#literally my sister is getting married and im a bridesmaid and i have bridesmaid responsibilities and im actually looking forward to seeing

[lesbeamofsunshine]

in a really fucked up way its absolutely fucking infuriating being like "whaa I have nothing to live for" while quite literally having something to live for

[ltwilliamhavers]

New Years Eve (Rosawatts)

authors note: it’s a to the moon fanfiction! my first one ever! fun times. so, number one, i did write this pretty quickly and only went over it once so if theres mistakes im really sorry! and two, i feel like in one of the minisodes they mentioned eva’s canon family but i just. completely forgot about that. so if eva does have a canon family sorry about that- all of her family members i just completely made up. this fic is also pretty long- or at least i think so. its a little more than 5k words. just an fyi, i guess. anyway, thats about all i have to say, so thanks!

Neil was awoken to the sound of incredibly loud banging outside of his hotel room.

“Neil! Neil Watts! Open this door right now, I know you’re in there! I am not afraid to open this door by force, I swear!”

Neil sat up in his bed, feeling slightly uncomfortable due to the hard mattress and also the fact that this was not his usual bed. He wipes the sleep out of his eyes and quickly puts his glasses on so that he’s able to see more than two feet in front of him. He takes a quick scan of his surroundings. There’s cheap art of fruit baskets and lakes all around the stark white room, an old TV that he’s surprised even works anymore, and the weird, popcorn effect of the ceiling. He quickly realized that he wasn’t in his apartment he shared with Eva- but he was still groggy enough to not remember the reason why.

The woman outside the door continues to yell, obviously either not aware of the other patrons in the hotel, or she quite simply doesn’t care. She starts banging on the door again. “Come on, groom to be! Eva will literally kill you if you’re late, so if I were you I’d hurry up.” A brief silence ensues, giving the still tired Neil- not really listening to anything the voice outside says- the time to finally step out of his bed, wipe off his glasses, and head towards the door. The noise outside quickly pipes back up. “It’s also a possibility I will kill you before Eva gets the chance to. So you better hurry up.”

Neil groggily walks towards the door, it still shaking even though the person outside knows for a fact that the door is locked. Still stretching his face out, trying to wake himself up, he finally answers the person outside. “…Roxie?” Neil says, slightly yawning.

“Yes, Neil, it’s Roxie. Who else would be yelling at you at 9 am?”

“Eva.”

“Other than Eva, idiot. You guys aren’t allowed to see each other today.”

This sentence quickly jumpstarts Neil’s memory- even though Eva and Neil aren’t really ones for superstitions or traditions, they decided to do the whole thing of not being able to see each other on their wedding day.

Their wedding day.

On this day, Dr. Neil Watts is going to marry Dr. Eva Rosalene.

“I’m assuming you just woke up, considering it took me about 20 minutes to even get a response out of you.” Neil assumes that Roxie is exaggerating this, as she does with most stories, but he wasn’t entirely sure. He decided to go the safe route and not question this in case the story actually was true.

“Yeah, can I just… uh…. can you hold on a quick second?”

“Are you going to let me in or do I need to sit out here for another half hour?”

Roxie increased the time again, so Neil can safely assume that she did exaggerate how long she was outside, banging on his door.

“Just hold on!”

“If you’re in your little Pokemon boxers, I’ve seen them before. I’ll be fine. Just let me in, Neil, oh my God.”

Neil turns a bright red as he looks down, seeing his bright blue boxers with the little red Pokemon logo on it. “Wait, Roxie, how do you know I have… better question, when have you seen them?” There is silence from the other side of the door, but Neil has known Roxie long enough that she’s probably rolling her eyes.

“So, obviously you don’t remember anything about your bachelor party.”

Neil is too embarrassed to answer. He’s always been a little self conscious about how much of a lightweight he is- it doesn’t take him much to get him blackout drunk.

“Okay. Long story short, you got blackout drunk- obviously- and you wouldn’t stop taking off your pants to show everyone the ‘super cool Pokemon boxers’ that your ‘beautiful wife’ got you, even though you weren’t married yet. I tried to help you to your car because you literally could not stop stumbling, and you yelled at me multiple times for ‘trying to flirt with a happily married man.’”

Neil blushes thinking of drunk-Neil’s shenanigans, but he does think it was really funny he was telling everyone he was married. He’ll probably tell Eva about this story after the wedding- he’d like the embarrass himself as little as possible in front of her before they get married.

