Chapter Text
Gina’s face hurt from smiling, her eyes were puffy from crying, her feet hurt from having to stand around in heels, and she had never been happier. The pictures were currently being taken and it was a slow process, but Gina knew that she was going to love every picture from today and treasure them forever. One factor that kept extending the pictures being taken was the fact every few minutes they’d have to stop because Gina’s new husband just had to kiss her (not that she minded).
Just thinking about that word “husband” made Gina feel giddy. Ricky Bowen was her husband. If Gina could tell her fifteen year old self that one day the idiot boy who she felt inexplicably drawn to, was going to be her husband, her younger self would probably not have believed her. Of course present Gina, in her wedding dress, wearing her engagement ring and wedding ring, and standing next to Ricky, could hardly believe it herself.
After about a hundred pictures they were finally done. The assembled loved ones, who had stayed behind for pictures with the happy couple, began to grab their few belongings to make their way to the reception where the rest of the wedding guests were waiting. Ricky grabbed Gina’s hand and gently pulled her close to him. Gina couldn’t decide if he was being extra affectionate because of the wedding of because they had been apart for 24 hours. After so many years together Gina knew Ricky was practically addicted to being in her presence. Of course that addiction went both ways, Gina would be lying if she said she didn’t find being in Ricky’s embrace intoxicating.
Ricky pulled Gina into his chest and quietly whispered into her ear, “I love you so much,” before kissing her again.
“I love you, too,” Gina whispers with a smile.
“Hey, Troyella,” Maddox shouts. Ricky and Gina turn to see their friends and family staring at them at the entrance to the chapel. “We know you’re cute and all, but come on. You can’t be late for your own party.”
The walk to the reception is quite relaxing after such a stress filled day. Everyone laughing and joking and talking about the various stories that the ceremony reminded them of. Mr. Bowen bringing up Ricky’s attempts to trick him when Gina was secretly living out his room, Maddox mentioning Gina sneaking Ricky onto the USC campus during finals as her ‘emotional support boyfriend,’ Ashlyn talking about the ‘plane going down’ after High School Musical’s opening night and how far the couple had come since then. All the while Gina had her arm linked with Ricky’s as they made their way down and they smiled as they remembered all of those moments, and so many more.
Seb ran up to the group and linked his arm through Carlos’s as he caught up. He had been returning the golden retriever to his owners as the pictures were being taken. Turning to Ricky, Gina says, “we have to thank Mack for getting us our ring bearer.” Seb coughed and Gina corrected herself, “co-ring bearer. Sorry Seb.”
As the group chuckled Carlos asked, “where is Mack? You did invite him, right? Or is Ricky still threatened by him?”
“And you wonder why you weren’t Best Man,” Ricky retorts.
Carlos sticks out his tongue at Ricky as Gina explains, “Mack was unfortunately busy today. I think he’s doing promotion for a new movie.”
As if they were on some sort of synchronized dance team everyone pulled out their phones and began checking to see what Mack was up to. It took less than a minute before Carlos went, “oh, no.”
“What is it?” Kourtney asks.
“Um, well,” Carlos starts nervously, “don’t kill the messenger but…it looks like…Mack and Dani…got married today.”
“I’m sorry, what now?!” Ricky exclaims.
“They better not have,” Gina angrily says as she rips the phone out of Carlos’s hands. Sure enough there’s a picture of Mack and Dani standing on a beach, her in a white dress holding a bouquet and him in a suit. Gina feels her hand start to grip the phone tighter, trying to shatter the screen.
Just before Gina breaks the phone in her grip Emmy speaks up, “false alarm. We’re good.” The entire group turns to her and she informs the group, “The wedding is a stunt. It’s a promotion for the upcoming Mark and Spark movie. Apparently Mark is going to marry Dani’s character, Parker, so they staged a fake wedding. Their officiant is actually the voice of Spark, and apparently Spark is going to be the officiant in the movie.”
Everyone breathes a sigh of relief as Gina hands Carlos his phone back. Linking her arm back with Ricky’s he comments, “That movie sounds so cheesy,” before he leans into Gina and whispers, “we’re watching that the day it comes out aren’t we?”
