And You're Just What I Need...

The ceremony, well, it was beautiful. There’s not really another word for it. It all went smoothly and yeah, it was great. When it finished up, everyone walked back to the main back yard for the reception. That’s when I lost track of Adam. It’s like he just disappeared in the swarm of people.

“mommy!” I hear Katie scream behind me. I turn around and pick her grinning self up, “you look pretty.” She tells me.

“you look pretty too darling.” I say. “and I’ve missed you very very very much.”

“you’re coming home, right?” she asks sweetly.

“actually Katie, you and I are going to move here and live in this house for awhile.”

Blake and Jenny came up and smiled at me.

“you’re living with Finn and Dakota?” Blake asks.

“until I get enough money to get my own place. Trust me, they have more than enough room.”

The photographer that was hired snaps a picture of Katie and me.

“so, where’s this boyfriend of yours?” Jenny asks.

“Adam? I don’t know, he seemed to have disappeared. But he was the best man.”

“seriously?” she asks. I nod, “damn girl, if I wasn’t already-“ Blake cuts in, coughing, “I mean, you two make a cute couple.”

I laugh and set Katie down, “I’m going to go find a friend of mine. You stay out of trouble. Kay?” she nods eagerly and kisses my cheek before I stand back up. “I’ll be back.” I tell Blake and Jenny. They also nod and I leave on my hunt for Adam. I walk around the back yard and ask people but no one said they saw where he went.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes, I find him in the kitchen, scrubbing at some pans angrily.

I quietly open the sliding glass door and step in. my heels clicking against the tile floor.

He looks over at me and doesn’t look pleasant. Why was he so mad?

“Adam-“ I start, but he interrupts me.

“how could you not tell me?” he asks harshly. How did he know? “she looks exactly like Katelyn. EXACTLY! When were you going to tell me Julie?! Our wedding night! Because this isn’t exactly how I wanted to find out I had a-” he stops mid-sentence. I assume he’s afraid to use the word ‘child’ or ‘daughter’.

“does it seem like I had a plan Adam?! No, obviously I didn’t or we wouldn’t be in this situation!” I bit my lip to hold back the tears. “do you know how many times I tried to tell you? how many times I was words away from letting the secret out and then you had to say something like I love you, or let’s go for a walk, or sing me a song. Whatever it was it always made it harder, made me want to enjoy the moment and hide the secret that much longer.”

“so this is my fault? You lying is my fault?!”

“I didn’t lie!”

“oh, so I was just supposed to know?”

“just because I didn’t tell you that you were the dad doesn’t mean I lied to you. sometimes it’s better to leave things unsaid then say them at all.” I tell him, “dammit Adam, I wasn’t planning on seeing you ever again in my life after that summer. What did you expect me to do when you were the one to pick me up? Run up and tell you that you’re a dad?! Yeah, cause that would have gone over well.”

“it’s fairly easy to tell someone your whole name.”

“don’t you dare say that any of it would have been easy Adam. You have no idea what I’ve gone through these past six months because of it.”

Before he could say anything back, the door opened and Dakota and Finn were standing there.

“your dance is coming up…” Dakota says, feeling the tension in the room.

“you think I’m going to dance with her?”

“oh, fuck you Adam.” I say

“already have bitch.” That hurt a lot more than I expected it to

Finn steps between us, “whoa, whoa, whoa.” He turns to Adam first, “I don’t care how much you hate her right now but I know you Adam, and you’ve never called a girl that before. you’re not about to start now.” Then Finn turns to me, “and you know better than to swear at a family function. Again, no matter how much you hate his guts, you’re not saying that again.”

“fine.” I mumble.

“now, you two will put on some smiles and go out there to do your dance.” At like three months, Finn and Dakota decided that not only would they have their dance, but that Adam and I should have a dance too. So they chose a song and hired a choreographer to help us with the steps. Now we have a perfect routine to do to our song “A moment like this” by Kelly Clarkson.

Adam glares at me for a moment but steps out of the house. “you okay?” Dakota asks me.

I give her a weak smile, “of course.” I tell her and step around her to go out to the ceremony. Dakota and Finn follow with worried looks on their faces.

