The map that leads to you.

Aiden and I walked hand in hand on the grounds of his father’s estate with the wedding planner. The two of us might not be married yet, but it felt that way… Still, we hadn't done much planning even though it had been months since he had proposed. Honestly, I wasn't sure where to start. Luckily we had an event planner to help with that.

"So do we want to do the ceremony outside and the reception inside? Or both outside or inside?” She asked with a smile. Nancy, my future mother in law, had hired her for us as a wedding gift and swore up and down that she was the best money could buy.

I looked at Aid for an answer, “What do you think?”

He shrugged, “Honestly, it’s whatever you dream of baby. The weather is going to be beautiful that time of the year. We can do it both outside, but whatever you want.”

I grinned, “This is our wedding baby… I’m not going to force all my choices on you.”

He pulled me close to him, "I'd marry you in a courthouse baby. It doesn’t matter.”

I sighed and turned towards the wedding planner, “Do you see what I have to deal with?”

She laughed and nodded, “I’ve done this for a long time, most men are like him. I think doing the ceremony and reception would be perfect. We can set up the ceremony in the garden and then we can move the reception towards the pool area.”

“The garden is beautiful," I brightened with happiness as I looked at my fiancé who was nodding along.

“And it’s not too small. It can accommodate all our friends and family," He smiled.

I grinned and nodded, “Sounds perfect, but you can’t just agree with me throughout all of this!”

He smirked as I laughed, “Why not? I want what you want baby. If you want me to wear a rainbow suit and do a dance, I will.”

 

I lifted an eyebrow and pretended to consider his offer, "What kind of dance would that be? A sexy one where you remove the rainbow suit?"

"If it's what you want, then it's what you get," He shrugged and kept a straight face.

I laughed again and shook my head, "You'd give every woman over 50 a heart attack."

"Hey, I'm over 50 and trust me when I say that I wouldn't let a heart attack stop me from watching that," The wedding planner chimed in, winking at Aid while we all laughed. At least she got our humor, I was hesitant from the start on hiring someone to help plan our big day. Now I wasn't a perfectionist, but I wanted the day to be perfect.

"No rainbow suit," He replied and grinned, looking at her to add, "Sorry."

"What about for our honeymoon?" Our cocked my head to a side to give him my best seductive look. We were still debating where we'd spend our honeymoon since I wanted Greece and Aid wanted somewhere more tropical where we could walk around naked on our own private beach... Honestly, no matter where we were going to be? We'd be naked the entire time.

"I thought you made a no clothes allowed rule?" He grinned wider, shooting me a sexy look that made me shiver. I couldn't wait for our wedding, but I was possibly even more excited for the honeymoon.

"Oh so you do listen to me," I let my grin linger in place.

Shelly the wedding planner laughed again, "I hate to interrupt two young lovers, but there's a lot of work to be done. Shall we get back to business?" She looked at us and we both nodded, "Alright then, we have decided on an outdoor wedding. Do you have any idea about the number of guests?"

"A few hundred?" I said with uncertainty and looked at Aid who shrugged. He was going to be the death of me.

 

“Okay, so my family is going to take up a ton of room." He smirked as I hit him, “In all honestly, I just want this to be close family and friends… this isn’t a media spectacle.” 

I nodded, “I agree. We’re going to need a lot of security to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The wedding planner nodded, “We can make that happen. We’ll have lots of security and we’ll confiscate guests cameras if need be.”

“I think we can trust our guests…” He trailed off, not wanting to be that strict, “We want people to have fun, but I think people have to show their invitation to get in. I don’t want anybody not invited to be able to get in.”

I nodded, “That sounds good, so back to the number?” 

He sighed, “I’m guessing no more than 300?” 

The wedding planner shook her head and laughed, “We’ll come back to that. Do you have ideas of what kind of food you want?”

Aid smirked, “It better be fucking delicious.” 

I laughed once more, “Leave it to the man to only care about the food.”

She shook her head, chuckling, “Men love food. That’s the one thing all the grooms I've come across have an opinion about. That and the liquor.”

“Oh, we need a full bar.” He smirked, “And we need it to be flowing all night.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, “You’re not allowed to be drunk on our wedding night!”

He smirked, leaning in to kiss me gently on the lips, “Just buzzed. You make me feel drunk enough.”

I grinned at his words, "Thank you for the cheesy compliment, but no, you will not risk getting drunk on our wedding night."

Aid looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Will you be monitoring my drinks?"

"No," I shook my head and wrinkled my nose at the thought. I didn't want to become my mother, a woman who drove men away. I wanted our marriage to work.. I wanted us to work. "You'll be too busy to have a drink in your hand all night."

"Busy?" He asked in amusement.

"Oh yes," Shelly nodded her head. "Between guests coming up to congratulate you every second? There's the dinner, cake, the first dance... You'll be a busy man."

I nodded, "Yes. Just what she said."

He groaned, "Are you sure you don't want to elope? It's not too late."

I laughed and tilted my head to kiss him chastely, "Just think about the honeymoon. You don't get a honeymoon if we elope."

He sighed, “Okay, I’m thinking of our honeymoon, but a beer won’t kill me.”

