“Maybe you should move in with me. A bunch of your stuff is there already. I don’t even have a drawer here.”
“That’s because you don’t need clothes here.” He smirked.
“We haven’t even discussed it, though. You can’t just make decisions for us as a couple without even consulting me. We need to discuss things.”
“Okay, we’ll discuss it.” He held his hands up like he was a scale, weighing the options, and I sensed more sarcasm on the horizon. “On one hand we have the upscale, secure building in one of the best neighborhoods in Philadelphia. That would be my place.” The scale tipped a little to the right. “On the other hand we have the tenement in the ghetto. That would be your place.” The scale evened out again. “I don’t know, babe, that’s a pretty tough choice. Oh wait! No it’s not!” The scale slammed down to the right.
“We should still discuss it,” I said through gritted teeth. “Married people discuss things.”
“What is there to discuss?”
“Don’t you understand? It’s not the choice itself. It’s that you want to make it unilaterally. If you want to marry me, you need to include me in the decision-making.”
“Fine. Do you want to move in with me, Lily? It’s a nice place. It’s true, it isn’t quite as colorful as your place. We don’t have any drunken cougars or tattoo artists named Vixen. And there are no mafia hit men living here, but there are lots of cafes and shops nearby!” he said with a sunny smile.
“It seems like the better choice,” I growled, glaring ominously.
“Well, I’m glad we discussed this, honey.” He smiled. Communication was something we were definitely going to need to work on.
“What did Cameron want?” I asked, changing the subject before I killed him.
“He wanted to know if we wanted to come over tonight after we left my parents’ place. Jessica is all moved in now, and they invited Braden and Gabrielle, and Mark and Braden’s sister, Beth.”
“Beth is back in town? That’s great.” I had gotten to know my friend Gabrielle’s sister-in-law, Beth, fairly recently, but we seemed to hit it off really well. Then it dawned on me … “What did you say?”
“I said we would be over later,” he answered, going over to the fridge and pulling out some grapes.
“Again, without even asking me,” I said, getting seriously annoyed. I saw him pause and take a deep breath. He was getting annoyed too. He turned and put the grapes down on the counter. He was more than annoyed. He was angry. Uh oh. Just like old times.
“Lily, do you not want to go see our friends tonight?” he asked, sounding exasperated.
“I do want to see them, Adam, but I want you to ask before you answer for both of us.”
“Look, if it were something like, should we buy a house, should we have kids, then yes, I obviously see the merits of discussion. But I knew you would want to be there if your friends were getting together.”
I could see that he was pissed off. In the past, I would have held my ground, but the point I was trying to make was about communication, and fighting wasn’t communicating. I took a deep breath myself and counted to ten mentally. Then, I walked over to him and put my arms around his waist, looking up into his angry but still beautiful brown eyes.
“You’re right. I do want to move in with you, and I do want to see our friends tonight, and I’m glad you know me so well. But I need to have a voice in this relationship. I fought enough battles with my parents over the right to have my own opinion. Please, will you just ask? I’ll probably agree.” He just stared back at me for a moment, and then I saw the anger fade.
“Okay. I’m going to go watch some football. How do you feel about that?” he asked. I couldn’t help myself, I smiled.
Chapter Three
As I walked up the drive to his parents’ front door later that afternoon clutching my Entemann’s pound cake, I turned to Adam nervously. He had proposed the previous Saturday night, and we had agreed to hold off on telling them until we saw them in person today.
“Now, I think we should wait until we’re all relaxed and sitting down …”
“Uh huh …” he answered, sounding like he was only half listening. He reached out to push the bell as I shifted my weight from foot to foot and felt my palms begin to sweat even in the November chill.
“And we’ll stress that we haven’t discussed the details …” I went on, my voice sounding higher pitched than normal.
“You had better let me hold the cake,” he said, relieving me of my contribution to dessert.
The door flew open and Adam’s mom stood there beaming. His dad stood beside her with a friendly smile. They invited us in, and the second we cleared the doorway, Deb Roth’s eyes flew to my left hand as if angels had tipped her off.
“Oh my God!” was all I heard before she clutched me to her bosom in a death grip that could have earned a World Wrestling Federation belt. I gasped and tried to hug her back but my arms were pinned to my sides. I now understood why Adam had wanted to hold the cake. Luckily, he intervened before she cracked my ribs.
“Mom! Come on, let her go. She’s turning blue.” Mrs. Roth immediately turned her attention to her youngest child and only son.
“My baby! My sweet little boy!” She clutched onto Adam like a drowning woman to a life raft. I grabbed the cake back just in time.
“Congratulations,” Mr. Roth said pleasantly. “It’s about time.”
“What’s going on?” Adam’s sister, Abby interrupted before I could explore the meaning of that comment further.
“Look!” Mrs. Roth let go of her baby boy and gestured toward my engagement ring. It might as well have been the Ark of the Covenant there on my left hand.
“Oh, wow,” Abby exclaimed, sounding amazed. “Is that an engagement ring?”
“She finally caught me,” Adam replied smugly and I gave him a raised eyebrow.
“That’s wonderful!” She ran over and hugged us both. Then she called out to the rest of the family in the other room. “Hey everyone, Adam popped the question!”
After a second of what I can only imagine was stunned silence, the next room erupted into a cacophony that sounded like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. So much for my carefully laid plans. Then a wave of family members joined us in the foyer and the hugging began in earnest. Adam’s other two older sisters, Hannah and Sarah, were there, along with Hannah’s husband, Nate, and their four year-old, Josh. There was also a guy I didn’t recognize, who just seemed to be taking everything in. I assumed that he was Sarah’s new boyfriend, Seth.
“I always knew you two would get married,” Hannah noted triumphantly.
“We were always fighting,” I pointed out, a bit confused by this observation.
