Sophia....
"Happy New Year, Mrs Lapley." Rubbing our noses together, Cade is smiling down at me as we slow dance with our bodies pressed intimately and impossibly close to each other's, with Auld Lang Syne being merrily sung all around us.
"Happy New Year, my gorgeous husband." Feeling more content than I ever dreamed I could be, I smile up at the man who totally completes me in every single possible way.
"You look so beautiful, Sophia." Cade's hand clasps tighter around mine, the one being so sweetly held against his chest, and the one being held so securely between our now married bodies.
"Today, I feel beautiful. Being here. Like this. In your arms. Married. Today couldn't be anymore perfect." My joyous eyes widen in wonderment at the man who is now my husband. In his matrimonial arms, I look around the beautifully dressed marquee. It is nothing short of majestic. White organza drapes elegantly hang down from the ceilings in gorgeous, sweeping lines. The same stunning organza cover the walls, cocooning us in the perfect romantic backdrop. While the fairy lights, they prettily twinkle above and below us, creating a magical ambience for our wedding reception.
Cade moves in to kiss me, pressing his precious lips so softly onto mine. Then he closes his eyes, allowing himself to shut everything out; just so he can savour my warm lips upon his. We dance like that for a small and loving while. Mouth to mouth. Body to body. We contentedly dance to the song that bids farewell to the old year. When Cade opens his eyes again, his green spheres look so joyously emotional. "Thank you. For sticking with me. For loving me. For supporting me. For wanting to marry me. For making me the happiest man alive." A little overcome, he tries to smile away his emotional moment.
My grin is wide, wide and just as emotional. "Thank you, for loving me. For asking me to marry you. For becoming my gorgeous husband." Swaying in his arms, I try to articulate all of my emotional happiness. "You have made me feel like a princess today, Cade. To tell you that I love you, just doesn't seem to cover what I feel, right now." With only a smile, Cade lowers his doting lips onto mine. The same lips that now gently quiver as I come close to nearly crying.
So my beloved husband holds me harder, squeezing me in his arms to express all of his strong love for me. "I feel exactly the same way, my darling." Ear to ear, Cade then starts humming Auld Lang Syne before peppering my neck with soft and silly little kisses.
Giggling, I both love and hate him doing it. It tickles like hell, yet feels sooooo good at the same teasing time. So, I continue to giggle. I also continue to squirm a little in my thirties inspired wedding dress. As I kick out the bottom of the satin hem with my matching white satin shoes, I tell myself that I shouldn't be squirming so much when my breasts are so safely inside of the delicate georgette bodice. "Stop kissing me like that...otherwise, I might be giving our guests more than an eyeful of what I have inside of here." Tapping the beautiful bodice, I smirk at my deliciously wicked husband.
Narrowing his devilish eyes, his smirk is just as devilish as he places his hands upon my hips. "We certainly can't have that, can we?" His fingers hold me more firmly. "Only I get to see what is under that lovely dress. Which, by the way, I am so glad that you decided to buy...you look beautiful in it." I too, am glad that I decided to buy a dress in the end. None of the rented ones that I had tried, wowed me. Then, whilst out shopping with Jems and Zara, I saw this one in a window of a bridal shop in Cheltenham. It oozed classic Hollywood glamour. Simple, yet stunning. So I made an appointment to try it on, and the rest is now romantic history.
"I am glad that my husband likes my wedding dress." Smiling, I return to where I like to be—snuggled up against his chest.
Pushing me back slightly, Cade amorously surveys me in my dress with darkening wolffish eyes. "Oh, I do." Then pulling me back against him, he turns us playfully around as the New Year song comes to an end.
Just as It Had To Be You starts playing, my father is standing beside us both. "I'm sorry, Cade. Would I be able to briefly steal a quick dance with my baby girl?"
Cade graciously steps back with a genteel smile. "You may dance with my beautiful wife, if you allow me the honour to dance with yours?" he charmingly says, looking to where my proud mum is. Spotting her just beside the twinkly dance floor, Cade holds out his hand to her with an endearing smile; his unspoken gesture of asking my dear mum to dance with him.
Now in the arms of my delighted father, we dance to the voice of Harry Connick Jr. In his fatherly way, he smiles at me. "My baby girl is now all grown up." He says it just as proudly as his smile is. "I couldn't be more proud of you, Sophia."
