Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Henry—Three Months Later
“Just imagine it,” Maddy said, spreading her hands against the dreary spring sky like she was framing a masterpiece. Her sleek black hair was pulled back in a precise ponytail, her slim dancer-like frame vibrating with barely contained excitement. “Fifty drones rising in perfect formation over the Hudson. The main group creates this gorgeous champagne bottle, while the secondary formation bursts outward in a celebration of lights.”
“What could go wrong?” Mason muttered from his spot against the rental van.
Maddy looked at me before turning to Mason. “Why are you even here?”
Mason laughed. “I’m the best man, and given your history of proposal disasters, Henry thought it might be good to have a lawyer nearby.”
“Those weren’t disasters,” Maddy interjected. “They were part of the learning curve. Besides, no one has lost a limb. A few feathers in the fountain, maybe a bride who took an unexpected swim, but nothing catastrophic.”
“Yet,” Mason said.
I chuckled, shaking my head. “In Maddy’s defense, every great event planner has war stories. At least hers are memorable.”
“This appears to be another in the making,” Mason added. “There’s an approaching storm, the wind off the river is fierce, and—” he eyed Maddy skeptically “—the fact that I heard about your last Valentine’s Day event with the painted pigeons, I’m not convinced this will go smoothly.”
Maddy spun to face him. “Those pigeons were a creative solution to a budget problem.”
“Didn’t they molt mid-flight? I heard you painted them pink and blue because white doves were too expensive, and the bride ended up looking like she’d been dive-bombed by a gender reveal party gone wrong.”
“The colors represented the merging of two lives! His and hers.”
The drone operators, a pair of increasingly nervous-looking guys, kept checking their tablets. The taller one spoke up. “Ms. Chen, about these wind conditions?—”
Just then, Victoria pulled up with Savvy.
“The timing is perfect,” Maddy insisted. “Get your bride and get her in place.”
As I walked to meet Savvy, I heard Maddy’s frantic whisper carrying across the deck: “No, no, that’s not right—the wind is pushing them?—”
Savvy kissed me and then stared at the drones. “What are you up to?”
I shrugged. “It’s a surprise.”
“Okay, something’s wrong with that formation,” Savvy said as we reached the overlook .
The drones, meant to create an elegant champagne bottle, drifted in the strengthening wind.
“That’s, uh...” Mason’s voice carried a mix of horror and amusement. “That’s not a bottle anymore.”
“Oh god.” I watched as the wind pushed the formation into an unmistakably phallic shape hovering over the Hudson. “That’s definitely not a bottle,” I said.
Victoria cleared her throat delicately. “Well, I suppose this gives new meaning to a proposal going cockeyed.”
“Henry Kingston,” Savvy turned to me, laughter bubbling up, “did you try to propose to me with what appears to be a giant?—”
“Penis,” Maddy wailed from behind us. “It’s a giant penis over the Hudson.” She frantically waved at the operators. “Can’t you adjust the?—”
“If we move them now, in this wind—” The operator’s warning was cut off by another gust that sent the drones spinning, making the formation even more anatomically correct.
“Someone posted this on River Bend’s Facebook page,” Mason announced, holding up his phone. “It’s got twenty likes.”
“The second formation!” Maddy screamed as the ‘cork’ section of drones activated. “Stop the second?—”
It was too late. The programmed spray of celebratory lights burst from the top of the now decidedly phallic formation, creating an unmistakable display over the Hudson.
“Well,” Savvy managed between fits of laughter, “that’s certainly one way to make your proposal memorable.”
“Did your drone display just...” Victoria paused delicately, “...climax over the river?”
“One hundred likes on Facebook,” Mason updated, not trying to hide his grin. “Someone commented, ‘Most exciting proposal in River Bend history.’”
I dropped to one knee, figuring I might as well commit fully to this disaster. “Savvy Honeysucker, this is absolutely not how I planned to do this?—”
“You mean you didn’t plan to propose with an ejaculating drone penis over the Hudson?” Her eyes sparkled with mirth. “Because honestly, this is perfect.”
I looked up at Savvy. The rain was falling, and a spectacular aerial malfunction was still going on above us, but I somehow found the perfect words.
“I had this whole elaborate plan. Romantic lights and a champagne bottle are exquisite. Instead, I’ve given River Bend its most memorable Facebook moment ever. But you know what? This feels right. Because loving you has been about finding the perfect in all our imperfect moments.”
Behind us, I heard Maddy shriek as the final drone formation—meant to spell out ‘Marry Me’ in elegant lights—began spinning wildly. The lights flickered and jumped, creating a messy pattern.
