Keeping Her Love

by Tiger Hill

  Rhett had to keep himself from breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Tula round the corner while taking her white apron off.

  “So where are the two heartthrobs off to this weekend?” Karma asked as Tula pulled Rhett in for a hug.

  “Not far,” said Tula with a smile. “Just up the highway. Rhett and I have been wanting to check out the rose garden at the capitol for some time.”

  “Oh, the rose garden! Yes, very nice. Very tranquil and centering.” Karma reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed Tula two hundred dollar bills.

  “What’s this?” Tula asked, her eyes wide.

  “For the great job you’ve been doing. You mean a lot to me, kiddo, and something just told me that it was a good time to show my appreciation. Take it—you deserve it for your kind nature.”

  Rhett and Tula shared a brief look.

  “Well, thank you, Karma!” Tula made a small leap for her boss, wrapping her arms tightly for a brief hug.

  “It’s no problem at all! I hope your trip is filled with generosity and kindness. Have fun, you two!”

  When Tula and Rhett buckled into the car, they shared curious smiles with one another.

  “What was that all about?” Rhett asked.

  Tula shrugged. “I have no idea. I guess Karma is just in a good mood today. The important executive brunch was a big success, despite everything that happened. Karma just got a bunch of new clients because of it, and like you saw, the cafe is booming with business. We’ve been busy like this for four consecutive months. It’s been nuts.”

  Rhett smiled knowingly as he drove them out of the parking lot. “It’s because of you, Tula. You’re the grease to the wheels of that place. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

  Tula took a moment to observe the hundred dollar bills before slipping them back into her pocket. “That’s what makes it worse. When I leave, what is good ol’ Karma going to do? He really relies on me, and I’m going to pull the rug right out from under him. I feel even worse thinking about the fact that I might even be competing with him. He has no idea, either! Ugh, I just feel like I’ve been holding onto some big, dirty secret. And here I am taking money from him. I would have given it back, but I don’t want to hurt his feelings or raise his suspicions.”

  “Hey, don’t even worry about it. I know you feel guilty, but just think of it this way: you’ve been a real gift to Karma, and nothing lasts forever. You have to be thankful for the good things that come to you, and not bitter that they left. I think that if anyone would understand something like that, it’d be Karma. I mean, he was talking my ear off about cosmic consciousness for a good ten minutes before you finished work.”

  Tula let out a little laugh. “That sounds like him. It’s still beyond me on how his head is screwed on enough to have business sense, but there you go. I guess life is weird like that.”

  “Right. And hey, there’s two hundred more dollars to go to your fund. How much have you saved so far, anyway?”

  She counted in her head for a moment. “Roughly thirty-five thousand. That’s not counting the cash that my parents have promised me, though, so probably more like forty-eight or fifty.”

  “How much do you need at this point?”

  “Well, I need to scope out some places and figure out where I am concerning a loan. My goal before I open my doors is somewhere around seventy or eighty thousand dollars.”

  Rhett took a moment to absorb the impact of this number. “That much, huh? And you make around twenty thousand a year from old man Karma?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I don’t mind. I need time to learn more, and I also need time to research what it really takes to open a bakery. Not to mention that I need a business plan, and I need to come up with all of the pastries I want to feature. Also, all the cakes I need to come up with and decorate for client photo albums. I still have a lot of work to do.”

  “Right, right. It certainly does sound like work. I guess you’re right that you need the time. So what is the time frame that you’re looking at to open your own place?”

  “I don’t know. Two years, maybe three.”

  “That sounds like a long time. Two years? Wouldn’t you rather open at around one instead?”

  Tula shrugged. “Sure, it would be exciting to think about. But I don’t make enough for that to be a possibility. I just have to wait.”

  Or so you think, Rhett reflected on privately. Best not let on to her now what my plan is—just act cool.

