“Are you two nearly ready?” Julia asks, and Logan and I both nod.
“Well let’s get this show on the road. It’s a little bit chilly up here,” Brenda says to nobody in particular as she pulls her shawl tighter around her. Brenda still has a unique ability to seem abrasive one hundred percent of the time, but once you look past it, you see that she means well.
At least, that’s what I tell myself so I don’t throw her off the roof.
Julia, not knowing enough about Brenda to overlook her behavior, shoots her a look so full of venom I’m surprised Brenda doesn’t drop dead on the spot. Then Julia disappears back down the stairs. I’m practically holding my breath waiting for what comes next.
Julia reappears, striding quickly and confidently down the makeshift aisle of chairs we hauled up from the conference room. We didn’t need many, just enough for Brenda and Mr. Fallon, a couple of Cadence’s friends from school, and Logan’s parents. Logan is standing next to me, Oliver’s leash in his hand, my dog clad in a bowtie of his own and sitting up straight like he knows the occasion calls for it.
And then there she is, standing at the top of the stairs. She’s wearing a white silk dress that seems to melt around her like ink, long sleeved with a row of tiny, delicate buttons starting at her elbow and ending at her wrist. The dress dips into a v-neck that reminds me of the yellow dress from Julia and Logan’s wedding. Her hair is loose, the waves wild and blowing in the autumn breeze.
There’s no music as she walks confidently towards me. We decided to keep the wedding as small and simple as possible, with only friends and family in attendance (and since I have no family, that kept the circle even smaller).
Having a musician felt like an intrusion, and playing something through a speaker felt cheap. So instead we listened to the rustle of the last of the autumn leaves on the trees, to the sounds of the city and traffic below, though I couldn’t really hear any sound at all. Everything around me – everyone – disappears in that moment, except for Cadence.
She clutches her bouquet of red and orange and yellow roses, her eyes never leaving mine. At that moment I simply want to be alone with her. I want this to be our moment, and I don’t want to share it with anyone.
But then Cadence stops next to me, she reaches for my hand, anchoring to her. And I realize that in our own way, we are alone.
This is still our moment.
This is our wedding and we’re in it, just the two of us.
“Ok, well, I guess this is the part where I say ‘dearly beloved,’” Logan says with an easy grin. We had him get ordained online to perform the wedding, again wanting no strangers present for the moment.
“No jokes, just get to the important part,” I urge him, and he rolls his eyes. Julia huffs out a sigh, and I know I’m ruining whatever beautiful and romantic ceremony she wrote for him to perform. But like a good brother – which is what Logan is to me – he dutifully skips ahead to the vows.
“Do you, Levi, take Cadence, to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do you part?”
“Hell yes,” I say, and there are some rueful chuckles at my language.
But Cadence gets it. She smiles at me and her eyes are alight.
It’s hard to believe that not long ago I thought Cadence was someone I had to take from, had to overcome to get what was mine, and yet here I am marrying her.
My crazy sick upbringing had me convinced she was my ruination when in reality Cadence has been my salvation.
Plain and simple.
And in this short time we’ve already been through the better and the worse, the rich and the poor. Hell, with my father, we’ve even been through the sickness and health. It feels like we’ve lived a lifetime together already, which makes our future together feel like that much more of a gift.
“And do you, Cadence, take Levi, to be your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do you part?”
Cadence’s smile is wide enough to rival the Charles River, and sparkles like the sun setting over the city. “I do,” she says.
Before I know it, Logan is declaring us husband and wife. I don’t even wait for his instruction before taking Cadence in my arms and dipping her for long, deep kiss. The crowd’s polite applause quickly turns to hoots and hollers, with a scattering of whistles. Oliver joins in with a few hearty barks. And then it’s over.
We stride back down the aisle arm in arm, taking the steps down two at a time. Soon we’re in the attic, and I know we have only a moment in before everyone else begins streaming in behind us, so I grab her hands and pull her close, leaning in forehead to forehead.