the wood floor.
And then, without any music or fanfare, Bianca and her father appeared in the courthouse doorway and began to walk toward me. Everyone rose to their feet, and a murmur of admiration moved through the crowd. I didn’t blame them—Bianca was exquisitely beautiful.
For a moment, I felt a genuine rush of affection for her. Not love, exactly, but warmth and appreciation, fondness and friendship. She smiled as she approached me, offered her cheek to her father, and watched as her dad shook my hand, clasped me tightly and thumped me on the back several times, then took his seat next to her mother, who was already wiping her eyes.
“Hey,” I whispered as we faced each other.
“Hey,” she whispered back. Her smile was confident and bright.
But her bouquet shook in her hands.
The judge began the ceremony, which, true to his word, was very quick. Actually, I barely recall any of it. I put a ring on Bianca’s finger. She put one on mine—a simple gold band. We solemnly declared that we knew not of any lawful impediment to our marriage, blah blah. It was all a blur to me—I couldn’t stop thinking about those trembling roses. They made me want to sweep her into my arms and carry her out of there, take her somewhere private and hide out from the world, just the two of us. No pressure and no business deal and no bullshit. Just her and I, together.
My chest was tight. Or maybe it was my collar. Either way, I was finding it tough to breathe. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and tried to focus.
“Now, I’m given to understand the two of you have written some personal commitment vows?” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Bianca said. She turned around and handed her flowers to Ellie, then unfolded the vows I’d typed up.
For a moment, I felt bad about what I’d written for her—it was pretty fucking stupid and she was going to hate me for it. In fact, her cheeks were beginning to match her shoes as she glanced at the first few lines. But then she started to read, and all the weird tension inside me eased. It was so fucking funny, I decided I had no regrets whatsoever.
“My dearest Enzo,” she said, clearly trying not to clench her teeth. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know why I was so mean to you when we were kids. I think now I was afraid of the way I felt for you. I had never met anyone so good-looking and awesome at baseball before.” She paused for a breath and hitched her weight over to one foot. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life ironing your shirts and cooking your favorite foods and watching you win the Allegan County Senior Men’s Baseball Championship year after year. It is my dream come true. P.S. I won’t even care if you snore because it is such a manly sound. I love everything about you and always will.”
She looked up from the page, and I swear to God I thought smoke was going to puff out of her ears.
“That was beautiful, sweetheart,” I told her, unable to keep a grin off my face.
“Your turn,” she said, her smile laced with venom.
Oh, shit.
I pulled the piece of paper from my pocket, unfolded it, and began to read.
“My sweet, brilliant, beautiful Bianca, what can I say but that my life before you was a meaningless, shallow void—in the words of the immortal Edward Cullen, it was ‘an unending, unchanging midnight.’” I paused here to give her a look—who the fuck was Edward Cullen?—and cleared my throat before continuing. “You have brought light into the egotistical and immature darkness that was my soul. I see now that you were always my one true love, and I was just too wrapped up in myself to commit to anyone else. But no longer. To sum up, again I quote Edward Cullen: ‘No measure of time with you will be long enough, but we’ll start with forever.’”
I dropped the hand holding the page to my side and gave her an incensed stare, my nostrils flaring with anger.
She smiled triumphantly. “That was lovely, Enzo. Brought a tear to my eye.”
“Well, then,” said Judge Reinhart briskly. “By the authority vested in me by the State of Michigan, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
The last thing on earth I wanted to do right