Gina giggles and whispers back, “I’m already calling in sick that day.”
Finally arriving at the reception hall they found, that despite the photos taking about twice as long as anticipated, that people were still getting settled. The wedding party decided to try and speed things up a bit, leaving Ricky and Gina alone for the first time in over a day. She had been with Ricky for years, but standing with him, alone, it felt almost like when they had first started dating. When she had dated EJ the beginning had felt very awkward as they tried to figure out how to act around each other, but with Ricky it had been completely different. When she and Ricky had gotten together she felt completely at ease around him, as if being together was their natural state. Now, being married, Gina felt like that again, like she was coming home after a long trip. Everything just felt right.
Gina looks at the man who had held her heart for over a third of her life and in giddy disbelief said, “we’re married. We are actually married.”
“Yes we are,” Ricky nods, “How are you feeling?”
“It’s….more amazing than I thought,” Gina replies with a smile. Ricky grins and chuckles. Gina has heard that chuckle a million times but she’s never gotten tired of hearing it. “This day has been a long time coming.”
“I mean it could’ve been a lot sooner,” Ricky jokes.
“Oh, I know,” Gina scoffs playfully, “you’ve made it abundantly clear you would’ve married me as soon as you put this ring on my finger,” Gina gestures to her engagement ring. Compared to their wedding rings the engagement ring was very plain, a diamond that was so small you wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t looking for it and a gold band that was a little worn. It was a little rough around the edges, but Gina loved it more because of that.
“Well,” Ricky whispers as he closes the distance between them, “you were worth the wait. You always are.”
“I feel the same,” Gina says before lightly kissing Ricky’s lips. As they part Gina jokingly whispers, “twinsies.”
“You are never going to let me live that down are you?” Ricky breezily argues.
“Not for as long as we live Ricky Bowen,” Gina replies mischievously.
“Gi,” Ricky grins so widely it’s almost comical, “I know it’s new but that’s not my name anymore.”
Gina smiles tenderly and, as she loops her hands around Ricky’s neck, sweetly says, “Ricky Porter-Bowen.”
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
The joy that is flooding Gina’s system is suddenly interrupted by a very familiar voice.
“‘Porter-Bowen’, huh? I guess I should officially welcome you to the family,” Terri Porter joked as she appeared.
Gina’s teeth clench at her mother’s voice. Gina knew exactly why she felt the way she did about her mother (it was a frequent subject in her therapy sessions), but knowing why her mother had this effect on her wasn’t alleviating the discomfort. Gina turned to face her mother, as she did Ricky reached out and took her hand, giving her a comforting squeeze. As tense as her mom made her, having Ricky by her side made her feel a little more at ease.
Taking a breath Gina reminds her mom, “Mom, we told you that you couldn’t stay for the reception.”
“I know, I know,” Terri responds with her hands up in surrender, “I’m not staying. I just wanted to thank you for letting me be a part of this special day. Also to say congratulations, it was a beautiful ceremony. And, if it’s not too uncomfortable, maybe get a hug?”
Gina had to admit that the hug she shared with her mother earlier had been more comforting than she thought it would be. That said, Gina still wasn’t entirely sure where she and her mother stood. Part of her wanted to keep her mother at arms length, and another part wanted one more hug with her mom on the happiest day of her life. As Ricky gave her another encouraging squeeze, all the memories of her final years living with her mom and how she talked about and treated Ricky flooded her mind. Gina was still upset, and one decent moment with her mother hadn’t changed that.
Terri Porter, seeing Gina’s decision on her face, solemnly nodded her head before saying, “I understand. We’ve got a ways to go before we’re there. I just…pray you’ll call in three weeks.”
“We’ll see,” Gina replies still unsure.
“Well, goodbye,” Terri says as she begins to walk toward the exit. She stops part of the way and turns to face Ricky, “Ricky, I was joking before, but sincerely, welcome to the Porter family, such as it is.”
“Happy to be officially be here,” Ricky grins.
“We’re, no sorry, I’m happy to have you…son,” Terri says with the utmost sincerity.
Ricky grimaces and responds, “that…sounded weird.”
“Felt weird to say,” Terri says with a chuckle, “hopefully we’ll get there.”
