Two- in- one.
Promises.
"How's wedding planning going?"
Damon stopped studying the charred remains of a march hare and loosened his lips. He peered around the shelf. Danny, Bonnie's store helper, restocked pickled lamb hearts. The uncharacteristically hot summer had darkened his already bronze skin. His shoulder length, auburn hair was packed into a messy bun and his fingers were smudged with dirt.
"Not so great, Danny boy. My bride isn't much of a planner."
"I can be both," Danny said.
"I'm sure you'd love that," Bonnie drawled from the front of the store. She wore a floral sundress that seemed to change color whenever she turned. Her hair was in the same messy bun as Danny's and her fingers were even dirtier than his. Maybe it was a witch thing.
"I'm just saying if he's looking for someone who wants to marry him…"
"Get back to work, Danny."
"Wait, wait," Damon protested. "I think we should hear this young man's offer before turning it down."
"Please, do!"
Bonnie grabbed Damon's hand. "Please, don't. Or you won't get to see the surprise in the back room."
Damon eyed Bonnie suspiciously and Danny gagged behind the shelf. "Fine. Surprise it is, then."
Bonnie smiled triumphantly. "All these shelved better be stocked when I come back out, Danny!"
"Maybe if someone let me use magic in her magic store!"
The door shut with a resounding thud. Damon watched the fabric of Bonnie's dress sashay dangerously close to the bottom of her rump as she led the way, barely listening to what she was saying.
"Lucky for you Caroline is as impatient as you are. She offered to help because she is "just that kind and helpful". Her words not mine. She's narrowed down your ten venue choices to five, dropped the caterers down to two, and is singing our first dance song, apparently."
Damon's hand shot out and flipped Bonnie's skirt up. Lacy, sheer, black panties didn't do a very good job of covering Bonnie's perky, round ass. If Danny wasn't gay…
Bonnie lightly punched Damon's shoulder. "Are you even listening to me?"
"No," Damon answered truthfully.
Bonnie sighed, reaching for her hair tie and releasing her curls. "Why am I marrying this pervert?" She opened the door to the greenhouse.
"You know how I feel about sundresses, Bonnie." And about her neck. He assumed that's why she was now hiding it with her hair. "Anyways, what about my back room surprise?"
"I was not talking about that back room."
"You had Danny and I fooled," Damon grumbled. He stepped awkwardly into Bonnie's secret garden, his jeans stretching uncomfortably against him. "He'd let me into his backroom."
"Shut up and pay attention."
Damon looked up from adjusting himself. Bonnie stood amongst the foliage and blooming flowers like a fairy in her woods. She held a hastily assembled bouquet of white lilies, red carnations, and amaryllis.
"I think this is too much red. I like this one instead."
She held up a different bouquet; white chrysanthemums, gladioluses, and hydrangeas popped amongst leafy greens tufts. Bonnie shifted the petals this way and that, until finally looking up at Damon and dawning her best smile. Damon smiled back, and even when her smiled relaxed, his did not.
"What do you think?" she asked. "I guess they'll also be our wedding colors."
"You are…gorgeous."
A light giggle sprouted from within her. She placed the arrangements on the table and went to her fiancé. "Thank you, my love. But that doesn't answer my question."
"The only thing more magnificent than your beauty is your heart."
Bonnie's cheeks darkened and she looked away. "Damon…your 1860's are showing."
He brought her back to him with the crook of his finger.
"I wish my father had lived long enough to meet you. Just to see what it means to be warm and caring. So he could finally know what true strength means."
Bonnie smoothed Damon's hair away from his face. "Don't think, for one second, that he didn't see it in you, Damon. Not even for one."
Her lips came to cradle his. He sighed into her mouth and drew her close. Not the most exciting back room surprise, but better than any he had ever received.
Until next time, my lovelies.
