After Everything (Hessa Fanfic)

1

Hardin POV

Vegas.

Bloody Vegas.

I look over at Tess asleep in the passenger seat. Her head leant sideways against the window, the kind of position that would give you a sore neck if you stayed there for too long. She looked so peaceful that I didn't want to wake her. Her small hand clutched my thigh as I drove. Snacks fill the footwell, packets of crisps and junk from the gas station we stopped at half an hour ago. I've been driving since.

3 hours down. 12 hours to go.

Damn, I'm just happy she's here. I've spent the last two years yearning for her, just hoping I cross her mind from time to time. My finger has hovered over the call button so many times, just craving hearing her say hello. Never did I think this universe would reward me with 15 hours of her.

It's weird to think about what life was like before Tess. A hazy mess of drugs, alcohol and regret. Ripping clothes off random girls as if the answers to my problems hid underneath. I was angry. Sad. Resentful. Every fucking negative emotion under the sun. When I look back at those times, they're gloomy. Black and white. Tess brought the fucking colour to my life. I hate metaphors.

My phone buzzes on the car mount pulling my eyes away from the map and my thoughts away from my life without Tess.

Karen: Are you okay? Where have you gone? X

Shit. We bailed on my brother's wedding without saying goodbye to anyone. The best man and maid of honour, missing in action. Although I have no doubts everyone will know we're together, probably speculating right now. Nosey bastards.

Although I doubt they'll guess we're on our way to fucking Vegas to get married. It still isn't sunk in for me and I'm on my fucking way.

What will they say when we tell them? How will we even tell them? I laugh at myself even being so fucking considerate. This would normally be Tess' domain and I'd just tell her to stop worrying. I normally don't give a shit what people think. I'm surprised Tess didn't think of this.

I just can't imagine ringing my mum tomorrow morning when the UK timezone catches up. How do I tell her that the woman I've yearned over for all these years married me. This is the woman who listened to me fucking sob like a loser down the phone, wishing things were different with Tess. She never took the piss, but her advice wasn't ever any help. She's calls herself a spiritual woman, but I've always known really that's just some modern hippy bullshit that makes her feels young. All this meant was her telling me to let things be. If it's meant to be, it will be.

Fuck.

Landon's wedding was so fancy. Rows and rows of chairs lined with fancy linen shit and bows. All their friends and family sat gushing. The speeches. The cheers. The fucking pictures.

I haven't been to many weddings in my life, mainly out of choice. But it's hard to imagine my dad and Karen's without the crowd of rich academic bastards. I can't imagine Landon getting married without me there. I can't imagine calling fucking Vance to give him the news over the phone.

None of them matter. Not really. All that matters is Tess. Tess and me. My fucking lifeline. She wants to marry me and I can't let her change her mind. Another day is too much time to think.

But we wouldn't have made it this far without these people. Landon's annoying advice. Karen's baking. Even the times we babysat Smith. They were our journey. Catalysts to arguments but also to our best moments. A lot of our early days were spent in dad and Karen's house, a temporary escape from the shitty student accommodation we both had. I took her abroad for the very first time to see my mum, a fucking disaster trip but still her first. Even the witch Tess' mum acted as during our early days made us, us.

These people contributed to our narrative so it only seems fair to let them be a part of the fucking finale. Tess needs her support system to celebrate with.

I can't marry her in an empty room.

My mum is right with the meant to be shit. If we're really inevitable, there's no rush. Tess will still want to marry me in the morning.

Before I can think about it too much, I come off at the next exit and reset the map to take us back to Washington.