Keeping Her Love

by Tiger Hill

  Chapter 3

  A few months passed after the move-in and proposal, bringing in the chilly winds of winter. Rhett spent his first Christmas with the family, going out of his way to buy creative and interesting gifts for each person. In turn, he considered the holiday a complete success. Max continued to be his same old forlorn self. Rhett faced the fact that Tula’s brother might never come around to the idea of accepting him, so he completely dropped the idea of ingratiating himself. Rhett and Max would occasionally see each other in the hall or the kitchen, exchange a greeting, and then go about their own ways. Rhett had some mild discomfort with this arrangement, still wanting to form some kind of relationship with Tula’s brother, but just accepted that it wasn’t meant to be. He had pals at the auto shop, he supposed; he didn’t need any new friends.

  Tula was extremely busy leading up to Christmas, along with the month afterward, so she didn’t have much time for wedding planning. As soon as she was done with frosting her final Chinese New Year’s cupcake, she fired up the conversations with Rhett about planning the wedding. Betraying her desire to keep a firm budget, Tula went right out with her mother and bought approximately fifty bridal magazines and books. One of Tula’s new favorite activities was lying on the living room carpet, flipping through the pages and pages of wedding gowns, and then circling the garments she most liked with a red Sharpie.

  Rhett was amused at the flurry over the wedding stuff, though he often didn’t understand what Tula was referring to when she mentioned things about ‘A-line,’ ‘sheath,’ and ‘empire waistline.’ He supposed it was just as well—Tula didn’t exactly go crazy when he was obsessing over car parts and exclusive new models coming out.

  They had decided on a date in late January, setting the special day for April the following year. It gave them enough time to reach their financial goals while also giving themselves enough time to plan. They set off following the advice of Tula’s wedding book, touring the surrounding area for reception and ceremony locations. It was harder than they thought it would be to find a place that was in their budget while also having a certain appeal for both of them. Rhett preferred being outside, loving the idea of having a garden party to mirror the way that he had proposed. Tula was in favor of this idea, but they needed to find a garden that was close enough to the kind of church her mother wanted her marry in. Apparently Mrs. Florian had taken up a serious calling to the Baptist faith, and demanded that Tula and Rhett be married in a church of her approval.

  This was the first of many signs that sweet little Mrs. Florian would turn into the ‘momzilla’ that was buried deep down inside of her. Tula humored her mother, not wanting to cause a stir considering the fact that Tula herself was not all that religious, so they searched out for acceptable churches to go with their ideal locations. After a solid month of searching, they finally figured out what they would do—Rhett would marry Tula in the heart of Napa’s wine country at a cute little Baptist church, and then party at a quaint winery that was encircled by white roses. The entire setup was perfect, and everything was going well.

  Rhett was all too aware that all of this activity was happening right before Valentine’s Day. He never mentioned a word about the holiday, and when Tula brought it up, he pretended that he had something more important to think about. She seemed patient with his supposed disinterest, which left Rhett with a gleeful feeling when plotting out his plans. He wanted to spoil her silly on the big day, even managing to get the day off from work. But something happened the day before Valentine’s Day that left him with some concern.

  “Rhett Williams, explain yourself!” Announced Mrs. Florian one day as she walked through the front door of the house.

  Rhett was sitting at the kitchen bar eating a turkey sandwich when she barged in, eyes wide with curiosity. It was an odd hour for both of them to be at the house, early afternoon on a Tuesday. “What is it?”

  “The winery you’re going to—I’ve heard that it’s owned by a couple of Satanists!”

  Rhett raised an eyebrow, placing his sandwich back down on the plate. “What?”

  “I did some research online, and that’s exactly what I found! You have to schedule some other place to go to.”

  Rhett was alone in the house with Mrs. Florian, which left him with a less than pleasant feeling. If she had decided to let loose on him about something, he would have preferred that there were witnesses around. He liked to come home for lunch, the shop only being about five minutes away, so to see her was a bit of a surprise. With Mrs. Florian’s schedule, she could come and go as she pleased from the real estate office.

