It's Always Been You

Chapter 23

Ben stared at the wedding decorations taking over his dining table. "This looks great."

Santiago peered over the table, hovering his red lion over the decorations.

Ariana pulled her hair into a high ponytail. "Isn't it? We've done a great job. Look, these are the pine cones from your mom's house." She held up a mason jar filled with painted pine cones. "We're going to set them on the table with numbers so people can find where their way around."

"Clever."

She set the jar down. "My wedding is going to be cactus themed."

He laughed. "What?"

"I was scrolling through Pinterest, right, and I saw 'cactus wedding themes' and I thought, wow people are inspired by cacti, but when I really thought about it, it's such a cute idea. Plus, I'm from Arizona. Arizona. Cactus. Wedding. Makes sense."

"What if the person you marry isn't from Arizona?" He picked up a small chalkboard she set down beside the table. When she didn't answer he looked up and found her staring at the table, slack-jawed. "What?"

"I never thought of that," she said. "I just always assumed they'd be from here too."

"Well." He swallowed hard. "You never know."

She sighed. "I guess so. Either way, I'm picturing a cactus wedding."

He laughed again. "I'm sure your hypothetical cactus wedding will be beautiful."

"It will be," she assured, "and you're invited, I guess."

"You guess?"

"Well, yeah," she walked up to him, looking at the chalkboard. "We're stuck together. It's not so bad."

"It's not?"

She took the chalkboard and set it on a chair. She grabbed some chalk from her purse. "Nope."

"Oh?" He sat down at the table. "So, we're not enemies anymore?"

Her shoulders drooped. "I don't feel like we're enemies or rivals anymore."

He rested his head on a hand. "Me either. But next time you invite me to your hypothetical wedding, you need to give it to me wholeheartedly. Not this 'I guess' business"

She chuckled and moved to kneel down in front of the chalkboard. She began writing on it.

"How was your Christmas?" He asked.

"It was okay. It's still awkward with my mom." She stood up and inspected her handiwork. "How was yours?"

"Fine. My grandma got me tickets for the Phoenix Symphony."

"Really? That's sweet. Wait, does that mean she wants you to take her to the symphony."

He smiled. "That's what I was thinking too."

"She's sneaky." She turned the chalkboard toward him. "What do you think?"

"'It was always you', hm. It always was, wasn't it? I like it."

She set the chalkboard by the wall and plopped down in a chair. She dug into her purse and took out a little plastic bag filled with diamond-shaped cardstock. "We're going to have sparklers, since it's New Year's Eve, and we're going to put these on it."

Ben read the little cards, 'love glows, glitters, and warms', and below was Cristina and Marco's names and wedding date.

"It's cheesy, but it's cute," Ariana said.

"Are you going to have sparklers at your cactus wedding?"

She scrunched up her nose. "Probably not."

"Not your thing?"