  Rhett chose to start the day by getting right down to spoiling his dear girlfriend. First they went out for a fun and filling lunch at a fondue restaurant, putting on approximately ten pounds after walking out the front doors. Tula held her stomach as they walked down the streets of downtown Sacramento, observing the local business and the people walking the streets. When they got to the grounds of the rose garden, she took the first opportunity to sit on one of the stone benches to rest. As she eased down to relax, she sounded a bit more like a ninety-year-old woman rather than a twenty-two-year-old one. Rhett could feel the anxiety curling up on him as he sat next to her.

  When do I do it? Now? Later? When would the right moment be? Oh, God. Was this the wrong idea? Should I have gone bigger? I thought that the rose garden would be a nice place to propose, but she might be disappointed by how small scale it is. Should I just wait until a later time? But what if I chicken out now, and decide that this was actually a good time to do it? I can’t come back here. I mean, I could, but it would feel so awkward. Ahh! I’m a ball of nerves right now!

  “Gosh, I’m stuffed,” said Tula. “Even after that little walk. I guess I like cheese way more than for my own good.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Rhett responded, trying to sound natural. In actuality, he was sweating like crazy and staring awkwardly down at the cobblestone ground.

  “The flowers smell really nice, don’t they?” Said Tula, lifting her nose to the air. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bunch of roses like this around a home? You could just open your windows and let the nice aroma come right in.”

  “You’re right, yeah. Though I think I like the smell of your cooking just a little bit better.”

  She smiled sweetly at him. “What a nice guy.”

  Rhett swallowed, his anxiety still eating him whole. “You’re such a nice guy.”

  Tula gave him a questionable expression, and Rhett immediately felt like a complete dolt.

  “What I mean is,” said Rhett, wanting to make up for his faux pas, “is that you’re one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I’m lucky to have met you. Anyone who has ever met you is lucky to have you in their life.”

  Tula blushed and turned away. “I’m not all that great.”

  Rhett took her hand, surprised by his own bravery. “But you are that great. I thank every day that you came into my life.”

  “Well, thank you, Rhett. I love you, too. I feel so lucky that we met each other.”

  “Good, because…” Rhett kneeled down and reached into his pocket.

  Before Rhett even pulled out the velvet box or said the words, Tula covered her nose and mouth with her hands and let out a little, “Oh my God!”

  Rhett pulled back the lid on the little box, displaying the glistening ruby ring. Rhett must have spent hours shining the metal in the days leading up to the moment, overtaken by his nervousness at the thought of proposing.

  Perhaps if I shine it just right, it’ll give me an edge when it comes to the proposal, he had thought with some expensive cleaner in hand.

  “Tula Florian,” Rhett began, his voice cracking and tears about to well in his eyes, “I love you more than I can say. You’re everything to me, and I want the world to know about it. Will you give me the honor of being your support and partner in this life? Will you marry me?”

  “Oh my God!”

  Rhett panicked for a moment when she uttered that, but it was quickly followed up with an, “of course you can!”

  Tula pulled him up for a tight embrace. Rhett had
never felt so happy to be holding her, and as their lips joined to share little kisses, tears spilled from both of their eyes.

  “I’m so happy that this happened now,” blubbered Tula. “I was just thinking how close I’ve felt around you lately, and how I could see a life for us in the future. Now that you’ve proposed, I’m so sure that things are going to work out in the future for us. I thought that we should maybe spend the ‘proper’ amount of time getting to bond with one another, but inside I knew that it wasn’t necessary to wait. I’m crazy about you, Rhett. And now I know for sure that you’re crazy about me, too.”

  All Rhett could do was smile broadly as he took this all in, little velvet box still in hand. When he snapped out of his reverie, he realized that he should hand the box over. Tula took the ring out, and was delighted to see that it fit perfectly.

  “It’s beautiful,” said Tula. “I love it.”

  “I’m so glad. I thought that maybe it wouldn’t be your style, or that I should have just waited to see what your taste was.”

