Page 218 of Nine-Tenths

My job is to serve him.

And our shared job is to make the other as happy as we can.

So, that's where everyone is, and what everyone is doing.

Tah-dah.

Cue the credits, play the soppy top 40s love ballad.

Except.

Well.

There's one more part to the ending of a love story, and I'm sure you already know what I’m talking about. As Lord Byron once said: "All tragedies are finished by a death. All comedies are ended by a marriage."

The sunrise alarm clock is just begging to be smashed.

"Get up," Gem says.

"No." I roll over and smoosh my face into my pillow. I reach for Dav but he's not there. The bastard has left me to my sister's evil clutches. "Y'r not the boss o'me."

"No, the boss of you is already up and dressed," Stu says from somewhere near the door. I yank the sheets up. "Already seen your ass, bro."

"I am a valued and celebrated member of Her Majesty's Council, and a trusted consultant to Canada's Environmental and Draconic Affairs ministers," I pout. "Which means I get to sleep in if I want to."

"Not today, you don't," Gem says and runs her hand through my bedhead gently. "Come on, my lord."

"M'not a lord," I remind Gem.

"And you never will be if you don't get your ass in gear," Stu says.

"Whyare you talking about my ass so much today?"

"Whyare you flashing it at me?"

I groan and finally sit up. "There, happy?"

"Ecstatic," Stu deadpans. "Shower and shave. Go."

"Whyyyy?" I whine.

"Becausesomebodydecided that it would be, and I quote, 'awesome to do the brunch thing with, like, our nearest and dearest before we have to go do the big media-frenzy royal-wedding-of-the-century bullshit'," Gem says in a scarily accurate impression of me.

"Also, because your friends are already here and they're driving me crazy," Stu says.

"Friends… why…" I say, and then my brain finally comes online.

Oh.

I'm gettingmarriedtoday.

"Ah, there he is," Stu says, and comes into the room to ruffle my hair, too.

"Fuck off," I mutter, batting them away.

"Such elegant language for such an elegant lord," Stu laughs, as Gem throws my bathrobe at my head.

"Come on," she says. "Things to do, people to tie your life to."