Page 112 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding

Until it was interrupted.

The ding of the lift.

The click-clack of heels on the floor in the hall.

Pandora shot back up onto the couch as Victor tucked himself away, both of them fussing with their hair and clothes, making sure nothing was askew as the agent’s hand jiggled the door.

Victor grabbed the book, flipping the suggestive cover over so it was against his leg just as the estate agent came rushing back into the room.

“So,” she said, exhaling a bit, clearly still flustered by the mishap.

“We’ll take it,” Pandora said, beaming at the woman, happier than she’d been in weeks.

All that was left to do was sign the papers.

And, of course, get married.

28

“Good evening, everyone,” Sebastian said as he stood up from the table. “I’m Sebastian. Victor’s best mate. Or, as he likes to call me,Perfectly Adequatefriend, which I think is his version of a compliment.”

There was the rumble of a few laughs around the table.

Pandora felt her own lips curving up as she glanced over at Victor at her side, the warmth of him chasing away the chill inside what was, essentially, a long, ancient, greenhouse.

When Lucy and Pandora had found out that Pandora’s family had set up their wedding-party dinner inside a greenhouse on the grounds where the wedding was to take place the following evening, they’d scrambled to find portable heaters and comically long extension cords, just so it was relatively comfortable for the members of the wedding party who actually did feel the cold.

Pandora had to admit that with the long table lined in flowers and fine china, and the flickering candles set in their standing candelabras lining the room, it was a perfectly romantic and charming spot for their little get-together.

Even if it had taken some last-minute maneuvering to pull it all together.

The food had been served by Ravenna and Henrietta. And it seemed that the more practice Ravenna had researching and working on appropriate modern-day human meals, the better her cooking had become.

Lucy had let out a moan that had given Pandora some secondhand embarrassment when she’d taken her first bite of the apple-stuffing pork loin.

“When I first met Victor, we’d bonded over a mutual distaste of all things forced physical activity in school. Little did I know, Victor only wanted to avoid sport so he could spend more time with his nose in books, not slacking off like me.

“But by the time I learned how much he was reading and mumbling about vampires and obscure blood rituals, it was too late – we were best mates. Though, I’ll admit, I thought that the chance of him finding a girlfriend, with his particular interests, was about as mythical as the creatures he was studying.”

There were a few polite laughs from the crowd that was made up primarily of those “mythical creatures” Sebastian was talking about.

“Victor, you’ve spent ages studying the undead. Some of us, present company included, were starting to worry there wasn’t a single living woman who could attract your attention.

“But then, enter Pandora. Someone capable of looking past the furrowed brows, the thesis-induced caffeine shakes, and his ability to talk about his books in excruciating detail, and see the kind, loyal, somewhat intense, but wonderful man he is. And you’ve made him happier than I’ve ever seen him.

“Pandora, you are about to marry a man who will love you with the same intensity he once reserved for seventeenth-­century folklore.

“So let’s raise a glass to Victor and Pandora – the proof that there really is someone out there for everyone. Here’s to your next chapter. May it be filled with laughter, love, and endless arguments about the most fearsome fictional vampire. Cheers!”

“Cheers!” everyone chorused in unison before bringing their glasses to their mouths.

“OK, my turn,” Lucy, slightly buzzed and pink in the face, said, as she got to her feet. “Hey, everyone. My name is Lucy. I’m Pandora’s best friend, partner in crime, and fellow lover of all things romance novels. Which, I have to say, prepared me perfectly for tonight. Because if there’s anything romance novels can teach you, it’s to spot a love story brewing.

“And what a love story is has shaped up to be,” she went on, smiling at Pandora and Victor. “Filled with all the right tropes, too.

“First, they’re clearly the perfect grumpy–sunshine. There’s our hero, Victor. The brooding intellectual who can outstare a marble statue. And, of course, our heroine, Pandora. The brightest bit of sunlight in everyone’s lives.

“Then, as we know, there is the slow burn. And I mean slow. How many months passed where Victor came intoLuna Bean to study instead of noticing the absolutely perfect woman right before him?