“You’ve told her we are getting married next May? We are tangled up in enough lies here, Kai and now you’re adding another one?”
He shook his head; his jaw fell open and he looked at her utterly speechless. Running his hands over his hair, he then straightened his suit before taking a step closer to her. Puffing out his chest he snorted, “Is this between us a lie, Myla?”
A tapping of metal against crystal rang out around the room as a silence descended. “Ladies and gentleman—”
“Answer me! Is this between us a fucking lie?” Kai growled through gritted teeth.
—“If you could all please make your way into the next room to be
seated for dinner.”
Myla watched the heads of guests slowly disperse into the next room, eventually just leaving the two of them alone in complete silence. “No, it’s not a lie. My feelings for you are not a lie,” she whispered, “however, you can’t go around telling my family we have set a date to get married, when that’s not true. We’ve still yet to come clean about who you are.”
Taking her hands, he sighed. “You’re right,” he said, his fingers playing with the fake engagement ring sat on her finger. Before she had chance to notice, he’d twirled it around until the ring slipped from her finger. He dropped to his knee and holding it out to her, he looked up.
“What are you doing?” she hissed frantically looking around to make sure no one was watching.
“Myla Fox, you have rendered me speechless almost every day since I met you, and you definitely annoy the shit out of me every day, but I’m in love with you and I want to spend every day of my life with you, so for real this time, please would you do me the honor of becoming my wife on the 31st May 2018?”
Closing her eye’s, she laughed. “Okay, Kai. Joke’s over, up you get.”
His face went dark and he momentarily closed his eyes before forcing them open. “You think I’m joking? I’m down on my knees asking you to marry me and you’re standing there laughing?”
“Are you two coming inside or what? The food is on the table,” Stan asked from the doorway as he wiped his brow with a napkin. Ramming the ring in his pocket, Kai rose to his feet and walked away, following behind Stan.
“Wait!” she shouted.
He stopped. Without turning around to look at her, he slid his hands in his pockets and looked up to the ceiling, waiting for her to say something, anything, but she stayed silent. “Just forget it, Myla,” he snapped before carrying on into the next room.
The wedding dinner for him went by in a blur of heated annoyance. He hadn’t spoken one word to her throughout the sit-down meal and she had spent most of her dinner knocking back the free bubbly with her back turned to him. He watched in a trance as tables and chairs were moved from the middle of the room to clear a way for the dance floor and with a deep sigh he pushed from the table and headed towards the bar where he ordered six shots and a bottle of beer, knocking the shots back one after the other, he gasped as the burn slithered down his throat.
Damn you, Myla. Picking up his bottle, he welcomed the coolness of the liquid against the heat of the shots and headed back towards the table. He came to a standstill while he watched Myla stumble across the floor towards the DJ. The lights went down and the music fired up.
“You having fun, dude?” asked Jack as he slapped him on the back.
“Yes, tons,” he replied sarcastically. Turning his attention back to the dance floor, he watched Myla begin to gyrate with Grace. “Congratulations by the way,” he shouted into Jack’s ear.
“Soon be you brother, soon be you,” he laughed and saluted Kai then slid across the floor like something from Saturday Night Fever, bowling straight into Grace.
Don’t bank on it Jack. He took up his seat at the now empty table, dug out his cell phone and penned a message to Brody. After checking his emails, he slung it back into his pocket and his hand found her ring. He sat moving it around in his fingers in a world of his own when the music suddenly stopped and he heard Myla’s voice boom through the speaker system.
“Ladies and gentleman,” she tittered then banged her finger on top of the microphone and laughed. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” the room erupted into laughter and Kai couldn’t help but smile at the way her face lit up when she laughed.
“Where is he?” she asked through the mic as she brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the spot light, “Where is the love of my life?”
Kai shifted in his chair when people’s heads began to swivel around. “He’s here,” bellowed Stan. He clamped his hand under Kai’s arm and dragged him to his feet.
“There he is. My handsome man,” she slurred as Kai was forced into the center of the room to face her, a round of applause broke out and Myla took an unsteady bow before she laughed again. “You, mister, have turned my whole world upside down. I can’t breathe when I’m not around you,” she chuckled and a bout of jeering broke out.
Kai smiled. Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched her with pride, and his heart swelled at her public declaration. She belched and instinctively covered her nose then another laugh tore from her mouth. “Excuse me. Anyway, I want you to know that I love you and that even though we haven’t known each other for very long….”
Kai felt nausea sweep through him. Shit, Juliet. Stop talking. He took a step closer to her and panic gripped him.
“And I know you gallantly got down on one knee earlier and proposed but I laughed….and I’m so sorry for that. What I’m trying to say is,”
He held his hand up and walked closer to her. “Don’t do this babe. Put the mic down and come with me, now,” he said holding his hand out to her. He could hear the faint murmurings behind him and his nausea intensified. Don’t say my name, please don’t say my name.
“Kai Baxter, yes I will marry you, for real this time.” she laughed wildly and started clapping herself.