All I know is that everything is finally as it’s meant to be.
Emily
“Another bucket of chicken wings, please,” Brad tells the waitress, “and please ask the cook to make these ones extra spicy-like my girl here. Since she’ll be the one eating them all anyway.”
He ducks as a chicken bone comes flying at his head.
“When does this thing start anyway?” Marius sits down, a beer in each hand.
“It’s been on all day, willy-wanker. We just wanted to watch the headline act.”
“Hey, you never told me, how did your label react to you guys pulling out?” I ask them.
“EMILY! A lady shouldn’t ask such questions,” Jez jokes, batting his eyelashes.
A chicken bone goes flying in Jez’s direction as well.
“You know what I mean, perv-pucker. They can’t have been happy that you pulled out of the festival.”
“Yeah, they weren’t. But let’s just say we promised we’d do whatever we had to to win another Grammy this year.”
“But your album’s already out now,” I say, confused.
“Yeah, I said we promised. I didn’t say we’d actually do anything.”
“Well, whatever happens, I can’t thank you guys enough. You…we both can’t thank you enough,” I say, reaching over and giving Jez a pat on his shoulder.
“What about me?” Brad pipes up.
“Okay, we three can’t thank you enough.”
“Ah,” Jez bats me away, “don’t mention it. You’re family.”
“And when Jez needs a new liver, it’s family we’ll be calling upon,” Cadence giggles.
“Oh hey, look, it’s starting.”
“How did they get Radiohead to reunite to headline the RockFever Fest?”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian shrugs and reaches over for a bite of my burger. “Maybe they had nothing to do.”
“Did you ever hear from Silas?” Cadence leans over and asks me.
“No. Just through the grapevine that after those pictures were released the festival’s organizers dropped them like hotcakes. Obviously knowing the music industry, the festival had a morals clause in the contract, and well, these days, no one really wants that kind of publicity. I can’t imagine how they must be feeling.” And frankly, nor do I care.
“And you? What about him and Ben?”
“He’ll calm down. I don’t want to ban him from seeing Ben. I won’t let him alone with him until he can prove he can be trusted. But he’s Ben’s biological dad and I know he loves him, as much as he can love anyone I guess. And a kid can use as many people to love him as possible.”
“Hear, hear,” Cadence replies and clinks her glass against mine.
“So, Mrs. Almost-Windsor, where do you think we should have this wedding?” Brad slides in next to me and whispers into my ear, his lips tickling my neck.
I lean into him, still not used to being able to reach out and touch him. “I dunno, maybe on a nice little cliff in Scotland somewhere.”
“That sounds like the perfect place to me too,” he sighs and kisses me.
“Hey! Maybe we can have a double wedding!” Sebastian suggests, and is rewarded with a horrified look from his fiancee.
“You have no idea about women! No woman wants to be the center of attention only to look out the corner of her eyes and see another woman in a wedding dress parading about!” Cadence explains, her arms in orchestra teacher mode, waving around, furiously.
“Wha? I thought it’d be fun. I mean we have the same guests, we can save money on you know… jalapeno poppers and stuff.”
Cadence turns to me, the horrified look on her face growing.
“JALAPENO POPPERS?” she yells.
Her fiance grins at her. “Yeah, and then maybe we can just rent out a giant double king suite and all hang out together on our wedding night.”
The last thing I remember is a crash as I see Sebastian fall to the ground, his chair toppled over by his soon-to-be wife, and a bucket of barbecue sauce tipped over his head.
The End