Jade stood there gaping at me. Then she took the tea from my hand, opened it and drank. Then she offered it back to me and I drank too.
"Jesse, I heard you backstage. I just couldn't get there. By the time I got to the door you were gone. I'm sorry. I should have left you on the list. I just didn't want to be disappointed. Thorne was introducing me to a casting director and..."
"A casting director? Jade, that's fantastic!"
"I wanted to see you so badly."
"We have today, tomorrow, I have nothing on my schedule for the next thirty or forty years."
She laughed and threw her arms around me.
And just as I was about to kiss her, my phone rang. I wasn't going to answer it. The phone was interrupting the most important moment of my life. But she reached into my pocket and gasped.
"Answer it! Answer it, Jesse!" She grabbed the Tea back from my hand and stepped away from me as I took the call. "Well?" she started as I hung up and stood looking at the phone.
"He offered me the job. I just took the job, Jade. He said he was going to wait until Monday, but it turns out he's going to be with a client on Monday and he wanted me to come in on Tuesday and get the paperwork done. I got the job. I really got the job. Just now. Do I have you, Jade?"
"Yes."
"Today is the future."
"I accept."
"What?"
"The proposal that you just made by giving me the tea, of course!" she smiled.
I began to laugh and I pulled her into my arms. "Good. I'm not going to let you get away again, though it will probably be a while before I can get you a ring and all that."
"A ring! We haven't even had a date yet! And if you think for even a second that I am going to wait for our wedding night to..."
My eyes got very big. She threw her head back and laughed.
Just then Boz Scaggs began to sing.
Jade pressed her cheek to my chest and we swayed slowly to the music we should have been dancing to for the past sixteen months. But she sang out the ending in her beautiful Soprano and the world was perfect.
AFTERWARD:
I knew the ending of the story before Jesse did. I could have let him see it, but it would have spoiled his moment. He had to figure it out on his own for it to mean all the right things to him. He needed to commit to love for everything else to fall into place.
Because love is magic.
I watched their wedding and I was glad I had that chance to dance with him that summer. He made his bride so happy on that dance floor. They were going to have a wonderful life together.
He deserved a wonderful life.
The sun came through our bedroom window and Tyne was still sleeping. He was beautiful. The most beautiful man I have ever known. He was facing me, but his eyes were still closed, his dark lashes perfectly curved, his lips parted and his easy breath whispered its greeting. I lay there admiring him, just like always, and smiling because he was my dream come true as much as I'd just seen Jesse's dream come true.
At last he opened his eyes.
"Beautiful Girl," he whispered as he pulled me closer to him. "I must still be dreaming."
"You've been saying that for three years now," I laughed.
"I wake up living a dream every single morning, Anya. I’ll be saying that forever. You look happy this morning. Sweet dreams?"
"I always like when I get to see the happily ever afters happen."
Tyne sat up.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Did The White Room spoil my day?"
"What do you mean?"
He rolled to his back and reached into his nightstand, and then he turned back toward me. "Last night was the anniversary of the party my father threw for Paul and the first time we made love in The White Room. That day is sacred to me. I screwed up pretty royally at the time, but not the way you thought, I swear to you, Baby, it was only you. It was always you.
I loved you. I know you didn't believe that then, but I loved you with all I was. Holding you in my arms at that party was the only thing that mattered to me. I was trying so hard to tell you, but the words just would not come out. I remember you said you could not think about my wedding because it would be the worst day of your life. I said I wanted it to be the happiest day you would ever know. I was trying to tell you that I knew my forever was with you. I just couldn't say it."
"I know, Tyne. I know," I whispered as I stroked his cheek.
"This morning, all those years ago, ruined something that was perfect and it stole you away from me. I wasn't sure I would ever get another chance. But today, I wanted to give you back the day."
"Give it back? How?"
"With the promise I made that night, Anya. I promised that someday it would be us. Today is someday," he finished as he opened the small package in his hand. "I've been working on this for a long time. It had to be perfect because you are perfect and I couldn't ask you to be my wife with anything less than that."
I could hardly look at the ring because Tyne Bonham was actually asking me to marry him! I mean, don't get me wrong the ring was spectacular. He was gifted beyond words, but I had been wishing for this moment my entire life.
And it was finally happening!
But as I gasped out my acceptance and threw myself into his arms, I saw flashes of what was still to come, and in that moment, I understood why my mother wished away her Wishing Place and I knew it was time for me to say goodbye to The White Room too.
Happily ever after was enough.
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