“Oh, dear god,” Mason muttered. “They’re losing altitude.”
The drones dropped one by one, some spinning toward the Hudson, others drifting in the strong wind. The message broke apart into a chaotic mess.
“I love you,” I continued, ignoring the growing crowd of onlookers with their phones out. “Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” Savvy said, laughing. “Yes, to the worst but best proposal ever.”
As I slipped the ring on her finger, the drone formation lost its battle with the wind, scattering across the sky in what looked disturbingly like a grand finale.
“And THAT,” Victoria announced dryly, “is what I call going out with a bang.”
“Five hundred likes,” Mason called out, shielding his phone from the rain. “And three local news stations want permission to run the footage.”
The rain started pelting harder as I met her eyes, her face lit with excitement despite the storm soaking both of us. “Yes?” I asked, barely able to hear myself over the wind.
“Yes!” she shouted, laughing as she threw her arms around me. Her voice carried above the storm, her joy undeniable even as we were drenched.
“News vans,” Maddy groaned, pointing toward the parking lot as we ran for cover. We dashed into Common Grounds, dripping water everywhere, just as reporters started spilling out of their vehicles with cameras raised.
“Five minutes,” Maddy moaned, collapsing into a chair and letting her head thud onto the table. “Five minutes before this goes viral. My professional reputation...”
“Is about to explode?” Mason suggested, wringing out the hem of his shirt and earning a glare from Maddy that could have stopped the rain entirely.
“Actually,” Savvy said, examining her ring while I wrapped my jacket around her shoulders, “this is marketing gold for your new business. Think about it—‘No matter what goes wrong, we’ll make it right.’” She paused. “Maybe leave out the part about the anatomically correct drone display.”
The barista set down a round of celebratory hot chocolates. “On the house. That was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in River Bend.”
“A thousand likes,” Mason announced, checking his phone. “And ... yep, someone tagged the Channel 4 news team. ”
“The Channel 4 team that Victoria’s on the board with?” Savvy asked innocently.
Victoria lifted her perfectly made cappuccino, her eyes gleaming with amusement. “I may have texted them. This is exactly the kind of heartwarming local story they love.” She paused, taking a sip. “Though we might want to describe it as a ‘technical malfunction’ rather than...”
“Rather than a drone dick?” Mason offered.
“Mason!” Maddy looked scandalized.
“What? I’m calling it what it is. Was. Before it...” he said, making an explosive hand gesture.
“So,” I pulled Savvy closer, breathing in the scent of rain, coffee, and possibility. “When do you want to get married?”
Her eyes met mine, dancing with that mix of mischief and certainty that had made me fall in love with her. “How about tomorrow?”
“Your dad would kill me if he didn’t get to walk you down the aisle.”
“True.” She laughed. “And what kind of wedding planner would I be if I eloped?” She twisted the ring on her finger. “How does summer sound? I think I can whip something together by then.”
“You’re already planning it, aren’t you?”
“Of course, I am. And don’t worry—” she nodded toward where Maddy was now trying to explain to a reporter that she was “revolutionizing proposal technology” while Mason made helpful hand gestures behind her back illustrating exactly what kind of revolution had occurred, “—we’re definitely keeping the drones grounded this time.”
“Two thousand likes,” Mason said, scrolling through his phone. “And someone started a GoFundMe to ‘Save the Love Drones.’ ”
“You know what this means,” Savvy said, leaning into me as she watched another news van pull into the lot. “This is exactly the story I wanted for my business. Not only the perfect moments but the real ones. The ones that go hilariously wrong and end up better than any plan could have made them.”
Victoria raised her cup in a toast. “To River Bend’s most memorable proposal.”
“Wait till the wedding,” Maddy jumped in, looking up from her mortified slump. “I promise, no aerial displays of any kind.”
“And no painted pigeons,” Mason added.
“That was ONE TIME?—”
I watched Savvy twist the ring on her finger—not the massive five-carat diamond my father kept in the family vault, but something that was purely her—rose gold, with a simple solitaire diamond held in delicate twisting vines. The moment I’d seen it, I’d known. Like I’d known with her.
The rain fell softly outside, a gentle contrast to the chaos of moments before. The river churned below, catching the last glimmers of light from the drowning drones, the water reflecting the messy, beautiful randomness of love. My mother’s raised brow, Mason’s quiet, shaking shoulders, and Maddy’s wide-eyed mix of horror and pride blended into a moment that was impossibly, perfectly them.
Outside, the last drone gave up its fight with the storm, splashing into the Hudson like a final punctuation mark on history’s most spectacular proposal failure.
It turned out that some love stories were born not in calm but in the beautiful wreckage of unexpected chaos.