I’d made some phone calls to area businesses while Bianca showered and got dressed. The Truitt name was well known on the island, so I had no trouble getting people to cooperate with my plans.
Our first stop was Worth Avenue, which was Palm Beach’s version of Rodeo Drive. Bianca wasn’t very materialistic, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to shower her with the best that money could buy.
A lifetime.
I had to give her a lifetime today—just in case.
We’d parked and were strolling along the sidewalk, looking in the windows of the upscale shops. Her face turned red when I intentionally stopped in front of Tiffany’s.
Seeming to read my guilty expression, she asked, “What are you up to, Dex Truitt?”
“Wait right out here, okay?”
Once inside, I raced to the first person I saw.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’m looking for Julia. She and I spoke over the phone.”
Moments later, an older blonde woman approached. “Hi, Mr. Truitt. I have it right here. If for some reason it doesn’t fit, just bring her back in today and we can resize it.”
“Perfect. Thank you.”
With the small blue gift bag in hand, I ventured back outside to find Bianca waiting for me, looking perplexed.
“What’s in the bag, Dex?”
I wasted no time getting to the point.
“Okay, first off, I want you to know that this isn’t a proposal. I’m hopeful if things turn out okay, I can do that the right way someday. I want to really appreciate that moment without this cloud hanging over us. But I wanted to give you something now that you will always remember me by.”
I took the small box out and opened it, showcasing the nearly three-carat diamond eternity band. The bright sunlight beamed over the diamonds, causing them to really shine.
“I’m not getting down on one knee today, because I want to keep that option open for later. No matter what the outcome is tomorrow, you’re going to be a Truitt. I want you to wear this and always remember me, remember the time we’ve had together. Whether I can complement this someday with another ring, or whether it stands alone as a symbol of what never could be, this eternity band represents my eternal love and respect for you, Bianca.” I placed it on her finger. It fit perfectly. My earlier estimate of her ring size was right on the money; that was pure fate, kind of like this whole experience.
She looked down at the sparkling gems, seeming shocked as I continued.
“Today isn’t our wedding day, but it’s our day, and we’re going to celebrate what we do have—today. There’s going to be cake, and a pretty white dress, and some frolicking on the beach. And we’re going to spend every moment together.”
Overcome with emotion, she reached up and hugged me tightly. “I don’t even know what to say that will do this gesture justice, except that I will proudly wear this forever.”
Taking her bejeweled hand in mine, I kissed it hard. “Now, let’s go have some fun.”
We were right on time for the noon appointment I’d made at the posh boutique. The owner took Bianca upstairs to look at their selection of garments. I’d told the woman to pull all of the white dresses in the place before Bianca’s arrival. Since this wasn’t an actual wedding—just a celebration—I suggested she bring out more casual dresses as opposed to formal evening gowns. But the choice was Bianca’s. My only condition was that I wanted to see her in white. You know…just in case this was all we would have.
Much to my dismay, they wouldn’t allow me upstairs in the all-female dressing area. I waited down on the lower level, mindlessly flipping through the pages of a bridal magazine and talking to the pictures inside.
“Bianca’s way prettier.”
Flip.
“Dude, would you still marry her if there was a chance she could be your sister? Not an easy decision, is it?”
Flip.
“Oh, what’s this? A facial is a great way to relax on the morning of your wedding? Well, I couldn’t agree more.”
I closed the magazine suddenly when my eyes caught Bianca slowly making her way down the winding staircase. The sight of her in the dress she’d chosen took my breath away. But what made my heart want to combust even more was the huge smile plastered all over her face. It was so full of hope and optimism, beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
Good idea, Dex. This was a good way to help take her mind off things.
I prayed that nothing would ever happen to take that smile away.
“You look stunning.”
With a humble expression, she looked down at herself. “It’s simple. I didn’t want to go overboard. This one just felt right.”
The dress Bianca had chosen was strapless, fitted at the waist, and flaring out at the bottom just above her knees.
“It’s perfect.”
“Get this...” She smiled. “Guess what the name of this design is?”
“The dresses have names?”
“Yes.” She laughed. “This one is called La Bandita.”
A wide grin spread across my face. “Bandit Boy is here in spirit. I love that.”
“Thank you for this experience. It was very Pretty Woman.”
“I could never repay you for what you’ve given me.” I leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her lips.
She stretched out her arms. “So, I’m all dressed up. Where to next?”
“You’ll have to wait to find out.” I winked.
Driving away in our rented convertible, I felt high on life. Bianca’s hair was blowing in the warm wind. Our hands were interlocked.
Pulling up in front of our destination, I had to parallel park. Whether the car would actually fit into the space was questionable, but I slid it right in.
“You have mad parking skills, Truitt.”
“It was tight, but I managed to get it in. By the good grace of God, you’ll find out more where that’s concerned soon enough.” I winked.
“Always the dirty mind,” she chuckled. “And for the record, I certainly hope you’re right.” Bianca finally noticed that we’d parked in front of a bakery. “Is this where we have cake?”
“Yes. But not just one cake. We’re gonna taste many different kinds.”
“You set up a wedding cake tasting?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Don’t you have to commit to ordering one in order to do that?”
“Probably. So, I’ll order one and have them deliver it to my father.”
“That’ll be real good for his heart,” she said sarcastically.
“Okay, how about this? I’ll put down a deposit, and we’ll order it to be made a year from now. If all goes well, we come back down and pick up our cake.”
She reached for my hand. “That sounds like a plan.”
Ganache Patisserie smelled like an explosion of sugar with a hint of amaretto. Multi-tiered cakes of various pastel colors were displayed in glass cases.