“Neil, I will start yelling again.”

“Just let me put my pants on, Roxie! I’d rather you not have to see my boxers while I’m sober.”

Roxie lets out a long, drawn out ‘ugh’ outside of the door while Neil quickly goes through all of his things, looking for pants. The first thing he finds are the dress pants that go with his suit, so he quickly pulls those on and opens the latch on the door, before Roxie ends up waking up the people in the building next to the hotel.

Neil opens the door, looking straight ahead, before quickly looking down to make eye contact with Roxie. He stands almost a foot taller than her, and it infuriates her whenever he jokes about her height or rests his arm on her head. He decided not to bring anything up today. He can already tell Roxie is angry.

“You owe me so many gallons of ice cream for this.”

“I really think you were only out here for a couple of minutes-”

“So. Many. Gallons.”

Neil shuts up quickly, staring into Roxie’s glaring eyes. Roxie quickly scans over him, giggling. “Graphic t-shirt and dress pants. It’s a really good look for you, Neil.” Neil turns bright red once again.

“Wedding’s at 6, Watts. All the groomsmen are downstairs. The bridesmaid are all helping Eva out- except for the best one, of course.” Roxie does the fingers in the cheek thing, smiling warmly at Neil. “None of us are dressed up yet. We’re gonna dress up a few hours before hand. We’re all going out for brunch.”

“Wait, why aren’t you helping Eva out?”

“Well, she did tell me that I could help out, but I know myself. I’d probably end up spilling everything humanly possible onto her dress. So I just decided…. not to.”

“You think it’s fine to spill stuff on my outfit though.”

“Weddings are for two people and two people only- the bride and the bride’s mother. So, no, you don’t really matter in the whole equation.”

“Yeah, because the whole marriage and love thing doesn’t matter at all.”

“Exactly!”

Neil sighs, not bothering to deal with Roxie’s logic of marriage and weddings this morning. “So I’m gonna get changed so that… I don’t want to go to brunch looking like this.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“Thanks, I try,” Neil says, with a cocky grin. Roxie rolls her eyes as Neil closes and latches the door.

* * *

Eva keeps twirling the engagement ring around her finger. She has a lot of pent up nervousness about this day- it needs to be perfect. Not that she’d ever tell Neil, but she’d daydreamed a lot about her wedding day. Sure, as her third-grade self she had never imagined the man she would one day marry would’ve been a snarky, sarcastic asshole, but she did know that she would’ve never picked someone she wasn’t sure she truly loved. She knew she made the right choice, she just didn’t want to kick off their marriage with a horrible start.

Her mom, Estella, walked into the bedroom alongside Eva’s twin sister Charlotte (who was called Charlie by basically everyone who knew her). They looked like they were glowing.

Charlie started lightly jumping up and down, clapping her hands and smiling cheerfully. “Evie, it’s here! You’re getting married!”

Eva jumps up with a start at this, not realizing that they were in the room. Eva starts, “How long have you two…” when Charlie sprints towards her and envelopes her in a bear hug.

“Evie, oh my god, you’re getting married! It’s finally happening! I’m so excited, oh my  god! I’m the most excited I’ve ever been!” Charlie pulls away from the hug, still slightly bouncing. “Well, okay, probably not the most excited, I was probably more excited on my wedding day, but you know what I mean. And you’re probably more excited than I am. I mean, that makes sense, right? Anyway.” Charlie takes a deep breath from chattering excitedly. Eva smiles warmly to herself- there’s really no stopping Charlie ones she gets talking. Not that she minds, Charlie’s always been her best friend since day one and she appreciates that she can do the talking for the both of them.

“Umm… thank you, Charlie. I am also very excited,” Eva says, stifling a laugh. She looks behind Charlie, seeing her mom still standing by the doorway. She sees Eva looking at her, and she gives her a warm smile, closing her eyes. Eva smiles back.

“So… when are we starting with the makeup? I’m so excited! I can’t wait to do your makeup! Oh my goodness, you’re going to look so beautiful! Not that you don’t already. I’m just super excited!” Charlie starts bouncing up and down again, along with her natural curls, while Eva starts giggling while Charlie keeps prattling on excitedly.

