Story Notes:

I'm happy to kick us off for our Summer One-Shots challenge! Enjoy.

Author's Chapter Notes:

I hear the door open and slip closed. I know who it is without turning around and even if I didn't, he has a way about him-the way he breathes, the rhythm of his steps, the smell of him. Hmmm... his smell. Subtle, but so undeniably him.

"Are you going to stand there until it's time for me to walk down the aisle or do you have something to say?"

A deep inhale and a slow exhale. I hear him drop into a chair and stretch his legs out. "You know what I'm here to say."

I put in the earrings I bought for the wedding. Pearls. Internally, I laugh. I think of pearls as wholesome. I'm far from that but they're a part of the role.

"Humor me. What is it, even though I know what you're going to say?"

"You're really going through with this? The whole...married life? Playing the devoted life partner to Slade Hollis?  After last night, you're really doing this?"

I push the bench away from the table where my face had been illuminated and magnified in the mirror. Once I'm far enough back, I twist around to face him. And smile.

He's wearing the attire we'd asked him to, as part of our wedding party: jeans, white button down, jacket. His dark tresses curl around the collar of his shirt, swept back from his face and accented by classy silver strands-the same silver that dots the thin beard on his chin and cheeks.

The wedding is scheduled to take place in a few minutes. Vegas, because Slade and I are a classy couple. I bought a dress in a not-quite-white shade, new shoes, new earrings. We asked friends to come along on the one day SoundBleed, Slade's band, had a day off from touring, to witness our impromptu nuptials.

Kind of like putting lipstick on a pig.

"It appears that I'm doing this. We're in Vegas. I'm wearing as white a dress as I think I could get away with. Elvis is waiting to say some vows I have to repeat."

"Vows you won't mean."

"What difference does it make, Josh? When you had the chance to marry me, you ran. You came back last night with your tail still between your legs. Now you care?"

"You asked me to come watch you do this."

"Slade asked you to come-"

"No, honey. This was all you." He shakes his head, traces of a smile on his lips. "You want me to stop you. Because I'm in love with you. Because you're in love with me. You proved that much last night."

Flashes of the night before race through my mind. The clandestine meeting in his hotel room while Slade was getting drunk with his best man. The wine he drank from my body. The chocolate he smeared across my breasts and then licked off. The wave after wave of orgasmic bliss that he'd always been able to deliver, that Slade wished he was capable of.

He huffs a frustrated sigh and tosses a hand in the air, letting it slap to his thigh. "What if I just... don't?"

"Don't what?"

"Don't stop you."

"Then I live happily ever after as Mrs. Slade Hollis."

He shakes his head, his blue eyes narrow and blazing. "Bullshit. "

"Not as much bullshit as you actually showing up to my wedding."

I get up from the bench and cross the room, my satin gown swishing, my pearl earrings glimmering, giving him every possible reminder that I'm about to walk out of his life- for good- if he doesn't make the move he needs to make.

That I need him to make.

"I still know you like the back of my hand, Josh. I'm getting married and you can't stand it. If you're not here to stop this, go back to that fancy suite that Slade is paying for. Get drunk, watch porn. Order up some hookers. Whatever. Just get out of my face about it unless- "

"Unless what?" He pulls his feet in before he stands and meets me in the middle of the room. He's so close I can see the beads of sweat pop up along his temple. 

He's nervous. Good. 

"Unless I'm willing to stop you?"

My brows rise. "Why would I think you'd actually make that move? You had four years."

"And because I wasn't willing to jump into marriage on your timeline, you snagged a guy that doesn't give a fuck about you, that's probably cheating on you as we speak."

I actually laugh, given the irony that I was probably still dripping his seed from the night before. "That's my future husband you're ranting about, while you claim to not care."

"I never said I don't care, Jules. I'm here."

"Why though, Josh? Why do you care? Why did we fuck last night? Why are you here, five minutes before I'm about to marry Slade?"

I hope the pleading in my voice and the tears that threaten to muss my modest makeup are doing the trick. Inside, I'm trembling.  

"Look-"

"No, you look, Josh. If I get to that chapel, I'm getting married. It won't matter that I love you so much I can't see straight. It won't matter that Slade doesn't love me and yes, he's probably fucking a waitress and I don't give a shit. It won't matter that the only man I want to take vows with is standing right in front of me."

He doesn't say a word, only gazes at me for a few long seconds.

"Stop me, Josh. Please."

"There's a car outside." His voice is gruff, full of emotion. His eyes don't meet mine. "I'll wait ten minutes and then I'm gone. And I'm not coming after you again."

He steps away from me and turns to leave but stops as he palms the knob. "Be in the car, Jules." 

He walks out then, quickly moving out of my suite. His shadow doesn't even cross the threshold before I grab my packed duffel bag and my purse, heaving the longest, loudest sigh of relief that I don't have to do what I almost did.

I'm so glad it worked. 

 


Completed
MissM is the author of 30 other stories.
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