"Thank you, Dad." I have always been a daddy's girl, I think I always will be. "For all that you have done for me, thank you." Kissing my father's cheek, I want him to know how wonderful I think he is. We didn't have long to plan this wedding, but both he and my mother, have done so much to help this precious day happen. "I love you, Dad." Cuddling him hard, I enthusiastically thank him with my daughterly arms.
Cuddling me just as enthusiastically back, dad warmly says. "My pleasure, sweetheart."
As we dance, dad starts talking. "I know you are going to be happy, Sophia. Cade looks at you, just as I still do with your mother. Every time you leave a room, he misses you. I've seen him look at you that way, many times over now...and it's a look that I'm happy to see." Proudly, he goes on. "All a father ever wants for their daughter is to be loved by the man that he will hand his most prized possession over to. I know that Cade will treasure you, just as I always will."
Placing my head on my dad's shoulder, this daddy's girl is about to cry. Just as I feel that I might, dad has more to say. "Never go to bed on an argument at night, because that argument will fester through to the next day. A happy marriage is all about give and take. Give freely. Take respectfully. Being married isn't like it is in those books that both you and your mother bloody read. If you do it right, it can be better. Oh, and never, I mean never, interrupt your husband if he's watching Match of the Day."
I laugh now, amused that my father is trying to condense as many words of wisdom as he can into just one dance. "I will try to remember that, Dad." My laughter is now tailing off into a chuckle. "You're a bit of a soppy git, aren't you?" Teasing my dad, I smirk at him.
He smirks back, his eyes wrinkling up a little. "That is why your mother loves me. I'm a soppy sort, but a man should never be afraid to show his true feelings. Honesty and truth are the foundations for every strong marriage. Sure, every couple will argue and disagree, but it's how you deal with those arguments and those disagreements that will weaken or strengthen a marriage."
"Such wise words, old man." I tease some more, unable to stop myself from winding up my wonderful, funny father.
"Less of the bloody old, my girl." Dad warns me with his wide and warm eyes.
Cuddling him much like I used to as a little girl; a big and clumsy bear hug, I then heartily tell him. "I love you, Dad."
"And I love you." Now, he quickly adorns a crookedly crude smile. "Besides, if you don't ever argue, you will miss out on all the making up."
"Dad! Too much information!" I now have the very inappropriate vision of both my mother and father 'making up' in my less than impressed mind.
Still chuckling to himself, Dad lets go of me. "I am now going to hand you back to your pining husband, to go and dance with your very beautiful mother." Kissing my smiling cheek, he then swaps dancing partners with Cade.
Pulling both of my hands up to his gorgeously suited chest, Cade begins to rhythmically sway to the music with his own hands now laid cheekily flat on my ass. "Miss me, my darling wife?"
"Of course." I seductively admit.
"You know, your mother was asking me about grandchildren?" He amusingly says, swaying us more with the music in a lighthearted and carefree way.
"Really?"
"Yep! She is dying for a little Lapley to arrive."
"And what did you say?" I ask with a very intrigued grin.
"That we would work on it, in the not too distant future." And there's that killer smile of his again. The one that I just adore to see. "I would love nothing more than for us to have children...not yet, but in a while." He sweetly explains.
Tiptoeing in my satiny heels, I agree with what he has said by wrapping my arms tightly around his neck. "That sounds wonderful."
Squeezing my ass cheeks in a loving way, Cade then says. "You will be a wonderful mother, Sophia."
I then loosen my loving hug on him, wanting to look Cade right in his tender green eyes. "And you will be a perfect daddy." I tell him that, because I know he will be. Cade has so much love inside of him. Love that was just never given the chance to be what it wanted to be. Now, his love is like a waterfall—never ending and breathtaking.
When I first met Cade, I used to ask myself whether a person could love someone who had been so very unloved? But without question, you can. If that person is supposed to be yours. If your hearts uncontrollably beat as one, then you can absolutely love them.
And you know what? They will love you back. They will love you in a way that no other will ever measure up to.
The love will be unconditional.
It will be faithful.
It will be for forever.
What I have come to realise about love: there is never no template for it. There is no right or wrong way of doing it. I think Cade and I, we have created our very own template. It has got messy at times, but we have eventually got there. Now that we are married, our lives together can truly begin.
He adores me.
And I adore him.
We strangely met.
We fell in love.
We are now married.
And we will continue to fall deeper in love.
This is certainly not where our story happily ends...it is just our beautiful beginning.