned because that was going to be adorable and there was a definite chance Lewis was going to cry.
“See? Best wedding ever, and it hasn’t even started,” Ilias said. “And I don’t have to go to church and listen to some old windbag go on and on.” He saw Lewis shoot him a questioning look and grinned. “Most of my family is vaguely Catholic, so I’ve had to sit through fourteen Catholic weddings, and let me tell you, there are so many better things to do with your life.”
“I know you gave me shit for not having a fucking wedding,” Lewis said wryly, “but at least I didn’t make you sit through that.”
“Still don’t think you have much of a leg to stand on,” I said. Lewis and Jason had surprised us all by getting married in secret and inviting us to a “birthday party” that turned out to be a wedding celebration. None of us had seen it coming, and Miranda had nearly fainted in shock.
“Eh, the parents forgave me, so it’s fine. Plus, Richard and Eli have had big weddings.”
“And there’s Jules’s next year,” Jason added.
“Exactly!”
“Did I hear my name?” Jules asked, strolling through the mill door looking dapper as always, her fiancée Chantelle next to her and Chantelle’s daughter, Kelsey, behind them.
“Yeah,” Lewis said. “We were just talking about your wedding.”
“Gah, don’t remind me,” Chantelle said with a laugh. “Bane of my life right now that is. Still trying to find a photographer.”
“Seriously?” Lewis gave Jules a pointed stare. “Why didn’t you say? I know someone.”
“You do?” Jules asked. I didn’t know why she was surprised. Lewis knew everyone.
“Yeah, Bastian. He’s a friend of Edward’s. He does cosplay photography on the side, but his main business is weddings. I’ll get you his details.”
“We should have just hired you to plan the bloody thing,” Jules said.
“I’m not a wedding planner.”
“You’d be good at it though,” Finn said quietly, sliding quietly up to us, hand-in-hand with Gem.
“Nah, I couldn’t deal with people being dicks. I’d throw cake at someone.”
“Wouldn’t recommend it,” Ilias said with a shake of his head. “Especially not if it’s fruit cake. It hurts when it hits you in the back of the head.”
“How do you know that?” I asked, and Ilias shrugged.
“Remind me to tell you about my cousin Ernesto’s wedding one day.”
“One day being during dinner,” Lewis said. “I want to know too.”
“Don’t you all look dapper.” We turned en masse to see one of the grooms coming through a door in the far wall. Tristan looked very handsome in a sharply tailored black suit, and I knew Eli was going to burst the moment he saw him. Even though they were two wildly different people, I’d never met a pair of opposites more suited to each other.
“The invitation said black tie, and Eli sent us all a very detailed message about the sort of vibe he was going for,” Finn said. “I don’t think any of us were going to risk dressing down.”
I chuckled. Eli’s message had been so long it had been virtually impossible to read, but we’d all sort of expected it. Eli was the dramatic one in our family, and none of us had expected his wedding to be casual.
“He’s also been interrogating us about our wardrobe choices for months,” Gem muttered with a dry chuckle.
“Shouldn’t you be upstairs?” I asked, glancing around the room, then back at Tristan. More guests were starting to arrive, and the space was filling up with excited chatter. “We can get everyone in place.”
Eli and Tristan weren’t having a formal wedding party because they hadn’t wanted to choose who went where, especially because Eli’s family-and-friends list was a lot bigger than Tristan’s. Instead, we’d all promised to act as helpers, just without the whole standing at the altar part.
Ilias and I headed upstairs to the ceremony space on the top floor, which had a high, vaulted metal ceiling. The aisle was lined with jars filled with large, black candles, and there was a dramatic arrangement of hanging flowers over the end where the ceremony would take place. As guests started to arrive, we helped direct them and pointed out a stack of programmes and a basket of tissues for them to help themselves too.
Everyone had taken the glamorous dress code to heart and was dressed to the nines, but it was also gloriously queer, and I loved it.
“We should sit down,” Ilias said, coming up to me as the last few guests slotted into place. “Come on, I’ve got us some seats saved.”
He led me to two seats near the front, just behind my mum and Miranda. Next to us was Eli’s best friend, Orlando, and his two partners. Orlando looked about two seconds from bursting into tears, and the two men on either side of him were holding his hands tightly.
“You okay?” I asked, and Orlando nodded.
“Think so. I just can’t believe he’s getting married.” He shook his head. “Now he can stop worrying about it.”
“Has he been annoying?”
“That’s the polite word for it,” Orlando said as he began to give me a very quick rundown on Eli’s wedding planning shenanigans.
It didn’t take long for the ceremony to get under way, and we all stood as the music swelled softly. Tristan appeared first, walking down the aisle with his sister. He looked so nervous that I thought he might pass out. My fingers found Ilias’s and he squeezed my hand. The music rose, and I turned my head again to look down the aisle for Eli.
Then I gasped because, even though I’d expected dramatic, Eli was something else.
His suit was also black, but the jacket was longer with a pinched in waist, almost like it was corseted. There were dramatic golden epaulettes on his shoulders, and behind him flowed a magnificent cape of black and gold that shimmered as he walked. It was so utterly Eli that I couldn’t have imagined him wearing anything different.
Beside me, Orlando had started crying, and one of his partner’s handed him a handkerchief.
“Wow,” Ilias said. “Your family does weddings in style.”
The ceremony was beautiful, and everyone shed a few tears. Afterwards, we all went downstairs for drinks and nibbles. Evening had already drawn in, and there were candles burning everywhere.
“I knew your brother had a flair for the dramatic,” Ilias said, sipping a glass of wine. “But this is tasteful, fun dramatic. Also, I’ve never been to a Halloween wedding, so that’s extra cool.”
“Are we applying the Verrati index to weddings now?” I asked.
“I haven’t before, but maybe we should. We’ll have to use my family’s weddings as a baseline because if we use this one, we’re fucked.”
“Eli is rather extra.”
“I am indeed,” Eli said, appearing beside me. He was still wearing his cape, although he had scooped it over one arm so it didn’t get trodden on.
“And we wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said as I pulled him into a hug and kissed his cheek. “I’m so happy for you. You look amazing.”
“Thanks. The endless arguments with Edward over the cape were clearly worth it.” He grinned. “Have you seen the cake? It’s bigger than Kelsey. And it’s got four different flavours because we couldn’t choose.”
“I will definitely need a piece of each,” said Ilias. “Especially if it’s not fruit.”
Eli pulled a face, and Ilias laughed. We chatted for a while before Eli got pulled away, leaving Ilias and me alone. We strolled outside onto the terrace where hundreds of fairy lights cast a fantastical glow over the space. There were a few other people out there, including a couple of Americans Eli had befriended during a drag tour in Tennessee, but since it was already quite cold, most of the guests were staying inside.
It was nice to have a moment that was just the two of us in the chaos of the rest of the day.
“So,” I said, “having fun?”
“I am. But mostly because I’m here with you.” Ilias smiled at me fondly, the fairy lights giving him an almost magical halo. “Everything is fun when I’m with you.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.” He kissed me softly. “I love you, Oscar. You make my life so perfect, I can’t imagine it being any different.”
“I love you too.” I pulled him close to me, cupping his jaw with my hand. “Truly, Ilias, you are everything to me.”
We stood there together for a few minutes more before we went back inside to join the party.
And I knew, for the rest of my life, I’d always remember how perfect Ilias looked that night because he was my always and my everything.
My oh-so perfect adventure.
The End