  “No, no,” said Tula, holding it up to observe it in the light. The white gold shone beautifully in the sun, and Tula smiled as she beheld it. “You know I’m not picky, Rhett, especially when it comes to something like jewelry. I love it, but I would have been happy even with something that you could pull out of a Cracker Jack box.”

  Rhett could feel something tickling his neck, but couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. When he turned to take a look at what he assumed would be a piece of hair or a leaf, he gasped—there were two large daddy longlegs creeping along up his sleeve. He screeched, brushing them off as quickly as he could, nearly falling over in the process.

  Tula let out a little laugh. “What’s the matter, Rhett? Scared of a few little spiders?”

  “Those things are terrifying!” His face was ashen and there was a visible pulse on his neck where the spider had been. “I’ve always been scared of spiders, ever since I was a little kid.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, love. I didn’t mean to pick on you. We’re all afraid of something, right? It’s funny, since all this time I’ve never seen you scared of anything.”

  “I suppose you never had the chance to see me scream like a little girl at a tiny spider. I don’t know what it is—they just give me the creeps. Anyway, I would never buy you something as cheap as a ring out of a Cracker Jack box. I value you, and want you to know how much you mean to me.”

  This comment caused Tula to form a concerned look. “I want you to have something just as nice. Don’t even think about how much it’ll cost to buy something for you. In fact, let’s go to a jewelry store right now. I saw one on the walk up. We’ll get anything you want.”

  Knowing that men’s rings were often not all that expensive, Rhett obliged her and went to the neighborhood jewelry store. Rhett tried to show passing interest in all of the rings showed to him, but in the end chose something that wasn’t worth more than a hundred dollars. Perhaps because of the recent proposal, Tula didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that Rhett’s ring wasn’t on par with how much hers had cost. Once they walked out of the jewelry store together, she turned the conversation towards the wedding and the details that went along with that.

  “When do you want to get married?” Was the first big question.

  “A year or two from now,” answered Rhett. “Unless you were thinking of sometime else?”

  “No, no,” said Tula. “That sounds fine to me. We need time to prepare for it all. It’s just… I worry.”

  “Why?” He asked.

  “The money, you know? I want to have a nice wedding with my family all there. But your average wedding costs around twenty thousand dollars, right? How can we spend that much on a wedding when I’m also trying to save for my business? Not to mention that we would have to save for a down payment on a house afterwards, or even a honeymoon.” She sighed. “I just don’t know how we would do everything. It feels like all of this stuff is happening at once. I’m not at the time in my life when money is an easy issue.”

  Rhett grasped her hand as they walked down the street. “Don’t worry about it. I have a good job, along with some savings in the bank. I’ll pay for most of the wedding.”

  Tula looked to him before focusing back on the path in front of them. “That’s not very fair for you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I was the one who proposed to you.”

  “I know. I just don’t want you to go broke over this.”

  “Well, I actually had a plan concerning finances. I think there’s a way that we could save a lot of money really fast, while at the same time also being able to see a lot of each other.”

  Tula raised an eyebrow. “Now how is that possible? Earning more money while also seeing more of each other? Are you suggesting that we should do one of those sex webcam things?”

  Rhett laughed. “No, nothing like that. What my plan is… Your family has an extra room, right? A spare room?’

  Tula gasped. “You’re thinking of…?”

  “Yeah, moving in! I could save an extra eight hundred dollars a month and put it towards your business and the wedding. Maybe we’d even save enough for a down payment on a house—I never looked enough into it. But in other words, we could give our future together a head start. We could see how we jell together as a couple living together while also gaining a bunch of money in the bank. What do you say? Do you think that your parents would go for it?”

  Tula mulled on it. “Maybe. I mean, they do like you, and they know how hard I’ve been working on getting the business started.” She paused a few more moments to think it over. “I mean, yeah—I think that they’d definitely consider it.