  “Well, slow down here. You can’t just believe anything you read online,” he responded. “We should talk to them first and let them explain themselves, right?”

  Mrs. Florian put up a little pout. Rhett found it to be a funny thing for a fifty-three-year-old woman to do. “I suppose you’re right. But if the rumors are true, there is absolutely no way that we can have the wedding there. This is not the kind of place that I want Tula to be associated with.”

  I could care less if the owners smear shit on their bodies and sacrifice Twinkies to the full moon as long as the reception area is what we want, he thought.

  “I’ll call them as soon as I can. I’m sure that they’re not Satanists, Mrs. Florian. I mean, what exactly is a Satanist, anyway?”

  She held a blank expression for a moment, as if the thought had never crossed her mind. “You know… They worship Satan!”

  Rhett was tempted to let out a guffaw, but held it back. “Right. Maybe a little bit of voodoo or something?”

  “Something like that. How would I know? I certainly don’t associate myself with those kinds of people. Anyway, make it happen.”

  Rhett grudgingly ended up calling the winery that night, and it was confirmed that the owners were in fact not Satanists. They went on to bitterly state that they didn’t know where Mrs. Florian got this from. On a whim, Rhett decided to confirm that they did indeed have their wedding day still reserved on the books—April fourteenth.

  “April fourteenth?” One of the owners on the line confirmed. When Rhett had met the woman, she was tall, reed-thin, and had thick white hair that attracted him in a way that he wasn’t accustomed to.

  “Yeah, April fourteenth.”

  She paused for a moment, and he could hear her flicking through some kind of appointment book. “Williams?” She asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t see anything about Williams here. It’s been booked with someone else.”

  “What?!” Rhett hollered, the volume of his voice rising more than he had intended. “How could that be? We were there only two weeks ago. You gave us your assurance that it was reserved for us.”

  The woman cleared her throat, clearly annoyed. “There is a crossed-out name here. If I squint my eyes, yes, I can see that it looks something like Williams. I’m sorry, sir, it seems that someone must have made a cancellation, if not you. Perhaps your fiancée or the mother of the bride? I’m afraid that I can’t do anything about this for you. I can reschedule you for another Saturday if that is all right.”

  I scheduled that day especially because it meant something to me, thought Rhett. It was the day that Tula and I had first said ‘I love you,’ to each other. Fuck, I’m pissed! I had a whole surprise set up during the reception. What do I do?

  “I’ll have to get back to you, ma’am.”

  “Surely. I’m very sorry for what has transpired. This location is in very high demand. If you were thinking of rescheduling with us, you’d be advised to make a decision soon. Good luck.”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  He hung up, his nerves on end. And they say that the bride is the one who is always on pins and needles leading up to a wedding. I’m steamed! I don’t want to let Tula know what happened until I’ve figured this whole thing out.

  It was a bit difficult making this happen, considering that Tula was only a few yards away from him at any given time w
hen she was off of work. He decided to call the church before confronting anyone at home, and discovered that his booking had been cancelled there as well. The church didn’t seem to be in quite as much demand, so he was gratified to know that he could move the date back without much of a hitch.

  First he asked Mrs. Florian if she had perhaps taken matters into her own hands by canceling. She made hasty denials, stating that she had confronted Rhett to begin with. Rhett cringed a little bit when she shot back at him, ever-aware of the fact that he had been wanting to form happy bonds with the family, not the opposite. He asked Mr. Florian next, and he was in complete awe that the reception and ceremony area had been canceled at all. Rhett figured that Max couldn’t have had anything to do with it considering that he was never even around anymore because of his demanding schedule at school. Finally, Rhett tip-toed into Tula’s violet-colored bedroom and coyly asked if she had called the church or the winery.

