Forbidden Fruit (gxg)

Epilogue

1 Year Later

"Are you freaking out or what?"

Trey asked me this question as I finished getting ready, swiping on the last of my lipgloss.

We were in the hotel room that I had stayed at overnight down at the beach.

Where Kori and I were going to get married.

As I sat in front of the mirror, putting the wand back in the lip gloss container, I turned to look at Trey.

"Honestly, I'm not even freaking out. I'm just really looking forward to making Kori my wife."

"This is so exciting!" Addison said from across the room, where she was getting ready as well. Alyssa, who was next to her, smiled at me and nodded in agreement.

My sisters had surprised me with a night down at the beach for a makeshift "bachelorette party" the night before. I shared a hotel room with them, and it felt like old times when we would have sleepovers in each other's rooms when we were young.

Trey, Rachel, and Colin also joined us, and Trey and Colin stayed in a hotel room together, and Rachel stayed in her own room.

We had a really great night together. The six of us went out to dinner, and we didn't drink too much, as we all wanted to not be hungover for the big day.

Now, I was getting ready to marry the love of my life.

Kori had spent the night in Atlantic City with her best friend, Christa, and Charley and they were going to be meeting us down in Cape May, where Kori and I were getting married on the beach. Mike, Kori's brother in law, was going to be officiating the wedding, as he got his ordained minister lisence online about a decade ago. Also coming down separately were Kori's parents, her niece and nephew, my parents, Christa's husband and twin boys, and lastly, Damon and my 10 month old niece, Lila.

The only one who couldn't be there was our beloved Chester, who we would come home to that night.

It was going to be a small affair, with our loved ones. Exactly how Kori and I wanted it to be.

Kori proposed to me three months back in our condo. Yes, our condo. I moved in back in December, right when my lease was up. We had just gotten back from dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, when right in the entryway of the condo, Kori pulled a small box out of her blazer pocket and got on one knee.

I was stunned. Of course we had talked about how we wanted to get married one day. But I thought that was far in the future. I was stunned, however, in the best way possible. The ring was beautiful, it had an aquamarine stone surrounded by diamonds, and it was absolutely perfect. Though I didn't even need a ring, just knowing Kori and I had this commitment to each other was enough.

We both knew that we wanted a very small wedding. An intimate ceremony and then a lunch or dinner afterwards.

We were getting married on a Thursday in September, after Labor Day. We decided on a Thursday to ensure there would likely be no one on the beach.

I had taken off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at my remote nursing job (yes, I got the job I interviewed for) and Kori had taken off those days as well. She stopped working for Hollis around the time I moved in with her, and she was now the CIO at a different company that she overall really liked. Plus, the salary was even higher, which was a plus.

As I completed the finishing touches of my makeup, I looked at myself in the mirror. I opted out of wearing white, and wore a blush pink dress instead, which I hadn't shown Kori yet. I knew she wouldn't wear a dress, that wasn't her style, she would likely be in a stylish pantsuit.