“I hope so,” Ricky says before adding, “…mom.”
Gina feels the tension lift off her as she starts laughing at the absurdity of what is happening, and the faces both her mother and Ricky are making, like they’ve both eaten something super sour. It only takes a moment before Ricky and Terri Porter join Gina in her hysterics. After a minute the three of them are trying desperately to catch their breaths.
Finally settling down, Terri says, “alright, I’m going. I hope-.”
“I know mom,” Gina responds, “we’ll see. Three weeks.”
“Three weeks,” Terri repeats with a twinge of hope in her voice.
After Gina’s mom had left Ricky turned to her, “do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” Gina answered assuredly, “I know I should, but not tonight.”
“Okay. Hey,” Ricky pulls her in again, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Hey romcom protagonists,” Ashlyn interjects, “your adoring public awaits.”
Hand in hand Ricky and Gina entered to Jet’s voice ringing through the speakers announcing their first dance.
The next few hours seemed to fly by. Their first dance followed by a delicious meal made by the Redonoviches. Then the cake was wheeled out and it was immaculate. Three layers of a perfectly made chocolate cake with homemade buttercream icing. The first layer had the Wildcats logo interspaced, representing where they met as well as what brought them together. The second layer had snowflake designs to symbolize Frozen and the summer that finally brought them together. The top layer only had two designs, a red guitar on one side and a knitted hat on the other. Seb had even gone above and beyond and the border frosting actually had written in it two phrases looped together: “I Love You feels a lot like High School, and Forever After that,” and “If you’re reading this, I love you too, Ricky.” The two phrases seamlessly framing the top layer. Lastly the cake topper was perfect, expertly capturing the couple and, instead of a wedding gown and tuxedo, their mini selves wearing the classic Troy and Gabriella Prom outfits.
The cake cutting was probably going to be replayed over and over again when Gina rewatched the recordings. After their first bite Ricky had some frosting on the corner of his mouth and Gina removed it with her thumb. The audible ‘awwwws’ were practically deafening as Gina licked the frosting off her thumb. Ricky, not to be outdone, proceeded to smear some frosting on Gina’s nose. As Gina tried to look annoyed at him (but that was undercut by her trying to suppress her laughter), Ricky leaned forward and removed the frosting with a kiss, right before kissing Gina on the lips.
As cake was being passed around and enjoyed by the wedding guests, it was time for the toasts from the Best Man and Maid of Honor. As Ashlyn and Big Red spoke about how much Ricky and Gina changed each other for the better, Gina couldn’t help but notice a longing glance that Ashlyn had toward Maddox as she talked about love. Maybe there was some hope for the two of them after all.
After the cake came several hours of partying and dancing and well wishing. Gina lost track of how many times she and Ricky had been congratulated. As the night wore on Gina noticed a few things, Carlos and Seb being more affectionate than usual, Jet taking the time to dance with both Kourtney and Emmy when he wasn’t playing, EJ talking with Ms. Jenn and Mr. Mazzara, and Maddox and Ashlyn slipping out the side door.
Ricky and Gina hardly left each other’s side during the whole night and were currently dancing to a slower song, enjoying the calm of their embrace. That calm was interrupted as the next song started and the voice of EJ Caswell said, “mind if we cut in?” Gina and Ricky turned to face EJ and Nini. The couple relent and each share a dance with their exes.
“I assume you wanted an opportunity to finish our discussion from earlier?” Gina questions.
“That, and I still owed you a dance,” EJ says. The two chuckle a moment before EJ asks, “so any advice? About my dad?”
Gina sighs, “if you asked me six hours ago I would say that maybe it’s not worth it to let a parent who’s hurt you get their claws into you again, but now…I don’t know. My mom is clearly trying. If it’ll last, I don’t know. I don’t even know if I want a relationship with her anymore, but my relationship with my mom is my relationship with my mom. So the question is, if your dad has changed, do you want a relationship with him?”
“I don’t know,” EJ replies.
“That’s something you’ll have to think about,” Gina comforts her friend.
“Thanks Gina,” EJ says with a smile.
“All right, I’m cutting back in,” Ricky interjects as he snatches Gina away from EJ. EJ and Nini laugh as they say congratulations to their former partners before finishing the dance together.
