Ellie found the photo album by chance.
She was looking for some colouring books but, when she didn’t find them on her room, she decided to look in Pops’ office’s bookshelves because he was an adult, and adults surely had big colouring books full of things adults liked, like work and coffee. She didn’t like coffee, but she should paint something she liked, like chocolate! Ellie loved chocolate and Daddy would always give her chocolate when Pops was at work. She would look in his office, even though she wasn’t allowed to, for the colouring books and she would paint them so her dads would be proud and happy and not get mad at her for entering the office.
And that’s how she came across the big red book.
It was heavy and it felt with a loud thud on the wooden floor. There were shiny letters on the cover and Ellie had a hard time reading them because Pops taught her to read the big, straight letters and the ones on the book had many curves and lines. She frowned, frustrated because she could only get the first letter. It was a “W” and Ellie knew it because it was the first letter of her Daddy’s name! It had to be Daddy’s colouring book, with pancakes and Pops and Ellie!
She carefully opened the book but, instead of drawings of pancakes, she found a picture of Pops and Daddy, wearing very pretty clothes and looking at each other with big smiles on their faces and holding hands like they did when they were on the couch with her watching her favourite movies.
She frowned, because she did not remember that night.
She turned the page and found more pictures of her dads. Dancing, hugging each other and other people. She recognized Grandma May, she was kissing Pops on the cheek and then dancing with him. She was then posing with Daddy, showing off their dresses. Momma Emily was there and she was smiling and dancing with Daddy too! Why had all of them been having fun without Ellie?
She closed the album and picked it up with a huff and, giving short steps towards the living-room, where Pops and Daddy were sitting. They were watching the news and Daddy was talking about something Ellie could not understand.
“Daddy? Pops?” She walked around the small coffee table and let the heavy album, “What’s this?” Ellie asked with a frown.
“You know you can’t go into my office without permission, Ellie,” Pops scolded her before adjusting his glasses so he could look more carefully and smiled when he recognized the album his daughter had found, “That’s our wedding album, honey. These are from the day your dad and I got married, dear.”
Wade picked his daughter up and sat her between them and put the album on her lap. “It’s been a long time since we’ve looked at these, Petey,” he smiled as he caressed Ellie’s hair with his soft hand. Peter nodded in agreement and started looking over each of the pictures, commenting on each of them and laughing at some of the silly faces Wade did.
“I really rocked that dress, huh?” Wade grinned smugly and patted his belly.
“Yes, you did,” Peter laughed and kissed his husband’s shoulder, “What do you think, Ellie? Did Daddy look pretty in that dress?” he asked her.
“He always looks pretty in dresses!” Ellie exclaimed with a bubbly giggle before frowning a little. “Why am I not there?”
“Well, that’s because you didn’t exist yet when we got married, sweetie,” Peter tried to explain, “You came into our lives a year later.” Wade had wanted a child and raise a family for as long as Peter could remember so, when they got engaged, they started doing research in different surrogacy agencies until they got approved and started interviewing the different egg donors.
They found her after the wedding and contracts were signed They decided it should be Wade the one to donate the sperm. Peter supported him the whole time and both of them were present when Ellie was born. Both of them cried happy tears when they held their daughter for the first time.
Wade looked down to their daughter with a huge smile but it fell from his face when he saw Ellie’s quivering lip and her big eyes shining with tears. “What’s wrong, Ellie?” he asked worriedly.
“You didn’t invite me to your wedding!” she sobbed before breaking into a loud crying. Wade’s heart dropped and looked at Peter, who wore the same worried expression as he tried to console their brokenhearted daughter. They tried to explain to her that they would have invited her if she had been born at the time but it only made things worse, “You didn’t wait for me and you didn’t invite me!”
The album fell to the floor when she scurried out of her parent’s embrace and ran to her room and would not open it, no matter how much they knocked on the door or said the secret password. She decided to change the secret password and since neither Pops nor Daddy knew it, they were not allowed in, because they if had not invited her to their wedding then she would not invite them into her room nor to her tea parties. After a few minutes, Daddy and Pops stopped knocking and she could hear them talking in the hallway before she heard their bedroom door closing.She walked up to her bed and grabbed her Hello Kitty plushie and hugged it tightly against his chest. Stupid Daddy and Pops. They could have waited for her to have their wedding.
