Page 179 of One Nightstand With My Ex's Uncle

EMILY’S POV.

I woke up the next morning, and squeezed my eyes shut due to the amount of light coming from the open window. Still with my eyes closed, I smiled because I could already hear him humming.

I sat up, and opened my eyes lazily, pushing my messy curls out of my face. Lucas was on the sofa. Apparently, he had ordered clothes for us, and was checking them out.

“How can you look beautiful even with a puffy face?” He asked, and I chuckled.

“You came just yesterday, but I’ve already produced a thousand smiles, when I couldn’t produce up to fifty in the past year.” I said, cocking my head to the side, and he looked up.

“Keep smiling, Emily. You’ve cried enough.”

I was discharged that day, and I forced Lucas into wearing a dull cream couple hoodie with me, and white joggers. I wanted everyone to see him, and know he was my man. For no reason, I’d just stare at him, and smile. He was everything to me.

Everyone had breakfast together, and surprisingly, the table wasn’t dull like I thought it would be. Lucas talked with his siblings, while I talked with the kids, making the table chaotic with conversation.

“I want to change everything.” I said, as me and Lucas walked into the mansion after breakfast.

“Everything?” He asked.

“If I’m to stay here with you for a long time, then I want to change every single thing.

” I said, turning to look up at him. “Right now, this place is crawling with memories—memories I need to do away with. Memories I need to lock away. This place is too nostalgic, and traumatic.” I said, and he placed a hand on my cheek.

“If you want to change everything. That’s completely fine by me. However you want it. However you need it to be. Until every one of those bad memories are locked away, never to resurface, you can do as you like.” He said, and I rose up on tiptoes to kiss him lightly.

He smiled, and kissed me back. It was a tender kiss, filled with love, and sweetness.

Lucas and I called interior designers, and the house was completely transformed.

The tiles were replaced, wallpapers torn, shelves rearranged, sofas changed, chandeliers replaced, staircase painted…

portraits of beautiful sceneries lined up the walls, and with Lucas, I watched the traumatic mansion get erased.

“It’s raining.” Lucas said, sitting behind me on a stool by the window side.

“My favorite season.” I replied, leaning backwards and he wrapped his arms around me. We watched the rain fall outside, and it was therapeutic, filling me with a sense of calmness, and joy.

“Now there’s only one more thing I need.” I said, watching Sadie and Jude scream as they played dress up, jumping over chairs and tables.

“What’s that? Let’s get it done.”

“I want to turn Sadie and Jude’s fanfic into reality.”

“You want to put the story out into the world?” He asked, curiously.

“No. I want to get married. This time I want to feel the joy of a bride. I want to say ‘I do’ out loud and proud.” Let people talk about us all they want. They’ll get tired anyway. We owe them no explanation.” I said, looking up at him, and he bent to kiss me.

“True. We owe no one an explanation for getting married. Just like we owe no one an explanation for kissing when we’re not alone.” He said, and I laughed.

We kissed again, and again, over and over. No one bothered to pay us any attention. We were in a world of our own.

I chose a brand new room, and Sadie and Jude personally helped me in decorating it.

They made my room into a Barbie house. For every pink object I took down, three more pink items were put up.

It felt like a game. ‘Try to take down one pink object safely.’ But in the end, the room was all pink, and I burst out laughing.

They laughed too, knowing fully well that they had been naughty.

~

Moving on, who knew a photoshoot could be so funny? Lucas and I took numerous photos to be displayed at my wedding, and I was dressed in an even more extravagant dress—a dress I picked out myself.

From back bugging, to him lifting me, to kissing, and accidentally going on for a full minute, to pretending to chase each other—Lots of beautiful photos were taken unawares, and the photographers enjoyed what they were doing.

“Okay, a special photo request from each of you.” Lucas said, smoothening his white tuxedo.

“Aww! I want to get married too.” Sadie said, and we all burst out laughing.

“No, no, you’re just eight…” Lucas was saying.

“Lucas! I’m almost ten.”

“Woah!” We all pretended to be shocked, and she giggled, throwing balloons at us.

“Okay, I want Lucas to lift Emily from the waist. She should look like a ballerina.” Sadie said, and I looked at the wedding dress.

Lucas and I laughed for minutes for absolutely no reason. He was laughing because I was laughing, and I was also laughing because he was.

“I’m going to…!” Sadie shouted, but stopped.

“Out of things to blackmail them?” Jude asked, and Sadie nodded.

“Aw, cutie! Now I’m free.” I said, touching her cheeks, and she ended up giggling.

Lucas and I carried out her pose, but I was unable to split, so it looked really weird. What saved the photo was that we were both laughing hard.

“I want you to do the titanic pose.” Jude said, and Lucas and I immediately got into position. That photo came out best.

“Lucas should go on all fours. Then Emily should cross her legs and sit.” Derella said.

“Uh, I don’t think I like that. I’m a little too…” Lucas was saying, but I jumped on his back.

“Derel, any ideas?” Lucas asked, when the photo was taken.

“Just make goofy faces. Screw your eyes up, and look like idiots.” He replied, laughing, and everyone clamored for it. By the time the goofy photo came out, my appendix nearly burst from laughing too hard.

“There’s a whole lot of difference in the atmosphere between your two marriages. This is something else.” Derella said.

“This wouldn’t display! No way!” I said, crossing my arms, as I looked at the goofy photo, but I was wrong.

It was the main photo on the wedding day.

“Here.” Sadie said, right before I walked in. It was the flowers she had caught on my wedding day with John. “I wanted to give this to you.” She said, replacing it with the new ones I had.

Finally, I had the answer to why an eight-year-old would have gone to such lengths just to cw5cha wedding bouquet.

She continued, “Flowers should be pretty things. I wouldn’t want you to see Daisies, and get nostalgic. So, use your wedding with Lucas to bathe these flowers. Strip them of their sad memories, and make them happy.” She said, and I smiled at her.

“I sometimes forget that you’re too mature for your age.”

“I know, right?”

And like that, I walked in with the flowers I had used with John, and when I looked at them, they finally looked beautiful to me.

Walking to Lucas was the best thing ever, and Dahlia was the one to walk me down the aisle happily.

All through, I was blushing. When our pictures were displayed, the guests all laughed heartily, and it was such a warm wedding that we all sang with Jude and Derella when they performed Ed Sheeran’s Perfect live for us.

An hour later, Lucas and I walked out, the whole guests following behind us, dancing, while confetti blasted from all sides.

Finally, I was married—to the man of my dreams.