  “What, me? No. Why?” She was sitting on her bed, laptop on her chest as she browsed pastry decorating ideas on Pinterest.

  Rhett groaned internally, knowing he would have to inevitably disappoint her that afternoon. “Well, the winery said that someone had canceled with them. They don’t know who did it, and they’ve already scheduled someone else on our day.”

  Tula froze, and Rhett could have sworn that some of the color left her face. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, dead serious.”

  Tula swallowed, putting the laptop to the side on her flowery bedspread. “So, um… What do we do? They just lost the appointment?”

  “Well, they made it sound like it was canceled by someone else. I’m not for sure if they did it themselves.”

  She took a moment to think about it. “So are you saying that they’re not reliable? Maybe someone bribed them, and they bumped us out of the day?”

  “Why would they do that without letting us know in some way? This kind of thing is really serious.”

  “I don’t know.” She let out an exasperated sigh. “I really liked this place. It was highly recommended online by other couples. I think I’m going to choose to believe their story. We’ll reschedule and then make sure that they don’t bump us out again down the line. Does that sound good?”

  “Yeah, good enough for me.” Sort of. The surprise is kind of ruined. Oh well. I guess this is why people freak out during weddings.

  Rhett called them back that day, rescheduled for another date a month ahead from their original reservation, and then called the church. Everything was resolved in his mind, and he made sure to schedule himself a time to ‘check in’ on them in a month. He didn’t have time to think about that anymore, though—the next day was Valentine’s Day! He continued to make no mention to Tula about his plan, though in his room, he secretly slipped from the window, opened the trunk of his Camaro (that was carefully parked down the street), and then returned back up the side of the house with a multitude of flowers, chocolates, and Tula’s favorite tea. Before going to sleep, he arranged some of the flowers in a vase he had bought a few weeks before, wrote down a poem in his card, and double-checked that everything was ready for the next day.

  Rhett fell asleep eventually, though he was so excited about his plans for Tula the next day that it was difficult to pass out. When his alarm went off in the middle of the night, he used his internal ninja skills to carefully tip-toe down the hall, open Tula’s door, and sprinkle the entire room in pink and red flower petals. To Rhett’s luck, Tula was a heavy sleeper. He couldn’t see her too well in the light of the moon, but of what he could see, she was simply heavenly. She held her pillow in a delicate way, as if she were holding a person. She appeared like an angel to him, her white skin smooth and her facial expression completely relaxed.

  As he backed out of the room, a smile on his face, he heard the house creak. He wanted to gasp, but held back the temptation. Tula stirred a bit, turned on her other side, and then promptly began emitting some light snores. Rhett let out a sigh of relief, backed completely out of the room, and then quietly shut the door.

  Man, I’ve been having bad luck all week! He thought. Hopefully things will be better in the morning. Max told me about this great place in San Francisco to take her. I know that she’ll be totally psyched about it!

  The morning came, and Rhett decided to let himself into her room with a breakfast trey in his hands. Tula hadn’t woken up yet in any form when he walked in, her hair astray in all different directions. But when she saw her boyfriend dressed up, waiting to pamper her, she had a quiet expression of joy, particularly when she realized that she was surrounded by flowers.

  Slowly sitting up in bed, she announced, “Oh my God!”

  Rhett just smiled at her, laying the tray down in her lap. Presented in front of her was one of her favorite breakfasts—blueberry pancakes with sausage links on the side. A cup of her favorite tea was there as well, a rosy black variety.

  “This is great, Rhett! Oh my God!” She said, wrapping her arms around him in an embrace. “You’re the greatest boyfriend a girl could have.”

  “And you’re the greatest girl a guy could have.”

  They joined for a kiss.

  “I don’t know how you got all these flowers in here,” she mentioned, taking a bite of some blueberry. Rhett noticed that her ruby ring shone in the morning light.

  “I just hired a few elves is all. Nothing fancy.”

