44
Two years later
“I can’t believe you’re making me get ready now,” I moan, dragging my feet into our bedroom and throwing a dirty look over my shoulder at Miles.
He just grins, following me into the room, “You told me to tell you to start getting ready now,” he says, “You always get short-term memory loss about this kind of thing,”
I snort, “I do not,”
He just raises his eyebrow at me and drops onto the bed as I sit at the vanity and turn my curlers on. It’s technically our two-year anniversary today, but it depends on which version of events people know. For the most part, everyone considers our anniversary to be the time we decided to be a couple. For us, it’s that moment Miles walked into an empty office to hide with me at a party.
“You know that you’ll be freaking out if you’re not ready when Emme arrives,” he says.
I roll my eyes, “I don’t really understand why Emme can’t just tell us where we’re going,” I say, “She’s such a drama queen,”
Miles grins, “Hey, you’re the one who let her plan this,”
“Do you actually think I could have stopped her?” I ask.
“Good point,” Miles says.
I miss Emme.
It’s not like we don’t see each other, but since moving in with Miles a few months ago, I don’t see her every day and texting non-stop just doesn’t fill that void. She claims to love having a flat to herself, but it doesn’t stop her from insisting I stay over every now and then. Her new flat is fucking beautiful. It’s like the kind of flat you see on Pinterest and wonder if anyone actually lives there, but with her big promotion, it’s probably about time she lived somewhere befitting of a young professional Londoner.
When Emme arrives, I am actually ready and she is so shocked that she just stares at me.
“What the fuck, Del?” she says, having taken to calling me Del all time now, which I love. Seriously, it's just shortening my name, why had no one thought of it before Miles.
“What?” I ask, looking down at the mint green, silky satin dress I have on.
“You’re ready on time,” she says, “I had factored in at least half an hour waiting time,”
Miles snorts from where he is sitting on the sofa.
I roll my eyes at him and Emme grins, “You look gorgeous though,” she says, “And it just means we have time to savour this,” she says, holding up an expensive bottle of champagne. I could really get used to drinking champagne. People have been sending us it since we announced our engagement and I think I’ve got a taste for it now, to be honest.
*
“Is there a reason you’re acting like this is some kind of surprise?” I ask Emme as we get out of the Uber and start up the stairs to the event room.
“I’m just excited,” Emme says, “It’s your guy’s engagement party and I like to think I played a huge role in you getting together,” she adds, winking at us.
Miles raises his eyebrow at me and I just shake my head, “Let her have it,” I say and he grins, planting a kiss on my hair.
“I’m going to go and get everyone ready,” Emme says, pushing through the door and pointing at us to stay put.
“Is this a good time to tell you that Adriana is going to be here?” Miles says really quickly.
I snort. Since we got together, I’ve had to endure enough of Adriana to not be particularly bothered by her stares anymore. In fact, all that crap about Miles’s family doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Adriana and her father suck, but I just avoid them. In the past two years, Miles has fully convinced me he wants to be with me. I mean, his proposal was pretty much the final confirmation I needed, but even the smallest things he has done and said have made me feel so unbelievably right for him that I don’t even know how I could have doubted it in the first place.
“Great time actually, because I probably should have told you before now that for some reason, my mother has invited Caleb and his parents,”
Miles snorts, “For fuck sake,” he says.
I nod, “Apparently both of our families hate our relationship,”
My mum is still her usual self, though she seems to have finally accepted that Caleb and I aren’t getting back together. She got her hopes up a little when he and Nicole split, but I was on holiday with Miles in Paris at the time and I didn’t get her texts until I was back in the UK. It all seemed incredibly funny to Miles and me.
Miles’s father is still a prick. But his mum is a dream, and I even get along with his brothers now. Miles and Jem seem to have bonded in the past six months as if Jem has finally realised that Miles isn’t actually a failure for not working for his dad. It turns out Jem isn’t all that bad either.
So, our families may not be perfect, but it doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s what we want that matters, and as it turns out, we want each other quite a bit.
“Well, if they do hate it, they’re pretty fucked now, aren’t they? Fiancée,” he says, planting another kiss on my hair.
I grin up at him, butterflies fluttering in my stomach and noise blaring from the room as Emme pulls us through the door into our fucking engagement party.
*
“Have I ever told you how much I fucking love you?” I ask Emme, wrapping my arms around her on the dancefloor and pulling her into a slow dance.
“Not as much as I love you,” she says, hugging me back, “I can’t believe you’re marrying him and not me,” she adds.
I snort, “I didn’t know you wanted to,” I say, “Want to elope?”
She pulls back and looks deeply into my eyes, “Yes,” she says, “And what an epic end to your romance novel. You running off with your bestie,”
“Epic,”
“Come on,” Emme says, pulling out of our embrace and dragging me over to the bar, “We’re getting far too soppy, we need Sourz shots like when we were 18,”
I laugh as she orders a variety of horrible, syrupy shots and makes me do them one after the other. I am downing the last one that is supposed to taste like cherries but tastes like someone who has never tasted cherries made it when Miles appears beside me with his brother.
“No,” Miles groans, “Don't give her Sourz,”
I frown at him, “Who is her, Milesy boy?”
Jem snorts and Miles grins, “You threw up green last time you had those,”
I grin, “It was funny though,” I say and Miles laughs.
“Wait,” Emme says, looking between Miles and Jem, “How drunk am I? Why are there two of you?”
Miles laughs, “Emme, this is my brother, Jem,”
Emme frowns, “I thought your brother was a prick,” she says. Miles laughs harder as Jem raises an eyebrow at Emme. “Oops, did I say that out loud?” she adds, feigning innocence.
“Is this the crazy best friend who named the cat after Del?” Jem asks Miles, smirking and pretending Emme can’t hear him.
“For the last time, he was called Del when I inherited him,” Emme yells, stamping her foot and crossing her arms.
I laugh with Miles as Jem and Emme assess each other.
“I think this is the perfect time to tell them,” I say to Miles with a grin.
He grins back, “Oh, you just love the chaos,”
I nod.
“Tell us what?” Jem asks, narrowing his eyes and looking between us.
“We’ve been discussing Maid of Honour and Best Man,” I say.
“And you two made the cut,” Miles finishes.
“Yeah, but after seeing how well they get along,” I say.
Miles grins, “Maybe it’s a bad idea,”
The end.