CHAPTER 111: Champagne at One

POV: Selene Castellano

Avalon came back with the bottle and two glasses, still half asleep, hair a mess, wearing nothing but pajama pants.

“You actually got up for this,” Selene said.

"My sister-in-law is getting married, so we need to celebrate with some champagne." As he put the glasses on the table, he struggled a bit to open the bottle. "Now that I'm up, I might as well get something done."

The cork suddenly popped, making a louder sound than they had anticipated.

Selene burst out laughing and quickly grabbed the bottle, just in time, before it spilled all over the sheets.

"Give her a call," he said, "and put it on speakerphone."

Selene dialed.

Maya answered on the second ring, breathless, laughing.

“Lena.”

“You’re engaged.”

Maya's voice was shaking with excitement as she shared the news. "I'm engaged!" she exclaimed. It had happened on the roof of the community center, the one with the stunning view that everyone in town loved. He had chosen that perfect spot to pop the question, and Maya was still on cloud nine.

“Tell me everything.”

Maya paused, collecting her thoughts before continuing. "He told me that his approach to designing buildings was all about understanding how people really navigate spaces," she said. "And he claimed that he'd spent six months studying how I moved through his space." Maya's voice trailed off for a moment before she started again. "What he discovered was that I didn't really move through it at all - I just sort of... existed in it. And he wanted to make that feeling permanent, to capture it in his design."

Selene pressed her hand to her chest.

"I've never heard a more outrageous idea," Avalon said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Avalon!” Maya laughed. “ Is that you?”

“Hello, Maya.”

“We were already up,” Selene said quickly.

“Sure you were.”

“Maya.”

“I’m just saying.”

Selene paused, taking a long sip of her champagne, trying to avoid answering the question that hung in the air.

They talked for twenty minutes.

Maya mentioned the ring to them - it was simple, had belonged to his grandmother, and had been resized to fit her perfectly. What Maya didn't know was that he had taken her measurements from a ring she had left at his apartment a few weeks earlier, without her even realizing it.

“He’s been planning this,” Selene said.

“Apparently for a month.”

“And you had no idea.”

“None. I’m furious about it actually. I notice everything.” Maya’s voice was full of the specific joy of someone who didn’t actually mind being surprised. “ I’m supposed to notice everything.”

“Not this time.”

When they hung up, Selene sat in the dim bedroom light holding her glass, smiling at nothing in particular.

Avalon watched her.

“What,” she said.

“Nothing. You look happy.”

“I am happy.”

“Good,” he said. “ I like this version of you. The one who just got woken up at one in the morning and isn’t angry about it.”

I can be mad about it later.

“Noted.”

They didn’t go back to sleep immediately.

Selene sat cross-legged on the bed, the champagne mostly gone, watching Avalon study the bottle’s label like it contained important information.

"Wait, what was our plan again?" she asked, before stopping herself. "No, we never actually had one, did we?"

He looked up.

"He shook his head, explaining that they had already held a reading of the will and were now faced with a deadline."

“That’s not romantic.”

“No,” he agreed. “ It wasn’t.”

She was quiet for a moment.

"Is it bothering you," she asked, "that we never had any of those things - a roof over our heads, my grandmother's ring, or even just a special moment to call our own?"

He set the bottle down.

He thought about it a lot back then, what it would've been like if he had actually asked me to marry him, if he had picked the perfect moment and the perfect words to say.

“What would you have said.”

He thought about it.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “ Because the version of me who would have proposed to you properly didn’t exist yet. He had to be built first. Through everything that actually happened.”

Selene looked at him.

"So, that's what you're getting at, the will reading was really necessary," she said.

He told her, "I couldn't have given you a genuine proposal because, at that point, I wasn't the person I am today - at least, not in the ways that truly mattered." His eyes locked onto hers as he continued, "Maya received the roof and the grandmother's ring because Kofi had already found himself when they met."

“And you weren’t.”

"I was falling apart," he admitted. "You have the parts, but not the plan."

She slid across the bed, her body moving slowly, and then she sat down in his lap, turning to face him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him close.

She wanted all the pieces, every single one of them, no matter how broken they were. "I'd rather have them," she said, "all of them, every last broken piece."

He looked up at her.

“Why,” he said.

She leaned in, her voice barely above a whisper, "I got to see you pick up the pieces and put yourself back together, and that's something Maya will never have." Her lips brushed against his in a gentle kiss. "Experiencing that journey with you is worth more to me than any sense of security or comfort, it's better than having a roof over our heads."

He put the empty glass down and drew her near, his arms wrapping gently around her.

The dim glow of the bedside lamp cast soft shadows across the tangled sheets as Avalon lay back against the pillows, his cock already hard and twitching as she straddled his hips. She reached down, wrapped her fingers around his thick shaft, and guided the swollen head to her wet pussy lips.

She sank down slowly, her tight cunt stretching around him inch by inch until she took every bit of his length inside her. A low moan escaped her throat when her ass settled fully against his thighs. Avalon gripped her waist, his thumbs pressing into her soft skin, and thrust upward to meet her first downward roll.

Selene leaned forward, bracing her hands on his chest. Her breasts swayed with each movement as she rode him, her hips grinding in steady circles that dragged her clit against his pubic bone. Wet sounds filled the room every time she lifted and dropped, her pussy gripping him on the way up and swallowing him again on the way down.

Avalon slid one hand between them, his fingers finding her swollen clit. He rubbed quick circles over the sensitive nub while she bounced faster, her breath coming in short gasps. Sweat beaded on her back as she fucked herself on his cock, her inner walls fluttering around him with every thrust.

He sat up suddenly, wrapping his arms around her and flipping them so she lay beneath him. Without missing a beat he drove back into her, pounding deep and hard. Selene’s legs wrapped around his waist, heels digging into his ass as she pulled him closer. Each thrust slapped their bodies together, the head of his cock hitting that perfect spot inside her over and over.

Her orgasm hit without warning. Her pussy clamped down hard around him, pulsing and squeezing as she cried out. Avalon kept thrusting through her climax, drawing it out until her whole body shook. Only then did he bury himself to the hilt and come, hot spurts of cum flooding her cunt as he groaned against her neck.

They stayed locked together, breathing heavily, his cock still twitching inside her as the last drops of his load leaked out around their joined bodies.

Afterward, she lay tangled in the sheets, his arm heavy across her waist, the champagne bottle long forgotten on the nightstand.

“We should sleep,” she murmured.

“We should.”

Neither of them moved.

“Selene.”

“Mm.”

“Marry me again.”

She lifted her head.

“What.”

"When all of this is finally settled, with Henderson and the foundation and everything else, I want to ask you something," he said. "And I want to make it clear, it's not because some will or document is requiring me to do it. I'm asking because I genuinely want to, and I need to know."

She stared at him in the dark.

“You’re serious,” she said.

“Completely.”

She didn’t answer immediately.

His phone buzzed on the nightstand, lighting up the ceiling.

He glanced at it without moving.

Went very still.

“What,” she said.

He turned the screen toward her.

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RE: Henderson Capital — Board Resolution Passed 5-0