"If Kingston Maverick is late to my wedding, I may suffocate him with all this tulle."

October turned to November and their promised talk about Vegas had never happened. Everleigh didn't want to bring it up, Maverick seemed disinclined to do so, too. They existed on parallel planes that refused to cross streams for fear of becoming nuclear.

When they woke up the morning of Roman and Florence's wedding—November 16, the day Roman pretended to be confused about an assignment and made Florence tutor him. A full dumbass, but Everleigh supposed it worked out—Everleigh and Maverick went separate ways. Everleigh had to be there early, some stupid shite about hair and makeup and how she was the maid of honour, so she had to be there. She'd done a thousand and one rehearsal dinners at that point so it was simply decorating the venue and hoping her outfit actually fit.

"I don't know when he's showing up."

Maverick had to record; he had emergency time booked that he'd only found out a couple days before. He always found out days before, sometimes hours. Sometimes he left in the middle of the night and Everleigh woke up in bed with Dewey in his place and a note that had been scribbled in the dark with practically illegible handwriting. That's what happened when files corrupted on his previous Superhero recordings and put him a month behind his self-imposed deadline. He sang like he was running out of time; re-recorded as many songs as he could with any time he could get.

(The day he found that out had been hard.) (Everleigh and Maverick might've been at a stalemate in terms of communication but not one ounce of lingering awkwardness had stopped him from crying in her arms.) (He broke the left lens of his glasses with how hard he'd dropped them on the floor while on the phone with one of his producers.) (He called Stevie a lot during the re-recordings for someone who refused to tell her his files had been fucked up—said he didn't want to bring her down with him but needed to hear from her.) (Everleigh wasn't sure he'd ever look so broken in all the time she'd known him.)

"Better be before I walk down the aisle."

Everleigh shrugged. "He needs to do what he needs to do."

"Is something wrong between the two of you?"

"What do you mean? No."

"I know you think I don't know you," Florence said, wiggling into her dress, "but I know that look. Do you want to talk about it?"

Everleigh started doing buttons up at the back. "Nothing's wrong between Kingston and me."

"No fights? Or I dunno—"

"Flo, it's your wedding day—" Everleigh was struggling with the buttons. Not because there was anything wrong with the dress, because her hands shook so fucking much talking about Maverick that it was practically impossible to function physically.

"Roman said you two had to buy emerg—"

"Oh my God, he's got a big mouth."

"Does Mav want kids? Is that what this is about?"

"We've never talked about that," Everleigh said. "That's not where we're at right now."

"Maybe you should."

"We're not fighting over fucking kids, we're arguing about him leaving for Vegas for potentially a long time." Well. There it was. Big old pile of dirty laundry. Dusty bones toppling from the closet.

"You're arguing about long distance when you did long distance for a while?"

"We're not arguing."

"You said it, not me."

She did, didn't she?

"I don't want to talk about this, it's your day."

"I want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine."

You recognize those are two different things, right?

Shut up, Maverick. Shut up, Everleigh.

"Leigh. You don't have to do this."

Everleigh finished with the buttons on Florence's dress and crossed her arms. "I'm here for you. You've got me, I've got you."

"Are you sure?"

"You've already put makeup on my face, gel in my hair, and I'm wearing a dress."

"You're wearing a romper."

"Close enough."

"Not really." Florence turned to look at her and Everleigh saw herself staring back.

She'd never really understood what people meant when they said she and her sister looked alike. Florence was older than her and it never made sense that they would look alike, they were different people despite the DNA they shared. To her, she'd always looked like her father and Florence had always looked like their mother.

But right then? With worry creasing her face, the slightest hint of exhaustion staring back at her? Every late night study session had made Everleigh the spitting image of her sister. Somewhere, that meant something.

"Today's going to be a great day," Everleigh said, forcing a smile that she hoped didn't look as faked as it felt. "You've been planning this for a while. And it's finally happening. And you're going to marry that idiot you somehow love—"

"Leigh—"

"Okay, fine, maybe we all enjoy his presence sometimes or whatever," Everleigh adjusted, "but you're marrying the guy who you've loved for ages. That's important. You don't have to worry about anything else."