As the song finishes Gina leans in and whispers to Ricky, “I think it’s time.”
“Okay,” Ricky says as he runs to the small nearby stage and Jet hands him the microphone. “Hey all,” Ricky starts as he rejoins Gina in the middle of the dance floor, “continue having fun and dancing, and enjoying our open bar.”
“But Ricky and I have a flight to catch,” Gina finishes. “We just want to say that we love you all and thank you for joining us on this incredible day. So please don’t take this next part too personally but-.”
“For the next three weeks you all are dead to us,” Ricky says in seriousness as the people laugh, “you all are laughing but I’m very serious. For the next three weeks only like six people know how to get ahold of us and they have strict instructions on what to contact us about.”
“Anyway thank you all for coming, and we’ll see in a few weeks,” Gina finishes as she and Ricky start heading out the door. The wedding party as well as few friends and family follow after them to give them some last heartfelt well wishes as the newlyweds climb into the back of a limo and collapse into each other as the door closes behind them.
“Alone at last,” Ricky sighs with relief as Gina takes a deep relaxing breath.
Gina breathed in the smell of the salty sea air as she took in the view of the beach and the waves crashing against the shore. It had been four days since the wedding but it was the first time since their arrival that Gina had taken in the the view they had spent a fair bit of money on. Gina continued to write into the book on the table, sipping her coffee as she did.
“Boo!” A familiar voice exclaimed as he grabbed Gina’s shoulders startling her. As Gina rolled her eyes Ricky kisses her cheek and greets, “good morning,” before taking his seat across from her, a giant smirk on his face.
Gina scoffs, “I’m going to divorce you.”
“Come on Gi, I owed you a scare,” Ricky says, “I mean I woke up this morning and you were gone. I nearly had a heart attack.”
“I just wanted to get some breakfast,” Gina explains as she continues writing.
“You should’ve woken me up I would’ve come down with you.”
“Ricky, if I had woken you up, we wouldn’t have left the room,” Gina points out.
Ricky chuckles as a waiter places a hot coffee in front of him, “Oh, I didn’t order this.”
“Your wife ordered it for you, sir,” The waiter explains, “she told me to bring it to you as soon as you joined her. She also took the liberty of ordering your breakfast which I’ll put the order in now.” The waiter walked away a brisk pace.
Ricky smiles lovingly at Gina and remarks, “I know at some point I’m going to get used to it, but I love hearing that. ‘Your wife.’ It just feels so right.”
“Well, husband,” Gina giddily replies, “I know exactly what you mean.” The two of them kiss across the table.
As Ricky sips his coffee he finally notices Gina’s book on the table, “are you just journaling or is this something else?”
“Little of both,” Gina answers as she shows Ricky the very first page.
“‘The Story of Ricky & Gina,’” Ricky reads. “I’ve heard good things,” Ricky jokes, “any thoughts.”
“It has it’s moments,” Gina jokes back before explaining, “After going through all my journals to help with my vows-.”
“Which were beautiful by the way,” Ricky interjects.
“Thank you. Anyway as I was reading I noticed a lot I didn’t realize before about our relationship. So I decided to compile all my old journal entries about us and our relationship in one place, with some additions from Gina who just got married to the boy she’s writing about,” Gina finishes her explanation.
“Okay,” Ricky remarks, “out of curiosity what part of our relationship are you writing about now?”
“Prom,” Gina states.
“Camp, mine, or yours?”
“Yours,” Gina answers, “more specifically about what happened after prom that night.”
Ricky smiles knowingly, “that was a good night. Definitely a night to remember.”
Gina feels her heart pound in her chest as they pull up to the house. The sound of her heart beating in her ears was deafening, she could hardly hear a word Ricky was saying. She tried in vain to calm herself as they got out of the car and made their way to the front door.
It was a nice little house. It looked even cuter than it had on AirBnB. As Ricky fiddled with the lock Gina started to shake a little in what she tried to convince herself was anticipation or nervousness or anything but what she was actually feeling; fear.
“Gi,” Gina snaps out of her catatonia as Ricky speaks to her with concern in his voice, “sweetie are you okay?”
