In Sickness and In Health

The Man of My Dreams

Lili POV

Its Chloe's wedding today and I'm really excited she's getting married in the local church in our hometown Bay Village, I've been back home for nearly a week now and it's been great, I love living in New York but there is something refreshing about small town life. The knowing the postman by his first name; Ron , seeing how your old high school has changed not much by the look of it and just the day to day running and upkeep of the small town life.

Cole flew over last night and he was exhausted, he has been very busy with his photography career, he was selected to be one of the six photographers that are chosen to do the Vogue Fall Cover along with a few very famous names. He was the youngest of the lot with all of them being at the youngest fifty. I assume its because many of them had other occupations before photography but I can't be certain. One of his employees Matt got married last month and unfortunately we had our reunion with our old cast mates so we couldn't attend but we called out to him and his husband Gabriel the week after their honeymoon.

They had only had a small breakaway to Key West , Florida as Gabriel can't get much time of due to being a high demand architect due to his "revolutionary " and "out of this world"designs according to "Architecture Monthly" so they only got away for five nights but Cole has given Matt three weeks off in April and Gabriel has taken those three weeks off so they go and have a proper vacation together.

The ceremony ended a while ago and now we are back to the petite but cute lodge that Chris and Chloe rented for the day. It's a refurbished cabin from the early twentieth century and for the past few years it has been used for weddings, Christenings and birthdays. It's only holds about fifty people but it seems to be perfect for Chloe and Chris' special day as they only having about forty people, it might seem small but Chris comes from a small family. He's an only child so is his mother and his dad only has an older brother Eric lives in Peru , single and without kids.

Myself and Cole have discussed having children plenty of times and I've always wanted to do it the traditional way. Marriage than kids. I don't judge people who have had kids before or never getting married to their significant other but to me it is important. Marriage feels like a security blanket just a hidden layer of protection, Cole said it didn't really bother him either way but to me its a just a form of reassurance. I don't know if we could have kids anyway well the natural way after all the medication and steroids I've been on if I pull through so perhaps we could adopt but for the time being I'm not sure.

As I'm at one of tables at the meal of the wedding and listening to my younger sister Tess ramble on about college while I'm half looking at Cole talking to my great aunt Edna and I don't know how he's coping. She's a lovely woman about ninety years old who we all think has early stages of Alzheimer's because she mentions how she met her husband John in a cocktail bar in nineteen fifty four and how she was engaged, married, and pregnant within the year. It's a sweet story but when you've heard it more than twenty times it gets kind of repetitive and even though Cole has heard about twice at this stage the first being at our own wedding.

I know I've been a bitch about a few things and I've been moody, I genuinely don't know what I could do without him. He's so caring and sympathetic about everything, he always knows what's best for me , I almost didn't want to attend our Riverdale dinner at first but due to his perfect words and a charismatic kiss I went and I enjoyed myself as I knew I would. I talked to Rosa the stylist in charge of Betty's iconic pony tail and Wiktoria the costume designer , the mothers of Riverdale, Mädchen , Marisol and Nathalie about how they are doing, I talked to Casey about Broadway, Jordan and KJ about their rising acting careers and of course Camila and the girls where I spent most of the night chatting about music more specifically the songs we listened to growing up the likes of the Black Eyed Peas' "I got a feeling" Lady Gaga's "Poker Face". We laughed and giggled how we used to hang out in each other's apartments dancing and sing along to Smash Mouths "All Star" and Guns and Roses' "Sweet Child O'Mine" oh those were the days. I remember one time we all sang Bobby McFarrin's "Don't worry be happy" after KJ had thought he had failed on yet another date after eating too fast luckily the girl saw potential in him and that's how him and Katy came to be, I kid you not as soon as the song had ended she texted him saying she had fun and would like to meet again.

Its funny how relationships develop like that, when I first met Cole I was shocked how much he cares for everyone not that I expected him to be this bratty former Disney star but I was honestly taken aback how loving he was and still is to everyone. I will be always proud of him in everything he does, I should say it more often but it's difficult for me to always express my emotions verbally. Cole gave up smoking not along after I was diagnosed and that meant a big deal to me, I say after our fight something snapped and he began to wean himself off the cigarettes and I will always admire him for doing it, he was irritable for the first week but I knew it was just the urge to have something in his mouth and his hand but after that I have noticed the ashy smell has left his fingers.

I glance over at Chloe and Chris both smiling at one another getting ready for their first dance. The lights dim down and focus on the two of them and Micheal Bublé's "Everything" they dance and we all applaud the happy couple. I turn to Tess and tell her I will hear more about her college room mate Kaitlyn's awful snoring later. I race over to Cole who is still talking to my great aunt Edna.

"Oh hi Lili, you got a good one here" she says holding Coles hand to which I chuckle.

"I know Aunty Edna, he's great" I say giving Cole a quick kiss.

"She's not boring you is she Cole?" I whisper in his ear.

"Not at all, Edna was just telling me about how she met her late husband John in a bar in downtown Chicago." He says chuckling as he knows I know the story.

I take a seat next to Cole and listen to Edna tell me the story for the hundredth time, Cole kisses me at the part where Edna says that "John was a military man but always knew how to sweep me off my feet" as if he knew the cue to show a bit of affection towards me and the whole story. I kiss him back as I move onto my darling husband's lap to listen to Edna continue her story for the hundredth time.

As I look at Cole while sitting on his lap as he listens patiently to my great aunt Edna I think about how much I love him. He never leaves my mind, he's always there, mentally if not physically. It's just incomprehensible. He's my one stable force, my one stability in a world filled with chaos and I so desperately need that in my life. I love him so much for that. Cole came into my life when I needed a companion the most and for that I will be forever grateful to as he truly is the man of my dreams, I love him so much it hurts, he mends my shattered heart and most importantly loves me for me...

Hey Guys hope you enjoyed this chapter! Any suggestions just DM
Lots of love
L💗