Florence hugged her. Tightly. "I love you, Leigh."

"I love you too, Flo."

"Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Sure."

"Did you actually get that thing tailored? It looks loose."

God fucking damn it. Everleigh was hoping no one would notice. She'd managed to get a romper instead of a dress, in the exact colour Florence had wanted her bridesmaids to wear. Maverick had seen her without her shirt on a few too many times for two people who weren't talking about important things, but he'd placed a few too many kisses along her ribcage for it to have been a coincidence.

"I forgot," Everleigh lied, "I'm sorry."

Florence hugged her a little tighter. "It's okay."

*

"I knew I loved you when you told me to not be a wanker while you tried to teach me the ideas behind neural communication in psychology one," Roman said. "You laughed and told me if I didn't stop messing up, you were going to give up and leave the library. The first session, and every session that followed. I think about the third time you came to help me study was when you realized I was acing the class, but that didn't stop you from tutoring me for the entire semester. I fell in love with you over late night study sessions that led to early morning breakfasts at 24-hour diners and I've fallen more in love with you every day since. Loving you is easy, it always has been. But it's always been an honour to have your love in return as well. People always say that school romances never last and rewriting that hypothesis with you is one of our greatest achievements. Thank you for being the first person I want to talk to in the morning and the last person I want to talk to at night. Thank you for being the greatest mother our daughter and for always being there when either of us need a shoulder to cry on. Thank you to your wonderful family for always treating me like one of their own. Thank you for being the best Trivial Pursuit partner, even if we always come in second. Thank you for loving me on good days, bad days, and all the days in between. I promise to love you as long as we live, and I can't wait until our greatest adventure yet: marriage. 'Cause, baby, we're the new romantics."

*

"Have you managed to sneak a bite of anything?" It was new for Everleigh to be asking other people that, crikey. But Florence looked like she was damn close to passing out after her family and friends photos and dinner was still an hour and a half away. Their cocktail hour appetizers were floating around with their caterers, but the guests seemed to be enjoying them.

Everleigh hadn't had anything to eat, either, but that was because she had been trying to see if Maverick was there yet without tipping Florence off that he'd missed the ceremony. She was certain it was an elephant in the room and Florence simply didn't want to bring it up herself again, but there was no denying the severe lack of him during cocktail hour.

"God, no," Florence said, pressing a hand to her stomach as she leaned back in the cushioned chair the lobby had. She had already kicked her heels off and traded them for a pair of white sneakers. Nobody would see them anyway, her dress reached down to the floor. "I'm fucking starving. But I'm too tired to even get up."

"I'll be back."

Everleigh hunted down a server, who she explained the situation to. The server offered to get Florence a tray of all their appetizers, and Everleigh graciously accepted. After following the server to the catering truck and accepting a tray with a couple bites of each appetizer, Everleigh made her way back up to where Florence had been sitting.

"Oh my God, I love you." Florence immediately sat more upright, taking the tray from Everleigh. "Thank you."

"Hey, hey, hey—" Everleigh snatched the tray back from Florence. "Some of these you need two hands to eat."

Florence was already grabbing a vegetable kebab from the tray. Everleigh grabbed the flowing, loose leg of her romper and pulled it under Florence's hands. If she got sauce on her bridesmaid outfit, so be it, not a drop was going to be spilled on Florence's wedding dress if she had anything to say about it.

Florence continued eating and only left a couple bites of appetizers on the tray, which Roman promptly ate as soon as he'd found Everleigh and Florence in the lobby. He kissed her on the cheek before diving into her leftovers.

"God, I'm starving," Roman said, mouth full of vegetable pakora. Bite barely stuffed in his cheek before speaking.

"You recognize it's your wedding so maybe you should eat the food you paid for?"

"You try eating while everyone and their fucking dog wants to congratulate you."

"You're literally chewing while you're talking to me. It's called multitasking."

