Chapter Four
June 2025
“If you’d asked me five years ago who I thought I’d see my Sweetpea marrying, I’d have said he’d be a playboy type that caused her nothing but trouble.” Ron Hart grinned. “But if you’d asked me a year ago if I thought young Caz here would sweep her off her feet and they’d finally admit their feelings for one another…I’d have said we kind of had an idea…”
Caz blushed. Grace laughed and leaned in, kissing her cheek. “Sorry,” she whispered, allowing Caz to turn to her. To the watching crowd it looked like two lovers sharing a moment, and they were sharing a moment.
“I can handle it, they’re all buying it. That, and you having the best day, that’s what matters.”
Grace blushed and her smile widened.
“The thing is, in all seriousness, if you’d asked us to pick the perfect person to love our Sweetpea, to take care of her, support her through all the trials and tribulations that life and marriage will bring, we’d have chosen Caz too.” He stopped speaking and raised his glass. “So, without further ado, I hope you’ll all join me in toasting these two and wishing them all the best for a wonderful and happy life together.”
The entire room chorused together as Caz smiled at Grace once more. “You’ve gotta kiss me.” She chuckled.
“Hardship.” Grace laughed and planted a peck on her lips again. “See?” She giggled, pulling away slowly. “Your turn.”
“Huh?” Caz frowned. “How many kisses do you need?”
“No, dimwit.” Grace laughed and leaned in close. “Speech?”
Caz’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit, I forgot.” She stood up and tapped her glass with the edge of a knife to get everyone’s attention.
“Hi, if I can—hi,” she said, glancing around the room at all of their friends and families. Looking down at Grace, she felt the nerves ease when a hand slid into hers. “So, I didn’t write a speech, I figured I’d wing it.”
A ripple of laughter further eased her nerves.
“Thing is, if you’d asked me five years ago if I’d be here, marrying my best friend, I’d have laughed and agreed with Ron—she’d have been dating a playboy.”
“Hey,” Grace gasped playfully.
More laughter.
“But…thankfully, she saw sense, and somehow, we found a way to work out that we are perfect for each other.” She turned to face Grace. “And if I had to pick one person on this planet to spend the rest of my days with…the honest answer is, it would be her.”
Grace blushed again and smiled up at her.
“So, before we all starve to death, I’d like to raise a toast to my wife, Grace. My person.”
Once more a chorus erupted, along with a round of applause as Caz sat down.
“That was beautiful,” Grace said. Watery eyes looked right into Caz’s soul.
“I know. They’re lapping it up, too.” Caz laughed, and without warning kissed Grace, to another chorus of congratulations. “Sorry, I—”
“It’s fine, you don’t have to ask. You’re my wife, remember?” Grace smiled, before her attention was taken by a waiter leaning over her other shoulder to place a plate down on the table in front of her.
“Okay, food,” Caz said, rubbing her hands together. “I am famished.” But the words, My wife, repeated over and over in her head.
They’d practiced the dance. Firstly, because Caz wasn’t quite as graceful as Grace when it came to moving in time, and with someone else.
And secondly, Grace had always been led, which meant Caz had to learn to do that too, and then they’d had to work out how they could make it look intimate and real in front of all of their loved ones, without actually having to do anything that made the other feel uncomfortable.
The song choice had taken a while to settle on, of course. They’d batted lots of options back and forth, but in the end they’d both agreed on Ed Sheeran’s Perfect . Because it was just that: Perfect.
The words were beautiful, and in some ways it encapsulated the two of them. They’d fallen in friend-love when they were kids, when Grace was nineteen and Caz was almost twenty-one, working together at the garage while Grace finished her studies.
Thick as thieves they’d been, right from the start. And Ron hadn’t minded. It was good to have his daughter working in the office and not frolicking with the lads who worked for him.
There were dalliances of course, but nobody ever stuck around. Not like Caz. And none of the boys would dare step out of line—not because their boss was Grace’s dad, but because Caz would string ‘em up and rip ‘em a new one if she found out. And she would find out, because Grace would tell her. They told each other everything.
Now here they were, on the dance floor by themselves, looking shyly at one another as they met in the middle, and Grace slid her arms up and around Caz’s neck. Reciprocating hands attached to her waist as the music gave way to lyrics, and they swayed and turned and held each other’s gaze, smiling at one another, whispering quietly to one another about their guests and the day.