“Exactly,” Hannah replied with huge grin.
“He had your picture in his drawer all during high school,” Mrs. Roth said cheerfully. Suddenly, everyone turned to stare at her, including Adam, who looked positively violated.
“That was a picture of my friends,” he said defensively.
“And Lily was standing off to the side, looking very lovely. Now, come on everyone, it’s time for dinner.” I looked up at Adam with smug smile of my own and followed along behind his mom.
We spent the next hour being interrogated about our plans and being inundated with details about venues, caterers, bands and florists. I had expected no less, but I still hadn’t really been prepared for it. By the end of dinner my head was spinning. Weirdly enough, the anxiety this conversation caused made me feel horny. By the time we got to the pound cake, I was seriously jonesin’ to get it on with Mrs. Roth’s baby boy. We finally got a moment alone in the kitchen as we helped out by loading up the dishwasher.
“So, I know that was probably enough to make your head implode …” he began.
“Let’s have sex,” I interrupted. He almost dropped the glass he was holding.
“Now? Here?! In the house I grew up in? Where my mother lives?”
“It’s psychological. Considering all of these details is stressful. Stress makes me want comfort. That makes me want to get really freaky with you, just like this morning.”
“I’m happy I can comfort you,” he said, with an amused and slightly turned on expression, “and I’m thrilled by how you want me to do it, but can’t we wait until we get home? Trying to get it up with my mother around might make me need therapy. Her proximity is like a cold shower for me. There could even be shrinkage, and neither one of us wants that.”
“We’re not going right home, though. We’re going to Jess and Cam’s place. Hey, maybe we can fool around in the backseat of the car,” I suggested hopefully.
“Just wait until we get home, and I’ll lick cranberry sauce off of you, and do you on the dining room table if that’s what you want.”
“Hmm. That sounds like it might be fun. I don’t know if I can wait, though. I’m really horny.” I gave him a lusty look and gently squeezed his package. Shrinkage, my ass.
“Okay, come on! That’s not fair,” he said, laughing and backing away from me. “Keep it up, Lilith, and you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”
“Promises. Promises.” I flirted back.
“Let’s get out of here before you traumatize me, saucy wench.” He dried his hands on a towel and headed for the door.
“Adam,” I said and he paused and looked back at me. “This has been a really great Thanksgiving so far.”
“Yeah,” he said with a happy smile.
Chapter Four
Jessica and Cameron lived in a nice, three-story townhouse in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. As we approached, I could see into the kitchen window, which was at sidewalk level. The scene looked warm and inviting. Jess, was in there putting together trays with snacks, and Gabrielle and Beth were laughing about something together. A feeling of well-being came over me. I really enjoyed being with my friends… our friends. Adam and I had joint friends now, thanks to Gabrielle and Braden’s marriage. That had worked out well.
We climbed up the stone steps from the sidewalk to the front door, and I grabbed the brass knocker just as Adam leaned over to whisper in my ear.
“We don’t have to stay long if that need for my comfort is still urgent.”
“Maybe I’ll just sneak you off to a dark corner,” I whispered back, as the door swung open and Cameron Clay stood there, looking as handsome as ever.
“Hey, there. If it isn’t Mr. and Mrs. Cocky Prosecutor,” Cam joked, standing aside so that we could come in. “Let me take your coats, and relieve you of that wine.”
Adam handed him the bottle he was carrying and helped me out of my jacket. It was the little things like that I appreciated the most about how he treated me these days, like helping me with my coat, and not calling me a nasty wench or a demon harpy anymore.
“Nice place,” I said, looking around the stylishly decorated townhouse.
“Thanks. The women folk are downstairs. I would like to have your fiancé here join the other guys up in my man cave, where we can drink some good scotch and smoke a celebratory cigar in his honor,” Cam said patting Adam on the back.
“Great,” I said rolling my eyes at Adam. “I hope you brought your Tic Tacs.”
“As a matter of fact I did.” He smirked. “Would you like one?”
“No thanks. I know how precious they are to you.” I smiled back. “Inside joke,” I explained to Cam, who was looking confused.
With that, he led Adam off to the land of scotch and tobacco, and I headed downstairs. My friends greeted me with warm smiles and a happy yip. That was Bruno, Gabrielle’s Chihuahua, who was actually male, but was hanging with the “women folk” anyway.
“Hey honey! Come on down,” Jess called out. “We were just talking about you.”
“Hi there!” my friend, Beth, said enthusiastically, coming over to give me a big hug.
“Hi! Long time no see. How’s it going?”
“Great. I’ve been in D.C. observing a couple of legal non-profits to get a feel for how the development end is run.” We walked over to the breakfast bar and took a seat by Gabrielle.
“We’re going to be working together,” I told her.
“I heard, but I also heard even bigger news!” Beth said in an excited voice. “I can’t believe that you and Adam are engaged. Congratulations!”
“Thanks. Sometimes I can’t believe it myself.” My insecurity-fueled nightmare popped into my head for a moment before I pushed it back out. “Were you nervous before your wedding?” I asked Gabrielle, who was sitting across from me.
“Not really, but we did wind up getting married at our engagement party. So, it wasn’t like I had all that much time to worry. Why? Are you nervous?”
“Tense is more like it,” I answered. “It’s just that it’s such an important day, not only for Adam and me, but for his family too. There are so many details and I want it be perfect.”
“What about your family?” Beth asked.
“My family is just my parents, and nothing I do is ever perfect in their eyes, so I’m not even going there.”
“Lily, honey, that day is for you and Adam. Period.” Jess said, giving me a serious look. “Don’t worry about anyone else.”
“Adam and I haven’t discussed many details. There’s so much we need to talk about, but sometimes, it’s like he assumes that he’s the designated decider for both of us.”