The Red Dress

April 26th

"I still can't believe we're engaged," Keira whispered as she lay in bed next to me, staring at the ring that adorned her left hand. "Damn, Logan, you did well with this ring."

I laughed, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "I can't take all the credit. Eoin's girlfriend actually came up with the idea in the end. I wanted to include a little bit of your home and a little bit of my home in the ring," I explain. Sliding it off her hand, I dodge the punch she throws at me. She must really love the ring. "So the Irish flag and the US flag share only one color- white- so for the center stone, we went with a classic three-carat diamond. Then this stone here is emerald for Ireland, and this one-" I spin the ring to show the small accent stone that was set into the shoulder of the ring. "-Is sapphire for the US flag."

"You're way too thoughtful, Logan," my fiancée sighed contentedly. She held her hand out to me and motioned for me to replace the ring, returning it to its rightful home. Moving to straddle me, she intertwined our fingers and smiled down at me. "Who should we phone and tell next?"

Last night, after Keira tearfully accepted my proposal, we skipped out on the party, apologizing to Patrick who said he fully understood but would like an invitation to the wedding as recompense nonetheless. We came straight back to the hotel so we could FaceTime our families, trying to get everyone into the same call. With Keira's brothers all out and my sister now living in Denmark with her husband and two small kids, we could only manage to link up with my parents and Keira's. To announce our engagement, Keira shoved her hand as close to the camera as possible and screamed, "He proposed!"

Of course, they all knew about my plan. I hadn't gone all the way over to County Mayo for a nice trip away from London. No, I'd gone to ask Keira's father for her hand in marriage, who then insisted that I ask Keira's mom as well as Harlow and Bartley Delaney's permission, too. Thankfully, they gave me their blessing, with Harlow even thanking me for being the only one to have had the decency to brief her about the proposal ahead of it happening. I was now her favorite, apparently. 

Next on the list were all of Keira's brothers. Niall and his wife, Saoirse, congratulated us, saying that they were happy for us once the shock subsided. Oscar and Katie were over the moon, especially Katie. She was already asking about dates, venues, flower arrangements and all the rest. Keira and I laughed at the thought of all the planning but we also knew that we wouldn't have to worry too much about it- we had a wedding planner in mind. Finally, Killian Delaney's face filled the screen as we Skyped him and his wife, Enya. They were in New York on honeymoon but took time out to scream their excitement and joy at our news. Having not long married themselves, Enya was more than willing to help out if we needed anything. Killian, on the other hand, excused himself from any help in the planning but did find a moment to tell his sister that he was 'proud' of her for not 'fucking this relationship up.' 

"Supportive, as always, Killian," Keira muttered, flipping him her middle finger. "Now, fuck off. Your face is giving me a headache."

We eventually got through to my sister, Larkyn, who was super excited about having a sister in the family. She was also looking forward to the party after the wedding, saying that she knew it would be a riot since every Delaney party ended up with singing at three in the morning and someone being carted off to the emergency room just after dinner. 

By the time we got through to all our nearest and dearest family last night, Keira and I were too tired to call anyone else. But now that we were up and it was a brand new day, we had a few more names to cross off the list. For our Irish friends, we had a Whatsapp group and decided to make a quick video to send to them. Soon enough messages of congratulations were flooding into the inbox, followed by questions about stag and hen parties. Then, inevitably, the question about who the best man and maid of honor would be started to crop up and we had to politely tell them that we were months off making that decision. 

"Ok, shall we ring Sam next?" I asked, earning myself a look of disapproval from Keira. She really hated the fact that I was still friendly with her best friend's ex-boyfriend. "Or we could ring Nina and Charlie?"

Keira shook her head. "No, I want Martha to be the next to know," she announced, scrolling through her contacts and calling Martha. "I'm not sure she'll pick up because-"

"Hey, bitch!" Martha's familiar accent shouted own the line. Leaning over Keira's shoulder, I saw Martha's tanned face filling the screen before she started to turn the camera and show us where she was. "Look how amazing this place is! We're in Erg Chebbi."

"Where's that?" Keira asked, tilting her head to get a better look at the red colored sand dunes in the background. "That looks a little like where Sex and the City 2 was filmed."

Martha nodded. "Yeah. It's in Morocco. James is filming the new Spymaster movie, Spymaster: Vendetta." A noise from the other end of the video call made Martha look up. "James wants to come and say hi."

"Good morning!" James Saylor, the A-list Hollywood star greeted us, his bright smile making Keira sigh in lust. Crouching down next to Martha, he waved at us. "What's up? Hwy are you guys calling?"

Instead of speaking, Keira held up her hand to the camera and squealed in excitement. The novelty clearly hadn't worn off yet. Both Martha and James jumped up onto their feet and started to join in with Keira's happiness, sounding like total banshees. 

"Holy shit, Keira," Martha finally said after she calmed down. "Wait, wait... do I get to be a bridesmaid?"

Keira scoffed. "Duh, you're my MOH."

"Can I be the best man?" James asked, his voice high pitched as he mimicked Martha. 

Keira looked at me and smiled. "Logan?"

"Actually, you can be one of the ushers, James," I promise him. "I was actually going to ask Sam to be my best man. If that's ok?"

An awkward silence followed and I could feel Keira's eyes glaring daggers at me but I didn't care. She should have seen this coming. Sam is my best friend, just like Martha is Keira's best friend. Why could Martha be the maid of honor but I wasn't allowed Sam as my best man?

Thankfully, Martha smiled fondly at me. "It's your wedding, Logan. You can have whomever you want as your best man. You don't need my permission. Guys, I am so excited for you!" Martha once again shouted. "Have you picked a date yet?"

"Are you free on April twenty-fifth next year?"

Martha nodded. "You bet your American ass I am. Count. Me. In."