She smiled. “Have you come here freely, without coercion, to bind your lives together?”
For a second, no one moved. Then Javier let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob, and pulled Mateo into a kiss. It was not a chaste, ceremonial peck. It was a real kiss—the kind that said I remember the fear, the waiting, the nights I thought I’d lose you. And now look at us. os declaro marido y marido
They had waited seven years for this. Seven years of secret Sunday afternoons in Javier’s tiny apartment, of holding hands under the tablecloth at family dinners, of the word “amigo” hanging in the air like an unfinished sentence. She smiled
But today, there were no unfinished sentences. It was not a chaste, ceremonial peck
“Por lo tanto, ante la ley y ante quienes aquí se congregan… en ejercicio de las facultades que me confiere la Constitución y la Ley de Matrimonio Igualitario…”
“Javier Alejandro Ríos.”