Page 29 of The Next Chapters
“I still am not over you abandoning all of your socials! But, anyway,” she waved her hands in front of her, “Enough of that – for now. What I’ve been waiting for years for is to say – that confession?! Riley! How you two were sleeping together, and then you had feelings…” She halted, arching a severe look toward Riley, “Was that some sort of ratings gimmick for your news station? I mean, no judgment if it was, I suppose, because it was the most interesting thing I’ve heard on the news in my life. But I have wondered for so long!”
Riley’s lips ticked up into a small smile, her cheeks pinking slightly at the reminder of that ill-fated – or wonderfully fated, depending on how you looked at it – broadcast nearly ten years ago. “Hi, Misty. Really nice to see you again. And no, it was very much not intentional.”
Misty’s mouth fell open as she darted her eyes between the two of them. “Well, that’s quite a mistake, huh?!”
“I never said it was a mistake,” Riley quickly interjected. She was still wearing a smile, but there was no room for debate in her firmly correcting tone. “I said it was unintentional.”
Misty pouted her lips as she made a soft aww sound before snapping back to attention as she waved several people from behind Gianna and Riley over. “Before you say more – the women from my B.U. chat are going to want to hear everything.”
And so the next hour passed –
Running into old acquaintances and either informing them of their life update of being married or receiving comments from those who already knew they were together as they’d followed along with Gianna’s life updates over the years.
They excused themselves from being in the middle of the fanfare, Gianna pressing her hand lightly to the small of Riley’s back as they headed for the refreshment table.
“I think it’s so fascinating how many people seem equally surprised about the fact that we got together and surprised at how long it took for us to get together,” Riley commented, laughter sparking in her hazel eyes.
Gianna grinned back down at her, shrugging as she reached out and first handed Riley a flute of champagne before taking one for herself. “Let’s be honest – most people found our friendship to be a little intense, even before we were together.”
Riley hummed as she took a sip. “You aren’t wrong.”
She stared intently at Gianna over the rim of her glass, sipping again, before she commented, “Also, you holding court for the last hour has tipped me off about what you were so excited about for tonight.”
Both amused and unsurprised, Gianna arched a look at Riley, reaching out to wrap a lock of that honey-colored hair. In the last year, Riley had started getting a little more lax about her salon appointments.
She still got her hair straightened, but there were weeks – sometimes over a month – where her curls started to return. When Gianna asked Riley if she was making a new stylistic choice, Riley had simply tossed all that luscious, thick hair into a manageable ponytail and shrugged, “Love, between the twins being born, Anya starting first grade, and Emmi being… Emmi – as well as the craziness at work, and trying to still fit in time with my gorgeous wife? The hair appointment is the first thing on my calendar that can wait a while.”
Riley seemed content with managing her waves turning into curls, and Gianna, frankly, loved them.
She pulled her focus away from her wife’s captivating hair and sent Riley an expectant look. “All right, carina. I’m waiting for you to give the exposé on my excitement for tonight.”
Even though she sounded like she was teasing, she really wasn’t. Because she knew that Riley knew her well enough to have put together the truth.
“You want everyone that used to know us to know that we’re together now,” Riley mused, swaying closer to Gianna. She tipped her glass up at Gianna, playfully challenging her to deny it. “You like that eeeeveryone here, who knew us as platonic Riley-and-Gianna are seeing that we are now married Riley-and-Gianna.” She wore the cutest conspiratorial smile as she shook her hair back, tilting her head up at Gianna.
They were standing close enough now that their chests brushed, that Riley’s warm breath washed over Gianna’s jaw, as Riley murmured, “I’m onto you, Mäkinen. I’ve got your number.”
“It’s Beckett, actually,” she corrected, tilting her head down at Riley so they were mere inches apart.
And she didn’t care if anyone was staring or what anyone was saying.
Because, “And, you caught me,” she confirmed unashamedly. “I love it. I love that anyone here who knew the us back then sees who we are now. That we not only made it as best friends but that we’re more.”
Gianna was reasonably certain that most people they went to school with hadn’t known about her feelings for Riley. Other than a single drunken cry she’d had in a bathroom at a house party a few months into dealing with her feelings for her best friend, she’d never mentioned it to anyone. And Riley had been the only person she’d truly been close to who could read her like a book.
But if there had been anyone here – like Anthony, the guy Gianna had mistakenly attempted to set Riley up with that one time. The guy who may have turned out to have been a huge asshole, but who’d set Gianna’s entire worldview on fire by being the person that had given her perspective on her feelings for Riley – that may have suspected anything, she loved knowing that they now saw that it worked. That she and Riley had gotten here in the end.
She bit her lip, hesitating for a moment, before she confessed, “I also really wanted to do this for College Gianna.”
That little wrinkle formed between Riley’s eyebrows as she took in Gianna’s words.
Wanting everyone to know that they were together was a bold feeling inside of Gianna. But this part of the truth made her feel vulnerable.
Still, she felt safe showing all of her vulnerabilities to Riley, so she elaborated, “I just… College Gianna spent so much time here – literally here – wanting you. Wanting to be with you. And I wanted to be here with you,” she lifted her hand, lightly pressing her thumb to that perfectly plush center of Riley’s bottom lip. That place she’d always loved. “For College Gianna.”
Riley’s eyes were wide and understanding, and the look in them was so sweet.
Before she could say anything, though, a man’s voice came from their left.