After The One (The One Series Duet)

by Danielle Allen

  “So just to be clear,” my mother began, looking from me to Julian. “Thursday evening, just family and close friends are permitted to arrive at the Riviera Villa Resort. Friday morning the crew from The One arrives. Friday evening, the wedding guests arrive, both your invited guests and the guests of the show, and that night will be a meet-and-greet. Saturday, New Year’s Eve, is a bridal brunch, and that night is the private rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, neither on air. And then there’s an after party that is on air, but we don’t have to be there. Sunday we don’t have any on air obligations until the ceremony begins at five o’clock.” Her perfectly arched eyebrow lifted. “Right?”

  I sucked on my bottom lip and nodded. “But like we said before, anything you don’t want to do, you don’t have to do.”

  Everyone was quiet.

  “That’s a lot of activities,” Susan pointed out, touching a napkin to her lips.

  “That’s a lot of activities on air,” my dad added, looking at my mom.

  Brian chuckled under his breath. “Our students will be watching.”

  Susan looked at Brian. “It’ll either give us credibility or…”

  Our parents fell quiet again.

  My eyes landed on Julian, who was chewing on his bottom lip contemplatively. His eyes widened a little as if asking me if I had any comments that might help.

  I didn’t.

  My mother broke the silence. “We’re not obligated to do any interviews and we never have to have microphones on us.” She looked around the table to the other parents. “It shouldn’t negatively impact our careers or our lives, but I’m going to review the contracts just to make sure no one tries anything sneaky, thinking we don’t know our stuff.” She looked at Dad. “I think everything will be fine.”

  “So you’re all still in?” I asked nervously.

  “There is nothing that would keep me from watching our amazing, beautiful daughter marry their amazing, handsome son.” My mother brought her glass of red wine to her lips.

  My dad lifted his glass and waited for us all to lift ours in the air too. “To our children.”

  Brian looked at each of us and smiled. “To the joining of our families.”

  Susan giggled. “To love.”

  We finished dinner and cleared the plates. I rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher while Julian served hot cocoa with gigantic marshmallows to our parents. After I hit the start button, I gripped the counter and let my head fall back. A slow deep breath eased from my lungs.

  Time for the Christmas Eve gift exchange. They are going to freak out.

  The moment I felt Julian’s presence, I turned around. With his hands in his pockets, he strolled over to me. Without having to say anything, he tangled his hands in my hair and rested his head against my head.

  I stared into his grey eyes, emotion welling up inside me. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” His voice was as soft as the kiss he placed on my lips. “How are you?” He pulled his head away and wrapped his hands around my neck. “You look tired—beautiful, but tired.”

  I closed my eyes briefly. “I’m so tired.” The corners of my lips turned up. “But I’m so excited to tell them.”

  He smirked. “Let’s do it.”

  Taking his hand in mine, we strolled into the living room.

  “This is the best hot chocolate, Julian,” Susan complimented as soon as we walked in the room.

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  Julian shook his head with a laugh. “You always say that. I promise you, it’s just gourmet chocolate. I’m not doing anything special to it.”

  I snickered behind my hand because we’d had that exact same conversation last Christmas and his only contribution to the recipe was that he added water.

  Once they finished marveling over his specialty cocoa, I asked, “So who’s ready for gifts? And who wants to go first?”

  While my parents gifted books and Julian’s parents gifted personalized mugs, I anxiously awaited Julian to finish passing out his gifts.

  “And for you, Beautiful.” Julian smiled as he handed me a rectangular box.

  “Thank you,” I replied, opening the box. I laughed as soon as I moved the tissue paper out of the way. “It’s perfect!”

  “Since it’ll be your turn to write when I go on tour, you can use your quill pen and make it pretentious,” Julian explained, grinning.

  I leaned over to kiss him before pulling out the quill pen and three inkwells full of ink to show the group.

  “Okay, my turn,” I announced, rubbing my hands together.

