Chapter 36: Unprompted
Street and Chris shared a look. It was time. No turning back. They smiled. They were on the same wavelength.
"We do…" Street answered, pressing more tighter Chris's hand in his. She stoked the back of his hand with her thumb. She took a deep breath. Jim turned to her. "Still ok for doing this, right?"
"Completely terrified because it's the first time I'm doing something like this…" He lost his smile. "But I'm also totally excited because deep down inside, I know this is what I truly desire."
His smile came back and they walked up to the clerk stand hand in hand. They were both scared. They were both anxious that the other might say no at the last moment.
"Can we start?" The clerk asked aas he placed behind the table where he put his book in place.
Both nodded. The clerk took his registry and started his speech.
"Welcome here today. We gather here to celebrate the wedding of..." He stopped for some seconds to rummage the documents the woman had validated and given to him before the ceremony.
"Sorry, just getting familiar with your personal information." He apologized. "So where was I? Ah yes. We are here today to celebrate the wedding of James William Street and Christina Gloriana Alonso."
Chris could see Jim laughing at her second name. She hated it too. A gift for her mother. More of a nightmare. But it was her legacy, one of the rare things she had kept from her. She knew at this moment he will make fun of it as soon as he could. She let out a little smirk, before focusing again.
"You have come here to share in this formal commitment you make to one another, to offer your love and support to this union, and to start a married life together. I ask you to remember that love—which is rooted in faith, trust, and acceptance—will be the foundation of an abiding and deepening relationship. No other ties are more tender, no other vows more sacred than those you are now about to assume. If you are able to keep the vows you take here today, not because of any religious or civic law, but out of a desire to love and be loved by another person fully, without limitation, then your life will have joy and the home you establish will be a place in which you both will find the direction of your growth, your freedom, and your responsibility. We've come to the point of your ceremony where you're going to say your vows to one another. Would you like say some words?"
Chris looked at Jim with a puzzled look. All had been so rushed, she had prepared nothing. She was beginning to panic. She felt a pressure on her hand.
"I guess so. At least for me… Chris, I know you're not the talkative one in this relationship and I will understand if you don't want to say a word. Just you being here with me in this craziness is enough for me."
She smiled at him. He knew her very well. As he used to say, she didn't talk enough and he overtalked everything. The perfect fit. She shyly smiled at him. Her life changed the day she accepted her feelings for this man. For the best.
Street swallowed hard before starting to talk. He was stressed to say all this out loud when Chris was the person who knew him the best in the world. It was ridiculous to panic like this. Chris felt his hand becoming sweaty.
"It's ok if we skip directly to the end, you know…"
"No, no just a little stressful but it's ok." He pressed her hand tighter and grabbed the second one. They were face to face now. She was carefully looking at him with her big, brown eyes. Biting her lower lip. He could feel the emotions passing through her gaze. She was as stressed as he was. Which was reassuring in a weird way.
"Chris, since I've met you on this day of November 2017, I have known you were special."
His voice was shaking at first. She saw him breathing deeply before continuing.
"From day one, you have known how to talk to me. Like when we were in the park looking for bad guys and you crushed me hard when I invite you to go out. My proudness was harshly hit this day but yet it made me like you even more. I tried several times, maybe too much to ask you on a date. You finally shut me down. Not gonna lie, it hurt me. It was the first time a woman resisted to my advances."
He joked, laughing at his own words. She eventually joined him and giggled. She had been really hard on him. To protect herself. To push him away. To avoid a new fiasco when all she had done was to postpone the unavoidable.
"I remain your friend, your best friend but deep down I've always known you were more to me. The perfect fit I was looking for forever. You know how to calm me down, how to tell me I screw up, how you are proud of me. You have this kind of aura which brings people together. Which makes people feel good, fine around you. You know how to keep me on the right path and tell me I'm the worst and also the best. You have changed me so deeply, Chris."
He pressed her hands tighter as she was standing right in front of him. Like frozen and hypnotized by him right now.
