“But we’re here. That’s why we’re all here, because you said you wanted to marry him now.”
“I think I was doing it because I thought it was going to make me feel better about—” Zola looked off to the water; one of the wildflowers dropped from her crown and floated away in the breeze. “But it hasn’t. And I don’t think marrying Alton will make anything better. It’ll just make everything different.”
Zena reached out and touched her shoulder. “Did you tell him this?”
“We talked about it last night a little—well, a lot. He knows how I feel. But I said I’d still go through with it.” Zola looked back at Zena. “I don’t think I can. Not now.”
“Zola, I hope nothing I said changed your mind. I love Alton, and I know you two belong together,” Zena said.
Zola replied, “No. It’s not you—well, I guess it is, in a way.
“Oh, no! I’m sorry. I—”
“No. Listen. I’m not talking about you discouraging me. I’m talking about you encouraging me,” Zola said. “Another thing Alton and I talked about last night is me taking the Bar Exam. I’m going to do it.”
“What?” Zena pushed surprised.
“I was scared and I was worried and I know now that some of this wedding stuff was also about me putting that off. I can admit that. And I can also admit that you’re right. It is time for me to take the test. You believing in me helped me believe in myself.”
“So what are we going to do?” Zena spied the confused crowd. “You know I’ll support you in whatever you want to do, but these people are expecting a wedding.”
“You know...they can still see a wedding,” Adan said, suddenly stepping into view. “They will see a wedding if you say yes to marrying me.”
Adan reached for Zena’s hand. With no hesitation, he got down on his left knee and asked her, “Zena Nefertiti Shaw, will you marry me?”
Zena felt something in her heart humble under those words, something break away and wither. It was pain. It was gone.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes!”
Seeing this, the crowd cheered. Adan stood and grabbed Zena’s hand, racing back to the gazebo, with Zola close behind.
The crowd, which had now doubled in size, began to applaud their return.
“Wedding, yes?” the registrar posed to Zola once they made it to the altar.
“Yes!” Zola said, pulling Zena in front of herself. “But not me—her.”
Zola looked at Alton and communicated the plans to him with no words.
“Wedding, yes?” the registrar looked at Adan and Zena, his new subjects, as if it made no difference to him who got married. They could even pull a pair from the crowd forward.
When Zena, who was looking at Adan, did not respond to the registrar’s eye prodding, he looked at Adan and repeated, “Wedding, yes?”
“Wedding, yes!” Adan replied.
The registrar said over the clapping crowd, “Wedding, yes?”
“Yes! Wedding, yes!” Zena nodded. “Yes!”
Zena felt the way anyone does when they’re next in line and plucked from a crowd to receive their heart’s desire. As if luck had finally chosen her. And it felt so good. This was her wedding. Her wedding to Adan. Their wedding in Bali, on the beach, with people they loved, with people they’d never know. And it felt right.
Adan had taken both of Zena’s hands.
“This is my dream. You are my dream,” he said. “I let you go so many years ago. I pushed you away. But I was a boy then. Now I’m a man and I know it wasn’t right. I know for sure I’m the luckiest man who ever lived if you say yes to be mine. And if you take me back, not a day will go by when it’s not clear that I know that—that I’m lucky to have you. I’m never leaving again. I’m never turning away again. I’m here to stay.”
Zena started her vows with the first thing that came to mind: “I shouldn’t take you back!” she joked, and Alton and Zola laughed. “But I have to. I have to take you back because you’re my love. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved. That’s something I’ve kept in secret from everyone, from you, from myself, for too long, but I’m not willing to live in secret with that anymore. I’m not willing to live without you anymore. So, Adan, I vow to hold on to you. To be open to you. To the experience of you now, as you are now. And I’m never turning away again. I’m here to stay.”
“Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the registrar asked Adan.
“I do.”
The registrar turned to Zena and asked, “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do,” Zena replied, and Adan wiped his forehead nervously for a laugh from the crowd.
Adan pulled two gold bands out of his suit jacket. “I’ve been carrying these rings around for years. They remind me of the love I thought I lost, but now I’ve gotten a second chance.
Adan slid the band onto Zena’s ring finger, and then she put the ring Adan had given her onto his ring finger.
They separated and looked into each other’s eyes, feeling the weight of those rings on their fingers.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the registrar said. “And you may now kiss the bride.”
Adan stepped close to Zena, pairing the tips of his shoes with hers.
“Can you believe this?” she said as he leaned down to her.
“Yes,” he said.
Adan lifted Zena into the air and lowered her down to his lips.
And there, with the sun beaming behind them, Mr. and Mrs. Adan Frederick Douglass celebrated their first kiss as husband and wife.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781488003530
Under the Bali Moon
Copyright © 2016 by Calaya Reid
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inafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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