“You have a beautiful dress,” Nikki complimented the bride. “And that cake looks amazing.”
“Thank you,” smiled the bride. But her distraction at seeing Luke signaled that she, too, was now trying to place where she knew him from.
“Well, thanks for coming both of you,” the groom said. This brought Luke’s mind back to reality and made him move on from trying to place the bride in his mind. “I hope you have a great time.” The groom’s statement was an obvious attempt to make them move on.
And they did, right until they turned around to see the husband’s parents. The dad reached out to shake their hands, while the mother adorned a large fake, welcoming smile.
“And you guys are?” The father asked.
“She’s Delia Gand, and I’m her husband,” Luke said. As he had said it, he turned and smirked at Nikki, signaling he was getting back at her for saying his full fake name with the newlyweds.
“Delia Gand … I’ve heard that name before….” The mother trailed off. Nikki’s heart skipped a beat, nervous about if the mother would catch onto her using the fake name. The name was too unique for there to be more than one person with it in the city.
“Oh, it’s a common name,” Nikki joked, in an attempt to brush over it with humor.
Not being able to place the name, the mother instead changed the subject. “And how do you know the newlyweds?”
Nikki couldn’t believe that the parents had already showed more interest in them than the newlywed couple themselves actually did. Then she remembered Luke saying for him to take the lead. So, she looked at her date and squeezed his hand tightly, signally for him to come up with something.
“Oh, we knew them from college,” Luke said.
“College?” The father asked. “They didn’t go to college….”
Now Luke squeezed Nikki’s hand back, signaling that his generic response had totally missed the target. Nikki thought quick on her feet and said the only thing that she could think of – and it was nothing short of a way to get out of the conversation as fast as possible.
“I know, right? Well, we were in college when we met them. Anyways, what a lovely wedding! We’ve been dying to go check out the decorations. Congratulations again!”
With that, the couple got out of there immediately and walked right over to the dessert table. As soon as they stood next to it, they both looked over to see that the parents were now, fortunately, consumed in a conversation with others. Seeing they’d gotten away with their act, Nikki and Luke both turned and laughed hilariously into each other.
“They didn’t go to college!” Nikki said while biting into an éclair.
“I know, right? What are the odds of that?” Luke also continued laughing, while picking up a macaron and biting into it. “You did an awesome job of covering, by the way.”
But just as he said that, Nikki took a napkin and spit out the piece of éclair. “That’s awful!”
“Ah, the macaron, too!” Luke spit it out in his hand and dropped it right into a trashcan next to him. “How do you mess up a macaron? Really, folks – it’s nothing more than a fancy cookie. You still need to add sugar!” The look of disgust on Luke’s face from the cookie made Nikki laugh out loud, again thrilled that he shared the same passion that she did in cooking.
“Think you could do better?” She asked.
“Oh, I know it! And I know you could, too. We should open a wedding cake and pastry business one day.”
Nikki’s heart fluttered at the idea. Her mind instantly raced to her oft-desired dream of doing just that, and now the man whom she’d fallen in love with was suggesting opening it with her. Regardless of how the rest of this date went, and if they’d get caught crashing the wedding, this date was a success no matter what, due to the fact that Luke’s suggestion made her dreams soar thru the roof.
“That’s the dream….” She said, trailing off to signal that she wasn’t kidding. But before the conversation could get serious about the topic, Nikki changed it by deflecting her attention to the dance floor. She had been determined, since the beginning of the date, to keep things light-hearted and fun. “Hey, let’s go dance!” She exclaimed.
She pulled Luke’s arm over to the dance floor. Just as soon as they got on the hardwood floor, a fast song ended and the DJ put on a slower ballad which sounded familiar to Nikki.
Nikki placed her arms around her handsome date’s shoulders and felt him embrace the small of her back. This was definitely not the first time they’d been so close, but she still felt electricity just by being so close to him. It was as if only the ambience of being near him radiated passion. Not a word needed to be said between them about this undeniable feeling. Nikki felt it and knew that Luke felt it too.
It was that feeling which Nikki had described to Sara earlier that day. It felt complete. It felt fulfilling. Being with Luke made Nikki feel like she wanted to be a better person, like she believed and trusted in more than just herself for a chance. She felt like she had found someone who didn’t just check all the boxes she’d unintentionally made for a boyfriend, but someone who made her realize that the boxes truly didn’t matter. What really mattered was if she felt like she made him a better person, since he made her want to continue to be a better person as well. It wasn’t about finding someone who would make her complete. She never needed a guy to complete her life. But, really, for the first time, she realized that what she should have been looking for wasn’t someone to complete her. Rather, she should have been looking for someone who she wanted to grow alongside with. And now, she had found him. They’d found each other. Nikki was in love. Unequivocally and deeply in love with him. For the first time, she knew that she was really only in love with one man now. Luke.
It took half-way through the song playing over the speakers for Nikki to realize where she’d heard the song before.
“I wanna grow old with you / I wanna grow old with you / no matter what you do / no I don’t lie / I’ll be by your side and you next to mine / I wanna grow old with you, my love.”
Those lyrics. Her mind transported back to the moment in her kitchen about a month ago when she’d been baking (and downing at an unhealthily ferocious pace) batches of cupcakes. She remembered instantly how she turned off a love song that’d randomly started playing on her phone, having been disgusted at love to even hear a song about it. Now she knew - it was that same song.
Their slow dance together grew even more meaningful as Nikki couldn’t believe that their first dance was to the same song which she’d been disgusted at in her frustrated moment of being single. Was it fate? She found it interesting to think about how that moment in her kitchen wasn’t really that long ago, but now it felt a world away. She’d changed so much since then. She didn’t even feel like the same woman who had turned off the love song. Now, she was open and willing to let love in, basking in the fulfilling warmth of its feeling in Luke’s arms. Thinking about how much she’d grown in the short period of time made her snicker out loud to herself.
“What’s up?” Luke asked.
“Oh, nothing … well, I was just thinking about how perfect this song is for our first dance.”