Chapter 132 Two weeks Until forever

Chapter 132 Two weeks Until forever
Tyler's POV
One Year Later
The suit was wrong.
Not the kind of wrong that anyone else in the room would have noticed. Just the kind that sat under my skin and made me shift my weight from one foot to the other while the tailor crouched at my hem. My arms were held slightly out. The fabric pulled across my shoulders in a way that felt almost right but not quite. That almost was the problem. It made the whole thing feel a little heavier than it should have.
Cassie sat in the chair behind me, eating a croissant she had produced from somewhere and offering opinions nobody had asked for.
“It’s the shoulders,” she said.
“The shoulders are fine,” the tailor said without looking up.
“They’re a little stiff.”
“They’re structured, and that’s the design.”
“Structured and stiff are different things.”
“Cassie, not helping” I said.
“im trying to help here.” She tore off another piece. “The left shoulder specifically. It’s sitting slightly higher than the right.”
The tailor paused. Looked up at the shoulder then at Cassie.
“She’s right,” he said, from his tone you'll know he found this deeply inconvenient.
Cassie smiled. “I knew it.”
I looked at myself in the mirror. The suit was a deep navy that Quin had chosen and I had agreed to because when Quin said something with that particular quiet certainty, I had learned he was almost always right about these things. The fabric was excellent. The cut was almost right. In approximately two weeks I was going to wear it to marry someone I had accidentally married in Las Vegas and had spent the intervening time falling properly in love with.
That thought settled in my chest. Warm, steady and real enough that I felt it in the way my shoulders relaxed a little, even inside the stiff fabric.
“Stop smiling at yourself,” Cassie said.
“I’m not smiling at myself.”
“You’re smiling. And I can tell it's about Quin.” She ate more croissants. “It’s disgusting. I love it.”
The tailor made an adjustment to the left shoulder. I stood still and let him work. In the mirror, Cassie looked good. She had looked good for months now in a way that had nothing to do with clothes or makeup. She was lighter. Like something she had been carrying for a long time had finally found somewhere to rest.
Her boss’s name was Mara.
That had been the answer to a question I had been holding without realizing it. Cassie had texted me on a Thursday evening eight months ago telling me how she couldn't help ending up in her boss's bed at least twice in a week. She had told me before that, how she had woken up on her boss's bed but this time it was more complicated.
After telling me not to call, I of course had called her right away. She had talked for over an hour without stopping, voice rising and falling, words tumbling over each other. I had listened to every one of them. When she finally ran out of things to say, I made it easier for her.
"You love her, so tell her. You're both acting like teenagers who found love for the first time."
“I hate you soo much.”
“I love you more.”
“I'll learn to hate you soon.” Then she laughed for a long time.
Mara was coming to the wedding.
That still made something bright and stupidly happy move through me every time I thought about it.
“How are things with Mara?” I asked.
Cassie’s expression switched into a brighter one immediately the name came up. A kind of involuntary brightness she had completely given up trying to hide. “Good,” she said.
“Good.”
“Really good.” She looked at the croissant. “She’s coming to the venue fitting tomorrow.”
“You’re bringing her to the venue fitting.”
“She offered. I said yes.” A
She paused. “Is that weird?”
“It’s the opposite of weird.”
She looked up at me in the mirror. “She wants to help with the seating plan.”
“Tell her she’s hired.”
Cassie laughed, soft and a little surprised by how easy it felt. “She’ll actually do it. She’s organized in a way that makes me feel like I’ve been living incorrectly.”
“You have been living incorrectly until you found her.”
“Thank you, Tyler.”
“Send your thanks to my bank baby"
She threw a small piece of croissant at me laughing. The tailor looked up briefly and then looked back down. From his expression I could tell had made peace with the fact that this fitting was going to be exactly what it was.
Quin was on a call when I got home.
I could hear him from the hallway. He was in a meeting. The man couldn't take a break from work even as his wedding was fast approaching.
Cooper met me at the door.
He was really big now. A full golden retriever in his physical prime, all thick fur and wide paws and a tail that only had one setting: maximum. He had not updated his self-perception to match any of this. He still tried to sit in laps. He still threw his full body weight against legs and looked genuinely surprised when it caused problems.
He pressed against my legs now with everything he had. I grabbed the doorframe to stay upright.
“Hi buddy,” I told him.
He wagged so hard his entire back half moved with it. Something in my chest loosened at the sight of him. It always did. My sweet boy.
I got through the door, dropped my bag, and crouched to properly greet him. It was the only thing that was going to resolve this. He submitted to being held for about four seconds before deciding he needed to show me something in the living room and leading me there with great purpose.
The something turned out to be a toy he had been working on.
“Impressive,” I said.
He wagged harder, like the praise physically affected him.
