The woman in ivory silk approached with a velvet box in her hands.
She opened it for me.
Inside was the jewelry selected for the final bridal fitting.
I didn’t touch it yet.
Aaron stared at the box.
Then at The Phoenix Flame.
The mall director spoke quietly to the investor.
“Everything for the wedding fitting is prepared.”
Aaron’s face emptied.
Kylie’s eyes widened.
“Wedding?”
The investor reached for my hand.
The engagement ring I had removed before helping with the spill was still in his pocket.
He took it out and slid it gently back onto my finger.
No announcement was necessary.
The cameras understood first.
Then the crowd.
Then Kylie.
Aaron understood last because he was still searching for another explanation.
I watched his eyes move from the ring to the red bridal gown.
“This dress…” he said.
I answered him calmly.
“Was made for me.”
He swallowed.
The woman who, according to him, lacked the class to touch The Phoenix Flame was the bride it had been created to dress.
And the man Aaron had spent months begging to impress was the man I was going to marry.
Kylie slowly released Aaron’s arm.
Nobody laughed at him.
That would have been easier.
Instead, the lobby became painfully quiet.
Aaron looked toward the investor.
“Sir, whatever you heard just now, this is personal history between Emily and me.
It has nothing to do with my proposal.”
The investor studied him for several seconds.
Aaron continued quickly.
“We were married a long time ago.
It ended badly.
People say things.
I was joking with her.”
I said nothing.
The security guard who had looked away earlier now looked directly at Aaron.
The sales associate folded her hands in front of herself.
The guests nearest the showcase had heard every word he had spoken to me.
Aaron saw them.
“Tell him,” he said to me.
I raised an eyebrow.
“That you were joking?”
“That this was nothing.”
A strange calm came over me.
Seven years earlier, when Aaron said I was too ordinary for the man he planned to become, I had spent weeks imagining all the things I should have said back.
I had imagined speeches.
Accusations.
Perfect sentences that would make him understand what he had thrown away.
Standing there, I realized I didn’t need any of them.
He had explained himself perfectly tonight.
I looked at the investor.