"That's because your opinion of me is already at rock bottom, so I don't care." Roman grabbed the last kebab and practically ate it in a single bite. It took Everleigh everything she had to not make a comment about deep-throating.

"Where's your jacket gone?" Florence asked.

"Don't know," Roman said. "Don't care."

"Isn't it a rental?" Everleigh asked.

"I'll find it later during cleanup."

"Oh my God, we have to clean this shit up too?"

Roman swatted her in the shoulder. "No shit, Leigh."

"How am I supposed to know?" Everleigh asked. "I don't even want to get married."

"Speaking of marriage material," Roman said, coughing into his fist and nodding behind Everleigh.

There he was. Fucking finally. If Florence didn't kill him, Troy might've. He was not impressed that Maverick wasn't there considering the amount of time he'd known about it.

"I do not want to marry Kingston." Everleigh's voice was already drifting away.

"Marriage is fun."

"You've been married, like, an hour."

"That's beside the point."

Maverick was in a simple black button up that he'd rolled the sleeves up on. The shirt paired well with his pinstriped black trousers, all black Converse, round glasses, and black painted nails. A nervous hand raked through his bleached curls as he looked around. When he eventually spotted Florence, Roman, and Everleigh, he immediately weaved his way through guests to get over to them. The only time he stopped was to grab food from trays and eat something. Everleigh wished she would've forced herself to do the same.

When he finally reached them, the first thing he did was apologize to Roman and Florence for missing the ceremony. For someone who had said she was going to asphyxiate him, Florence got up from her seat, hugged him, thanked him for coming, and dragged Roman away with the excuse that they needed to talk to their guests.

Subtle.

Maverick looked around for a moment. Almost like he was between hiding in the bathroom and jumping out the second floor window. Everleigh didn't have the heart to tell him the building wasn't high enough to kill him, he looked like he needed an out.

"You look beautiful—"

"How was recording—"

"Sorry—"

"No, I'm—"

"It's okay."

"It's fine."

"Can we go back to being ourselves for tonight?" Maverick asked. "I don't want to ruin your sister's wedding. Your dad already told me I missed the ceremony in a way that felt like he was ready to noose me and walk me to hangman's row himself."

"I told him to be nice," Everleigh said. "It's not your fault. This time."

Maverick gave her a half smile. "This time?"

"Every other time you've been late, I can blame you," Everleigh said.

"I guess that's fair," Maverick said.

"You look handsome."

"I'm sorry I didn't find a blazer in time. I should've gone with Roman to his fitting."

Everleigh shook her head. "You're perfect."

Maverick looked at her like she was oncoming rain after a decade long drought. They were going to be okay. Right?

"Dare I ask..."

"You can ask me anything you want."

"Have you eaten anything?"

Everleigh didn't even realize she'd been looking down at the floor when he started talking again until she ventured a look upwards. She assumed the tension in her jaw answered his question. Maverick took a step forward and kissed Everleigh on the cheek.

"I'll be right back."

Everleigh took his wrist in her hand. Pulled him back to her. "Kingston?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"I just—" Everleigh bit her lip and squeezed his wrist a little tighter. "You know that, right?"

Maverick leaned a little closer. "You know all I'm going to do is grab you something to eat, right? Maybe force feed it to you depending on your reception of said snack? I'm not leaving you."

Everleigh didn't say a word.

"Everleigh," Maverick said. A little too calm. "I'm going to be, like, ten feet over there."

Everleigh nodded. "I know."

Maverick gently poked her hand. "Might need you to let go, beautiful."

"I—" Everleigh searched his eyes; a little too soft at her expression. The suns begging for her to say what she needed to, pleading for a cloud-free day. "Okay."

Maverick's eyes darted to her hand. Still clinging to his arm for dear life. "Everleigh."

"Sorry." Everleigh let go. She could always do better at letting go.

"It's fine."

Maverick had a certain sort of half smile that pulled at the corner of his mouth and made Everleigh want to kiss him until the other half broke into a full grin.

