“Say, we should go up to Big Bear or Lake Arrowhead when the snows are up there in the mountains and take Kit tobogganing,” she was saying.
Kathy looked forward to the idea, Alice was always thinking of things they should do. “I’d like to go back to Catalina before the water gets too cold,” she mentioned and knew that Alice would make sure they got there.
They spent a delightful hour on the beach randomly walking around and chatting, enjoying each other without the presence of their delightful eight year old daughter, just enjoying the day and each moment together before walking back up the paths towards their home.
“I love it here Alice,” Kathy said as she held her hand and leaned against her shoulder as they walked along together on the path.
“I love it here too baby,” Alice smiled at her in return, her arm slipping around her to give her a sideways hug.
When they came to the gate Alice opened it and let Kathy through before locking it behind them both, they would take no chance at Kit getting through an unattended gate even though she knew better than to go through it, temptation might prove too much for a little girl or her friends. The hedge grew up halfway on this section of chain link fencing but someone could still climb over and they wanted to prevent that. The way the hill held the house up the fence provided no barrier to their view, it was cleverly done and well thought out to the original architect and landscape designer.
As they made their way across the back yard Alice tugged Kathy along to the gazebo. This gazebo was one of the renovations that Alice had insisted on when they enhanced the house. There had been no gazebo from the previous owners and she delighted in having this beautiful little hut for their own. It had a little burning pit in the middle of it that they could cook on if they so desired and it had screens that could be pulled down to keep out the bugs if they wanted, most of the time it was open to the breezes. It was romantic, it was quaint, and it was theirs…Alice saw it had been added to as per her instructions.
Kathy gasped as they arrived at the gazebo. Dozens of flowers including roses, lilies, and many she couldn’t even name were in pots, planters, and vases all over the gazebo. A bottle of champagne stood in a large champagne bucket with two glasses sticking up out of the ice. “What’s this?” she asked in wonderment as she turned to the amused eyes of Alice.
“This is a celebration,” Alice responded adding I hope in her head. She let go of Kathy’s hand to reach for the champagne and step into the gazebo, she saw to her satisfaction that Kathy followed her as she had hoped she would.
“A celebration? Of what?” Kathy looked around amazed at all the flowers admiring their beautiful bouquets. The odor alone was almost overwhelming but the sheer mass of blooms took her breath away.
Letting go of the champagne she turned and grasped both of Kathy’s hands. She got down on one of her knees and saw the apprehension begin in Kathy’s face. “Kathy, I’d like to make this official, will you marry me?”
Kathy just stared at her for the longest time.
For the first time in a long time, Alice felt nervous; almost fear clutching at her heart. The longer Kathy waited to answer her the more she felt like she was strangling. She tried to wait patiently but the quiet of the answer that was no answer was beginning to kill her. She realized she had never felt this type of feeling before, at least not from this end.
Kathy finally blinked after what seemed like ages, she realized that Alice had set the stage for this proposal and how romantic it truly was. She swallowed as tears came to her eyes over the incredibly romantic gesture it was, she was having trouble speaking as she started to nod, blubber, and say, “Yes, yyyes, I’ll marry you Alice!” and yanked up Alice into her arms to bury her head in Alice’s neck as she sobbed.
For once in her life a woman’s tears didn’t confuse her. She understood the emotions that Kathy was feeling right now. If she could have, she would have cried with her, but life had killed that particular thing inside her a long time ago that allowed tears to fall. She could only hold Kathy tightly and hope she understood that she felt the same as she rocked her.
Slowly and a long time later Kathy stopped crying in joy and pulled back, her face a mess. “This is so beautiful,” she hiccupped.
Alice smiled as she reached in her pocket for the ring she had searched for just that morning, “Then will you accept this as a token of my love for you,” she said formally remembering some movie that had used the same exact words.
Kathy gaped at the beautiful diamond she saw there. It was flawless as far as she could see. The ring that her husband had given her was half the size of this incredible stone. She held out her left hand and Alice slipped it on her ring finger. It fit perfectly and she stared at it a long moment before taking Alice in her arms once again and hugging her tight. “Thank you, I love you sooo much!” she sobbed once again.
It was a long time before they sampled the champagne and made toasts to each other and a long life together. They talked over plans of having a small ceremony. It had become legal once again in the State of California for same-sex couples to marry and their plans wouldn’t have to wait. Each of them carried several containers of flowers into the house and they made several trips to place them all over the house, filling the house with the delightful aroma of roses, lilies, and many other varieties of flowers that Alice’s romantic proposal had wrought. Before they brought it all into the house Kathy had insisted on taking pictures of the gazebo filled with the flowering bonanza. She had then called Mrs. Fernandez to take a picture of them amongst the flowering blooms. The three of them carried armloads into the house and placed them on every available flat surface.