  “The grand finale,” Dad cheered.

  I gathered my gifts from under the tree and stacked them in my lap. I handed our parents their gifts as I said, “You have to open these at the same time. But first…” I turned and gave Julian his gift. “You have to open yours first.”

  He opened the box and smiled. Reaching in, he pulled out the leather bound notebook. “Wow… Thank you, Zoe.” His fingers traced my favorite love lyrics from each of the songs on his album before he held it up to show everyone. Kissing my shoulder and then my lips, he whispered, “I love this.”

  “What are the words on it?” Susan asked, leaning forward and squinting her eyes.

  “Some of my favorite lyrics from his album,” I answered. “And all the blank pages need to be filled with the words for the next album.”

  Julian kissed my shoulder as our families cooed. “Aww.”

  I took a deep breath as we made eye contact. My heart skipped a beat.

  It’s time.

  I smiled at our parents. “Okay, now it’s your turn.” I slipped my hand into Julian’s and he squeezed. “On the count of three, take the top off of the box and grab your gift.”

  They made jokes about the drama and anticipation for a minute and I could tell the wine had them in high spirits.

  “On the count of three,” Julian announced.

  “One, two…” My voice shook a bit. “Three.”

  All four of them ripped open their boxes and pulled out black t-shirts. In thirty seconds, confusion swirled into excitement as the ‘Only the best parents get promoted to grandparents’ t-shirts were read. Everyone leaped to their feet as hugs and crying commenced. They all started shouting at once.

  “Oh my God! I’m so happy!”

  “Congratulations! This is amazing!”

  “What?! Seriously! You’re pregnant?”

  “Thank God! I can’t stop crying.”

  For fifteen minutes, we were swarmed with love and enthusiasm.

  Once we were all seated, the room still buzzed with the news. They were beaming as they waited for us to answer their endless stream of questioning.

  “How far along are you?” my mom asked as all four sets of eyes zoomed in on my belly.

  “You’re not showing at all,” Susan interjected, dabbing her eyes with her fingers.

  “Fourteen-ish weeks. Dr. Maxwell said because it’s my first, I could start showing any day now.”

  “When did you two find out?” Dad asked, scooting to the edge of his chair. He looked between us as he sipped on the whiskey Brian had poured for the men.

  “Three weeks ago,” I answered.

  “Why didn’t you tell us before now?” Susan questioned weepily. “I feel like I’ve been waiting on this forever. This is the best Christmas gift.”

  Julian put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him. “Because we wanted to tell you all at the same time and with the wedding and everything, we knew we wanted it to be a Christmas gift.”

  “But no one else knows. We aren’t telling anyone,” I explained. “We want the focus to be on us as a couple and not on anything else.”

  My dad nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “So is this why the wedding is happening so soon?” My mom’s voice was thick with emotion as she wiped the corners of her eyes.

  I smiled. When was the last time I saw Elise Jordan cry?

  “Aww Mom…” I
put my hand over my heart.

  She waved her hand in the air, shooing me and my delicate tone away.

  I giggled in response. “Actually, Julian proposed to me before we knew for sure that I was pregnant.”

  Julian jumped in. “And since I’d planned on proposing on New Year’s Eve anyway, it just made sense for New Year’s Day to be our wedding day.”

  I bit my lower lip as I eyed him. “We just wanted to start the new year off as husband and wife and then when the little one comes, we’ll already be married.” I looked around the room at our beaming parents and let out a contented sigh. “We’re happy. We know it’s been a whirlwind and it seemed to come out of the blue, but—”

  “Oh no, we knew he was going to propose soon,” my mom corrected, her youthful face breaking into a wide smile.

  “Yeah, we just didn’t know when,” my dad added.

  “I was hoping to help plan an engagement party,” his mom mentioned. “But we knew about the New Year’s engagement plan.”

  “Julian has been searching for the right ring for months,” his dad laughed.

