Author's Note: I'm in a giving mood. Plus, I want to finish this up soon. The song at the end is by the Beach Boys.
Our first kiss in about two years. I looked at her with a wide grin.God was she beautiful. Everyone says a bride is gorgeous no matter what...but honestly, next to seeing Ella for the first time this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Shebit her lower lip and gotready for the big kiss...we both knew this would be the last kiss before all hell broke loose so we wanted to make it good. I pulled her close to me and kissed her like I hadn't kissed her in a million years. And she, of course, very kindly returned the favor.
We put off turning around as long as we could by kissing and not letting go of one another. When we finally pulled apart she made a face, "We have to face them at some point…"
I nodded. "Look at Ella."
She turned and looked at our daughter who looked really confused and was starting to cry, but Lilly held her and whispered something into her ear. Then she started giggling. Those two were like sisters.
I saw my parents in the crowd who looked more puzzled than anyone else. I smiled at them and winked. My dad must be jumping for joy that his one and only son is totally hetero.My mom looked satisfied. Like she'd known all along and that this was simply confirmation.
But then I looked at her family. Her grandmother looked…well, pissed would not be able to describe it. She had finally been clued in. Her father seemed amused, which surprised me.
"Are we going to stand here all day?" I asked, "Or are we going to get the hell out of here?"
"We're in a church don't say that word," she scolded with a smile.
We held one another's hands as we made our way down the aisle. My dad gave me a five as I passed him. My mother looked slightly angry. She'd deal though. She was probably just mad that I didn't tell her anything.
But she'd deal. Everyone would have to.
The crowds outside looked really confused. I certainly wasn't the prince they were expecting to emerge. Mia waved gracefully to everyone as we waited for her family to come out to pose for official photographs.
Her grandmother couldn't say much right away. She didn't want everyone to know that she had been fooled. According to protocol she was supposed to be standing to my left in the pictures. I would PAY to see the expression on her face during the first picture. The photographer left for a few minutes to let everyone re-group.
Mia did not let go of my hand. "Surprise," she said with a weak smile to the family.
"Surprise? That is all you have to say?" her grandmother snapped.
"Clarisse, relax," Miss Thermopolis said softly. "Let her ex-"
"This is not going to stand. What happened to Evan? I'll tell you this much his fathe-"
"Yes it will stand," Mia argued. "I am of age to choose my own husband. You cannot make me do anything. Evan is on his way to Miami as we speak. He knew about all this."
I saw her father and Mr. G standing off to the side, looking quite amused by the happenings. "I can do what I damn please!" Clarisse snapped.
"If you do anything to ruin this," Mia started with a wide grin (Lord knew there was paparazzi getting some shots of this), "I will step down from my role as princess of Genovia and….well, power will go to..who is it now?The Stratbourgs. Didn't you goto school withLady Stratbourg? And she did something to your hair....what was it? Stuck it in ink or something? What difference does it make? She could be the sovereign ruler.But you wouldn't want that would you?"
Clarisse threw her arms in the air, "This is not the end of this discussion. We will put up a good show at the reception, but after," she started, "I will straighten this out."
Phillippe came up to me and pulled me aside as Mia continued her argument with her grandmother, "Congratulations. You fooled my mother and everyone else. Hymen?"
I smiled, "Yeah."
"So that was the two of you that got married a few years ago?"
I nodded nervously.
"We thought it was strange for another Amelia Renaldo to be married but we didn't know Hymen was your name. I mean, we still had you watched, due to my mother's orders. She thought you were a threat to Genovian security."
"Surprise."
"So, you two were married when she graduated?" Mr. G asked.
I nodded. "Yeah. Just barely."
The two older men shared a look. "And you…"
"Michael, we're going for our ride to introduce you to the public," Mia said pulling me away. She knew what they were going to ask and wanted to avoid that.
I shrugged to my new father in law's.
We sat in carriage and waited for a few minutes before the driver came. "I didn't know Ella would be involved," I whispered after we kissed.
"I told Grandmere she was Lilly's niece and that I wanted to include her. She never thought twice about it."
"When are we going to drop that bomb?" I asked.
"I already told my dad," she admitted, caressing my cheek. It was like we couldn't believe the other was right there. That we'd gone through with it. "He's known for awhile, but agreed to keep quiet. He knew I was pregnant and was really upset until I explained everything to him. He was actually really happy. He didn't like Evan for me."
I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face as disembarked and we greeted the people who had lined up along the way back to the palace where our reception would take place. Apparently word has not gotten out yet that I am not Evan.
"You get out first, and then help me out," Mia instructed.
I did so, and reached out my hand to help her get out of the carriage.
"Evan! Amelia!" people were screaming. "KISS!"
We very kindly obliged. I doubt I had ever held her as close or kissed her more passionately as I did right then with everyone watching us. I didn't care that there were millions of eyes on us. All that mattered was her.
We had a receiving line, and greeted a lot of people we didn't know. We had to go up to greet the Queen of England ourselves, which was really surreal. The princes congratulated us and wished us the best of luck, because we needed it.
We ate our meals, and ignored everyone else around us. We were in our own little world. Ella played with the other children that were at the party in a room set aside for the children.
"We pulled it off," she whispered, squeezing my knee. We couldn't keep our hands to ourselves. But we did everything under the table. Public displays of affections were not acceptable for royalty. Holy shit. I am officially royalty now. Shit, that's weird.
I fed her a carrot from my plate, "I know. But how will your grandmother react to Ella?"
"She'll freak out that she is so far behind in princess lessons and that her name is not princessy enough, but she'll have to deal with it."
I kissed her and heard the flashbulb of a camera go off. This was definitely not the type of wedding I always imagined myself having. I had wanted a quiet one on a mountaintop. Away from everyone.
"You look gorgeous, if I haven't told you yet," I said as she sipped her champagne.
"You don't look half bad yourself, Hymen. I almost burst out laughing when he asked if I took this hymen to be my lawfully wedded husband!"
"I know. I think I might legally change my name now."
She nodded, "Yes, Prince Hymen doesn't sound very good."
I saw the band going to a table to eat, and motioned for theband leader to announce our first dance. It wasn't going to be played by the band. I had made aCD of arecording session with my oldband. It was the song I had themcover for me and Mia.
"What's going on?" Mia asked as I escorted her to the dance floor. The plan had been for us to dance to some stupid classical song that her grandmother picked out.
"I thought this song kind of wasmore us."
Wouldn't it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong
You know its gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through
Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was neverending
Wouldn't it be nice
Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true
Baby then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
We could be married
And then we'd be happy
Wouldn't it be nice
You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But lets talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice
Good night my baby
Sleep tight my baby
Mia smiled. She loved the Beach Boys, but, "I like your version better," she admitted as we parted lips (yes, we kissed every once and a while through our dance, very middle school-esque)
We had our first dance as a married couple and then heard, "No! Stop!"
I turned and saw Lilly chasing Ella into the room.
Ella ran up to Mia, "MOMMA!"