“This is going to make the house smell like a flower shop,” Mrs. Fernandez teased as Kathy showed her the ring; she was pleased for the couple. She didn’t understand it, but she liked weddings and she and Kathy excitedly made plans.
Alice watched and laughed at their excitement. She hoped Kit would like the idea too. She had another surprise for Kathy but would wait until that night to tell her.
Kit was thrilled with the idea of being their maid of honor and flower girl all rolled into one. Portia Spiros and Andie Wilson would also attend Kathy as maids of honor but Kit would be there for both of them. She was almost as excited as her mother over the project. “Does this make me your daughter too?” she asked confused at the ramifications of her mother marrying again and to a woman.
Alice glanced at Kathy before answering the little girl, “Would you like to be my little girl too?”
Kit nodded but she was still confused about what marrying her mom would mean. They had lived with Alice a while now and she was just excited because her mom was about the wedding, she just didn’t understand it.
Alice grinned mischievously as she got down on one knee and grabbed Kit’s hands in her own; Kathy smiled as she watched her lover. “Kit, will you do me the honor of becoming my daughter when I marry your mother?”
Alice said it solemnly enough that Kit realized there was more to this marriage than she could comprehend and as she nodded she asked seriously, “Do I have to call you mom?”
Alice smiled and shook her head, “I’ll be your ‘other’ mom but you can continue to call me Alice, okay?”
Kit nodded earnestly as she looked at her mom and asked, “Do you have to get married?”
Alice nearly choked at the double meaning of that question and her eyebrow cocked in amusement as she let the little girls hands fall from her own.
Kathy nearly laughed at the look on Alice’s face, she knew she was amused as she glanced back at her daughter’s earnest face and answered, “I want to marry Alice baby, I love her.”
Kit nodded, Kathy had explained that months ago to her when she explained she would be sleeping in Alice’s bed from then on, she understood that, but why did they have to marry? She didn’t know how to ask though or how to quite find the right words; it was okay though, her mom seemed happy.
Alice could see the slight co
nfusion on the little girls face and put in, “Kit, this means I want you both to stay forever, that we will be together for always.”
Kit’s face lit up in understanding at these simple words, she smiled as she hugged Alice and then went over to give her mother a hug as well. “I’m glad Mom,” she whispered in her mother’s ear. She had of course noticed how happy her mother was with Alice, how much more they had now that they lived with her, how much more they could do with Alice. Alice was a lot of fun, she was stern sometimes and her friends were a little afraid of her but when she bought them all ice creams because she could that counted a lot to them all. In her own little girl mind she realized how much better Alice made a lot of things and she loved her for it. Now it would never go away, Alice and her mom were making it permanent by marrying each other. She couldn’t wait to tell her best friend Susie as well as others in her class.
Alice waited until Kathy was knee deep in wedding plans to spring her other surprise on her. She had already gone and donated her eggs, not needing the additional supplemental injections to make egg harvests optimal. Her age was ideal for egg donations and they had put them in stasis waiting for Kathy and the sperm they chose. Time was important unless they froze Alice’s eggs and she didn’t want to do that yet.
The wedding plans were going smoothly; they would keep it to under twenty five people. Alice didn’t know a lot of people she wanted at her home much less her wedding and with Kathy’s two best friends from college there, neither had relatives beyond Kit to invite, even twenty five was stretching it. They had decided to hold it all at the house and it was relatively easy to plan.
“Kathy we need to make a decision about the father of our child,” Alice told her as she finished up her work at her computer. There hadn’t been much today and it was still relatively early.
Kathy blinked at the conversation starter surprised at Alice bringing it up. She had thought with the wedding they were going to wait on those decisions. “I thought we’d wait until after the wedding and everything….” she began in her confusion.
“Why wait?” Alice asked, she knew Kathy wanted this child and she saw no point in wasting time.
“I just figured with everything for the wedding….”
“Can’t we do both?” Alice asked confused, “Or did you change your mind?”
Kathy shook her head emphatically. With the wedding plans she had just focused on that in their life, she hadn’t thought about the possibility of a baby but every other day since Alice had given her that hope. Her eyes got a strange faraway look whenever she thought about a baby. She didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl but she wanted it to be Alice’s and that thought was prevalent in her mind each and every time. She didn’t know if she really believed that it would genetically be part of her but she no longer cared, she wanted Alice’s baby. “What do we have to do?”
“Well, I brought home some brochures and some prospectuses about men we might want to consider.”
“You chose a sperm donor without me?” Kathy asked in a hurt little voice.
Alice got up from her desk as she shook her head, “No, I looked at a few that might look like your husband so that the child would look like Kit but then I realized we both have to decide that. We also have to decide if we want to choose the sex or let that be natural.”
Kathy was surprised and pleased, Alice was taking her concerns into account and still making it go forward, she knew she was a little afraid about the whole thing.