“and now the Maid of Honor and Best Man are going to do their own dance. Let’s welcome Juliana Richards and Adam DiGerlando to the dance floor.” There were claps as we step out of the crowd.

The music starts and we get into position. Memories flash through my head as we start dancing.

What if I told you this was all meant to be?

“want to dance?” we were at the music festival having a late night snack. Quite a fantastic first date if I may say so myself.

Would you believe me, would you agree?

“sure.” I grab his hand and he pulls me up. the kids run around us screaming and couples close by start to dance too.

It’s almost that feeling we’ve met before.

Oddly enough, the song seemed too much of a coincidence. I mean, it was practically describing our situation.

So tell me that you don’t think I’m crazy.

My mind started to wonder. I mean, what if he thinks I’m a pig. I did eat a lot today. But then again I also showed off at pool and he was impressed with that. Hopefully he doesn’t see me as just one of the guys though. He is hot, just like he was in Italy. There’s no doubt I would like to date him again.

When I tell you love has come here and now.

The soft pressure of another pair of lips on mine wakes me up from my thoughts. Obviously I wasn’t just one of the guys if he was kissing me. And quite the kiss it was.

A moment like this.
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this

I pull away from the kiss breathless and grin goofily up at him. Adam returns the smile, pulling me closer to him.

Some people search forever for that one special kiss.

Without a word, he leans back in and kisses me again, this time it’s more intense. More… greedy. My fingers tangle in his dark hair while his graze up and down my spine.

I can’t believe this is happening to me.
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.

This was the kiss I had been waiting four years for. The kiss that woke up the feelings that stayed deep inside me.

Everything changes, but beauty remains.
Something so tender I can’t explain.

When Adam started to pull away I just deepened the kiss, not wanting it to end. Not wanting this moment to end. I could feel Adam smile against my lips as he went along with it.

Well I may be dreaming but until I awake,
Can we make the dream last forever?
And I'll cherish all the love we share for a moment like this.

Finally, not being able to breath anymore, I reluctantly separate my lips from Adams. There was silence between us as we both attempted to catch our breath

“Did that seem…” he trails off, searching for a word.

“Perfect? Yeah. It did.” I whisper back.

Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.
Some people search forever for that one special kiss
I can’t believe it’s happening to me.
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.

“I was going to say fit like a puzzle piece. But I guess that’s not as romantic.”

I laugh and peck him quickly on the lips, resisting the urge to let them linger there. “romantic or not, I like your description a lot better.”

Could this be the greatest love of all.
I wanna know that you will catch me when I fall.

“whatever you say Juliana.”

“well then, I’m going to say we stop talking.” He catches my lips with his and I have no doubt at that moment that Adam and I are meant to be together.

So let me tell you this.
Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this…

I pull away content and rest my head on Adams shoulder, my eyes closed. We swayed back and forth to the music. Obviously if this relationship grew into something bigger, this song would be our song.

Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.
Some people search forever for that one special kiss.

“you know, you’re only the second girl I’ve ever felt like this with.”

Adam comments, holding me close to him.

“is that good or bad?” I question aloud.

“I’d say good since I have yet to push you away.”

I reach up and press my lips gently to his. Adam hasn’t changed over the years, he has just been keeping more to himself. Like I did after Katie was born.

I can’t believe this is happening to me.

Now though, I’m smiling ear to ear. It took one simple kiss to turn me back into the happy-go-lucky girl I once was.

Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this…

And let’s just say that some smiles are meant to last forever.

The song comes to an end and just as soon as it does Adam lets go of me and makes his way back to the house. A couple people clap, some cough at the awkwardness there was, and the rest just stood there silent. I quickly adjust myself and walk off the wooden platform.

When I get away from the crowd I take a deep breath. “He’s just in shock.” I tell myself, “He’ll come around.” Though no matter how much I thought this, I didn’t quite believe it.

There was a tug on my dress and I look down to see Katie trying to get my attention.

When she notices me look she starts to talk, “mommy, who’s that?” she asks, pointing behind her. Katelyn stood there in her white and black dress. “she’s been following me.”