She opted for his cheek instead. "I'll be right here."

Maverick took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. "I promise. I'll be back before you know it."

Maverick walked away, but not far enough that she couldn't see him. Even in a sea of people, Everleigh wasn't sure she could lose him. Wasn't sure he'd ever be out of her sight. There were reports that every single human being on earth had seven doppelgangers living somewhere in the world. If they made Maverick stand with every single one of his, asked Everleigh behind one way glass to pick him from the lineup, she was certain she could identify him purely from the way his eyes shined no matter the lighting. No sparkle was quite like his.

"I'm glad he's finally here."

Everleigh turned to face Dawn. Swallowed hard. Her gaze wandered back to Maverick because who else would she look at in a room full of people she loved. "Me too."

"You know," she said, "when your father and I were young, we got in a tussle."

"Mum, please don't."

"It was over where we wanted to move into after he was done at university," Dawn said. "And your father wanted to go all the way to America. Where my family was from."

"Nobody wants to live in fuckin' Dakota."

"There's a reason they came back here," Dawn said, laughing. "But it was one of his options. For whatever reason. Glasgow was another, New York was in there. There wasn't anywhere your father wouldn't go if it was with me. He was ready to pack his bags straight out of his degree. Brought a suitcase in his beat up old car to the ceremony and everything."

"Are you trying to tell me I should go with him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mum—"

"I was trying to tell you that sometimes you have to fight things out before they fix themselves," Dawn said. "I love your father, and if I had given up on him, you and Florence wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be here, having met Roman and Maverick. There are good things that come with duking it out. Sometimes avoiding it leads to more cracks and that's not a good thing."

"Mum, I don't think Kingston and I want to fight," Everleigh said. "That doesn't solve anything."

"He told me that's how you got together in the first place," Dawn said.

"He did?"

"Well. Maverick said you took a while. That he'd made a mistake," Dawn said. "Roman told us the rest of the story. That he'd... been with someone else."

"That's..." Everleigh sighed. "There was more to it than that and it's fine."

"Where Maverick going?"

"Vegas."

"Oh."

"For a month."

"That's not too bad."

"Starting January," Everleigh said. "Maybe longer than that."

"Oh."

"Is it selfish to say I don't want him to go?"

"A little."

Everleigh looked at her mother. Finally tore her eyes away from her Maverick.

"Sometimes we love things a little too much," Dawn said, "and it's hard to let them go. But it's not a bad thing to be apart for a little while."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Then I think you've made your decision."

Everleigh bit her lip. "What if he needs to go?"

"You can't make that decision for him."

"He's asking me to."

"Maybe he needs you to tell him to stay."

"I can't make him do that."

"You're sure you want him to go?"

"No."

"But you know that by not saying anything..."

It was like sand slipping through fingers; like the tide retreating. You could always see it again, but never quite the same as before.

"He's going to go."

Dawn nodded. "He probably needs you to say something, Leigh. Anything."

"I can't be the reason he stays," Everleigh said. "I won't be the reason he stays."

"Then you have to tell him—."

"What did you do with dad?"

"What?"

"With dad," Everleigh said. "Suitcase packed in his shitty car. What did you do?"

"We already had Florence at that point," Dawn said. "His graduation, I mean. You realize that?"

"You—" God, Everleigh had never done the math before. Stupid. Dawn and Troy were 30 years older than her, on the dot. They had Florence in their early twenties. "You made all that up so I'd admit I have to tell Kingston he has to leave, didn't you?"

Dawn smiled knowingly. "Roman's always had a big mouth."

"He's a shit."

"He is indeed," Dawn said. "But he's usually right."

"Sometimes."

"Everybody!" Roman said into a microphone. Standing on the table he was likely supposed to be having dinner on in too short of a time to have his feet near his plate. "I have a surprise for you! Because I am the coolest—"

"God, he's shittered isn't he?" Dawn asked.

Everleigh snorted. "Always."

"We have a DJ who prepared some sick beats, dude."