Eva looks around towards the doorway. “Mom? Where are the rest of the bridesmaids?” Her mom was one of the bridesmaids, and she had agreed to keep track of everyone. Usually that job went to the maid of honor, who was Charlie (technically matron of honor, in her case), but they all had mutually agreed they would not have Charlie in charge of keeping track of everything. Her mom responds in a small voice, “They’re all carpooling here. As you know, that girl… Roxanne? She’s staying with Neil. Too clumsy.” Her mom smiles with this last sentence. It wasn’t meant maliciously, Estella loves all of Eva’s friends, but anyone from a mile away can tell Roxie is one of the clumsiest people to grace this Earth.

The last three bridesmaids- Sophie, Maria and Valentina- were close friends from college that Eva was able to keep close in touch with. They weren’t doing anything in particular to help Eva out with her wedding, they were there for morale support and to give Charlie other people to talk to. Charlie was a professional cosmetologist, so she was in charge of doing Eva’s hair and makeup; Estella was in charge of making sure everyone was in the right place, at the right time. All Eva had to do was make sure she looked presentable, and show up to her wedding on time.

Eva hears the doorbell ring from the front of her shared apartment, and Charlie lights up. “Oh! They’re here! I finally have company!” Eva started to say something along the lines of, “Am I not good enough company for you?” but Charlie had already sprinted towards the door. In just a few seconds, she heard the hellos and semi-quiet screaming of girls by the door. Estella turns to Eva. “I’m going to step into a different room. I need to check on the Neil and the boys…” She smiles to herself. She had always loved Neil- he always managed to curb his tongue whenever he was near her. “Oh! And Roxanne.” She pats Eva’s arm appreciatively, and heads into the living room as all the other girls file in to the bedroom.

Charlie holds up a hair dryer in one hand and a hair straightener in the other. “Alright, Evie! 11 am. Gotta head out at 4. Five hours to get you ready for your wonderful groom!” Charlie smiles with all her teeth as Sophie, Maria and Valentina cheer behind her. Eva smiles sheepishly as she sits down at her vanity, waiting for Charlie to work her magic.

* * *

Neil, Roxie, Alistair, Rob and a few others who were Neil’s personal friends were still all sitting down at the brunch place. The wait had taken a while (this place was always very popular) and with the amount of people in the restaurant, the food had also taken a while to arrive. Everyone was already mostly finished up as Neil got the phone call from Eva’s mom. His phone started vibrating as the contact ‘Estella ❤’ popped up.

“Uh… I’m gonna go take care of this okay? You guys got the bill? Thanks guys love you bye!” Neil finishes quickly and leaves the restaurant to step outside as Rob yells after him.

Neil steps out into the cold winter air- Neil thought it would be romantic if they had gotten married in the winter. Eva didn’t care either way, she was just excited for the wedding. They had both decided on New Year’s Eve (which Neil had also suggested, thinking that it would be symbolic for their ‘new beginning.’ Not that Neil would ever admit this to Eva.)

He immediately regretted not bringing a heavier jacket or maybe some gloves, which Roxie had pestered him to do so and Neil had brushed her off. He picked up the call for Estella, fingers already freezing.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Neil!” He smiles to himself. He always loved how happy Estella was to hear from him.

“Yes, hi, Estella. What’s going on?”

“Just checking up on my boys! How’s Roxanne?”

Neil looks inside the window of the restaurant, watching Roxie pick up her drink and accidently spill some on herself. He turns back around. “Well… she’s exactly how you’d expect her to be.”

He hears Estella giggle on the other line. Neil smiles.

“So? Neil? Are you ready? I know I am a nice woman but if you are late I will find you.”

“Yes- yes, Estella, I’m going to be ready. All of our suits are dry cleaned and at my hotel room. Is Eva almost done with her makeup?” Neil smiles to himself again. It hasn’t really hit him yet how big of a thing this is- he’s getting married. To Eva Rosalene. The girl he’s had a crush on since high school.

“Oh, she hasn’t even started on makeup yet! She’s still straightening her hair. It might be a while.”

“Estella, not that I don’t love talking to you, but could you hand me to Eva? I’d really appreciate it.”

“Yes! Sure! Just one second.”

Neil hears shuffling on the phone and takes this moment to look back inside. He sees Rob paying the bill, then he turns back to Neil, giving him the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture. Neil quickly turns back around.

He then jumps, hearing a loud cacophony of noises from the other line. Lots of girl’s voices yelling “Hi, Neil!” and some other squeals in the background.

“Hi, hi, everyone.”

He hears some whispering that he can’t really make out, but soon he hears Eva’s voice.

