Chapter 11 – This Year's Love.

Cole looked at Steffi, stunned. She smiled slightly and moved her dress so that it rustled across the sidewalk.

"Y-you followed me?" Cole said in disbelief.

"I thought about it, and I realised something. With Phil, I'm settling for second best, and that's something I shouldn't have to do. And I guess I also realised that I was marrying the wrong man this morning, when I looked at myself in the mirror. I knew I should've been walking down that aisle to you." She looked down, blushing, and a light rain started to fall. Her hair began to fall out where she had been running, getting wispier with the rain, and her mascara had begun to run from her tears. Cole realised that she was more beautiful now than she ever had been in the church, and gently he kissed her. She kissed back, and wrapped her arms around his neck as he put his hands on her waist.

"You know, I always imagined seeing you in a wedding dress," murmured Cole. "But now that I've seen you in one, I realise that you're more beautiful than I could ever have imagined." Steffi fingered the beaded bodice affectionately.

"It certainly is a beautiful dress… but somewhere inside I think it's a bit showy for a little girl like me. I was brought up in the country with five brothers and without such luxuries; I'm really just a country bumpkin at heart."

"You're my bumpkin, my little Steffi-bumpkin," Cole said with a grin. "I miss my Steffi-bumpkin."

"I can't believe you're calling me Steffi-bumpkin, you're supposed to be the grown up one!" She cuddled into him, letting him stroke her hair, and sighed softly. "I just skipped out on my own wedding, didn't I? I left Phil at the altar in front of everyone…"

"We'll go and get your stuff tomorrow," Cole said. "You coming back to San Francisco with me?"

"There's no other place in this world I'd rather be, but-"

"So I'll get a taxi, yeah?" Cole interrupted, sticking his hand out into the traffic, trying to hail a taxi.

"Cole… I can't leave him. I only came here to tell you that I'm staying in New York, because I can't do him wrong like that. I can't hurt anybody else." Cole pulled his hand back sharply.

"Steffi, you don't have to do this! I can't let you do this to yourself!" Steffi kissed him gently, and put a hand on his waist.

"Don't make it harder for me, baby. I will always love you, but I have a duty to Phil and his family. Everyone is out there, and I can't embarrass him like that; I can't embarrass myself like that." Cole pulled her arms around him, burying his head in her shoulder, desperately clinging onto her. She disentangled him gently, holding his face in her hands. Tears sprung in his eyes as she began to walk away, and she heard him start to sob. As she turned to look at him, to let him persuade her to come back, he turned away and began to walk away. For the second time, Steffi's heart broke over him.

"Phil?" Twenty minutes later, Steffi stepped back into the church looking the picture of elegance and grace. "I'm sorry about that everybody… now where were we?"

"Well, if that's all settled, and if Mr Gregory wants to continue…" the vicar said, looking slightly ruffled.

"I just want to marry her," Phil said, smiling at Steffi. "That is, if she will still have me after that proposition from Mr Turner."

"Forget Cole, honey. He's gone for good."

"In that case, let's get on with the ceremony!"

As the dancing began at the reception, Steffi and Phil took their first dance as man and wife.

This year's love had better last,

Heaven knows it's high time,

I've been waiting on my own too long,

When you hold me like you do,

It feels so right, oh now,

I start to forget how my heart gets torn,

When that hurt gets thrown,

Feeling like you can't go on.

Turning circles time again,

Cuts like a knife, oh now,

If you love me got to know for sure,

Cos it takes something more this time,

Than sweet, sweet lies, oh now,

Before I open up my arms and fall,

Losing all control,

Every dream inside my soul,

When you kiss me on that midnight street,

Sweep me off my feet,

Singing 'Ain't this life so sweet?'

This year's love had better last.

This year's love had better last,

Cos who's to worry if our hearts get torn,

When that hurt gets thrown,

Don't you notice life goes on,

Won't you kiss me on that midnight street?

Sweep me off my feet,

Singing 'Ain't this life so sweet?'

This year's love had better last…

As Steffi and Phil made their way across the floor, tears began to fall from her eyes. Phil wiped them away with a gentle movement of his thumb, and smiled at her. She smiled back, and let Phil draw her closer as they slowly waltzed in time to the music. Closing her eyes, she saw Cole standing in the street, walking away from her. She sighed gently, and resigned herself to her new life; a life where there was no Steffi and Cole, only Phillip Gregory and his new young wife, Carmella Gregory.