"When I first integrated SWAT, I was a fool, a real jerk. I was conceited, arrogant, sure of everything when I knew absolutely nothing except chaos, instability and abandonment. Being around you have made me learn I was a real catastrophe. Like a permanent disaster. A bomb ready to blow up and break everything around. I've been learning since to trust the others, to stop pretending, to accept my flaws and that my fears were a part of me, a part of who I am. And I have to deal with them, I have to fix them to go further. And here I am. I know I've still a long way to go but with you, life seems easier and also muy caliente when you're with me. You told me you didn't date cops, any cops, any time. I'm glad you eventually change your mind. I'm glad I'm the one who made you change your mind."
She let out a laugh as he tried to speak Spanish with his special accent. She loved how awkward he was talking in her mother tongue.
"Te quiero no solo por como eres, sino por como soy yo cuando estoy contigo." He looked at even more intensively, he feared her reaction. He knew he was so bad at speaking Spanish. "Sorry for my accent…"
She bent to him and dropped a kiss on his lips. "How?" She asked him as she separated from him. Her eyes were sparkling.
"Uncle Sarzo learned me some tricks when you were not around. Except the accent. But Thomas had a lot of good laughs about this point."
He blushed as he confessed what he had kept from her from months. She agreed to let some tears roll down her cheeks. He really had learned Spanish for her. She found this so sweet and quickly remembered to be more careful when she cursed in Spanish during their arguments at home. Uncle Sarzo and Thomas could have learned him some swear words too.
"Let's proceed to the rest of the ceremony" The clerk continued as Jim stopped talking.
"May I?" Chris suddenly asked.
Street was surprised when Chris opened her mouth to interrupt the clerk. He wasn't expecting anything from her. Her being here with him was already enough. Like the kiss she had just given to him. Two proofs she was totally committed to them, to their relationship. It was almost unreal.
She cleared her throat. She was stressed. She was not the kind of person who liked to talk in public, especially when it came to personal matters. But she needed to say these things. Especially in a moment like this. It was not every day you married your best friend. She sighed before starting talking.
"I don't know what I'm doing here right now, I've never thought I was the married type and here I am. To be fair, I've always pictured I'll end my life with a woman and you entered my life and have turned everything upside down since."
He made her a face. "Oh, in a good way, I mean. You have pushed me in my corners, forced me to confront my old and inner demons. Allowing me to be better, to be more me. You've been learning me everyday how to love and be loved. Not easy for me. I know I can be stubborn as hell. A real pain in the ass. Still working on it. Not easy. Sorry for this."
He saw tears rolling down her cheeks. She was so moving as she was struggling to let her feelings get out of her. He couldn't prevent himself from leaning towards her and drop a kiss on her lips at his turn.
"I think you skip some parts, here." The clerk joked. Street raised his head, ashamed, all blushing.
"Sorry…" Street answered, all abashed.
"Miss Alonso, I let you finish."
She swallowed hard before continuing. She needed to tell her words. And she was afraid of not being able to talk as much as she wanted. She was not a public person. Absolutely not. But for Street she could try.
"Just for you to know, James Street. You have changed my life too. You're making me things, crazy things I'd have never thought I'd be able to do one day. Like today. Learning me to be unpredictable and spontaneous. And I thank you for this, I'll thank you for the rest of my life. Esta vida es mía, pero este corazon es suyo. Esta sonrisa es mia, pero la razon eres tú. I love you, goofy smile."
He grinned, hearing those words, honoring his goofy smile. He didn't care anymore if he looked like a fool when he smiled as long as Chris was with him. "I love you too, stubborn head."
"I guess it's my turn, now." The clerk intervened. Both Street and Chris turned to him, letting their eyes go away from each other and face the little rounded man.
"Will you, James William Street, take this woman here, Christina Gloriana Alonso, to be your wedded wife?"
"I will." Street answered in a hurry.
"And will you, Christina Gloriana Alonso, take this man right here, James William Street, to be your wedded husband?"
"I sure will."
"By virtue of the authority vested in me, I hereby declare you husband and wife. And this time, you can kiss the bride."
Street bent shyly towards Chris. She was his wife. He couldn't believe it. They did. They really did. She bent on her own towards the man she could call her husband now. The man who made her make insane things she would have never thought she would do for a lifetime.
They kissed, first softly, then more passionately. When they ended, they remained forehead against forehead for a while. Their move. Their safe place.