“Don’t you just stand there, Petey! Help me into this goddamned thing and stop laughing!” She heard Daddy’s muffled annoyed voice and Pops laughter.
“I’m telling you. It doesn’t fit you anymore...”
They argued for a while but then Ellie remembered she was angry at them so she stopped listening to them. She sat on her bed and kept talking to her plushie about meanie Daddy and meanie Pops and how she would ran to Grandma May’s house. “That will teach them,” she thought as she fell asleep.
She woke up to a violin music and a soft knock on her door. Still drowsy, she opened the door, even though the secret password was the wrong one. It was Pops, He was wearing a blue suit with a red tie and was hiding something behind his back.
“Pops?” Ellie yawned, rubbing one of her eyes.
“I need your help, sweetie, can you put your favourite dress on? I have something for you.” Pops winked and Ellie forgot all about her anger at him because she loved wearing dresses and gifts so she ran to her closet and asked Pops to pass her her shiny purple dress with a cute bow and he helped her into it. When she turned to him to show him how pretty she looked on the dress Daddy had made for her, she noted there was something on her bed. It was a basket full of flower petals of many colours. “This is for you, my love.” Pops handed her the basket and took her free hand and walked up to his bedroom door and turned to her again. “When I tell you, you have to walk down the hallway throwing the petals and into the living room and sit on Daddy’s arm chair, can you do that for me?” Ellie nodded and stood at the end of the hallway, bubbling with excitement and curiosity. “Now, Ellie!” Pops shouted from the living room as a beautiful music started pouring out of the laptop speakers.
She giggled and did as Pops had told her. She walked slowly watching the soft petals going up to the ceiling and then falling down gently, twirling and scattering on the wooden floor. When she reached the living-room, she saw her Pops standing in front of the fireplace, so he was enveloped in a soft orange light. She emptied the basket and sat on Daddy’s favourite armchair -with Pop’s help, because it was still too tall for Ellie to climb on her own- and turned to the hallway just as her Daddy stopped under the threshold. He was wearing the dress Ellie had seen on the album, but the Daddy in the photos was slimmer and the dress fitted him perfectly. Now’s Daddy was chubbier so the back was open and there were “love rolls”, as Daddy called them, sticking out of the dress’ folds.
He walked slowly, holding a bouquet of flowers until he reached for the hand Pops was holding out to him. He took it gently and stood in front of the fireplace, facing Pops. Ellie sat across from them and she finally understood what was happening. Daddy and Pops were getting married! And she was there! They were getting married only for her! She loved her Daddy and Pops. They were the best!
“We are going to say our vows, Ellie. Are you ready for us to get married again?” Wade asked her and she nodded and looked at them expectantly. He then turned to the man he had married all those years ago and started reciting his vows again by heart. He had never forgotten them:
“Life is all about making choices, we make them every second of every day. And today I choose you. Every second from here on out I will choose you. I choose you to be my partner, my husband, my family. Marrying you has got to be one of the easiest choices I've ever made, because I have faith in you. In us. I have faith in your honesty, in your integrity and mostly in your love for me. I vow to support you, for who you are. I vow to respect you, for who you are. I vow to always listen to you and be there for you. I vow to never settle for less than what you and I deserve. The best. I promise to love you all the time, every day, even on those days I don't like you all that much, because you are always worth it. I chose you, Peter, to be none other than yourself, loving you for who you are, always. I choose our life together, to build it together. I choose you, Peter, for my forever. Peter, I offer this ring to you as a symbol of my love and of the vows I have just spoken.”
“I take you, Wade, to be my spouse. I promise to choose you every day, to love you in word and deed, to do the hard work of making now into always. To laugh with you, cry with you, grow with you, and create with you. To honor the divinity in you, of you, and around you. To be your kin and your partner in all of life’s adventures. Loving what I know of you and trusting what I don’t yet know, I give you my hand. I give you my love. I give you myself. Will you give me yourself? Wade, I offer this ring to you as a symbol of my love and of the vows I have just spoken.Will you come travel with me?”
They exchanged their rings and kissed as they heard Ellie’s giggling and clapping. Peter then reached for his camera and started snapping pictures of Wade and Ellie dancing as the waltz started playing. Then it was Wade’s turn to mess around with the camera as Ellie and Peter danced.
Finally, Peter put the camera on automatic as the three of them danced together, Ellie squished between her Daddy and Pops.
They made a new photo album after that.