“I can’t do this,” Gina admitted with a barely audible whisper, “I’m sorry.” Gina started to run back to the car and, not even thinking about it, dove into the tiny backseat. Gina didn’t even realize she had started crying as she started to hyperventilate. Ricky was knocking on the window of the car a minute later asking if he could come in or if she needed some more time alone. Gina opened the door to the car and Ricky slid in.
The backseat was a tight fit, and while you could say the car could fit four people, realistically only one person could sit in the back comfortably. So as Ricky joined her in the backseat the pair were practically on top of each other, but they didn’t mind. Ricky closed the door behind him before he wrapped his arms around Gina and whispering, “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I was ready. I really did,” Gina confesses.
“It’s okay that your not,” Ricky comforts her, “Forever is a long time. There’s no rush. If it makes you feel better, I’m not totally ready either.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Ricky confirms, “so if I’ve been pressuring you…”
“No,” Gina comforts Ricky, “no, you have been a perfect gentleman.”
“Then, why? Why did you set all this up?” Ricky asks.
Gina sighs, “It’s gonna sound silly.”
“Gina,” Ricky sighs in mild disbelief before reminding her, “anything you have to say, I want to hear it.”
Gina takes a breath before admitting, “I feel like we haven’t moved forward in while. Like we were moving so fast and then we…stopped.”
“Gi, it took us a year to get together,” Ricky points out.
“Yes, but as soon as we did we started moving at hyper speed,” Gina shoots back, “after our first kiss, it was maybe a week before you were climbing through my window. It wasn’t long after that we’d stay up super late just cuddling and then you were practically spending the night. We wrote a song together, had our first date, our first fight, we made up by having a kiss in the rain like we were in a movie, and then, four months after we got together, we were saying ‘I love you…forever.’ But since then, I don’t know, we moved forward so quickly, I just feel like we’re stuck. So I thought, with prom and everything, now was the right time. You know for this.”
Ricky stifles his laughter, “Gina, my sweetheart, we are moving forward,” Ricky states, “not as fast as we were, I’ll grant you, but we are. Relationships aren’t about the sweeping declarations of love and big moments. Relationships are built in the tiny, mundane moments. Do you remember the first day of school?”
“Yes,” Gina answers rolling her eyes.
“What do you remember about that day?”
“HSM4 was announced, we were told we got to be extras, I walked in on Mack in his underwear,” Gina grimaces realizing what she just said, “I didn’t tell you about that, did I?”
“No, no you did not,” Ricky responds flatly, “and I will follow up on that later, but, for now, there was a very special, albeit tiny, moment I remember from that day. It was right after Miss Jenn announced High School Musical 3. We were all so excited and you reached behind you to hold my hand. We were supposed to be secretly dating, but you still wanted to hold my hand.”
Gina giggles, “we were so bad at the secret dating thing.”
“The worst,” Ricky agrees with a laugh. “Although, we literally did a whole song and dance and our friends still didn’t figure it out.”
“They had their own drama going on,” Gina says in defense of their friends but it’s undercut by the laughter escaping form her lips. “But that’s what you think about? Me wanting to hold your hand?”
“Yeah,” Ricky answers, “I also think about the way you leaned your head on my shoulder after we sang Maybe This Time for the first time. I can still feel your head on that shoulder when I think about it. I think about the way you kissed my cheek after I asked you out for our first official date. I think about your smile when I told you ‘You aren’t a maybe, you’re a yes,’ when we were on set. I think about the dinner we had with your mom and how you grabbed my hand to let me know you were with me. I remember Valentine’s Day, when you wanted to make that brownie recipe you found online, and they smelled so good we ended up eating the whole tray and then we couldn’t eat anything at our overly fancy dinner reservation.”
“I felt so bad for our waiter,” Gina chuckles at the memory.
“We left a good tip,” Ricky reminds her, “Plus the food was just as good as leftovers. I’m also going to be thinking about this moment too. After prom when we just sat in the back of my car, that’s way too small for both of us, and just talked. Those are the moments I think about when I lie awake at night thinking about you. I love our big moments, but I think I love our small moments even more. Any couple works in just the big moments, we both know that, it’s the little moments that truly matter. That truly define a couple.”
