Page 14 of Take 2

Chapter Twelve

Nine Years Ago

S eth MacFarlane and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles perform a song that points out which actresses’ boobs have been shown in what movies. It plays in surround sound from both TVs on the first floor of my parents’ house, which is equal parts hilarious and embarrassing.

It feels like only my parents’ house rather than mine, too, since I spend most nights at Ryan’s apartment. Soon, I’ll be moving out officially.

“Bella,”—Ryan slides his arm around my waist—“you haven’t made me watch all the movies he’s singing about. Why hasn’t my movie education included all the movies with boobs?”

I shake my head. “Can we not talk about boobs around so many people?”

The eighty-fifth Academy Awards is doubling as a birthday party for me, eventhough that’s still a week and a half away.

This one is a real party, though still not what Ryan would have thought of as a party when we first met.

It’s still silly for us all to dress up like this just to hang out at my parents’ house, but there are enough people to constitute the title.

Both sets of our parents are here, lots of friends, even Ryan’s sister, Anna.

“Fine.” He kisses the top of my head. “As long as later—”

“I know the rules!” I pop up onto my toes to give him a light kiss. “First champagne and Oscars.”

“No betting.”

“Then you get under this.” I shake the ruffly green skirt of this year’s pick.

Morgan and Cece shopped with me for it again, though there is no longer any need to try to snag a guy.

It was one of the many ways a lot of extra trouble went into the party this year.

We also had our hair and make-up done professionally, which means I get to have gorgeous hair off my neck for once.

Anna snags my attention when Ryan steps away. “I’ve missed you!” She wraps me in a tight hug for at least the tenth time today.

“We’ve mentioned this,” I say with a laugh. “How much have you had to drink?”

“Not enough, Bella. Not ever enough.”

“Still loving New York?”

“Yes! It’s a dream.” Her smile is dazzling. “I’ve never been so grateful my stupid brother got a football scholarship so there would be enough money for me to go away. And you saved him from losing that scholarship, so I basically owe you my entire life.”

His family gives me more credit than I deserve.

The area I really helped with was in professor selection.

When we met, he claimed the professor had a vendetta against him, but her teaching style was just harsh.

Helping him through the rest of that class was the equivalent of buddy reading and book club discussions.

I guess I helped him focus for the rest of college by providing motivation, but his family does not want to know about the reward-based study system.

As it turns out, Hot Football Player Ryan is quite smart and successful at anything he cares about. I might be jealous, but since loving me is firmly on his list of things he cares about, I don’t mind him being an overachiever. Not like he can help it—overachieving runs in his family.

“Wave to me when I see you on stage,” I say, “and we’ll call it even.” This girl is definitely going to be famous.

“You first. I will cry if you don’t mention me in your speech at the Oscars.”

“How could I forget you? You’ll be sitting right there as my plus one!”

She laughs and flips her hair over her shoulder. She’s such a stunner. “I know you’re full of shit, but I love you for it. I’m way down the list of who would get to go with you, but if you burn through Ryan, your parents, Morgan, Cece, and Stephen, and none of them can go, I’m totally there!”

“Do I have to ask your mom before you?”

“Fuck no.”

Karen’s radar hearing catches her. “Young lady!” Two years after we watched the Oscars at Karen and Rob’s on our “first anniversary,” I still cringe thinking she had to have heard us having sex.

I pay less attention to the awards than I used to, enjoying the company.

Part of me feels like this is also a going away party, and I don’t want to miss out.

Ryan grumbles when The Avengers doesn’t win visual effects, insisting that a boat in the middle of the ocean had nothing on the alien battle in New York, which initiates a rant from Morgan about the differences from the book version of Life of Pi.

The fifty years of Bond stuff is fabulous, and possibly the only part of this that Ryan’s dad cares about.

I pay enough attention to the show to roll my eyes when Tarantino wins original screenplay.

“She’s not a Tarantino fan,” Ryan explains.

Anna scrunches her nose. “I didn’t like that movie.”

“You saw Django Unchained ?” Rob’s eyes bulge.

“Yeah,” she says to her dad with a well-practiced duh tone.

The amount of time Cece spends laughing about Jennifer Lawrence’s fall on her way up tells me she is too drunk. Not that I mind, so I don’t know why Morgan herds her away from me.

None of us predicted Argo for best picture, but fun was had. The TVs are muted, and a clinking sound draws my attention away from Stephen. Ryan steps toward me with two champagne flutes. I remain seated on the ottoman and narrow my eyes at him as he hands me one.

“As you know, Bella has celebrated the Academy Awards since she was old enough for Vivian to allow her to watch them.”

“Probably before I allowed it, if we’re being serious.” Mom flashes a smile and enjoys the laugh from the crowd.

Ryan tilts his head. “She doesn’t break rules!

Except the traditional Oscars beverage. Next year, she’ll be legally consuming champagne.

” He winks at me. “So, we’re celebrating the Oscars and Bella’s twenty-first birthday and the fact that she’ll be starting at CalArts this summer so she can go to the Academy Awards herself someday.

” There’s a smattering of applause, and my cheeks warm.

“I’m so proud that Bella is going to chase her dreams. She’s inspired me to chase my own. ”

I scrutinize his expression but don’t find any pain hidden behind his smile. His football career seems to have come to a close. He didn’t get drafted, and though he free-agented into training camp, he got cut. It was a hard year.

“And my dream,” Ryan says, directing his attention to me, “for the past three years, has been to be by your side for every triumph, every disappointment, every comedy, action movie, drama, even musical. I want to watch all the movies with you, Bella.”

