19

Lo waddled down the beach as she wondered what the hell Ty wanted. It was late afternoon and he had sent for her at the hotel, interrupting her soak in the jacuzzi and pissing her off more than she wanted to admit. She had really been enjoying herself until room service had knocked on the door and said Ty had ordered a makeover for her, sent a dress, ordered the ultimate spa treatment and wanted her down the beach.
The dress was a very soft white chiffon that hugged her pregnant curves beautifully and made her feel like a Greek goddess. It was in a toga style, clinched at one shoulder and wrapped around her bust and cinched into a gold lace band at her waist before flowing around her legs.
So now, here she was waxed, steamed, made up and moisturized from head to toe, walking down the dark sand in her strappy sandals that she couldn’t quite see. Meg had been right about one thing; this baby was huge. At six months, she couldn’t look at her feet anymore? This went against everything she had read about in those pregnancy magazines. But Doc assured her that her child was just fine. Plus, left to her, being big was a sign of healthy living so she didn’t mind. Another plus was that her size made Ty dote on her more and more everyday and she absolutely loved it. But of course, a girl had keep her bride and complain just a little.
Thinking about Ty made her feel bittersweet. She loved that man so so much. It was uncontrollable, as impossible to control as the waves that lapped and swirled in the ocean. She treaded the line where she knew the water couldn’t reach her but she could feel the vibration of the slamming of the waves in the ground she walked. A short distance away, she could see Ty sitting on a white blanket with a picnic basket beside him, staring at the ocean. Even from this distance, she could see that he had shaved the beard he had let grow out since they got to Santorini. Aww, she had liked stroking and scratching it but still, what a beautiful man. She had no idea what she had done in a past life to deserve him. After being served a shitload of bad luck so early in her life, she had always thought she’d be miserable until the day she summoned the courage to end it all.
But now, here she was, walking down a beach in Santorini, heading towards the biggest, sexiest and richest man she had ever met in her life and he was hers. Totally hers. It was at that moment that she realized that they were no longer a work in progress. The force of this realization was enough to make her stop in her tracks but she remembered that the picnic basket had food in it and kept walking seeing as she was always hungry now. Yes. They were no longer a work in progress. They were now a solid, functioning machine with nothing stopping them from being together. Not her past, not his mother, not anybody. He made her happier than she ever thought she deserved to be. It was funny to her how if she had found out she was preggers under normal circumstances, she would have been nervous about his reaction when she finally told him. But circumstances didn’t give either of them choices and Ty being Ty hadn’t even asked her about it until she had been comfortable to talk about it herself and in her own time. She would always appreciate that. She would always appreciate him in general.
When she was about three feet away from the blanket, Ty stood and helped her sit down on the blanket. He smelled like that chocolate-y cologne she adored and she felt her lady bits do a little ‘whoopdiedoo’ in celebration. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her pregnant nipples would be standing at attention if she didn’t get the hell away from him. Luckily for her, he retreated to the other side of the blanket when he had helped her sit and stared at the ocean for a few more seconds before looking right at her. The intensity of his gaze almost knocked her off her ass and her ass was so huge now, it was a miracle anything could knock her off it. He had a stubborn set in his strong jaw that he always had when he was determined in something. She patiently held his gaze and waited for him to shed light on what he was so determined about now. Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long.
“Lo, I love you,” he started and continued before she could open her mouth to say that she felt the same, “no, let me talk. It’s not the kind of love people are used to. It’s not a gentle love that caresses me or bullshit like that. The love I feel for you feels like a tsunami and damn near knocks me off my feet sometimes. Now, I know you’re not a woman who likes long speeches and whatnot so I won’t bore you with all that. All I’m going to say is the truth and that’s that you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, Lo. You and that baby growing inside you. I can’t remember that ever made me feel complete. It’s like I’ve been walking round incomplete man for years and you just came along and everything clicked. The first time we had kissed and eventually had sex, it just felt right. No matter the aftermath, I know you felt it. Something clicked.
“Those next two years went by and so did my life. Things went on but it was always there that something was missing. It wasn’t something I thought about a whole lot but the feeling was there. I tried chasing it away with women and cash but of course, it didn’t work. I walked into Pam’s Place one evening and saw you behind the counter. Something told me that I had just found my missing piece. Once again, that thing clicked. You gave me a whole lot of attitude and Lord knows at that time, I didn’t stress myself when it came to women but something just kept nudging me forward with you. I knew that if I eventually got you for myself, I’d be the man I had always wanted to be. And I was right. And as if things couldn’t get better, you’re carrying my child. My own fucking child. There’s a wonderful mixture of me and you growing inside you and you have no idea how euphoric that makes me feel.
“Now, any man would be daft as a doorbell to let that kinda euphoria go. I don’t plan to let you go, Lo. Not now, not ever. We will raise this kid and others after it and we will do it together.”