“One beer.” I smirked, “That’s it.”

“Deal," He kissed me on the cheek.

Shelly smiled lovingly at the two of us, “You have yourself a keeper. A man that agrees with you is hard to find.”

Aid and I smirked back at each other knowing that wasn’t the whole story, but instead I nodded and leaned into him, “I have a great man.”

He smiled, kissing the top of my head, “She’s the keeper.”

“CHLOE!” I heard a tiny voice as we turned around to see Bea running towards us in her school uniform. She jumped into my arms, “Daddy didn’t tell me you two were coming.”

“It was a surprise," Aid smirked as she moved herself into her brothers arms to hug him, “We’re planning the wedding.”

She gasped, “Really?!” He nodded and she lit up, “Can Stella make my dress now?” She said excitedly and I knew she hadn’t stopped thinking about her flower girl dress since he proposed.

He chuckled, “Not quite yet. I don’t even think Chloe has figured out what she wants for her dress.”

I grinned, “Well actually I have talked to Stella about some designs.”

He raised a brow, “Oh really?” I nodded, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because the groom isn’t supposed to know about the dress silly!” Bea piped in, making her two cents known, “It’s bad luck to see the dress before the wedding!”

He narrowed his eyes, “How do you know?”

She pouted, “I know stuff! Chloe told me when she talked to Stella!” 

He sighed, “Nobody tells me anything.”

“That’s you because you want to know nothing instead," I winked, kissing him.

 “Do you want me to ask more?” He grinned after sighing.

 

"I wouldn't tell you about my dress even if you begged me," I grinned wide at him, thinking about how handsome he was going to look on our wedding day. I couldn't wait to see him, but it didn't mean that I wanted to help him choose his own suit, let alone see it beforehand. Patience was going to win on this one.

"You're the beggar in this relationship," He joked while I shook my head with my grin still in place.

Shelly cleared her throat, hating when we got off track. It was too easy for us to do. "Since the flower girl is here, we can talk about the floral arrangements," She smiled at Bea. "Does anyone have an opinion? Colors?"

"Roses?" Aiden shrugged.

I looked at him with an eyebrow raised, "Roses? Are you serious?"

"You like roses," He said with another shrug. "What's wrong with roses?!"

"Too common," I said simply and looked at Shelly. "I was thinking peonies, tulips, and raspberry cyclamens."

She clasped her hands together in excitement, "We can do a pink and red centerpiece on each table. Begin with a few drops of pink in the blooms of sweet peas, hyacinths, and nerines culminates in a deluge of 

fuchsia peonies, ruby fringe tulips, and raspberry cyclamens."

Aiden's eyes were wide open and his mouth slightly ajar before he finally asked, "Can you repeat that?"

She laughed and shook his response off,  "It will be stunning!"

"It sounds perfect," I replied, my mind only processing half of what she had just said.

“Yeah," He nodded, still looking confused.

Shelly laughed, “Are you sure you want him here? After a while, brides seem to get tired of their grooms just following and agreeing.”

I smiled and looked back at my future husband, “Do you want to take Bea and catch up while I finish here with Shelly? Honestly I could use a break too.”

He nodded, sighing, relieved, “Yes, thank you. Don’t be too long.” He kissed me on the lips, “We’ll go to the kitchen.”

“You won’t make any important choices without me, will you Chloe?” Bea pouted, distraught at the idea.

I laughed and shook my head, “Nothing important at all. I promise.”

Bea instantly smiled, “Good.”

“Let’s go squirt," He grinned as he sat her down and grabbed her hand to walk towards the house.

"I'm not squirt," I could hear her say before they disappeared from our sight.

"He's a keeper," Shelly said, breaking me from the daze I had been in, daydreaming about my future with this man. I'd never thought about getting married, let alone having kids... now I wanted it all with Aiden.

"Definitely," I smiled at her.

"So flowers?"

I nodded my head, "The arrangement you said... all of that," I said since there was no way in hell I could repeat it back even if I tried.

Her lips quirked into a grin, "Are we done for the day?"

I let out a laugh and stood up after nodding my head once more, "I think so."

"Hard to stay away from him? It's a good sign," She smiled more genuinely. "The dress and flowers are taken care of as of this moment, location is sealed... we'll talk music next."

“So we’ll call you tomorrow to get together again?” I asked.

“Sounds wonderful. It was so great meeting you Chloe and I’m so happy that you guys are using me. I can’t wait for this wedding,” She squealed, giving me a hug.

 

"I just can't wait to marry that man," I said seriously and smiled back at her as she got this dreamy look on her face.

"Are you talking about me?" Aid said and appeared behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

Shelly sighed at the two of us, "I better go before I start tearing up! I just met you two and I'm already in love with the both of you."

I laughed, "Thank you for everything."

"Don't forget to give me a call tomorrow," She said with a little wave.

"Great meeting you," Aid added before she gave us one last smile then left through the front door. "That woman is seriously weird," He said after the door closed.

I laughed and turned in his arms, tilting my head up to let my eyes meet his, "I liked her."

"You would.... you're a little crazy too," He said with a grin.

My mouth fell open in mock offense before I smiled and leaned my chest against his, "Crazy for you."