Today was a big day.

I was getting interviewed by a famous journalist who wanted to write an article about my budding fashion empire.

After my father passed away, Schmitt called me claiming that I'd been left with the entirety of the Holt fortune. Not just my long forgotten trust fund, but the entire Holt conglomerate, stocks, capital and miscellaneous things like art pieces, properties and a collection of cars.

I freaked out.

I hadn't made up with him for money. I never wanted anyone to think that. But Schmitt was very concise as he explained that my father had made the decision long before I even visited him the first time.

"You see," he said, his nose turned up. "Your father followed your progress for years. I'd dare say he got to know you better after having cut you off."

"Was he stalking me?" I asked, flabbergasted.

This only made him sneer. "No, you silly child. He followed you on Linkedin."

I went through my followers after that, looking for his name, and instead what I found was someone called Al The Second. My father had used a fake account to see what I'd been up to for years. I regretted having lost all that time where I could've got to know him better, but there was nothing I could do other than to accept his legacy.

Which I did, by selling absolutely every asset not related to retail and fashion, and donating the lion's share to both research on cancer and legislation against gun violence. Now that Jessica's wife was a senator for the state of Florida, I figured bills on the matter had a decent chance.

That was the first thing that put me in the news. I remembered a headline that went something like Eccentric heiress donates fortune to charity. My PR person spun the story to drive the attention toward my business, because the smaller share I had left after selling off the assets and paying off my student debt, I spent on buying Angela's portion of Tropicana. And with wedding gowns designed and hand made by me for three of the most important weddings in the state, we also caught the attention of the press.

Eccentric heiress who donated fortune to charity also designs the wedding gowns of Florida's first openly lesbian senator and wife, senator's main donor's wife's and that of state's star hockey player's wife's.

That would've been one hell of a clunky headline, and yet here we were. I had more business than I knew what to do with. Tropicana had evolved into a purely app based design and fast fashion retailer with a focus on recyclable materials. We'd grown our workforce twofold and separately I had a budding wedding gowns business that I was working to position among the most coveted. I promoted Marisol into head designer at Tropicana, which allowed me to focus on the bridal startup.

And all of that had happened in just two years.

Ellen Young sat before me with an iPad that she used to record the interview as well as make notes. I was so starstruck by the fact that I was being interviewed by an award winning journalist and a household name in my hometown, that I stumbled and stammered through the recap of my accomplishments. Despite my poor delivery, she positively beamed at me.

"And you also designed your own wedding dress?" she asked.

I nodded, motioning at the dream of champagne that encased my fluttering stomach. "Yes, I did. It took me over a year to make it."

"And it's absolutely worth it, you look breathtakingly beautiful." She sighed. "Although I do feel sorry that we're taking time from your wedding day for this interview."

Did I mention today was a special day? Because, yeah, it was the day of my interview with Ellen and also my wedding day.

I smiled at her. "I should be the one to apologize to you, my agenda's just kinda busy these days."

"No kidding! Too bad I already got married or I'd have loved to hire you to make my gown."

She and her photographer had me pose in my hotel room to capture me in my creation. The bad thing was that my PR person, who was also my publicist and my financial advisor, wasn't here to see if I was being captured in the best angles for the dress. But that was because it'd be bad luck for him to see me before the ceremony and we didn't want that to happen.

The good thing was that he was going to see me walk toward him pretty soon.

My stomach did a flip and flop at that thought, making me feel exactly the opposite of glamour and propriety that I wanted Ellen to see.

"Are you okay, my dear?" she asked me. "Nervous?"

"I guess," I said, although I didn't really have a reason to be.

At that moment the door burst through with my entire bridal party. They all wore bright dresses in different colors that complimented each of their complexions. As an avant-garde fashion designer, I wasn't going to box everybody in a single color just because it was tradition.

Vera and Ayrton greeted Ellen like old friends, but Poonam, Page and Marisol ignored them.

"Are you ready?" Ayrton asked me after leaving the journalist and Vera to catch up, with the same kind of reserve he kept for important occasions. Which was to say, none. "We're all bored of waiting for you."

Ellen just laughed. "Guess I won't keep you guys longer."

"Oh, but you'll stay for the reception, right?" I asked her, and she winked at me.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world, besides my best friends are also here. We're gonna have a blast!"

"You look like a fairy tale princess," Vera told me at first glance.

"The queen of the Amazons," said Poonam.

Marisol grinned. "More like a very expensive cake."