“Neil?”

He puts on his sappiest, mushiest voice. “Hi, babykins!” he says, drawing out each word.

“I swear to god, Neil, if you ever say that to me ever again I will call off this wedding.”

Neil laughs. “So, babe, what’s happenin?

“I’m just getting my- OW! Charlie!” He hears some muttered apologies, presumably from Charlie. “I’m getting my hair done, if Charlie doesn’t rip it all out first.” He hears Charlie go, ‘hey!’ in a mock-offense tone.

“Sounds like a really fun time.”

“Yeah, I can tell how enthralled you are by your voice.”

“So… whatcha gettin done?”

“Neil. Come on. You know I’m not allowed to tell you what I look like.”

Neil grins. “Not allowed to say what you look like?”

“Wait, I didn’t-”

“Oh no, Eva, I’m forgetting what you look like! What color is your hair? Do you still have those beautiful dark brown eyes? I don’t know. And you can’t tell me.”

“Neil, I swear, you know what I meant.”

“Please answer my questions. I’m getting so worried. I can’t remember.”

“I hate you so much,” Eva answers, but he can tell she’s speaking with a smile.

Neil sees the group leaving the restaurant, Roxie turning around and waving at him to follow them. Neil turns back to his phone.

“Alright, I gotta go. Hanging out with my crew, you know the deal.”

Eva sighs from the other line. “Bye, Neil.”

“I love you!”

Eva smiles. “I love you too.”

“Okay, bye for real this time. Roxie has been glaring at me this whole time.”

“Bye.”

“Adios, Eva.” Neil hangs up the phone, puts it in his pocket, and walks over to Roxie to rejoin the group.

* * *

“I cannot believe you don’t know how to tie a bowtie.”

“This would’ve been much easier if everyone could’ve worn a tie, not just the groomsmen.”

“Would I have had to help you out with tying a tie too, Neil?” Roxie asks with a smirk.

In the church’s dressing room, Roxie was standing on her tiptoes to try to help Neil get his tuxedo on. Neil was able to get everything else on- Estella made sure he could button everything and that everything was the correct size for him. However, Neil had never learned how to tie a bowtie.

“Well, you see, I know how to tie a tie. I just never wear bowties.”

“It’s really not that difficult.”

“Don’t patronize me, Roxie. Not on my wedding day.”

Roxie giggles a little bit, as she finished up his bowtie. Neil makes eye contact with Rob, standing by the doorway. He’s there to make sure Neil and Eva don’t see each other before the big moment.

“You really should learn how to tie a bowtie, Neil.”

“Rob, do not make me resend your best man responsibilities.”

Even though Neil and Rob had more or less hated each other when Neil had started working, Neil had eventually warmed up to him. Rob was one of the ones who first caught on to Neil’s crush on Eva, and prompted him to ask her out. Neil decided that this was good enough to give him the position of best man.

Rob smiles. “You’re going to resend my best man responsibilities.”

“If you keep talking like that, yes, absolutely.”

Neil walks over to the tall mirror to check himself out. He does a few poses in the mirror, giving Rob a glare when he sees him laughing in the background.

“I can’t believe I’m going to look better than Eva on our wedding day.”

“That part’s debatable,” Rob answers.

Roxie adds onto this. “Yeah, you haven’t even seen Eva yet. Trust me on this one, she looks absolutely stunning. I can’t wait to look that good on my wedding day.”

Neil turns around, putting on a self assured face. “No, trust me, I definitely look better than her. Me and Eva are having a little competition for whoever looks better today.”

Roxie raises an eyebrow. “…Eva agreed to that?”

“Well, no, but… I did. And that’s what matters.”

Roxie and Rob sigh at the same time.

“Are you nervous?” Roxie asks.

Neil has felt butterflies in his stomach the whole day, and now knowing the wedding’s going to start in half an hour his hands have started to shake.

“Absolutely not. I was born ready for this, are you kidding?”

Roxie and Rob obviously saw through this, but they said nothing.

Roxie starts backing up towards the door. “Gotta go meet up with the bridesmaids- haven’t even gotten into my dress yet.” Roxie ducks out into the hallway. “Adios, losers!” she yells, voice echoing down the hallway. Neil sighs.

Rob and Neil stand in silence for a few moments, before Rob pipes up.

“Are you ready?”

