Page 56 of The Wedding

Etta cut her dinner before taking a single bite. “I was thinking next year, at the earliest. Plenty of time to plan and ease into it. We can make the news public after news with my business dies down. How does that sound?”

“Sounds fine with me.” Jamie stared at her ring as she ate. She used her utensils with her left hand just to look at it. “I’m a cliché, though. I’ve always wanted a June wedding.”

“Good thing we’re thinking next year, then. If we start booking things now, we might be able to actually get them. June is the biggest time of the year for weddings, you know.”

I know, thanks.“Yup. Late June. Let’s do it.” She lifted her wineglass one more time. “Let’s get married next June.”

Etta tapped her wineglass against hers. “It’s a date.”

They reached across the small table to kiss.I’m taking this rather well. The whole getting engaged thing, anyway.

What she didn’t know quite yet was that it was merely shock settling in.

They made it through dinner without incident. Someone played violin in the distance. Dessert was tiramisu and chocolate drizzled in the shape of a heart. After dinner, they walked off the food with a stroll through the dark gardens, hand in hand, Etta confessing that she only had one short meeting that day before spending the rest of it preparing for that night.

“I wanted you to have a proposal to remember for the rest of your life.”

“I’m sure I will.”

Another kiss passed between them. By the time they segued to the limo waiting outside, Etta was so handsy that Jamie blushed to have her rub her from behind while the driver opened the door for them.

She remained in her haze as Etta kissed her back to the penthouse. She didn’t even think about the ring on her finger until they were inside, Etta taking off her jacket and announcing she wanted to prepare something in the bedroom and that Jamie should wait a bit in the living room.

Jamie stood in front of the windows, looking out across the city.The first time I saw this view, Etta was making love to me.The ring twinkled in her reflection. One night, what didn’t seem so long ago, Jamie went on a trial date with Etta before agreeing to be her paid mistress for six months.I knew when I agreed to go home with her that it was sex she was after.Jamie’s first view of this cityscape was when Etta took her like she would soon be wont to always do.I liked it. I was nervous, but I liked it.Now here she was, ever so long after, with an engagement ring on her hands – and a fiancée going through such extremes during a busy time in her life.

Something dripped from Jamie’s eye. She wiped it away the moment Etta called for her.

She went, slipping out of her heels and turning four inches shorter by the time she appeared in the doorway.

“I love you.” Etta was by her side, taking her by the arm and showing her what she had done. “Before anything else, I wanted to tell you that.”

Rose petals scattered across the bed, the cool night breeze from the window swaying their tips this way and that. A trail of them led from the bed into the master bath, where a bath was currently being drawn – full of bubbles, of course.

“I already took a bath earlier,” Jamie said.

Etta held her, her scent the most comfortable thing in the world right now. “Take another one. With me.”

Now more of that pesky wet stuff was coming down Jamie’s face. It was starting to hit her. The romance of it all. The engagement. Etta, of all people, going so much out of her way to do this for her. “We never take baths together…”

“I know. It’s a shame that we should fix.”

Jamie cried. She allowed the tears to fall, one after the other, until she could barely see the blurry world around her.I love her so much.She let Etta take her hand and bring her into the bathroom, where she undressed her, hands taking every opportunity to touch her and bring her closer. The whole time she cried, and when Etta asked her if they were tears of happiness, all she could say was,“Yes, yes, yes.”

For the first time in so long, Jamie allowed the fantasy to consume her. Even when she started dating Etta, she didn’t allow her Cinderella fantasies to come full circle. There was too much danger in that. The fantasy could die at any moment, and where would she be? Crying for very different reasons.

She stopped crying by the time she stepped into the bath and got comfortable in Etta’s lap. With her arms wrapping around Jamie, nose nuzzling her throat, she felt like the luckiest girl in the world.Because I am.She would let herself believe it. Perhaps for the first time in her life.

Cinderella didn’t have to run away from the ball. It stayed with her, forever.

Chapter 18

Etta’s alarm went off no later than seven Monday morning. That was the time it usually went off, but Jamie still had yet to learn how to sleep through it.

As Etta rolled over and turned it off, Jamie opened her eyes, welcoming the bright morning sunlight as it streamed through the bedroom windows. They were back in the manor in the hills, in their big bed with a bigger cat taking up most of the property. Jamie moved her foot from beneath Barbarossa’s body and listened to her growl in disapproval.

“Morning,” Etta mumbled, sitting up and stretching above her head. “Big day today.”

“Mmhmm.” Jamie closed her eyes and wrapped an arm around Etta, begging her to stay behind and cuddle a little. She knew that wouldn’t happen, though. Etta was a punctual woman, which meant she was in the bathroom by ten after seven. A woman had to rinse off in the shower, style her hair, and brush her teeth, after all. And if Beatrice were worth her salt – and she always was – the clothes for the day would be laid out in the closet, freshly pressed and cleaned.