  I looked down at the gorgeous diamond on my finger. Just hearing how he’d been searching for the right ring for me for months made me love the ring he’d given me even more. It made me love him even more.

  “Julian could’ve just asked without the ring and I would’ve accepted,” I admitted, still staring at the ring.

  The chorus of ‘awws’ made me roll my eyes and fight the smile that played on my lips.

  “They remind me of us when we first met,” Julian’s mom exclaimed excitedly.

  “Us, too,” my mom agreed.

  “You all are still like that,” I argued with a laugh.

  Julian chuckled. “Our bar for romance is pretty high because of you four.”

  After the room settled down, my father took another sip of his whiskey. “Looks like we have a lot to celebrate this week!”

  “Here, here,” Brian agreed, lifting his glass in the air. He turned and looked at Julian. “You’re going to be a father soon, son.”

  The look on Julian’s face made my heart skip a beat. His smile was genuine and stretched from ear-to-ear. “I’m going to be a father,” he repeated. “Fortunately for me, I have two great men who can teach me a thing or two between now and then.”

  My smile grew as I looked at the profile of the man I loved.

  Such a sweet talker.

  About thirty minutes later, we all said goodnight and Julian and I headed upstairs. I freshened up while he worked on something in the office. By the time he returned from his office and showered, I was moments away from falling asleep.

  The bed dipped as he climbed in behind me. His warm body pressed against my back and he kissed my neck and shoulder. His arm draped over me and his hand found its way underneath my tank top. He dragged his fingers over my skin, causing a tingle to run through me.

  “Do you feel that?” I whispered into the darkened room.

  “No, what? Did the baby kick?” His voice was low and his breath tickled my neck. “Did the baby kick?” He moved his hand below my bellybutton.

  “No, no, no… no kicking yet. Do you feel the bump? I have a bump now. I meant to tell you earlier, but with everything going on, I forgot to mention it.” I yawned. “You feel it?”

  His hand moved over the fleshiness of my belly. After his third pass over the bump, his fingers flattened against the swell. “Right here?” he asked quietly. “I think I feel it…barely.”

  I placed my hand on top of his. “Well this barely there bump was enough for my favorite pair of jeans to not button up this morning.”

  He started moving our hands in a soothing circular pattern over the slight bump that had appeared out of nowhere.

  “That just makes it even more real.” His statement was soft and full of wonder.

  I felt myself dozing off as I replied, “That’s what I was thinking too. Soon, we won’t be able to keep it a secret.”

  “Soon, everyone will know because you won’t be able to hide the fact that our baby is growing inside of you.”

  His lips pressed against my neck and an unexpected sigh escaped me.

  As I started to succumb to sleep, my heart fluttered. It wasn’t just because Julian’s lips always caused my body to react; it was because with his lips on my neck, his hands on my belly and my hand covering his, I felt connected in a way I’d never felt before.

  Connected to both Julian and the baby.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d thought of the three of us as a family; I’d been thinking about our family from the moment I found out I was pregnant. For the last three weeks, I’d planned and focused on how we were going to move from a duo to a trio. It was always in a future tense, but in that moment, right before I drifted to sleep, it was the first time I thought of the three of us as a family in the present tense.

  I’m not going to be a mother. I am a mother.

  Chapter 10

  I recited Drunk as Drunk by Pablo Neruda as I stared at Julian’s profile. I didn’t mean for my thoughts to take a sexual turn, but they did. I tried to focus on something else, anything else, but I couldn’t concentrate.

  I wasn’t just a little aroused; I was horny as hell.

  Julian and I had sex on Christmas morning after we exchanged gifts. He loved the Gibson Adirondack Spruce acoustic guitar I gave him, alternating between strumming the guitar and strumming my body. I cried when he gave me a poem he wrote for me and had painted on a ten foot canvas. In addition, he told me there was another gift, but it was a surprise to be given later. We thanked each other with massive orgasms. The struggle to be quiet mixed with the appreciation of our gifts added to the love we felt for one another.