“following implies that I have been creepy.” Katelyn says, smiling, “all I wanted to do was introduce myself to her.”

I laugh, “Katie sweetie, that’s your Aunt Katelyn. She’s very friendly and you’ll be seeing a lot of her.”

“oh, okay then.” Katie turns and walks up to Katelyn, “hello. Do you like Sesame Street?”

“of course I do. Do you?”

“It’s my favorite show.”

I decide to let them get to know each other so I leave that corner and find another. After a couple minutes of me standing there, Nick finds me and comes up to talk. Not exactly what I wanted to do at the moment, but I’d rather it be him than say Finn.

“hey.” I mumble.

“So he knows?”

“yes. And he freaked out on me and called me names and yeah. That’s pretty much it.”

“did he leave after the dance?” I nod. “you know, I’m not usually one to give out advice, but here it is anyways. Tell him what you told me. the whole story. Whether you guys stay together or not, he at least deserves to know the truth.” Nick didn’t let me reply to that. He just left, walked away.

It took me a moment to register what he had said, but once it did I realized that he was right. No matter how mad he is at me, I can’t keep the truth from him any longer.

I silently thank Nick and push my way through the crowd to the house. Stopping in front of his door, I pause before knocking.

Once I do knock though, Adam replies quickly, “Finn, I really don’t want one of your dumbass ‘you’re being stupid’ speeches. So just go back to the party.”

“Good thing I’m not Finn.” I say back. He was silent so I opened the door and step in.

He was sitting on his bed, fiddling with some box in his hands. I lean against the wall and look around. This was the first time I had ever been in his room, though didn’t really know what to expect. It was painted a nice blue color. Everything was very simple, nothing complicated.

“so,” I start, taking a couple more steps into the room. Adam doesn’t take his eyes off the box in his hands. “wedding huh? Were you planning on us getting married.” I try to joke. He looks up then, but only for a moment. Hatred was clear in his eyes as he somewhat roughly tossed the box he had in his hands at me. I caught it with ease but left it in my hand without opening it. “right…”

I sit down on the edge of his desk, taking some ease off of standing on the heels. “Look, I don’t expect you to forgive me. I know what I did was terrible, but to tell you the truth if I could do this over again I wouldn’t change anything. When you picked me up at the airport you were already mad. The instant I saw you all my memories of that summer were rushing through my head and I didn’t want to do anything but jump into your arms and kiss you all over…” trust me, that sounded better in my head, “but I had to test it out first, see if you remembered me beyond the blonde hair and all. So when I stuttered your name and you said ‘do I know you?’ it was obvious you didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know what to do at that point. Since I hadn’t contacted you, and my hair was back to my natural color along with some other things, I decided there wouldn’t be any harm in just, well, not mentioning it”

Adam stayed silent and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking. Without another word I stand up straight and start to leave. A paper sitting in the printer catches my eye and I quickly read over it, memorizing what it said. I close the door and take a deep breath.

I open the small box that was still in my hand. A small diamond ring sparkled back at me as my breath got caught in my throat. The ring was beautiful. I take it out of the box and notice writing on the inside. Curious, I read the inscription “a moment like this…” it read. Tears pushed to escape my eyes but I wouldn’t let this weaken me. I slip the ring on my left pointer finger and shut the box, setting it in my room before making my way back down to the reception.

Once I step out of the house I was instantly greeted by four people: Dakota, Finn, Katelyn, and Nick.

“so, what happened?” Dakota wondered.

I shrug, “I told him my side of things.”

“and…?”

I pause and glance at the ring on finger. Katelyn catches on and follows my eyes. “why are you wearing my mothers engagement ring?” she asks.

“I-“ I was speechless, “Adam tossed the box at me.”

“can I see it for a second?” I nod and take the ring off my finger. Katelyn examines it before handing it back. “it definitely was my mothers. But the size is different and hers didn’t have an inscription in it.”

“he proposed?” Finn asks, not sounding too surprised.

I shake my head no. “it’s a long story, but he angrily tossed the box at me. Not exactly what I would call a proposal.”

“what happened then?”

A couple tears slip down my cheek.

“his plane leaves at midnight.”