A woman greeted us and took Bianca and me into a back room. She poured us some tea and laid out several slices of cake on the table.
“You can sample them in any order. There’s a pad of paper and a pen you can use to rate each flavor. They’re all labeled. Hopefully, you can come to a unanimous decision in the end.”
“Do couples actually bicker about which flavor to choose?” Bianca asked.
“Oh, yes. You’d be surprised how much bargaining goes into this. You have the option to choose different flavors for each layer, though. There are typically three. So, you can always compromise.”
Bianca and I began sampling. We were having a blast feeding each other, and it brought back memories of my first date with her as Jay at the Ethiopian place. I’d dip my finger in the frosting then rub it on her nose. I think we made the woman uncomfortable. I could only imagine how awkward she would have felt if she also knew the truth about what was really going on with us. She finally got up to give us a bit of privacy.
When Bianca licked some frosting off her lips, my dick twitched.
“My mother used to bake cakes for friends’ birthdays in her spare time,” she said. “I used to enjoy helping her. Of course, the best part was licking the spoon.”
“I bet you’re fantastic at licking the spoon. Was it a wooden spoon, by any chance?”
“As a matter of fact, it was. Big piece of wood.”
I grabbed the spoon I’d used to stir my tea. “Show me how you licked it.”
The woman returned. “How do you like the carrot cake?”
Bianca looked at me. “It’s very…moist.”
“I bet it is,” I muttered.
“Are you getting any closer to narrowing it down?” the woman asked.
“Well, it’s…quite hard,” I said.
Bianca grabbed my knee under the table. When the woman walked away again, we both broke out into laughter before vowing to try to take the process a bit more seriously.
About fifteen minutes later, the woman returned. “How are we doing?”
Bianca smiled. “We’ve decided on the vanilla cake with buttercream frosting for the bottom layer. For the middle layer, we’re going to go with the lemon…also with the buttercream. And for the top, we’d like the vanilla with strawberry preserve…buttercream all the way.”
Kissing Bianca’s ear, I said, “I know you love the cream.”
The lady cleared her throat. “Let me go grab the book. We’ll choose a design and put the order in for you.”
When she returned with a catalog of cake designs, Bianca pointed to a particular one. “Aw…look…balls. Just like our first meeting.” She turned to the woman. “What about the one with the balls?”
“You like this design? This is one we do where we actually decorate around the cake with cake pops. We strategically stick the pops in various parts of the cake. And the best part is…everything is edible.”
I grinned. “All I heard was strategically sticking shit in various parts and edible…I’m good.”
“You two are quite the pair, definitely made for each other,” the woman said.
Squeezing Bianca’s thigh, I grinned proudly. “Why, thank you.”
She took out her pen. “Okay…so when is the wedding date?”
There was dead silence for several seconds until I answered, “It’s one year from today, actually.”
“Oh, how perfect. We’ll just need fifty-percent down now, and then the balance will just need to be remitted on delivery.”
After I handed over my credit card, we were left alone for a bit, and I noticed that Bianca suddenly looked somber.
“What’s wrong?”
“It feels real. I wish it was.”
Fuck. This was backfiring.
“Maybe I took this too far.”
“No. No, I just got a little emotional when she wrote down the date.”
Before we could say anything further, the woman returned with my card and a receipt. “All set, Mr. Truitt. You can call us anytime with the venue location so that we can arrange for a delivery time on the morning of.”
Bianca remained quiet as we walked out of the shop. I couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled her into a tight embrace on the sidewalk and whispered in her ear, “We have to stay optimistic.”
“It’s hard not to want to prepare myself for disappointment. It just seems too good to be true that we could dodge this bullet.”
“I have to believe. It’s all that’s getting me through today. I have to believe that this time next year….I’m gonna have my cake and eat you, too.” I laughed, because the funny thing was, I hadn’t even meant for it to come out that way. Eat you, too. It just did. Must have been subliminal.
She smacked my arm playfully. “I’m glad you’re still finding humor in all of this.”
“Gotta laugh so I don’t cry, beautiful.”
I meant that.
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the private stretch of beach off the guesthouse.
As the sun set, it felt like the curtain was slowly closing on our time together. Bianca was still wearing her white dress, which was now covered in dirt, water, and sand. I wanted to burn the image into memory.
“I don’t want to sleep tonight,” she said. “I feel like I just want to stay up all night.”
“Who needs sleep?” I grabbed her hand. “May I have this dance?”
No music was required as we slowly swayed to the sounds of the beach. We rocked back and forth until the sun completely went down then stayed up and talked, vowing not to fall into slumber.
Sleep eventually won out, though, as we later crashed in each other’s arms on the sand.
The sound of the seagulls woke us up the next morning. Looking like we’d washed ashore, we’d slept in surprisingly late; we must have both been exhausted from forcing ourselves to stay up.
As we sat up on the sand, I wrapped my arms around her body from behind.
“So, you never finished your sentence,” I said.
“What?”
“You know, before we flew down here. You started telling me about your sexual fantasy. You said it started with me opening something. I need to know the rest.”
“I should’ve known you wouldn’t forget about that.”
“Not a chance. I have to live vicariously through the fantasy version of myself right now. My jealousy in regards to fantasy Dex is worse than it was for that tool, Jay.”
“Okay. So, anyway…it starts with you opening—”
My phone rang, interrupting her.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I groaned.
“I think you’re destined not to find out, Truitt.”
“I’d better get this…in case…you know.”
She sat up suddenly. “Take it.”
I answered, “Dex Truitt…”
“Hi, Mr. Truitt. This is Erika Raymond from Leominster Laboratories.”
My heart began to palpitate. “Okay…yes?”
“Your results are in.”