Carbon: Devil's Rose #8

Chapter 32: Roman Grant

"How do I look?" Gabby questions, spinning in her dress.

"Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful," I answer, running my eyes up and down her body.

She's wearing a satin, rust-colored dress with nude heels that tie at her ankle. The best part of her outfit is the sapphire engagement ring that sits on her finger for everyone to see. It makes me feel so good to see it on her. 

It's like my whole life I was searching for that person to want me exactly as I am, and I found her. I found my person, and I'm so grateful. I want to show her off. I want everyone to know that I've found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. 

And I finally get to do that tonight. Everyone finally gets to know that she wants to marry me. That she chose me.

I rest my hand on her hip, feeling the satin of her dress underneath my fingertips.

"What are they going to say?" she asks me, playing with my dress shirt.

"Poison might pass out."

She giggles but doesn't fight the accusation.

"Is it bad that I'm nervous about this? I don't want anyone to be hurt we didn't tell them right away," I acknowledge, knowing that talking to Gabby will make me feel better about it. 

I'm not normally one to be worried about what other people think of the decision I make, but this is new for me. I'm sure they would have wanted to be at the engagement. I know they would have wanted to know that we got engaged the minute that we did, but we both wanted to tell them in person. 

We've also had many opportunities to tell them these past two days but decided not to until we were all in a big group, so we didn't have to repeat the story twenty times over. I don't want to make anyone feel bad over it. 

Weddings are political. People get weird about them. They get mad when they aren't invited to certain things or aren't sitting at a certain table. I don't want to start that environment merely but waiting to tell them about our engagement. 

It would be very unlike the Devil's Rose MC group to feel that way, but weddings do make a lot of people weird the fuck out. And while I know that it's about Gabby and me, they are affected by the choices that we make. 

I don't want anyone to feel left out. That was never our intention. It just sort of happened, and it felt like the right moment. I'm slightly worried.

"Roman, I understand where you are coming from. Weddings make people do weird shit and feel weird and left out when they shouldn't. However, are we really going to apply those political wedding ideas to the Devil's Rose MC? I mean, honestly. 

"Poison and Dakota almost went to Vegas to elope without telling anyone, and everyone was happy for them. This isn't your normal group of people. We got engaged after two months of dating. Rules don't apply here."

"You're right. I know you are. But we are all sensitive to shit. I don't want to be the one to hurt people."

"They know you're intentions though. They know that about you, and that's what counts. Your intention isn't to hurt anyone, so they aren't going to feel hurt. If you tell them the story of how it happened, no one is going to be hurt. 

"Even if you don't tell them, which I don't know why you wouldn't, they wouldn't be hurt then either. You aren't setting the intention to harm anyone, so it's less likely anyone is going to be hurt by the decisions we both made. And if they are, they can fuck off because this is our engagement, not theirs."

"But I care about these people."

"Realistically, everyone is just going to want the story and know that we're engaged. These people care for you and support the decisions you make, they don't care about being petty."