  Although I was physically exhausted and thoroughly satisfied after our Christmas romp, I didn’t know it would be the last time we’d have sex until our wedding weekend. Monday, Julian was taking care of things that ordinarily Beverly would take care of, but since she was visiting family, he did it himself and it took the majority of the day. On Tuesday, I spent all day shopping with my mother and future mother-in-law. By the time we returned, I passed out from sheer exhaustion. Wednesday, we spent the entire day with our parents; however, once Julian and I stole time to be alone, an evening round of morning sickness ruined whatever mood was starting to develop. So Thursday morning, as we parked Julian’s car at the Riviera Villa Resort’s hilltop, I felt like I was going to combust.

  Especially with Julian looking like that.

  Julian had on jeans, a white t-shirt, and his black leather jacket. He wore aviator sunglasses and had allowed a sexy beard to cover his jawline over the last several days. He bit down on his full bottom lip as he looked around.

  “This is nice. I wish we could see over the shrubbery, but that privacy is a good thing. I don’t know—” His words stopped abruptly when he took the key out of the ignition and finally looked at me. A slow smile crept over his face. “Don’t look at me like that.”

  I licked my lips. “Like what?” My voice was purposefully breathy as I moved my hand over to his side of the car.

  I was a few inches away from his thigh when the blaring noise of a horn startled me. I snatched my hand away and looked out the rearview mirror. I’d been so focused on seducing Julian that I didn’t even see his best friends had arrived.

  Julian and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh as we opened our doors to get out of the car.

  We walked to the center of the cul-de-sac and took turns hugging. Before we could finish asking about their drive, Koko and Lenny pulled up with Keisha following behind. They parked their cars in the middle of the road and ran over to the group.

  “This place is amazing!” Koko yelled as she hugged me and Julian at the same time.

  Another round of hugs and pleasantries were exchanged before I quieted the group down.

  Unfolding the papers in my handbag, I glanced down at my itinerary and map. I grinned as an excited burst of energy ripp
led through me. “Ahhh! We’re getting married!”

  They laughed in response.

  Julian put his hand on my ass and patted gently as he dropped a kiss on my lips. “Finally.”

  My heart swelled.

  “So this is where we are staying.” I gestured to the five villas that sat on the hilltop in a circle. Because of the height of the shrubbery, we could only see the tops of each of the villas.

  Keisha looked impressed. “This isn’t some normal vacation spot. This is why we don’t see people like Oprah on a regular vacation. She goes to places like this.”

  We all nodded in agreement.

  As we drove through the property to get to the only villas on the hill, everything from the landscape to the buildings looked opulent and over-the-top gorgeous. We were told by the event planner that they referred to the hilltop villas as a private oasis.

  “They call this up here the Hilltop and even though it’s five villas with five bedrooms each, they only rent this area as one collective unit. Don’t worry about having to share a room since each of the five villas has five bedrooms.” I gestured to the pathway on the other side of where Julian parked his car. “We take this path and we’ll be secluded in our own little oasis.”

  “Well if it’s an oasis, I hope the email from the event planner was just a gross rumor…but she said the boys and girls will be separated,” Omar joked, folding his arms across his chest. “What gives?”

  As everyone laughed, I rolled my eyes.

  Pointing to it on the diagram, I continued, “This is where Julian’s family will be. Next one is where my family will be.” Going back to the diagram, I dragged my manicured finger to the next villa. I narrowed my eyes at Omar. “Ladies, this is where we will be, and next to us, you fellas will be there. Just for right now, Beverly and her husband will be in this one right here.” I turned around and pointed to the villa we were standing in front of, the only villa able to be seen from the cul-de-sac.

  “Wait a minute! So Bev gets the place to herself and I have to stay with you guys?” Omar joked.