The Marriage Deal.

Take Thirty-Six.

"Anything that you do for me, I'll do for you ten times over." - Patrice Roberts.

36|

We were laughing at a Joke Matt told as we made our way onto the shore, our drinks still cupped in our hands. He was trying to explain to us how badly his fear of spiders were. I definitely wasn't judging him because I was the exact same way. Spiders had to be the worst creatures God decided to create.

"So, Mindy had to do all the spider killings." Jake said, laughing. This brought a guttural laugh from Matt with both a look of longing and joy glimmering in his eyes.

"She was the best." Matt laughed some more.

"Most definitely." Ian nodded his head enthusiastically in agreement. Then, he raised his drink. "To Mindy, for loving our boy even knowing he couldn't save her from the eight-legged freaks."

"To Mindy." Jake raised his drink.

"To Mindy." Derick followed suit.

"To my beautiful wife, Mindy. You're gone but never forgotten." Matt raised his drink and he was smiling.

Now, it all made sense. I thought back to the dinner Derick and I had with his mother and I remembered when she'd asked how were the guys doing. Derick's response was that Matt was holding up. It all made sense why he would be holding up. He was a widower. My heart starting aching right that same second for him, but seeing how happy he looked now, how good he was doing, it helped ease the ache. I didn't know how long ago she'd died, but it may have been some time ago since he seemed to have healed.

In no time, I raised my drink in the air. "To Mindy."

All of us followed suit, Lydia, Shai, Lila, Melanie. We all toasted To Mindy, Matt's late wife.

"Onto more sweeter, fruitful moments. I'd like to propose a toast to two newly made friends of mine, whom have one of the greatest powers I could ever possibly think of, the gift of bringing forth life. London, Melanie.. here's to you two." He took his time and smiled at each of us individually. Then, he raised his glass once again, but looked square at me. "I know it's kinda too soon for you, London. But the mere fact that it's happening is enough."

His words made my heart thump with joy. This entire moment was euphoric. We'd just got done toasting to something as dour as death, but he'd managed to flipped the script and toast to something as consequential as life. I'd actually felt like crying, but that would've been a little too dramatic.

"Thank you so much, Matt." I smiled, raising my glass in return. Then, I felt the weight of an arm coming around my waist and I didn't need any brain power to know that it was Derick. I leaned into him, not caring whether or not Paparazzi were watching. I just loved his comfort, especially in this moment.

"I really appreciate that." Melanie smiled gratefully at the thoughtful, sentimental man that was Matt.

We all toasted once more to the gift of life, to Melanie and I.

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Derick and I got home and it was a little after five in the afternoon. My day was absolutely amazing, there was no denying that. I just hoped that Derick enjoyed it just much, still bearing in mind the little run in that he and I had earlier.

"I'll use the shower down here, you can use the one upstairs." Derick said as he headed in the direction the bathroom was. I nodded, even though he couldn't see me now since his back was facing me.

After we'd both gotten done showering, we must've silently agreed to meet the other downstairs in the den, because that's where we both ended up going. However, there was a huge part of me knew that we both wanted to spend some more time with each other before the day was over. We weren't ready to go our separate ways just yet and we were just too prideful to say so.