I blink stupidly. What is he— Ryan gets down on one knee before me and pulls out a small box. My heart could shoot right out of my chest. I cover my gaping mouth as my eyes widen and tear up. Inside is an oval-shaped emerald surrounded by small, brilliant diamonds on a gold band.

“Will you marry me?”

Three years ago, Ryan saw me cry for the first time when Kathryn Bigelow made history.

Tonight, my tears are for him—the happiest saline downpour to ever be.

I throw myself at him, nearly sending the gorgeous ring flying as I wrap my arms around him and kiss him like the world is ending.

“Yes,” I say between kisses. “Yes! Of course!”

Cheering reaches my ears, but it feels removed. We could be completely alone for how aware I am of other people right now. Ryan slides me back onto the ottoman and takes the ring from the box. He slides it onto my finger, and the sight of it there makes the tears start again.

“Oh my god, Ryan. I love you so much.” My free hand is pressed to my chest, feeling the rapid pounding of my heart.

“I love you, too.” He stands and pulls me up to my feet with him.

We’re inundated with hugs and congratulations.

Anna gushes about us being sisters, and her presence here suddenly makes sense.

Morgan says she’s glad I refused to take bathroom shots, which garners odd looks from the parents.

Cece declares herself to be the “best fucking fairy godmother ever,” three years after dolling me up for that first Oscars with Ryan, and I hug her tight as she spins me around.

“You guys were all in on this.” I sniffle and wipe away tears.

“Of course,” Morgan says. “I can’t believe you weren’t suspicious when we did pro hair and makeup.”

“I assumed it’s because you’re both nuts!”

Cece beams. “We’ve been conditioning you to think that for years so we could pull this off.”

Ryan’s arms come from behind me to wrap me up and pull my back to his chest. “Shall we go?”

I spin in his arms so I can reach mine up behind his neck. “Absolutely.” I am so, so ready for Oscars-dress-sex. And dress-in-a-heap-in-the-corner sex. Then holy-shit-we’re-engaged sex. By the time we’re done, my birthday will be here.

As we turn to leave, I realize it’s way too quiet. “Where did everyone go?”

“Outside, I think.” Ryan pulls me toward the door.

“Have they taken a liking to frostbite?” I’m still looking around like people are just hiding behind the fog of my elation.

I need to refocus. When we get outside, my attention is pulled to lights bright enough to rival the football stadium.

“What the hell?” I shake my head to get the scene to come into focus.

A red carpet lines our front walkway, complete with a step and repeat, and it leads to a black limo. I gasp again and silently curse my fiancé for making me cry so much. My fiancé. Oh my god. I gape at Ryan. “This is crazy!”

He kisses my hand as cameras snap pictures.

Cece appears with a tissue, powder, and lipstick.

She blesses the touch-ups that all the crying demanded, and Ryan leads me to the banner with a Bella this doesn’t feel like happy tears anymore.” The tears may also be born of shock and confusion. The whole party was a little bittersweet. Namely, the part that was the going away party.

I laugh and pull back so I can look into his eyes to reassure him. “I’m beyond happy. I don’t know words anymore.”

“Shit, that’s going to be a problem for your writing career.”

A bigger laugh and a sniffle get me back to a somewhat more stable state. “Well, after I come down from this high, it’ll probably provide some inspiration.”

“Are we going to come down?”

“Rumor has it marriage is kind of hard.”

“We’re going to work hard, so we got this.”

“Yeah, we do.” I find my phone and swipe away a million notifications. “Name change time!” I open his contact and correct his name to ‘My Fiancé Ryan.’ “Um, get yours.”

“I changed mine earlier.” He shows me my contact card. Under a picture of us kissing, my name is ‘Bella Is Going To Marry Me.’

“Wow. Pretty confident in my answer, were you?”

“This? This is what makes you think I was too confident?” He tosses his phone and swings me onto his lap, facing him. “Not that I got the ring, or proposed in front of a bunch of people, or got the limo, red carpet, the step and repeat?”

“We’re using the step and repeat again.”

“For every event ever. And it’s going to be up in our apartment.”

Our apartment. “Ryan, you’re moving to LA with me?”

“Did it not occur to you that getting married would mean we live together? Because it’s too late to take back your answer.”

I kiss him. “Not a chance. I’m just … wow. That was the only thing I was dreading. I was going to miss you so much, and—”

“I couldn’t just let you move across the country. I want to be there to see you spread your wings.”

“I want you to fly with me.”

Our mouths crash together. The entire universe could cease to exist, and we wouldn’t know the difference because this is already heaven. His lips, his hands, his growing arousal under my hips, are the whole world. I’m about to ask if Oscars-dress sex is happening in the limo when we come to a stop.

I pull back and press my lips together as I catch my breath. “Hope you don’t have anything to do tomorrow.”

He squeezes my thighs. “Just you.”

A smile tugs into my already sore cheeks. I smooth my dress and move onto my own seat just in time for the door to open. It’s a testament to my euphoric haze that it takes me a second to realize we are not in front of Ryan’s apartment building.

Ryan thanks the driver and leads me into The Edgewater Hotel with a hand at my lower back.

“Ryan, I don’t have anything to—”

“Your things are already in our room. It overlooks the lake. And we have it tomorrow night too, so there is nothing to wake up for tomorrow.”

I bite my lip as we step into the elevator. It’s mirrored on one side, and I focus on my reflection.

“You’re gorgeous.” He brushes a kiss on my neck and spreads his hands on my hips. “What are you thinking about?”

“Just admiring the dress. It’s going to be in tatters soon.”