LOGINElleThe reception has a whole different vibe from the wedding. Everywhere I look, people are beckoning Aaron and me over to offer their congratulations or simply chat.Ava helped me change into something more suitable for the reception. A pale pink mini dress with a beaded bodice and sparkly tulle skirt. It had taken a lot out of me to convince her to go with this when she would have preferred I go with something not as bright. But this was the one thing I wasn't willing to negotiate on. I love pink, and if I couldn't have a pink wedding dress, I might as well have a pink reception dress.Aaron introduces me to some of the council members present at the wedding and while a few of them seem to have no problem with me, at least on the surface, most of them make it a point to make their distaste for me known.I don't mind them, though, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how they feel about me. I was now officially married to Aaron. I was his wife and he was my husband.My
AaronWeddings have never been my thing, and up until I met Elle, I never imagined it would be or that I would be standing on the other side of an aisle waiting for a woman to walk towards me in a white dress.But as I see Elle make her way down the petal-dusted aisle, each step slow and purposeful, the single goal being to get to me, I realise I hadn't imagined my wedding day earlier because I simply hadn't met her.Looking at her now, I realise I would marry her again and again and again if it meant I would get the privilege of seeing her walk down the aisle to me. I would marry her as many times as I needed to if it meant that I got to see her in this dress again.She's so fucking gorgeous it physically causes the air in my lungs to be sucked out of me, causing the ill organ in my chest to stutter at the sight of her.Fucking hell.I'm a gonner.When it came to her, I was so down bad that I was willing to do anything just to be in her presence, and now more than ever, I wished time
ElleMy wedding day comes in a blur of white lace and fleeting panic. I sit in front of the mirror of my dressing room wondering if this is still a good idea and whether or not I should run away before anyone notices I'm even gone.I don't think I ever gave much thought to my wedding. Ever since I was a child my concept of a wedding day has been disfigured. I never even considered the possibility of a day I would walk down the aisle to a man I hoped to spend the rest of my days with.But then Aaron happened.And while our deal didn't hold the stamp of eternity, somehow it led me here, to this exact moment. To this room filled with flowers, to this dress that feels both foreign and familiar against my skin and to a promise I never imagined making.The door of my dressing room bursts open, and Ava walks in, a swirl of lavender and a white lilac bouquet hanging at her side. She looks gorgeous in her bridesmaid dress. A halter neck gown with long soft layers dripping down her body.Brown
ElleThe bakery looks the same as it did last week. The walls are white with pale pink pastry patterns stamped in rows across them, and the air smells of butter and sugar. Aaron holds the door open for me and I mutter a polite thank you as I step past him. The side of my body grazes his and though it's barely a touch, the contact sends a sudden spark straight up my spine.I tried really hard to focus on anything that wasn't him when we were at the venue but no matter how hard I tried to keep myself busy, my gaze often sought his.The first few times, he'd been completely enraptured in his work to notice, but eventually he did, and when it happened, he'd looked away so sharply the stink still ached an hour later.It was almost like he was avoiding me. Actually, I think he was. He didn't exactly leap for joy when I told him I was coming with him and he hadn't said a word to me during the ride. To be honest, it felt like I wasn't wanted, but I somehow managed to push through the feeling
Aaron"Aaron." My sister calls, her tone tired as she tilts her head to examine me. It's been four hours. Four hours of working side by side with my sister, comparing colour swatches, debating centrepieces, and pretending I know the difference between Prussian and Yale blue.“What?” I mutter, not bothering to look up from the seating chart I’ve been halfheartedly adjusting for the past fifteen minutes.Ava lets out a sigh, tapping her pen impatiently against her clipboard because yes, she has a clipboard. My sister has always had a flair for getting things organised. When she was ten, she single-handedly planned her entire eleventh birthday. It was the one thing our 'father' let her have, and so she owned it with every bit of authority an almost eleven-year-old could muster.“You’ve moved the same name three times now." She lets out a sigh clearly bred from irritation and I frown. "Are you even listening to me?"“I’m paying attention,” I lie, eyes still on the paper.“To what exactly
ElleThere's a body next to me.Well, under me.But the technicalities don't matter because someone is in fact breathing next to—under me and loudly might I add."Is this always going to be a thing with you?"My heart drops to my stomach. That voice — smooth, teasing and dangerously familiar — coils around me like smoke.Slowly, I pry my eyes apart, hoping, no—praying that I’m wrong.But I’m not.Because Aaron is lying there, shirtless, one arm propped under his head, the faintest smirk tugging at his lips like he finds my reaction utterly, entirely amusing.Fuck.Fuck.Fuck."There you are."I shut my eyes again and this time I pry myself away from his chest and attempt to roll to the other side of the bed, away from him, but he stops me, wrapping an arm around my waist, pulling me back and keeping me locked against him. He leans down and his lips gently brush against the outer shell of my ear.I let out a groan, but it's not from irritation. The hem of my shirt had somehow ridden up