"Should I go rescue him?"

Dawn shrugged. "It's his wedding."

Everleigh laughed.

"But he's camera shy." Roman rolled his eyes and held up a phone. "Lame. But he's given me his phone to play some mixes he made in the studio for us. Are we down?"

"Don't you need a first dance?" That had to have been Navi, Roman's mother.

Roman swatted his hand. "This dance is for everyone."

He pressed something on Maverick's phone without really waiting for a reply from his guests.

"Peace up—" Roman held his hand up before flipping it over. "—A town."

He dropped the microphone that screeched until Maverick's mix of music played. Roman was so fucking annoying. Everleigh snorted. She could see Troy smack his forehead from across the room, Dawn left her to go console him about what had just been married into his family.

Lo and behold, Maverick was good at his job. He did a mix of New York songs—Welcome to New York somehow blended seamlessly into New York State of Mind and Last Night in New York. MARS' lyrics sounded great over Taylor Swift's music. Somehow. Somehow, it worked. Then again, Everleigh had witness Maverick and Stevie video-calling and randomly breaking out into Taylor Swift songs more times than she'd ever breathed. Of course it somehow worked. He was good at making anything work.

Maverick rejoined her as MARS faded into a couple last welcome to New York's. Forced a plate of likely lukewarm appetizers toward her. Everleigh took it gingerly but didn't eat anything off it. Baby steps meant taking the plate in the first place. Maverick eyed her lack of eating but didn't say anything. Yet.

"I think Stevie might kill you if she hears that from Brendon's phone on Roman's story and you didn't send it to her first."

"MARS did a cover of Back to Life at Aloha Stadium and thought I wouldn't cry," Maverick said. (Matter-of-factly.) (Everleigh had come home when he was already on his eighth watch of a blurry YouTube video he'd been sent on Twitter, Dewey in his arms, tears pouring down his face—that was a night they went back to that stupid karaoke bar for Taylor Swift night and Maverick sang his emotional little ass off to All Too Well (10 Minute Version) like his damn life depended on it.) "Stevie's a little shit who deserves to hear it through her Aussie's phone speaker."

Everleigh laughed. "It sounded good."

"I really cannot handle you telling me you like her cover better right now."

Everleigh bumped her shoulder into his. "Don't ever tell her I like yours better."

"I wrote it—" Maverick started, but he elected to wrap his arm around her and press a kiss to her shoulder. "Never mind. I'll take the win."

"You should."

"No take-backs."

"No take-backs."

Party in the USA that transitioned into Oops... I Did It Again as soon as and the Britney song was on was sung got a lot of cheers from people who had joined in on the dancing. Maverick smiled. Further convincing Everleigh what she needed to do.

"Kingston."

"Everleigh."

"It's not that I don't want to listen to your set..."

"But we need to talk?"

Everleigh nodded.

Maverick took her hand and led her outside, grabbing his jacket from a coat rack near the door and leaving her plate in the lobby. A few guests were smoking cigarettes near the front door, hiding under the lip of the roof, but he led her a little farther. A small picnic table was already wet from the few droplets falling from the sky. God, London was a rainy little bitch. Maverick draped his blazer over Everleigh's shoulders without saying anything. She slid her arms in and wrapped the sides tightly around her waist.

Everleigh wanted to rake her hands through his wet curls and kiss him until she felt better about the world around her. Would that ever happen again? She stepped up onto the bench seat and sat on the tabletop, ignoring the immediate wetness through her romper. Maverick sat beside her without complaint.

"I really need to say something."

Maverick nodded. Squeezed her hand. Everleigh tried not to stare too hard at how rain ran down his neck and disappeared below his collar.

"I think you should do the residency," Everleigh said. "And I know we kind of decided that, but we decided it in anger and I want to decide it in... non-anger."

"Content?" Maverick adjusted his hearing aids.

"I think you should go because you deserve the residency."

"Can you tell me the truth?"

"I am."

"You want me to go?"

"I think you should."

"But do you want me to?"