Grace laughed when Caz spontaneously sung, “ Darling you look perfect, tonight .” Caz pulled Grace closer, and then as rehearsed, spun her out and back in again, much to the crowd’s enjoyment. It all felt so real…and intimate.
There was no way they weren’t pulling this off.
And when it was halfway through and everyone else joined them on the dance floor, they stood still, hands clasped between them, as they stared at one another, each swaying gently with their own unasked questions.
The music came to a halt, everyone applauded, and the pair of them scarpered, running up the stairs, giggling.
“Caz, wait.” Grace laughed, stopping mid-flight to kick off her heels. And then she was running again to catch up. “Okay, go. Have you got the key?”
Caz reached into her dress and plucked the key card from her bra. “Yup.”
Their room was on the first floor and was the one everyone getting married used. No way around that without looking suspicious. But what did it matter there was only one bed?
They’d slept in worse places together, including several of the back seats of Caz’s cars after a night out when they’d drunk too much and couldn’t drive back.. And who could forget when they’d gone on a mad trip to Blackpool just to ride the Big One, before driving back home. There had been numerous times they’d woken up on a sofa, snuggled into each other under a blanket, having fallen asleep watching a film.
“I dunno how you can wear dresses all day,” Caz said when the door shut behind them. She pulled a hair tie off her wrist and swept her hair up, turning her back to Grace as she wriggled free of her dress and tossed it onto the bed.
“Unzip me?” Grace said.
Caz turned, in just her underwear, lacy stuff she would not have picked had it not been for Grace talking about VPL. Caz had needed to google that, and read that outfits with a ‘visible panty line’ might require no underwear, so a compromise was made and her usual shorts-style was put to one side for the dress.
Sweeping Grace’s long plait to the side, she tried to grab the fiddly little zipper. “Bloody hell, why do they make these so small?” Her free hand landed on Grace’s bare shoulder for balance.
When she finally got hold of the zip, Caz muttered, “Slippery little—” and slid it downwards, revealing Grace. She glanced up and noticed both of them in the full-sized mirror.
Eyes connected through the glass.
“I know everyone’s said it to you today, but you really do look beautiful,” Caz said over her shoulder. She continued to watch as Grace remained quiet, only moving to twist the ring now on her finger. “Are you alright?”
Grace nodded. “Yes, just really understanding that I know I did the right thing.” She smiled. “We are perfect.”
“Yeah, I think we are,” Caz answered. “So, get changed so we can dance the night away, get drunk, and fall into that bed for a really, really deserved sleep.”
“Sleep?” Grace said, turning back to face Caz, her eyes quickly scanning the half-naked body in front of her. “You don’t want to have—“
Caz’s eyes widened like saucers as she found her voice unable to speak.
“Oh, my God, your face.” Grace giggled. She pulled her arms free of the dress and continued to laugh. “Sorry, that was mean of me.”
“Yeah, it was,” Caz smiled, “and dangerous…one day I might take you up on an offer like that.” She turned towards the wardrobe and opened the door, changing the angle of the mirror.
“You would not,” Grace said, completely sure of herself.
“Try again later when I’ve had a few…apparently, that’s when I forget who I’m kissing.”
Now it was Grace who turned beet red. “God, I should never have told you that.”
“Too late. Now I know I’m the best snog you’ve ever had, I am totally taking those bragging rights.”
Grace wiggled her hips until the dress fell to the floor and surrounded her like a great white puddle of silky protection.
“You are a git.”
“I’m your git, though.” Caz turned and held out a hanger with Grace’s suit.
“That is true. You are. You can’t escape now.”
Caz laughed. “Well, duh.”
“You know we can’t just get changed and go down again. We need to waste some time, so they’ll all be assuming we’re up here getting it on.”
Caz dropped her arm and huffed. “Wanna watch some TV?”
“Might as well. Mini-Bar?”
“Go on, then.” Caz laughed and found a T-shirt from earlier to pull on. Then she launched herself at the bed and lifted the covers, slid under, and found the remote.
“Beer or wine?” Grace asked, still in her underwear.
For a moment, Caz wondered if this is what her real wedding day should have looked like, had she married someone gay and totally into her, of course. She closed her eyes at the image that moved through her head in that moment and said a quiet, “Beer, please.”