The Billionaire And The Waitress (gxg)

33 - an ending

        The sun glistened golden-orange in the sky, slowly dipping towards the horizon. Its final rays carved the ceremony with a glowing, flame-like silhouette. Adrien felt the warmth of it on her suit, and resisted the urge to adjust the lapels of her sleeves for what had to be at least the hundredth time. 

        She couldn't believe she was getting married.

        The wedding was relatively small―for a billionaire, at least. There were about two hundred guests. Security had been stationed all around the resort building, with snipers on the rooftop. The guards alerted Adrien of a kidnapping attempt as often as once or twice a year. Nobody had made it far past her security since she was nineteen, though, when a Bosnian hitman had held her at gunpoint in the gym changeroom. She'd disarmed him herself―his mistake was using an artillery weapon at such close range. And then she'd gotten rid of her entire team, which Julien had gifted to her at fourteen, and hired her own bodyguards. Now each and every last one of her thirty-six security team members had blackout-level clearance, hired from various international intelligence services.

        Out of the thirty-six, nineteen had been assigned to Muse.

        Not that Muse engaged in particularly dangerous activities during her daily life. In fact, her security was probably bored as hell. But Adrien liked knowing Muse was just as well-protected as the President of the United States.

       The thought of Muse, again, made Adrien fight the temptation to shift from foot to foot. She couldn't believe she was this nervous for a fake wedding.

       Adrien had walked down the aisle with Phoebe. Now, Phoebe and Agnes waited on one side of the altar, and Ezra, the best man, waited on the other. Next to him, Pegasus had been fitted with a pink-jewelled collar and a black bowtie. He seemed to somehow understand the importance of the wedding; instead of bounding away, he patiently observed the crowd.

      The sun kept sinking towards the horizon, too fast. Shouldn't Muse be here by now?

      The priest shuffled the pages of the Bible. The soft strum of violin and piano wound through the beach, filling the silence. 

      What if Muse had gotten cold feet? What if she'd freaked out about the wedding and decided she couldn't go through with it? What if she'd found out the deal with Adrien's father was no longer intact, and Adrien had lied?

      After Ezra had threatened Adrien with the promise of telling Muse, they'd argued. If Adrien glanced to her left even now, she'd see Ezra's disapproving stare. She had retorted that he didn't have the right to tell her.

     "Fine," he had said. "I'll let you live out the consequences yourself."

     Adrien resisted the urge to twitch again. She shouldn't be getting married. Not anymore. There was no deal between her and her father. There was no reason for this. Except that she wasn't ready to say goodbye to Muse. And that was selfish. That was so selfish. Because she knew Muse didn't love her back. Hell, would Muse even care if she called off the wedding now and never saw her again? 

      She would probably be relieved.

      Maybe she wasn't even coming right now. Maybe she had already left, and called it quits on the wedding and the bullshit and the charade. Adrien couldn't blame her for leaving her at the altar. In fact, she should probably tell the priest this was over, and cancel this whole damn thing. It would be far more humiliating to wait and wait for a bride that would never arrive.

     The seconds kept ticking by. Every minute felt like an eternity.

     Adrien opened her mouth―to say what, she didn't quite know. That the wedding was over, the priest could go home, everybody could go home. Muse wasn't coming. There was no way.