Thursday
I took another bite of the dark chocolate mousse cake.
“Is that one your favorite?” James asked as he took a bite too.
“I don’t know, they’re all amazing.”
After the pastry chef had reprimanded us for waiting until a week before the wedding to pick a cake, he had laid out an assortment of the most delicious cakes I had ever tasted. It was good we had skipped dinner because I apparently didn’t have any self control around wedding cakes.
“You know what this one reminds me of?” James asked.
I nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. Even though it’s not lava cake, it tastes like that chocolate cake from your country club.”
“Our country club.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“It kind of takes me back to our first date. Our first real date I mean. Not just when I seduced you in my office.” He took another bite of the cake.
I smiled up at him. “I seduced you.”
He laughed and shook his head.
“You pretended that I was your wife on that date. Do you remember?”
“I remember.” He was looking at me in the most loving way.
“Did you ever think we’d be here right now?”
“At that moment?” He ran his hand through his hair. “I think I was just terrified by my own reaction to you.”
I knew he was referring to his addiction problem. I looked down at the cake.
“I wasn’t really in a good place when we met, Penny.”
“I know, I just meant…”
“You saved me.”
He had never said that to me before. I swallowed hard. I felt tears welling in my eyes.
“Suddenly the only thing I wanted in life was to see you smile.” He reached out and took my hand. “So yeah, I thought we’d eventually be here. This is everything I’ve always wanted. We certainly had our ups and downs getting here, though.” He smiled at me.
“You mean, you certainly enjoyed pushing me away?”
“I’m not going to ever push you away again.” He ran his thumb along the palm of my hand.
“I know.”
He pulled me into his chest and put his hand on the side of my face. “You’re quite sentimental tonight.”
I breathed in his heavenly scent. “Sometimes I think about when you said you wanted to go to Vegas and…”
“This is what I want too.”
“Are you sure? You said you didn’t want a big wedding and I…”
“Penny. The first time I got married, I wasn’t in love. I didn’t have a say in any of the plans. I wasn’t excited to walk down the aisle. And before I met you, I never thought I’d get married again.” He ran his fingers through my hair. “No one’s ever loved me like you love me. This is what planning a wedding is supposed to be like. I liked looking at venues, picking flowers, being excluded from helping you pick out a dress…”
I laughed.
“I’ve had fun doing all of it. This is going to be our wedding. And I’m so excited to marry you. I thought I didn’t want this back then, but I want it now. I want to see you walk down the aisle toward me. I want our friends and family to clap when we have our first kiss. And I want to have a first dance. I want all of it with you.”
“I think we should choose this one then,” I said and looked down at the chocolate cake. “I’m still going to try all the others though. This place is amazing.”
James laughed and released me from his embrace. “There is one last thing to do here.”
“What’s that?”
He picked up a piece of cake in his hand and lifted it toward me.
“Don’t you dare, James.”
Before I had even completed the sentence, he smashed the cake against my face. He laughed as I wiped it off my nose.
“Oh, I’m going to get you.” I picked up a piece of cake and chased after him.
***
James opened the door for me. As soon as we were both inside, he put his arm across my shoulders.
“They’re over there,” I said, nodding toward where Sierra was waving her hand in the air. They were sitting at a table and there were two empty seats. “I’ll sit next to her.”
James laughed. “You’re so cute.”
We walked together toward my fellow interns.
“Hey, guys,” I said. I was about to sit down next to Sierra, but she tapped on the chair. “You can sit here, Mr. Hunter. It’s so great that you could join us.”
James squeezed my shoulder. “Thanks.” He smiled at me and sat down next to her. “But please, you can all call me James.”
Sierra beamed.
I internally rolled my eyes and sat down between James and Zach.
“Hi, Penny,” Zach said. He was the only one that seemed to realize I had said anything. “You have some icing in your hair, I think.” He pointed to the left side of his head.
I wiped above my right ear.
Zach laughed. “No, not mirrored. It’s on your left.”
I wiped above my left ear.
“You got it.” He took a swig of his beer.
James put his arm back around my shoulders. “How are you guys liking the internship?” he asked.
“It’s awesome,” Tavon said. “Anderson is letting us go through your current marketing strategies to see if we have any ideas.”
“And do you have any?” James asked.
Tavon cleared his throat. “Well, we just got started…”
“I’m just kidding,” James said. “We don’t have to talk about work. Did any of you grow up in the city?”
“Yeah, I did,” Zach said. “I went to NYCU like Penny, but we didn’t have any classes together. You went to Harvard, right?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get a masters there too?” Tavon asked.
“No, I just went to undergrad. I started laying the groundwork for Blive Tech while I was still in school, so I jumped right into that instead of going for my masters.”
“And you were one of the youngest millionaires ever right?” Tavon asked.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“That’s freaking awesome. What made you sell Blive Tech when it was going so well?”
“A number of different things. Mainly I just wanted a new challenge.”
“And that’s why you started teaching?” asked Sierra.
James smiled down at me. “Yes. I taught in New York for a little bit and then transferred to the University of New Castle. I really enjoyed it.”
“It’s a shame you had to stop.”
“Not really. I got everything I wanted from it.”
“What, a girlfriend?” Zach asked.