“Let me explain something to you, Paul. We’re not afraid of you. We never have been, but the one thing that’s unacceptable is hurting our friends. So, you have two options. One, you give me the money, or two…” Oliver nudged him aside and whispered in his ear, away from the crowd. Even I couldn’t hear him. I didn’t miss Paul’s eyes widening as he spoke. Oliver straightened and said with a smile, “Your choice.”
Paul shifted uneasily on his feet before he glancing at Emily. With a scowl, he said, “Give him the money back. We don’t want it anyway.”
Emily’s jaw dropped and she blinked a few times, but walked into the office. A few moments later, she came back with an envelope. Oliver took it and immediately started for the car. The crowd, upset there wasn’t more drama, started yelling. Shouting out, “perverts!” and “heathens!” as we walked across the parking lot.
“Mr. Anderson!” a voice shouted as we neared the Jeep. We all turned and found a reporter and photographer a few feet away. “Do you have any comments about the allegations made today? That you’re part of a sex cult?”
Oliver snorted. I watched carefully, knowing Anderson needed to be careful. The Olympic committee was no joke.
“Yeah, I have a few comments.” Anderson towered over the man. “I’ve been in love with the same woman since I was thirteen years old. I’m a lucky bastard that she has room in her heart for me and supports me as I pursue my dream of representing the United States in the Olympic games.” He looked back at the crowd, now dispersing. “The real story is the bigots in Oceanside and the stand they’re willing to take for hate and evil. If you’re looking for a story about me, come see me in Tokyo.”
The man looked a little flustered but nodded and said, “Good luck, son,” and walked off.
“What did you say to Paul on the platform?” I asked Oliver when we were back in the car.
“I told him that if he came after Heaven or Amber again, personally or online, we’d use our celebrity connections to expose their bigotry to the world, file a lawsuit, and drag them through the courts.”
“That was all it took?” Anderson asked, looking back at the warehouse as we drove away.
“Along with a few other well-placed threats of bodily harm.” He smiled. “Turns out Paul’s a little bit of a wimp, and we already know Spencer is worthless.”
I laughed, unsurprised. Bullies usually are. “What are we going to do about the wedding? Even though the beach is public, I don’t think coming
back is a good idea.”
“No,” Oliver said, catching my eye in the rearview mirror. “But I have an idea and if Heaven will help us, I think we may be able to pull it off.”
45
Heaven
It took the whole night and the following day to get everything situated. Oliver used the money he got back from Emily and Paul for a company in Allendale that was happy to get involved at the last minute. How Oliver got the money hadn’t been revealed, but I was doing my best to stay away from the news. I just hoped no one came to arrest him.
“What do you think?” I said Friday evening. The wedding was the following night. We’d made sure all the guests were notified of the change of venue.
“I think my step-mother had this backyard landscaped for parties. It’s like she knew one day we’d have a last minute, taboo, lesbian wedding and would need a space to hold it,” Oliver declared.
“Thank you for offering to do this,” I said, slipping my arm around his waist and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“Amber is my friend, too. It’s the least I can do.”
Jackson called him over to help with the sound system as Lea walked over, cheeks smudged with dust from working hard all day.
When I told her what had happened, she’d immediately come to the rescue to help me organize. We called in help from the people we knew from the industry that allowed us the opportunity to go through their storage units for the things we needed. Decorations, sounds system, podium. Even an arch for the bride and groom to stand under. We no longer had the beach but we did have a late spring garden and a lush, grassy lawn.
Brushing freshly dyed hot pink strands of hair behind her ears, Lea said, “I’ll be back in the morning with the flowers.”
“Thank you so much.” I reached out and pulled her tiny body into a hug. “There’s zero chance I could’ve done this without you. You’ve got a much better eye for decorations than I do.”
“Eh,” she shrugged. “It’s a beautiful location. Better than the beach, in my opinion. Less windy, no sand, quieter.”
“No bigots threatening to picket…”
“True. How’s Amber?”
“Amber is a fighter, like, I know she wants to go down to Oceanside and take a stand, but it will also only make her miserable. I suspect they want us to go down there, stir the pot and get more attention for being back-assed.” I thought of my father and his church. They would have loved an opportunity like this to grandstand.
“I saw they put some old pictures of you on the post. You okay?”