Neil turns to himself in the mirror again, giving himself a once over. His tuxedo is all buttoned up, none of his clothes have any wrinkles, and his white boutonniere was perfectly placed in his pocket. He looked good to go.

But how are you ever ready for the most important moment of your life?

Neil turns back around to Rob. “The readiest I’ve ever been.”

“I don’t think readiest is a word.”

“Shut up, Rob.”

* * *

All of the many guests have sat themselves down in the large church. The officiant has made his way to the altar. Neil and Rob have made their way to the altar from the side door. All the bridesmaids and groomsmen have made their way to the top; all the groomsmen in black tuxedos and ties; all bridesmaids in cream colored dresses with gold sashes. Charlie then walks up to the altar by herself, in a full length gold dress. The ring bearer has delivered the rings, and the flower girl has sprayed flower petals over the aisle.

The only thing left was Eva and her father, James, to walk down the aisle.

Neil kept fidgeting with his pockets. The only other wedding he had been to before was Charlie’s, and he didn’t pay attention to what the groom was doing because he was too busy getting yelled at by Eva for not paying attention.

He now wishes he would’ve actually watched the reception instead of trying to get Eva to laugh at his jokes. Almost all eyes are on him. He’s never had stage fright, he was always a theatre kid at heart, but he has never been this nervous before in his life.

The organ player starts up and Neil quickly picks his head up to watch the big church doors at the end of the aisle. Everyone in the pews stands up, facing the doors too. Neil’s heart is beating faster than it ever had before.

The big church doors burst open, as the organ player plays a crescendo. James and Eva walk through the doors, and-

Eva looks the most beautiful Neil has ever seen her.

Her hair is in a low bun, held up with silver hairsticks. She is in a beautiful, long a-line sweetheart dress with long lace sleeves. Her face is covered with a veil, but Neil knows she looks as beautiful as she always does.

James and Eva slowly walk down the aisle, and Neil realises he’s tearing up. He remembers what he said to Eva one time- how ‘liquids and solids’ come out of his mouth at weddings- but he knew that was a lie. He was a sucker for weddings, he just couldn’t help it. He tries to wipe his eyes, before actual tears start rolling down his cheeks. He keeps his hand up by his face the entire time Eva is walking towards him, he can hardly believe this. He’s really doing this. He’s really going to marry Dr. Eva Rosalene.

James and Eva reach the end of the aisle, and Neil can finally see Eva’s face through the veil. She’s smiling at him. Neil smiles back, eyes tearing up again.

James takes a seat in the front row, watching Eva step up onto the altar to join Neil.

Eva takes Neil’s hands in her own. She looks up at him, smiling warmly. Neil keeps looking at her with bewilderment- she’s here, right in front of him, and she looks so beautiful. Neil can’t help it this time- tears start rolling down his face. He can’t wipe them away, he doesn’t want to stop holding Eva’s hands.

Eva starts giggling. “Thought you weren’t the sentimental type?” Eva whispers under her breath, while the officiant talks behind them.

“Eva. Not on my wedding day.” Neil whispers back.

“Just your wedding day, huh?”

Neil was about to respond, when the officiant said, “And do you, Dr. Neil Watts, take Dr. Eva Rosalene as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

Neil looks at the officiant, then back to Eva, staring into her beautiful dark brown eyes. He chokes up a little before answering. “I do.” He says this while not looking away from Eva’s eyes.

(Not that he’d ever tell Eva, but he did consider saying ‘no’ as a joke when answering this question, but then he realised that almost every person there would murder him. So he decided against it.)

Eva smiles at him. The officiant turns to her. “And do you, Dr. Eva Rosalene, take Dr. Neil Watts as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”

Eva looks up at Neil, and holds her gaze for a few moments. “I do.”

The officiant smiles at the both of them, and then to the crowd.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

All the guests cheer loudly as Neil lifts Eva’s veil, cups his hands around her face and kisses her. When he pulls away, he sees Eva’s eyes shining. “Not bad,” she whispers to him, in  a sarcastic tone. When they both turn to face the front, Neil elbows her a little bit. Eva smiles and glances at him for a moment.

They laugh as the groomsmen and bridesmaids pull out gold confetti poppers and sprinkle them with the confetti.

* * *

“Are you ready for our first dance, m’lady?” Neil extends his hand out towards Eva, who was sitting next to her family, when the lights had dimmed and the DJ had introduced the two of them to come out onto the floor.

“Call me m’lady again and I will divorce you.”

