“Me too. Just wanted to make sure you knew it was permanent.”
“Permanent isn’t a long enough time to be with you,” she said and winked.
I needed to get to the point.
“Three weeks. I want to get married in three weeks. Does that sound okay?” I asked gently. I didn’t want to make her feel inundated in case she needed more time. At the same time, I also couldn’t bear to think of not being married to her any longer.
She opened her mouth wide in shock. “Three weeks? But…planning…and invites…I don’t even have an idea of what to do about my wedding dress.”
I reached over and covered her hands with my own, flashing a reassuring smile. “Aria,” I said lovingly. “It’ll all be taken care of. I already booked Fiona Davis to be your wedding planner, and she will be contacting you shortly about all your needs. Fiona usually has a waiting list of about two years. She is the most sought-after wedding planner in the country.”
She gasped. “Stacey knows all about her. She will kill me.”
“We will book Fiona for your friends’ wedding too then, but since they don’t plan to have the ceremony for another year, we can surely worry about that later.”
“Wait,” she said suspiciously. “How do you know when they plan to get married?”
“Your friend Stacey may or may not have gone with me to purchase your ring.”
She gasped loudly, looking amused. “You aren’t telling me she approved of this magnificent gazillion-dollar ring, are you?”
“Yes, but it’s no big deal.”
“Whatever you say,” she said, grinning.
“Fiona will be in touch with you shortly. She has already booked The Plaza for three weeks from tomorrow. They are usually pre-booked years in advance, but between my influence and Fiona’s, getting that date was a piece of cake.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Aria said holding up her hand and looking utterly confused. “The Plaza. That’s where all the celebrities get married. It’s also in New York. Did you actually think this through?”
“Oh, right,” I said with a content smirk. “I forgot to mention, we are getting married in New York.”
The effect of those words on Aria was exactly what I had hoped. She gasped so loudly a few people came and poked their head in to see if everything was okay. Her eyes started drowning in tears of happiness once we were alone again.
“You said you had never been to New York.” I shrugged. “Obviously, we had to change that. And what better opportunity to do so than during the most special day of both of our lives?”
“But Zayden,” she spoke in stutters. “All my family and friends and everyone I know are here and they can’t exactly afford to take a trip to—”
“I will take care of everything. You have to learn to stop worrying about money. I want you to have the wedding of your dreams. Pick out the best wedding gown, the best décor; pick out an invitation embellished in gold and platinum if you wish. I will pay for absolutely everything. We will put all your friends and family up in five-star hotels. Everything you need will be taken care of. Don’t worry about how or when; just decide what you want and it’s yours. You might as well start getting used to it, because this is not just about the wedding, either. That’s basically how things will go from now on for the rest of your life.”
She was crying into her hands now, unable to process all of this. It made me feel a little weary because I did not like seeing her in tears, not even those of joy. Her tears were more precious to me than anything money could ever buy, and they were not worth wasting.
I stood up from my chair and went over to take Aria into my arms. She was so small and fit so perfectly against my chest.
“Aria, I love you so much. More than you will ever realize. More than the world will ever have accurate measures to quantify. When I decided I wanted to marry you, I also decided that from that moment on, nothing in the world mattered as much as your happiness. If you really think about it, I’m being selfish by giving you the wedding of your dreams. I can only be happy when you are happy. So in the end, I am doing this for me. Okay?”
I hugged her tighter, intending to never let me go.
“I love you so much too, Zay,” she mumbled into my chest. “I can’t wait to be your wife…”
We sat like that in each other’s embrace for the longest time, with the whole office watching through my office windows. When we finally broke apart, I remembered the other thing I had to discuss with her.
“One more thing,” I said, wiping the last of her tears from her face. “There is absolutely no reason for you and me to be apart for another second from now on. I hired some movers. They will be at your apartment tomorrow to get all your things. You don’t worry about a single thing. They will pack all your things and carry everything to my place. Is that okay?”
I felt like it was important to phrase everything as a question. Aria would not be okay with being told what to do, which was one of the many reasons I loved her so much.
“Of course,” she said to my utter relief. “I can’t wait to move in with you, either. The thought of being apart from you is tormenting sometimes. I’ll miss my roommates of course, but I’ll have one last night with them tonight.”
“They will be happy for you,” I said, stroking her hair.