We all burst into giggles that soon devolved into a few tears. It required a lot of effort but they stopped me from ruining my makeup. I gave each and every one of them a bear hug that almost cut off their blood flow, thanking them for being the sisters and brother I never would've had otherwise.

Poonam rolled her eyes, "Oh, stop it. You're going to make me cry."

We all looked at her with eyes that recognized a lie when it was in front of them. She just laughed and ushered everybody out of the room.

Finally Ayrton held out his arm and asked once more, "Ready?"

"Yes," I said, taking his arm.

Last year, after Miguel officially proposed to me at the same place in Rollins where we'd once met again, followed by dinner at the Magic Cafe, I called Ayrton and told him what his role was going to be on my wedding. Finally, after keeping him in the dark for an entire year.

We grinned at each other as he walked me down the aisle. Even before my father died I'd known that this was how it was supposed to be.

We passed by Angela, who waved at me from behind the entire Casual Friday Funeral band and their manager, Leti. The guys hooted and hollered at me from the pews, making me laugh in the middle of church. The best men laughed, Jace, Malik and Miguel's cousin I didn't see often, who was a famous baseball player. But my eyes were immediately drawn to my fiancee.

Miguel stood at the front, tall and proud in his best finery—that I'd also designed. After all, there was nothing that said the bride couldn't sew the groom's clothes. But it wasn't that what caught my eye. It was his face as he looked on at me with wonder, as if it was him who'd hit the jackpot and not me.

That was an argument we had a lot. Who was the luckiest one of the two?

Ayrton looked at me like a proud father would. He kissed my cheek before handing me off to Miguel, to whom he gave a mocking glare. He went over to the front pew to join his own other half, carefully stepping over his boyfriend's walking crutch, and I sent Ayrton a kiss that he caught mid air and put in his pocket.

The ceremony passed me by as I stared into Miguel's eyes, my stomach dancing as though this was the first time I set eyes on him. This was going to be every day for the rest of our lives and I couldn't wait.

When the priest finally announced that the groom may kiss the bride, and the entire congregation erupted in cheering, I felt as though my stomach also wanted to come out and play. The kick was so potent that it froze me, Miguel's lips hovering in mid air.

He pulled back once he noticed and asked, "Sunshine, are you okay?"

I raised a finger, asking for a pause as I took deep gulps of air. But this only made things worse. I spun, somehow not tangling myself in the billowing skirts of my wedding dress. Something was surging within me and I didn't think church was the right place for it. Unfortunately I made it as far as a potted plant, where I threw up the contents of my entire stomach.

The priest was kind enough to allow us a do over after I'd brushed my teeth, and the wedding kiss that should've been the seal of the fairy tale was instead drowned by my embarrassment and Miguel's laughter. My wedding definitely was the talk of the town after that.

And even more so when later we found out that the reason for my queasiness was that I was expecting twins.

I remembered what Miguel had told me about wanting a million kids with me after he got shot and gave him a piece of my mind. But if ever I'd dreamed of having a family to love, finally I'd got it with him.

The End

and that's the tale of how our star crossed lovers finally collided and stayed together! Addy learned that there was so much love in her all along and that she had found a family thanks to it, and Miguel learned that he could follow his own path in life and that his own Hogwarts Express would always take him to love, for his family and for Addy ♡

what a journey it's been for me to take them there

initially i wrote this book in 2012 and it looked so, so different and it was so, so bad (trust me), that the draft will never see light of day. it was around this time last year that it came back to mind and i realized that this time i had the right characters and plot devices to make it happen.

who would've thought all of this would coalesce while i was going through the process of losing my dad? and yet i decided not to give up the book. it became a bright spot in my day to day until i finished it the week before he passed.

and i hope that while reading Addy and Miguel's love story, this book has also become a bright spot in your lives. i look upon this novel with a little bit of pain in my heart, but also happiness at how it came out and at how i accomplished it despite everything 💕

thank you for the support you have given to my soft couple (and me)!! if you've liked this book or any of my other works i hope you'll consider spreading the word, help me conquer the world 😁✨

as always my fun stats for EDGE OF ROMANCE:

total amount of words: approx. 82k

time it took to write: two months i used as escapism

time it took to edit: well uh, my concentration wasn't the best when i was editing it last summer in the three weeks i intended to comb through the MS. so i did it again before posting in the span of a week. still too little, lol

time it took to post: four months of uninterrupted and regular updates, because i'm a champ like that

don't forget that Ayrton's short story comes out in the middle of april, ONCE A CHEATER is going to be a fast paced multimedia (ish) short story and hopefully after i'll be able to bring you a fun new novel. stay tuned! 💃🏻