I sat down next to Piper, my now fiancé, happier than ever. To my right was Nicky, who was smiling at me.
"Great job, kid," she said, pinching my shoulder. "I told you she'd say yes."
I turned to Piper as she was cutting our pancake in half. She stopped and looked at me. I took the plastic knife from her and cut a small, donut shaped piece of pancake. Picking it up, I said, "To make it official, here is your ring, madam." I put the piece of pancake around her finger, and raised her hand up into the air. "It's official, ladies!" I called out, laughing.
Piper looked at me and seductively bit the pancake off her finger, licking the syrup remains. "Delicious, just like you."
I smacked her hand and chuckled, smiling to myself. My life would be complete with her around for the rest of it.
Morello sat down across from us with her tray. She leaned in and said, "So, what is your wedding gonna be like?"
Everyone knew that she loved planning weddings, and I knew that she was discreetly asking to help with mine.
"Would you like to help plan it?" I asked her, nudging Piper. She nudged me back, and we exchanged a knowing look.
"It would be an honor!" Morello exclaimed. "So, let's start off with the basics. What colors do you want? Pink? Red? Rainbow?"
"I think blue is a splendid color," I said, laughing.
"Yes," she said excitedly. "Blue is a great color. It matches both of you guys' gorgeous eyes. Alright. Now let's decide where it's gonna be. I think a big church would be nice, with lots of family and friends and inmates. The more the merrier!"
"Piper, where do you think we should get married?" I asked. She pondered for a second and replied, "The beach. A nice, sandy, warm beach."
"Okay," Morello said, "the beach it is. Now, for the most important part. Who is gonna be in it, and who all are you gonna invite?"
I smiled and said, "Piper and I would love to have you as the maid of honor."
She looked at me as if I had just given her a million dollars.
Putting her one hand over her heart, and grabbing mine and Piper's hands with her other, she said, "That means the world to me. Words can't explain how thankful I am. I promise I'll be the best maid of honor and wedding planner you'll ever have."
Morello got up, and threw away her unfinished food. "I have some magazines in the van that have lots of pretty dresses and flowers. I'll go get them! I have to bring Miss Rosa to chemo today, so I'll see if I can go to the store to buy some more! You never know when they're gonna release an updated version with brand new outfits!" She skipped out of the cafeteria, to go off to her work duty.
I glanced at Piper, who was munching away at the pancake that I had yet to eat.
"I think we're gonna have a pretty badass wedding, don't you think?" I asked, grabbing her hand. She nodded, and fed me a piece of pancake.
"Since it's not our wedding yet, and we don't have any cake, I'll pretend this is our wedding cake," Piper said. Before I could realize what she meant, she smashed the other half of pancake on my face, syrup getting everywhere.
"You asshole," I said, kissing her, our lips getting stuck together because of the syrup. We pried our faces apart to find a CO standing right next to us.
"Shots for unnecessary touching, both of you."
"Oh, fuck off," I grumbled, pushing past him. Piper followed me as we emptied our trays, and headed to the bathroom.
When we got in there, we saw Chang brushing her teeth with salt. It wasn't an unusual sight, since she did it every day, but it never failed to make us laugh.
"Hey lesbians," Chang said, still facing the mirror with a mouthful of salt. "Congratulations on getting married."
"We're not married yet," I said, laughing.
"Well, when you do, congrats. I throw salt at you instead of rice, so you laugh one more time."
I bent over the sink, grabbing my stomach as I laughed uncontrollably. Piper just elbowed me and began washing her face off. Chang winked and meandered out of the bathroom, spitting salt on the floor as she left.
"I will never understand," I said, scrubbing the mashed pancake off my face. When I looked closer, I could see that there was a syrup glob stuck to my glasses.
"Damn it, Piper! My glasses have been through enough today!"
"What else happened to them?" she asked, curious. "Did Pennsatucky go bananas when she found out that you could marry me?"
"No," I sighed. "I threw them down and they broke."
Now Piper was the one laughing.
"It's not funny!" I complained, scrubbing the sticky mess off them.
When I was all clean, I pulled Piper close and kissed her, pushing her hair back from her face.
"I love you, Pipes. I really do. I can't thank you enough for saying yes. When we get out of this shithole, we're going to live the best life that anyone has ever had."
"I heart you," Piper said, hugging me.
The PA system came on once again and announced, "Inmates, report to your assigned work duty."
"I'll see you later," I said, kissing Piper one last time. We left the bathroom and went our separate ways.