  “Really? Rhett asked in a tone that was higher than what he was going for. “Because if they did, I really think that everything could all come together at once. In a good way.”

  Tula brushed her hand through her hair, smiling as she thought about it. “I never would have thought a year ago that I’d be engaged, ready to start a business, and looking to buy a house. I figured that all that was years down the road. Now, after you, it feels like anything is possible. I feel wonderful, Rhett, and I owe a lot of it to you.”

  No, I owe my happiness to you, thought Rhett. I’m the lucky one.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon in a sort of glow, amazed and mystified over what had just happened. What had just been a dream for Rhett was now a reality—he was an engaged man, a fiancé to someone special, and now he would have to begin to plan his life out. He could see it all happening in his mind: marriage, business, house, baby, retirement… He was getting ahead of himself a bit, but still, the thoughts were floating about in his mind. He had never been so sure in his life about tying the knot with Tula, and now that he knew he had her, he wasn’t going to let his one-and-only down.

  The next day, they brought Tula’s parents together for a meeting at the kitchen table. Rhett nervously explained his plan in detail, wondering in the back of his mind if he should have asked Tula’s father permission to marry.

  That doesn’t seem right, right? Tula is woman of the twenty-first century. But even if I had thought of it, I guess it’s not the worst thing in the world. Sort of like asking if I’m good enough in her dad’s eyes. Kind of makes you think about how sexist the idea of it all is. Even if Tula’s dad didn’t approve of our union, I’d ask Tula to marry me, anyway. Ugh, I don’t want to think too much about it. They approve of me, that’s obvious enough, and we’re going to get married.

  There was much discussion about Tula and Rhett’s plans (and much giddiness from Mrs. Florian), and eventually they came to an understanding about what Rhett wanted to accomplish by moving in. Tula’s parents showed some measure of skepticism, but in the end, they happily agreed to it.

  “But hear this,” said Mr. Florian, “I don’t want to hear the bed in Tula’s room rocking. I don’t care what you two do, but don’t do it under my roof. Understood?”

  They both nodded stiffly.


  A few months passed, and before they all knew it, Rhett was in front of the house with a moving van. A lot of his stuff had to be moved into storage, but that didn’t bother him much. All he needed, really, was his Camaro and a few outfits to wear.

  Tula was the only thing in the world he really needed.

  The day that Rhett moved the rest of his stuff in and shut the door on the moving van, Max looked about his normal self—moody, but also a bit pensive. Rhett supposed that his attitude had something to do with his analytical nature. In any event, Rhett did his best to appear friendly to his new housemate. The last thing he wanted was to cause a stir in the new household he had moved into. What he wanted most was for Tula to feel more reassured about the decision to get married—not the other way around because Rhett couldn’t get along with the twin brother.

  “Thanks for the help,” said Rhett as he climbed into the moving van. “It made everything a lot quicker because you were here.”

  “I do what I can,” said Max dully from the suburban sidewalk. “You seem a capable enough man. You can handle your own obstacles.”

  Rhett didn’t exactly know what he meant by that, but decided to take it in a good way rather than otherwise. “Well, thanks. I look forward to getting to know you better in the next year. Maybe you could help us engineer some plans for the wedding and the bakery business.”

  “Yes, perhaps I could.”

  Rhett drove off down the street after finishing their little chat, still a bit tepid about his feelings for Max, but optimistic about the fact that Tula’s brother wasn’t outright insulting him to his face.

  Maybe it just takes time with some people. I bet with some more time and happy memories, I’ll grow on Max. Maybe he feels like I’m taking his sister away from him? It’s still a bit of a mystery to me, since Tula herself doesn’t seem to know what’s up with the guy. Maybe I should pick up something for Max on the way back? But I don’t want to come off as treating him special just to get in his good graces. Rhett sighed. Maybe it just needs to take some time. I can’t kiss ass to people like some domestic abuse victim. He has to earn my respect, too.