Gina leaned into Ricky’s chest feeling a lot better than she had a few minutes ago. “Thanks Ricky. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Ricky replies sealing the declaration with a light kiss on her temple. After a couple minutes Ricky asks, “do you still wish this was a bigger moment than it is?”
“A little,” Gina answers, “but I don’t think there’s anything that could make this a bigger moment. At least not one we’d both be comfortable with.”
“There may be one thing,” Ricky says nervously. Ricky shifts around and reaches into a pocket on the inside of his suit jacket. After a moment he pulls something out, but keeps it hidden in his hand. “So after Valentine’s Day my mom gave me something she said I might need someday. Although she did say ‘not for a long time.’ Anyway, I couldn’t bring myself to hide it in my sock drawer and I don’t know how I would even open a safety deposit box, so I’ve been carrying it around with me for the last few months.”
“Ricky,” Gina sweetly says, “you know you’re very cute when you’re rambling but can you get to the point.”
Ricky timidly opens up his hand revealing a worn golden band with a small diamond poking out. Gina can hardly breathe as Ricky says, “it’s my mom’s engagement ring. She said she wanted to keep it in the family. I know it’s not anything fancy but, I don’t know.”
Ricky looks directly at her with hope and love in his eyes. Gina feels the thoughts and feelings run through her head like a runaway train unable to focus on a single thought or feeling. The one thing she’s absolutely sure of though is she’s not feeling afraid.
Before Gina can say anything Ricky closes his hand and scoffs, “you know what it’s crazy. I shouldn’t have even brought it up. We were having a nice moment and I ruined it. You can just forget I said anyth-.”
“Ask me,” Gina meekly demands.
“What?” Ricky asks with surprise.
“Ask me,” Gina commands more confidently.
“What are you going to say?” Ricky questions worry laced in every word.
“There’s only one way to find out. Ask me.”
Ricky gulps and takes a breath before holding the ring out and stammering out, “Gina, will you-will you mar-marry m-me?”
Gina feels time stop for a moment. Suddenly she’s back in the car at Homecoming, she’s leaning forward and kissing Ricky’s cheek. Then she’s sitting listening to Ricky sing When There Was Me and You. She’s standing in Ricky’s kitchen handing him a hat that held a message that she was hoping Ricky would read sooner, rather than later. She’s in the dressing room, tears streaming down her face, telling the boy she loved goodbye. Suddenly she’s in Ricky’s new kitchen fighting every instinct in her body not to just tell Ricky she loves him and wants to be with him. She’s then standing at camp hugging him so awkwardly after not having talked in so long. Then him barely leaving her side throughout camp. She’s standing backstage looking out at Ricky sing a Lullaby as Kristoff as he looked directly at her and in that moment they weren’t Kristoff and Anna, they were Ricky and Gina.
Gina sees their first kiss. Ricky climbing through her window. Him playing the Mark and Spark theme song as they’re surrounded by puppies. Ricky walking her to set on her first day as the lead of High School Musical 4. Him surprising her by decorating her trailer. She sees everything they’ve gone through. She sees Ricky standing in the rain, a heart literally in his hand to match the metaphorical one as she runs to him.
Gina looks at the Ricky in front of her, once again his heart in his hand, and the only thing she can say comes out as a whisper, “yes.”
“Really?!” Ricky asks excitedly as a wave of relief washes over him.
“Really,” Gina answers confidently, “yes, I will marry you. Of course I’ll marry y-.”
Gina is interrupted by Ricky’s lips crashing into hers. Gina had kissed Ricky a thousand times at least by this point, but this one felt different. For the first time in her life Gina knew with absolute certainty what her future held. No matter what minutiae life would throw at her, she knew she would have Ricky Bowen by her side through all of it, and that was a feeling she cherished.
Breaking apart, Ricky held up the ring in way to ask if she wanted to put it on. She held up her left hand and Ricky slid the ring onto her finger. As the piece of jewelry found its place Gina felt a feeling of completeness cover her. She felt more like herself than she had ever felt before. It didn’t have anything to do with the ring on her finger though, only what it represented. Many people had made commitments to her in the past but none of them had ever lived up to those commitments, except Ricky. And here he was prepared to make the ultimate commitment, to her. Gina laughed to herself as she thought, ‘When Ricky says forever he means it.’