He adjusted and put his hand inside his pocket, producing a small velvet box. Lo felt her breath catch. She had expected this after the emotional speech but the sight of the small box still made her so aware that this was actually happening. Ty, the man of the dreams she never knew she actually had, was proposing to her. She could have expired right there on the spot.
OhmigodohmigodOHMIGOD!
“Be my wife, Lo?” he asked opening the box, “I promise not to be an asshole.” He looked at her with hope shining in his beautiful onyx eyes.
“Bruv, what do you think I'm going to say? No? I fucking love you. Of course I'm saying yes!”
Ty laughed louder and bolder than she had ever heard him laugh before and she was pretty sure she saw him tear up a bit but she wasn’t going to dwell on that. She had a beautiful engagement ring to put on her finger and she thrust her left hand at Ty urgently. She was so excited it was a wonder she hadn’t exploded yet. Still laughing, Ty slipped the ring onto her wedding finger; the one that had an artery that led right to her heart, she had read somewhere. She examined the ring briefly because Ty was dragging her onto her feet and into a hug. It was white gold from what she could see and it had a beautiful big princess cut diamond and a very thin band that had tiny diamonds running through it that made it look like it was made entirely of diamonds. It was beautiful and so her. Suited her perfectly but what else had she expected from Ty?
No sooner had Ty pulled her into a hug than she heard a chorus of applauses, whoops and hollers from a short distance away. She twisted out of his hug and Ty held her from behind instead. Not too far away stood Pam, Yaz, Gem, Lee, Dru and even Meg. They were all wearing huge ass smiles, except Meg of course who just seemed to be smirking. Ty held her hand and moved her towards the people who mattered most to her in her life. She felt like her skull was going to crack from the amount of smiling she herself was doing. Surely her mandible couldn’t handle this much. But it surprised her and held on instead of falling off her face.
“Congratulations, baby girl,” Yaz hollered as soon as she got close enough and she was engulfed in a hug. Everyone came and joined in the hug and muttered their congratulations, except Meg who just stood at a distance awkwardly.
Once Lo was free of the group hug, she walked up to Meg.
“Meg, I appreciate you coming out here,” she said and then hurried on, “I’m getting married to your son and I’m going to give birth to your grandchild soon. For these reasons, I feel like we should at least try to tolerate each other even if we will never like each other.”
She had extended the olive branch and wisely, Meg took it, “I could work with that.”
Lo smiled at her and turned to Yaz and Pam who had been flagging her right and left sides in case Meg had decided to be a bitch again and some bitch slapping needed to be done. Lo had filled her in on Meg’s attitude during the dinner and they hated her even more than she did.
“What are you guys even doing here?” she asked, bewildered. Why would Ty invite their friends and family here just to applaud a proposal? It didn’t make any sense.
“We’re here for the wedding, silly. Ty sent his jet,” Pam was more than happy to provide.
“What wedding?” Lo asked dumbly. It was just then that she noticed where she actually standing. She was standing in front of a set of quaint little chairs that were right out of a fairytale wedding. Behind her was a makeshift altar with beautiful flowers forming an archway under which stood a middle-aged man wearing a reverends collar on a black shirt and black shorts with sandals, a very funny combination if Lo said so herself. She also noticed that the women were wearing white chiffon toga dresses like hers only that theirs stopped above their knees, even Meg. The men were wearing white shorts and shirts like Ty. It was going to be an all-white wedding on a Santorinian beach. She couldn’t believe she was getting married in fucking GREECE and Ty had planned it all, obviously with help from her friends and his sister. It was simple, just like he knew she would wait. Instead of turning their wedding into a huge business engagement like she had thought he would, he had brought an intimate ceremony to her.
That was it. A proposal which she had expected, she could handle. But a spontaneous wedding from nowhere, her emotions and pregnant hormones couldn’t handle it anymore. She burst into ugly tears. Everyone begged her to stop crying before she ruined her make up but it just made her cry more. Ty held her and said sweet nothings in her until she finally managed to calm down and Pam, ever the efficient one, whipped out am emergency make-up kit to fix Lo’s make-up.
While Pam was using foundation to cover the dried tear tracks, Ty walked up to them and spoke to Lo, “Wifey, I know we can’t have our honeymoon anytime soon because of your antenatal and the baby but I promise you. Once that baby can be left without his momma for a month, we are taking my yatch and going on a cruise around Europe.we might even come back here again if you want.”
Afraid speech would make her burst into tears again, Lo just looked at her fiancé (for a few more minutes) and nodded.
So that was it. They had a beautiful heartfelt ceremony. Lo held a bouquet of white tulips and a platinum band joined the engagement ring that had been placed on her finger not too long ago. Then she kissed her husband, an orange light cast on both of them by the Greek sun sinking below the ocean line.