“It’ll be over before you know it,” she said and part of me wished I could just grab Lucah and elope, but then my mother would be totally pissed, and I didn’t want to risk her wrath.
“I know, I know. And once it is over, I’m going to wish it wasn’t and so on and so forth. The grass is always greener,” I said, pushing my salad aside at last.
“I wouldn’t know. I have the feeling I’m not going to ever have a wedding,” she said, completely casually. Huh.
“Really?” I asked. She looked up from her plate and went red.
“Yeah. I just don’t see it in my future. You don’t have to get married to be committed, or to have a family.” She shrugged and went back to looking at her plate.
“That’s true. I didn’t know if marriage was for me either, but then Lucah wanted it and I realized that I did too. Sometimes you change your mind, but then sometimes you don’t. Do whatever you want to do.” It was strange to be the one giving advice, but this topic, at least, I felt confident on.
She shrugged.
“Who knows? It doesn’t matter right now because I’m not with anyone.” I almost told her that she might meet someone at the wedding, but I didn’t want to put more pressure on her.
“Anyway, if you do get married, I highly recommend eloping and not doing all this mess. It’s supposed to be special and magical, but really it’s just stressful,” I said. I almost wished we’d done something smaller and more casual, but it was too late now. I was headed down the aisle tomorrow in a custom gown to marry my ginger prince.
“It’s crazy to think that less than a year ago we hadn’t even met and now we’re getting married and having a baby. Life changes so fast and you’re not even aware it’s happening,” I said. Shit, I was nostalgic today.
“Life can change fast,” she said in a quiet voice and I had the sense that there was a story behind what she said, but I didn’t want to pry.
We took our sweet time at lunch and at three, I threw in the towel. I was just too distracted to work. I went around to all the offices and said goodbye to the people I wouldn’t see at the wedding and told them I’d see them when I got back from my honeymoon. I sincerely hoped everything would be okay when I got back. Everyone was instructed not to call me unless it was an absolute emergency. Like, the building had burned down, or everyone had been murdered. Other than that, I was off duty.
Deciding that I wanted to surprise him, I snuck downstairs and crept up to Lucah’s workstation. He was busy typing on the computer, so I seized my moment and threw my arms around him from behind.
“Holy shit!” he said, far too loud. A few people around us looked up from what they were doing. I waved and they went back to work.
“Sorry, not sorry,” I said, kissing his cheek. I let him go and he spun around in his chair to face me.
“What are you doing down here?” he asked with a smile on his face. My heart started to pound. I couldn’t believe I was going to be his wife tomorrow.
“I just wanted to see you,” I said, feeling my face blush.
“Oh, really?” He raised one eyebrow and I wanted to tackle him to the floor and have my way with him. My Lucah was just too damn sexy.
“Yup. And I’m heading out. I just can’t focus anymore and I thought maybe you wanted to come with me? We can go back to our place and have some ‘coffee’.” I said the last word with emphasis so he would know exactly what I meant.
He pressed his lips into a line and squinted as if he had to think real hard about that.
“I think we can do that,” he said finally, his face breaking into a smile.
“Oh thank God. I didn’t think I was going to get through tonight,” I said as he stood up and gathered his things before shutting down his computer.
“You don’t think I’ll get in trouble for leaving early?” he asked as we waved goodbye to everyone as we walked by together.
“I think you’re covered,” I said as everyone wished us luck, or said they’d see us tomorrow.
“This is the last time I’ll leave work as Miss Clarke,” I said. “It feels like I’m going to be a whole new person when I come back. A married woman with a baby on the way. I don’t know how to be that, yet.” I glanced up at Lucah for reassurance. He smiled down at me with complete confidence.
“You’ll figure it out. Just like I’ll figure out how to be your husband and a father. We’ll figure it out together.” It was so nice to know that we were doing this together. I couldn’t imagine being alone and going through the pregnancy.
“I hope we figure it out,” I said as we pushed through the doors on the first floor.
We’d better figure it out.
~*~*~
I had to admit, I’d thought that our sex life was off the charts already. Lucah always made a concerted effort to make sure I was satisfied. Multiple times. So satisfied I couldn’t think, let alone move.