“Do you like it?” Ricky asks nervously, “if not I can get you another one.”
“I love it Ricky, it’s perfect,” Gina looks at the ring and all she sees is the boy who gave it to her. It may be a little rough around the edges, but so are they. “I never want to take it off Ricky…”
“Why do I sense a ‘but’ coming?”
“However…”
“That’s just a fancy way to say ‘but.’”
“…I don’t think I should wear it when I get home,” Gina finishes. “My mom isn’t exactly your biggest fan and she may actually murder you if she sees it.”
Ricky chuckles, “I’ll win her over eventually. I mean I’m going to be her son-in-law.”
“I’m not holding my breath,” Gina retorts. “And just because we’re engaged,” Gina does a little dance on the inside at that word, “doesn’t mean we’re getting married anytime soon.”
Ricky looks a little disappointed and pouts as he says, “fine.”
“In fact,” Gina starts, “I really don’t want to hear what anyone else has to say about this or us, so what if we kept our engagement a secret?”
Ricky playfully says, “I just got the weirdest case of déjà vu.”
“Ricky I’m serious.”
“A secret engagement. Sounds spicy,” Ricky jokes. After Gina shoots him look to please take this seriously Ricky earnestly says, “Like I told you a long time ago, as long as we’re an us, I’m in.”
“Thank you,” Gina says lightly kissing Ricky’s lips, before snuggling into his chest again.
“And hey, it’ll probably be easier than keeping our whole relationship a secret,” Ricky points out, “this time we’re only keeping a part of our relationship a secret.” Gina hums an affirmative agreement lightly into Ricky’s chest. “Hey Gi?” Ricky whispers.
“Hm?”
“Are we moving fast enough for you again?” Gina laughs at the question. She had wanted tonight to have a big step forward for them, and she got what she wanted.
“You know for someone who wanted to keep our engagement a secret you nearly got us caught a few times over the years,” Ricky scolds. “I mean how many times did I climb through your window and ask ‘is your mom home?’ For you to answer by showing me you were wearing the ring and saying-.”
“‘Would I be wearing this if my mom were home?’” Gina finishes Ricky’s sentence.
“A tradition you continued when you moved in with my mom,” Ricky reminds Gina. “If your mom had caught you wearing it just once, I would be dead right now, and if my mom had caught you, we’d have gotten a lengthy lecture that would make us wish we were dead.”
Gina laughs as she defends herself with, “I couldn’t help it. I loved wearing it.”
“And I loved you wearing it,” Ricky concurs, “I loved seeing you wear it around our apartment when we moved in together. Even when our friends would show up unexpectedly and we’d have to turn into magicians to hide the ring from them.”
“We got pretty good at it,” Gina says before asking, “do you think we’ll ever tell them about how long we were actually engaged?”
“I’m sure it will come up at some point, but for now, I’m happy keeping it our little secret.”
“Me too.”
“Hey Gi,” Ricky says with a grin, “our book, how do you think it will end? Maybe with an ‘And they lived happily ever after?’”
Gina giggles, “bit of a cliche, don’t you think. How about, ‘and they loved each other for the rest of their days?’”
“‘And forever after that,’” Ricky adds.
“Perfect,” Gina says lovingly.
Ricky reaches out his hand and Gina, putting aside the book, takes his outreached hand in hers. Ricky looks at her nervously and Gina for a moment sees the boy in the stairwell, as he says, “Gina, I’m really happy your my wife.”
Gina looks into Ricky’s eyes and responds, “I’m really happy you’re my husband.”
The sound of the distant waves, the view of the beach, hand in hand with the man of her dreams. This was a perfect moment. A moment to treasure. Forever was a long time, a time that was filled with tiny moments. Moments of passion and pain, of happiness and despair, of love and loss, and every moment worthwhile. This wasn’t the first day in their forever and it wouldn’t be the last, and Gina was looking forward to every single moment to come in that forever, with Ricky by her side.
And they loved each other for the rest of their days…and forever after that.
Yeah…that sounded like a good ending.