"I want you to do what you love."

"Everleigh."

"Yes?"

Maverick touched her jaw with his finger. Turned her head to look at him properly because all she was doing was staring at we grass. She pushed her wet bangs back as she looked at him. He gave her the smallest half smile. "There she is."

"What?"

"I like the way your eyes shine in the rain," Maverick said, "like they're the sky and all I want is to be caught in their storm."

Everleigh put a hand on his cheek. Resisted kissing every freckle dressing his cheeks.

"Did something happen at work?" Maverick asked, his fingertips barely grazing above her eyebrow as he pushed her bangs behind her ear. "A little while ago? I feel like you've been kind of distant. And now you're pushing me away when you didn't even want me to leave you alone in there."

"That could be because I didn't want to hold Navi."

"Everleigh."

Everleigh looked at their hands. Maverick tilted her head up again, squeezing her hand.

She shook her head. "Not while we're talking about Vegas."

"Do you really want me to go?"

"I don't want to be the reason you don't."

"It's okay if you are."

"Not to me."

"So..." Maverick said. "I guess we're still at I'm going and you're staying?"

"I can try for February. See about a job there."

"It might not even go until February."

"It probably will."

"Do you want to be in Vegas?"

"Not particularly," Everleigh said. "How do you feel about it?"

"Does it matter?"

Everleigh bumped her knee against his. "It does to me."

"I..." Maverick scoffed, look at their hands. Everleigh squeezed his. "I know that I kind of... drift. Through the world. I stay in a lot of hotels and I don't go home as often as I should. Maybe Vegas is the one? How will I know if I don't go?"

Everleigh rested her head on his shoulder. "Did you actually confirm it with your manager that day?"

"No," Maverick said. "I was mad. I don't know. I'm sorry. I wanted to hear what you had to say first."

"I think we're the ones who'll make it work," Everleigh said.

"Awfully optimistic of you, Meadowlark."

"I try."

"I kind of want to go back to Windsor," Maverick said. "Tell mum and Esmé. I don't know if she's back in Vancouver yet, but..."

"But they're your family. I get it." The pit in Everleigh's stomach sunk. Maybe she should've eaten something from the plate.

"And when I take this residency..." Maverick sighed. "I have to finish Superhero before the end of December. Vegas concerts would start New Year's Day. That's a lot of work."

"If anyone can do it..."

Everleigh and Maverick exchanged smiles. An understanding.

"Think this is where Stevie would call us a couple of bozos," Maverick said.

"Stevie would've told us to smarten up and talk about this when you brought it up originally," Everleigh said, tucking her head into the crook of his neck. "Stevie would've had it sorted like nobody else could've."

"I love Stevie, and I love you," Maverick said, "but we both know this isn't something she can toss her magic Stevie confetti on and fix, right?"

"She'd still try."

"I hope not," Maverick said. "That slap fucking hurt."

Everleigh held onto his arm. Tighter than expected. Like he had already drifted away. Because Everleigh's classes would be done soon and Maverick wouldn't be there and how the hell was she meant to get a worker's visa when she didn't know how long they'd even be in Vegas? A kissed pressed to her forehead.

"Are we okay?"

"We're okay."

"Can we enjoy today for what it is?"

"What's tomorrow?"

Maverick grimaced. "I have a ticket home. I just... things weren't working."

"They weren't?"

"No." Maverick's eyes widened. "That's not what I meant."

Everleigh nodded. "Enjoy today for what it is. I can do that."

"Everleigh."

"Nope."

Maverick sighed softly. Took a deep breath. "Today we're us. Tomorrow we figure it out." He kissed the side of her head again. "I promise, we'll figure it out. Even if it's slow."

Screaming, fighting, and kissing in the rain was overrated. Everleigh would take a thousand silences in the rain if it meant she got to hold Maverick and be held. If she got to pretend that everything was fine if only for a passing moment of rain running down her nose.

Kingston Maverick deserved to be adored by the world. How dare he look at her like she was the Earth and all he wanted to do was admire her?