Quin’s call ended. I heard the shift in his voice as he wrapped it up, the brief exchange of logistics, and the clean close. Then footsteps.
He appeared in the living room doorway. He looked at me on the floor with Cooper standing on my legs,
“How was the fitting?"
“It went well, but one of the shoulders was wrong.”
“Which one.”
“The left. Cassie caught it.”
He nodded. “I knew it was slightly off.”
I looked at him. “You knew and you didn’t say anything?”
“I wanted to see if the tailor caught it.”
“And when he didn’t?”
“Cassie was always going to be there. And there are other talented Tailors.”
I stared at him. Cooper took the opportunity to put his entire front half across my lap. I looked at the ceiling. “You used Cassie as a quality control backup.”
“I used the system available to me.”
“She was busy eating croissants.”
“She’s effective regardless.”
I shook my head, but I was smiling. Quin crossed the room and sat on the couch above me. Cooper immediately redirected his enormous self to include Quin’s feet as an additional surface. Quin looked down at him with the quiet acceptance of a man who had long ago stopped fighting this particular arrangement.
“The invitation confirmations came through this morning,” Quin said.
“All of them?”
“Everyone except your father’s side, which we weren’t expecting anyway.” A pause. “Cassie’s RSVP came with a plus one.”
“Mara,” I said.
“You knew.”
“She told me at the fitting.” I looked at the ceiling. “She’s coming to the venue fitting tomorrow too.”
Quin was quiet for a moment. “She’s invested huh.”
“She offered to do the seating plan.”
Shhhes welcome. laughed.
Cooper made a sound from the floor. We both looked at him. He lives for attention.
Quin reached down and scratched behind his ear. Cooper collapsed sideways immediately, all four legs in the air, tail still going. He had no dignity and had never pretended otherwise. Watching him made something warm and uncomplicated settle in my chest.
“Jake called earlier,” Quin said. "Dylan is doing the music playlist apparently.”
I sat up slightly. “Jake agreed to that?”
“Dylan didn’t ask. He just sent a document titled Quin and Tyler’s Wedding Playlist Draft One with a note that said open to feedback.”
“And Jake’s response?”
“Was to forward it to me without comment, which means he’s already approved it.”
I laughed. “Dylan is the best thing that ever happened to him.”
“Second best,” Quin said. “Atlas is arguably first.”
Atlas was Dylan’s golden retriever. Cooper’s twin, best friend and chaos partner whenever they were in the same space. The two dogs together were a specific kind of disaster that was also completely worth it. Jake had been photographed by Dylan walking both of them last month, and the photo had ended up on my phone within four minutes because Dylan had sent it directly with the caption he doesn’t know I took this followed by three heart emojis.
Jake had never looked happier in any photograph I had ever seen of him. That knowledge still made me quietly glad every time it crossed my mind.
“How’s the venue?” I asked.
“Ready,” Quin said. “The coordinator confirmed this morning. The garden section is available for the ceremony and the indoor space for the reception.”
I nodded slowly.
Two weeks and we were getting married. Actually married In front of everyone who mattered.
I had thought the word would feel different from how it felt a year ago. Heavier maybe. More loaded with everything it had previously meant in the context of our arrangement.
Instead it just felt right. And Gracie had been a big help.
“Nervous?” Quin asked.
I looked at him. “No.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Not about the marrying you part,” I clarified. “ Mostly about the people watching .”
“There will be people watching, that's inevitable.”
“I’m aware.”
“Your therapist says that’s a boundary issue,” he said.
I stared at him. “Did you just cite my therapist at me?”
“You mentioned it two weeks ago.”
“That was a private session. And I told you in confidence.”
“I’m your fiancé. Don't forget that part.”
I pointed at him. “Do not use Gracie’s words to win arguments.”
He looked at me with the expression of someone who had absolutely filed this away for future use. I tried to keep glaring. It didn’t last long.
Cooper rolled back onto his feet, shook himself thoroughly, and walked out of the living room with great purpose. We both watched him go. He had somewhere to be, apparently..
I looked at Quin sitting on the couch above me. The afternoon light spilling into the room.
“I would have married you properly a long time ago,” I said. “If someone had asked me the right way.”
Quin looked at me. Then he reached down and offered his hand. I took it and let him pull me up off the floor. I ended up really close. My pulse spiked up. The feeling was new everyday, probably because I keep falling for this beautiful man everyday.
Cooper came back into the room carrying a shoe that didn’t belong to him and looking very pleased about it.
“Cooper,” Quin said.
Cooper stopped. Looked at us and decided that the shoe was worth whatever came next and kept walking.
“He’s going to do something to that shoe,” I said.
“Yes,” Quin agreed.
But neither of us moved to stop him.
Instead Quin pulled me on top of him and thrust his hips slightly making me feel just how hard he was.