They discussed what qualities they would want in a man for the father of their child. Kathy had of course been married and had pros and cons about her ex-husband as well as her father to compare these men to. Kit was a beautiful child and had both of these men in her genes. Alice was strangely quiet about her own father and Kathy didn’t ask and never had. Instead she pointed out health concerns in the men they would choose, their intelligence, their various qualities including artistry, music, height, genetics and other factors. Kathy’s head felt like it was reeling but Alice seemed to have a good grasp on what she might want and persuaded Kathy to make an appointment with the people who would be handling this for them. A few days later they were in an office with Kathy shaking nervously with Alice holding her hand to calm her. They too went over the same exact things that Alice had discussed with her and that helped, it all felt familiar, and she could talk about it intelligently and knowledgeably. It gave her confidence she hadn’t been feeling.
They decided he should have brown hair with blonde highlights, be between 5’7” and 6’3”, they went over his intelligence with a fine tooth comb and chose a man who was nearly a genius but not overwhelmingly so, they joked they didn’t want a dork for a child who would only be interested in books and not life. Their ‘counselor’ didn’t realize they were joking and warned them that genetics and the atmosphere the child was raised in would not necessarily mean their child would be a dork. Alice explained that they were joking to lighten up the intensity of their momentous decision and they eventually left with reams of paper narrowing down their ‘search’ to over a dozen men who had donated their sperm. They had decided not to worry about the sex so much as the overall health of their donor and ultimately their child.
“This is exhausting!” Kathy sighed in the comfortable chair in their master suite as she looked through the reams of paper she was holding.
Alice smiled as she read through about the eighth of their prospective donors. Kathy had been a good sport as they explained they would be taking DNA from her for implantation into the eggs. She knew her girlfriend was overwhelmed but trusted her enough that she would do whatever Alice asked. “You could do it the good old fashioned way,” she teased.
Kathy looked at her startled and started to answer but Kit burst into their room going, “Mom!”
“Kit! What did I tell you about knocking first!” she said sternly.
Kit looked immediately ashamed as she looked at them going through a lot of paperwork, “I’m sorry, I just wanted you to come watch a show with me. What are you doing?”
Kathy sighed; this was not something she wanted to explain to her eight nearly nine year old daughter. It had been hard enough to talk to her about her sleeping with Alice and then the marriage. She could imagine the conversation about where babies came from that would ensue. Then she realized she would have to have that one if she became pregnant from this procedure! Glancing up at Alice she saw her partner with amusement in her eyes at her predicament.
Alice chimed in before Kathy could answer, “Kit, your mother and I are doing some important paperwork; we will be down in a minute if you want to get the popcorn started with Mrs. Fernandez?”
The little girl was that easily distracted and turned around and headed out of the bedroom leaving her parents amused behind her.
“You found that funny didn’t you?” Kathy asked from her chair as she looked at Alice.
Alice grinned appreciatively as she nodded, “You’ve never told her where the stork brings a baby did you?”
Kathy shook her head as she put the papers she was reading back on the small table. She got up and held out her hand to Alice, “Come on, enough of this for tonight,” she said in amusement at the teasing that Alice had given her.
They had found a donor they both agreed on. He did sound a lot like Kit’s father and Alice had stressed she wanted someone like that so that their child would look sort of like her sister. Kathy was relieved when they scheduled her for the procedure. She was feeling overwhelmed but Alice kept her sane. Between the wedding, this procedure, the adoption, and the fact that they had only been in their home together for a few months she was certain she was going to go insane.
“Maybe we should have waited on one of these things instead of doing it all at once,” she said more than once.
Alice, who was used to multi-tasking, shrugged it off, “You don’t need to worry about every detail baby, we have a great caterer, flower lady, and wedding organizer, you are just letting them get to you and w
ith the implant coming up your just nervous. Our lawyer said there was nothing to prevent my adopting Kit and everything is taken care of there, you just need to relax and let others do their jobs. Your making more of it all than you need to.”
Kathy knew Alice was right, it was just so much though all at once and she didn’t know how she would have gotten to this point without her.
Alice never mentioned how their wedding planner had nearly had her pointed little pen with all its grandiose plans nearly stabbed into her cruel little heart. Alice had maintained her cool despite the delicious little thoughts of doing in the determined little woman who had wanted to make their small ‘little’ wedding into the show of the season. Despite repeated admonishments to keep it small and intimate the fact that the ceremony was to be held at their estate on Palos Verdes seemed to make the woman have delusions of grandeur. Only Alice’s cold demeanor and menacing eyes had warned the woman from treading too far into their lives and finally backing off although Kathy had been ready to go along with all her unnecessary and over the top plans just to keep the peace. Something about the other bride, that Alice had cautioned the woman that she might want to actually listen to the woman, after talking to the realtor who had sold them this estate, her friend Charlotte, she had cut back on the pressure she had been putting on Kathy and followed Alice’s orders to a T. The wedding was scheduled for three weeks from now and she was consulting with her clients almost daily on the details.
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