“You won’t, you love me too much.”

“That, and it’s expensive,” Eva responds with a smile. Neil frowns good naturedly.

“Oh, come on. Dance with me.”

Eva allows herself to be pulled up by Neil, leaving her family who all turn to face towards the floor. Neil turns the ‘dragging Eva’s forearm’ into ‘holding Eva’s hand’ as they get closer towards the floor. They step onto the middle of the floor, holding each other close as the song turns on. Eva looks confused for a few seconds, then looks up at Neil, eyebrow raised but still smiling. “You chose ‘You Were Meant For Me’ by Jewel? Really? How sappy are you?” Neil blushes. ‘You told me you liked this song.” Eva, smiling, leans in close to Neil, moving her arms to his back and resting her head on his shoulder. “I do like this song.”

Eva and Neil stayed on the floor throughout the whole song, swaying with each other and keeping each other as close as possible.

* * *

It was nearing the end of the reception, which meant that it was time for Neil and Eva to cut their wedding cake. The cake was 3 tiers tall, the bottom tier chocolate (Neil and Eva’s shared favorite), second tier vanilla (they both decided that they needed something basic for anyone to enjoy), and the final, smallest one, carrot cake. Eva took it upon herself to show Neil that carrot cake can be delicious if cooked by the right person.

They had done the sappy thing where they both held onto the knife while cutting into the cake; Neil playfully elbowing her, trying to get her to mess up, while Eva laughed.

When they had both gotten their slices onto their plate, Eva said, “Do you want to do that really cheesy thing where the couples shove the cake in the other person’s face?”

Neil tried to remain as straight faced as possible. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Eva took this moment as a teaching lesson for Neil, not noticing the grin growing on his face. “Sometimes, at weddings, when the betrothed are cutting their cake, they ball up some of the cake in their-”

Eva was cut off from the rest of her sentence as Neil had picked his slice of the cake in his hand and shoved it into Eva’s face. She looked confused for a few seconds, then looked back up at Neil with steely determination, a sly smile on her face. “Oh, you are so paying for that one, Watts.” Neil was about to correct her, saying that technically today, they were both Watts, but got interrupted because of the cake that was thrown in his face.

Eva had another fistful of cake, laughing, and Neil went to grab another part of his slice, when they were interrupted by a flash in front of both of them. They lower their pieces of cake and turn towards the bright flash, seeing a smiling Charlie holding her phone. “Oh, sorry! You two just looked so cute so I thought I might as well get a picture, right?”

Neil was about to say something along the lines of ‘that’s alright,’ but was once again interrupted by the act of cake being shoved in his face. He turned to the Eva laughing beside him. “You’re paying for that one too, Watts!” Neil said, as he picked up Eva, now laughing even louder, and slung her over her shoulder. She playfully hit him, yelling, “I swear, Neil, put me down!” if she could get it out between bursts of laughter. Neil was smiling too, and Charlie continued to take multiple pictures of the newlywed’s shenanigans.

* * *

Most people had already filed out at this point. Only Eva’s family, the groomsmen, the bridesmaids and a few stragglers were left. It was time for the final dance.

“You picked this final one too, yeah?”

Neil looked at Eva. “I absolutely did. And you’re gonna love it.”

Eva rolled her eyes in a good natured way.

The DJ introduced the final song, saying it was almost time to pack up, as Neil stood up from his chair and once again tugged on Eva’s arm to get her to follow him.

“I’ll stand up if I find out it’s a good song.”

“Alright, well, I guess you’ll just have to watch me out there, alone, busting some pretty awesome moves on the dance floor.”

“So you do admit it’s a bad song?”

Neil sighs while smiling, as he makes his way to the dance floor. He stands in a pop punk boy band pose while waiting for the song to start, making Eva giggle. The first beginning notes of the song start, as Neil starts to dance horribly. He watches Eva put her head in her hands while laughing, causing Neil to smile.

On the loudspeakers, Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners was playing.

Whenever the lyric, ‘come on Eileen!’ played, Neil sang ‘come on Eva!’ loudly over it. Eva turned bright red from the embarrassment of her husband, but was smiling nonetheless.

Neil had stayed out there for about 30 seconds, starting to get worried that Eva wasn’t joking when she said she wouldn’t join him. But when he turned around, and he saw Eva standing up from her chair, smiling and shaking her head, with a glint in her eyes-

He saw his whole future.