  She paused to smile at him, offering some food with her fork. “Well, this was a very nice Valentine’s Day thing to do, elves or not. I feel so terrible because I thought that you weren’t really into the whole Valentine’s Day thing. I didn’t do anything special for you.”

  “It was all part of my grand plan. I guess I fooled you good.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Uh huh. Well, later tonight I’m going to show my appreciation, if you know what I mean.”

  He winked. “I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me.”

  Tula finished off her breakfast, and decided to invite Rhett into the bed with her for a little snuggling. The door shut, and feeling giddy because of the holiday, they were a little more comfortable getting intimate with each other than they might have been otherwise been. They circled their arms around one another and began kissing innocently enough, but driven by their attraction and love for each other, things began to get heated. Because of their busy schedules and the fact that they lived with Tula’s parents, they hadn’t been able to squeeze in time for intimacy in weeks. They were young and in love—and horny.

  “I love you,” Tula murmured in her sweet voice as she laid down kisses along Rhett’s neck. His shirt was off by then—they didn’t know how that happened—and Tula was rubbing her hands along his strong arms all the way down to his chiseled lower abdomen. Rhett was hard as a rock, and wanted more than anything to throw aside the promise he’d made to Tula’s parents. Tula didn’t seem to have much concern for maintaining her chastity under her father’s roof.

  “We’ll just be quiet,” Tula whispered, pulling Rhett closely to her body.

  “Right,” Rhett responded, smiling as he rubbed against her clit. “They just told us not to make noise in their house. We’ll be sneaky.”

  Rhett dipped to kiss her again, and she pulled him in with an eagerness he hadn’t experienced for quite some time. The covers were pushed away on the floor and they were practically writhing in pleasure. Tula sucked hard on his lips and tongue before Rhett pulled away from her to tug her shirt off. He sucked on a pink nipple, letting a single finger slide down towards the sensitive flesh between her legs.

  And then the jackhammering began.

  They jumped from one another as if they’d been caught in the act, reaching for the covers. They paused, then looked to one another, wondering what the heck was going on. It sounded like the jackhammering was happening was right under their window, and taking a quick peek, they saw that there was indeed a handyman breaking up the concrete that circled the house.

  “What is
going on?” Rhett wondered aloud as he peered out the window.

  “I have no idea,” responded Tula, raising an eyebrow.

  “TULA! RHETT! COME DOWN! WE HAVE CROISSANTS!”

  They looked to each other again, realizing that the passion had officially drained out of the room.

  “I guess we better go down,” said Tula dejectedly.

  “Yeah.”

  “Another time. Tonight. We’ll go away somewhere.”

  “Like… San Francisco?”

  “San Fran…” She seemed confused at first by the words. And then she realized: “You want to take me to San Francisco?!”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Right now?”

  “Yessum, I was thinking that.”

  “Oh, Rhett!” She leapt into his arms, hugging him tightly as he held her body weight up.

  They took off for San Francisco not long after making some early morning greetings with Tula’s parents. Apparently the water line under Tula’s window had somehow been punctured the night before—it was uncertain how it happened or by whom—but Mr. Florian’s plumber of a cousin was called right away to have the problem fixed. Tula and Rhett shared one last private look at this, scorning their bad luck, and then decided after a few bites of croissant that it was time for their adventure in the Bay Area.

  Rhett had decided to drive to the relatively safe city of Concord to park the car and get on the regional subway system known as BART. It wasn’t the most romantic of transportation, but that didn’t seem to bother Tula in the least. She’d never been on the BART before, and found the whole experience to be very interesting. Not five feet away from them was a homeless elderly gentleman mumbling nonsense to himself. Meanwhile, another man was intently eyeing Rhett’s iPhone every time he pulled it out to check the time. When they got off the BART at San Francisco, though, they shook off the glum atmosphere and entered a more enchanting world. Tula was delighted when she saw the red brick sidewalk, and became even more ecstatic when she turned to the ringing of a real cable car.