More Than Just a Memory

Chapter 15

"Confused" isn't a strong enough word to describe my reaction at the time. "Bewildered"? No. "Astonished"? For sure. He had said that he was dating another woman, didn't he?

I replayed everything that he said about Dahlia. How he had never shown me a picture of her. Kind of creepy how similar you two are. So much for me being smart. It all clicked at once, and I realized that through all of the pain that I had caused Calum, though all of my stupidity, he still cared. He loved me. He truly and unconditionally loved me. The more I processed the scene in front of me, the more I felt like crying. And for the first time in a long time, it was tears of joy that brimmed my eyelids. I made an attempt at saying, "Yes," but I choked on the word, so I settled for nodding vigorously. My hand trembled like a leaf as Calum slid on the ring, and he gave me a quick kiss before beaming and hopping back onstage. Michael screamed into his mic as they began to fade into the chorus, "MY BRO'S GOT SOME SERIOUS ONIONS! GIVE IT UP FOR CALUM HOOD!" The entirety of the crowd hooted and hollered, the noise level shaking the ground.

After the remaining hour of the concert ended, Tori and I were escorted backstage where we were greeted by clapping from Ashton, Luke, Michael, Feldy, and the other members of the tour staff who formed a semicircle. Cal stood in the middle of them all, arms held up and out to his sides, smirk on his face.

"So," he said. "How was that for a proposal?"

I smiled and shook my head. "How long have you had that planned?" I asked.

"Ever since you called me back in November of last year," he responded. He advanced towards Tori and myself and picked me up into a sweaty embrace.

"Let's go celebrate, huh?" Michael piped up. His suggestion was met with a chorus of approval, and we all piled into a caravan of Escalades, on our way to a nearby bar. We split into two groups: Michael, Tori, and Luke in one car, Ashton, Calum, and I in the other. I couldn't stop looking at my ring the entire ride there. At one point, Calum looked at me with an admiring expression and asked, "We're you surprised?"

"Was I surprised? I was hella more than surprised there, Hood. I'll tell you what," I glanced between my new fiancé (it was fun to think of Calum that way now) and Ashton. "You totally duped me with the whole 'Dahlia' act. I'm freaking retarded."

The pair of them broke out into a short fit of laughter, and I joined in, too. As we pulled up to our destination, Ash said to me, "I promised you some ten years ago that everything would work out with the two of you, and now we've ended up here. I think I have earned the right to say 'I told you so'."

"Touché," came my reply.

We partied at the bar until near 1AM, but by then Tori and I were starting to crash. Before dropping us off at my apartment, the guys invited us to complete the rest of the tour with them. There was about a month's worth of dates left, located all over the United States. Tori couldn't join because she had promised her boss back home that she would be back by the start of the next work week, and she had a lot of catching up to do. I, however, quickly agreed, knowing that I could work from anywhere so long as I had my trusty laptop.

I had never been on tour before, but it was a great life, and I understood completely why Cal and the others loved their jobs so much. Everywhere we went, I had the best seat in the house at every concert, and despite my repetitive requests for him to stop, he pointed me out every single night, boasting, "You guys see that super gorgeous chick over there in the front row? That's my to-be wife. Yeah, she's pretty friggin' awesome." Calum and I typically shared a hotel room, and even though he would fall asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, we talked a little bit every night about wedding plans. We decided on a winter wedding, which Calum whined was too far away. "I wanna get married right now," he would complain. "No," I would say firmly. "I have dreamt about my wedding day since I was, like, thirteen. I know my shit here, Calum. I've seen almost every episode of every wedding show that TLC has to offer. We're gonna do this right, and we're gonna have a wedding that rivals the awesomeness of Kate Middleton and Prince William's," I stated with utmost conviction, as I would push my glasses up the bridge of my nose and squint at my computer screen. Cal would take my computer, set it aside, slide his arm across my waist and drag me from my seated position down to lay with him. "Whatever you say, babe. The way I see it, we're going to have the best wedding in the history of ever." He would bury his face in my hair that bunched near the crook of my neck, and we would fall asleep like that. Together.

Your wedding day is probably the best day of your life. Here's my theory about that: sure, it's great because you're getting married to the love of your life and all that good stuff, but I also think that it seems like the best day ever because the months of planning that lead up to it are total torture. Every little detail needs to be ironed out, from finding the perfect dress to the intense amount of color coordination that goes on for the reception. I never knew that there could be so many shades of white. So. Many. Shades. In the end, though, it all gels together in the best way. I have to say that my favorite part of wedding prep was getting our rings. We each got simple gold bands, but on the inside of each, we got the date of our big day and the acronym WAYF (wrapped around your finger) engraved. Sure, it was corny, but I really loved the song, and Calum had no objections at all.

I fell in love with my dress as soon as I saw it on the rack when I walked into the shop, and I loved it even more when I put it on. It was the most elegant lace fit-and-flare, with beautiful lace straps that sat on my shoulders, and a beaded belt that tied it all together. When I walked out from the dressing room to show my mom, dad, sister, and brother, the reactions I got were amazing. "Woah," my little brother said. My ever-so-confident sister quoted her idol, Beyoncé, "Goddamn, goddamn, GODDAMN!" My mom completely lost it, and my dad stood up from the sofa that they were all sitting on, approached me, gave me a hug, and whispered with a cracking voice, "That's the one."

The actual wedding day itself was a hodgepodge of tears, smiles, and hugs from all of my family members, both blood relatives and in-laws. Everything went perfectly according to plan, and I couldn't have asked for anything better. Hands down the best part of the day was when they opened the doors of the church and Calum saw me standing at the end of the aisle. It was surreal seeing the 5SOS dudes in tuxes, but my eyes were on Calum as he pulled a handkerchief out of his chest pocket and dabbed at his eyes. Seeing him cry just made me tear up as well, and walking down the aisle with my dad was one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

The two of us decided to write our own vows, and I nearly fell to the floor on the altar as I listened to Calum read his off, with the occasional voice crack or sniffle. "Olivia Sarah Maloow, you are the love of my life. No one in this world or in any other could compare to you, and I am undeniably lucky to be able to say that you are mine. I swear, each and every day, you grow more and more beautiful, both inside and out, and I don't know how you deal with myself and the three losers standing behind me twenty-four seven, but I could never be more blessed. Today, I finally have the opportunity to call you my wife, until death do us part, and I want to promise you right now that I will never, ever, let anything happen to you. Thank you for being the angel that you are, and thank you for loving the mere mortal that I am."

The reception just followed in suit of the rest of the day. The food was delicious, the DJ chose a kick-ass playlist, and everyone spent the whole time partying their butts off. If I could have figured out a way to live December third of that year for the rest of my life, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Sadly, it had to come to an end. But that night, I fell asleep with the essence of elation pouring over my soul, curled up next to the best guy in the entire world. "Goodnight, Mrs. Hood," he rasped in a tired but happy voice as he kissed my forehead.

Take that William and Kate.