I bent down and placed my hands in the water, feeling the coolness wash over my skin. As I closed my eyes, I quietly whispered my reply to the words only my soul could hear. “I love you, too, Mama.”
One with the earth, one with the sea, may the waves of the ocean bless me be.
I stood straight and walked in the direction of my temporary life, where I’d say “I do.”
When I walked up the aisle, purple lilacs made a path. My chest tightened as I stared at my favorite flowers. The sun fell against my skin as my palms sweated with nerves. When I raised my head to look in front of me, I met Damian’s eyes, and for the first time, I noticed a look I hadn’t seen from him yet.
Was it… wonderment?
He stared at me as if he were seeing me for the first time. He shook his head a little, shaking himself from his trance as he cleared his throat. I couldn’t even pretend that he didn’t look amazing. The Beast cleaned up nicely in an all-black suit and bare feet in the sand. His blue eyes stood out more with the ocean as a backdrop to the ceremony.
As I reached my placement, I turned to him. “Hi there, Beast.”
He sniffled a bit and nodded. “Hello, Cinderstella.”
I smiled.
He almost did, too.
“One moment, please, let me find my passage,” Grams said, turning away slightly as she flipped through her book.
Damian kept his eyes on me. I couldn’t even think of taking mine away from him.
“You…” He flicked his thumb against his nose as his nerves began to get the best of him. “You look…”
“Pretty?” I grinned.
“No.”
I frowned. “Oh.”
“Didn’t mean it like that.” He grimaced and muttered under his breath as he looked down. His toes wiggled under the sand as he shifted around slightly. When he lifted his head, that same look he first gave me when I walked out sat there heavily in his eyes. This time, it was unmistakable. “You look mesmerizing,” he whispered. So low that only I heard. So tender that butterflies invaded my stomach. So honest that I almost felt like bursting into tears.
Never in my life had anyone used that kind of word to describe me. Pretty? Yes. Cute? Sure. Adorable? All the time. But mesmerizing? That felt like a secret word reserved in a collection of words never used to describe a woman like me.
Mesmerizing? Mesmerizing. Mesmerizing!
The chills that one word could create were making my mind spin.
“Don’t cry,” he warned.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I replied.
He smiled.
It slipped out. An accident. One that he probably hardly ever made.
He tucked it back in quickly, but I saw it. He saw that I saw it, and well, I was going to keep that smile plastered in my brain for a while.
“Why are you being nice to me?” I whispered, confused. The Damian I argued with outside of the restaurant was not the same Damian I stood beside that morning who was using words like mesmerizing to describe me and leaving me blueberry scones.
“Because it’s our wedding day,” he replied.
You confuse me so much, Mr. Blackstone.
“All right, here we go.” Grams turned back to face us both, and the ceremony began. It wasn’t a long ceremony, which I was thankful for because I wasn’t looking for it to last. Once it was over, I had it in my mind to hurry to my bedroom and call Jeff and apologize for something that he asked me to do for us.
I felt a bit dirty with it all, truly.
“Are we exchanging vows that you both prepared?” Grams asked us.
My eyes widened, a bit thrown off by her question. “Oh, no. I didn’t think that would be necessary seeing how—”
“I wrote some out,” Damian cut in, leaving me stunned.
“Huh? You did?” I questioned.
He reached into the breast pocket of his suit and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Yes, but, if you’d rather me not read it—”
“No,” I hurriedly said, placing my hand against his forearm. The second my hand connected with his skin, Damian’s eyes fell to our touch before rising slowly to lock his blues with my browns. I quickly removed my hand and smoothed my sweaty hands against my dress. “I mean, I’d like to hear it.”
He nodded and unfolded the paper. “Stella. I think it’s safe to say today is weird as fuck,” he started, making us all laugh. He didn’t chuckle, though. It was as if he hadn’t even known he was funny as he continued. “And I realized as I was writing this that I don’t know you. I don’t know your middle name, let alone your last. But, I do know that this isn’t easy for either of us. I had a friend remind me of that fact. Even though I don’t know much about you, I do know myself. I know my flaws and where I struggle. I know that I’m blunt. I am cold and hard to approach. I am short-tempered at times and have the ability to think the worst of most people. I know you’ve already seen these sides of me, and I am not proud of this because I’ve seen a few sides of you, too, over the past few days.”