by DW Cee
“That’s exactly what I was. An oops child. As soon as I turned eighteen, my parents were ready to retire.”
“I see. By the way, where will we live if we get married tonight?”
“Is it still an if?” He took the hand that he was holding and kissed it. “I have a house my parents left me when they moved. It’s nothing grand but we’ll be comfortable. Also, I make a decent living. I’ll take care of you, Olivia.” He paused for a moment and got really serious. “I want you to know I’ve never done this before. I’ve always been a spontaneous person but you’re the only girl I fell insanely in love with the moment I saw you. I couldn’t wait to get back to you this week.”
The little doubt I had melted. When I had accepted his proposal back in my bedroom, I too knew I had missed him during the week he was gone. His brother hit it on the nose. We were both crazy and we were both meant for one another.
“So where is this house I’ll be moving into?”
“Is that a yes?” His charming smile plastered his face again.
“Was it ever a no?” I brought my head over and kissed him. I assumed he kissed with his eyes open since one of us had to drive.
“I hardly know you but I love you Olivia Maize, soon to be Olivia Kingston.”
“I love you too.”
It was a crazy thought to be in love with someone after meeting them once. It was even crazier to have a strong enough attraction for this person to want to spend every day of my life with him. I had no regrets now nor would I ever.
“So, future wife, do you work or were you just driving up and down the street waiting for prince charming to come along?”
“I’m a translator. I majored in Spanish in undergrad and I translate Spanish books and movies into English books and movies.”
“What a cool job. Do you speak Spanish well?”
“No. I understand it well but don’t speak it, much. I suppose I can get by in any Spanish speaking country. The week we met was an unusual one for me because I work mainly from home. I had to be in the office for that week only because our company got bought out by some big corporation in New York. They wanted us all there during the transition.”
“Lucky me,” Paul said with a genuine smile.
“Yeah, lucky you. You might still be single otherwise. Paul, what makes you so sure I’m the one you want to marry?”
He looked over at me and put his hands on my chin and brought my lips to him.
“When I saw you on the road, it was irrevocably love at first sight. I know this is going to sound corny but it was like cupid had struck an arrow into my heart.”
I shook my head and laughed. “You are corny.”
“I’m not kidding. I had to get your number but you kept running away. I would’ve followed you earlier but my buddy George…”
“The driver?”
“Yes, the driver. He wouldn’t stop. He had meetings all week and he refused to follow you regardless of how much I begged. So, I started writing you notes and you just laughed and shined me off. What were you thinking shining off your future husband?”
“Well, I didn’t know at the time we’d be in this situation only one week later. I would’ve thought it through a bit more carefully and maybe really hid myself so you’d never find me.”
He began tickling me.
“Don’t! I’m really ticklish.” I squirmed this way and that way.
“Apologize!” He commanded with his hands all over my weak spots.
“Okay, okay. I take those words back. I should’ve taken out my pen and written down my number while driving and gotten into an accident.”
“You’re right. That wouldn’t have been the safest thing to do. Anyhow, so I made George promise to follow through on my plan and we waited for you to drive down the street on Friday. Neither one of us thought we’d have to follow you all the way to work. We were both really late to our jobs that day.”
I cackled away. “Sorry! But you still haven’t explained what made you think you wanted to marry me.”
“Our first date…”
“You mean our only date…”
“Yeah. That one. The second I saw you waltzing down the steps I wanted to get on my knees and propose. You just have this energy that sucks me in. Then there was the disastrous dinner where you walked out on me the moment I got smug with you and I knew I was done looking. But, the icing on the cake was when I saw you running home. Your playfulness cracked me up. I knew we’d have a ball the rest of our lives together.”
We both started laughing at the thought of me running up my block to get away from Paul.
“I was so shocked you berated me for being childish, in my house, in front of my mom.”
“Well imagine my shock when you threw wet flowers at me. Do you know what I told your mother that night?”
I shook my head no.
“After apologizing for making a scene, I told her that I was crazy in love with you and that I’d marry you the next time I came back. She asked me when that would be and I told her I’d be back tonight after my business trip.”
“You mean my mom knew all along where you were and when you’d be back?” My voice got irritated. “She saw how depressed I was all week and all she did was laugh behind my back?”
“Were you really depressed all week?”
“Yes. There was no way to contact you. I thought I blew it.”
“Well, you didn’t. Olivia, now tell me why you’re marrying me without any reservation. Are you sure about this? You won’t have any regrets?”
“I don’t think so. To be honest I don’t know entirely why I’m so deeply drawn to you. I just am. You know… I don’t know how it feels to be loved by a man. I didn’t grow up with it. Even with boyfriends in high school and college, I never really understood love until you showed up at my house last week. When I saw you at the bottom of the steps, I finally understood what it meant to love and be loved.”
I giggled. “Talk about being corny.”
“I do love you and will for the rest of our lives together. I’m so glad we met.”
“Me too.”
“Let’s talk to my parents. They want to meet you.”
“Mom!” Paul called out into his cell phone.
“Hi Son. How are you?”
“Can you get Dad on the phone as well?”
“Honey, pick up the line. Our baby is on the line.”
“She still calls you her baby,” I whispered. “How sweet.”
“It’s just guilt for having left me by myself since I was eighteen.”
“Son, who are you talking to?”
“Hi Dad. I want to introduce you to Olivia.”
“Olivia, this is Joe and Lydia, otherwise known as Mom and Dad.”
“Hello Olivia!” Both Mom and Dad greeted me with tons of enthusiasm.
“Hi Mom and Dad,” I answered hesitantly.
“Mom? Dad? We’re getting married. I asked tonight and Olivia accepted. We’re on our way to Vegas.”
There was that uncomfortable quiet moment or two or three.
“Oh my gosh,” I panicked. “You don’t approve. I know you don’t know anything about me but I’m a good person. I really am and I’ll take care of Paul – no I take that back. He’ll probably take care of me because I’m young and an only child and I’ve never really taken care of anyone in my life.” I almost broke down and cried, his parents made me so nervous.
“I don’t think they like me.” I put my head between my knees which were propped up on the passenger’s seat.”
Paul tousled my hair and rubbed my back. “What do you say, Mom and Dad?”
“She sounds even cuter than the way you described her. I can’t wait to meet our new daughter. You two want to come out here for your honeymoon?” Paul’s dad asked.
“Olivia, honey. I’m sorry we scared you. We were trying to give Paul a hard time.”
“So, you’re okay with us getting married?” I asked.
“Well, we’d prefer you
date a bit longer but we couldn’t control Paul when we lived in the same house. I doubt we can start now. Welcome to the family,” his mom said in delight.
“Are you offering us an African safari honeymoon, Dad? Shall I assume it’s your wedding gift to us?”
“You know this guilt thing has lasted way too long. We shouldn’t have to feel guilty for retiring.” Paul’s dad responded.
“You do when you leave a teenager home to fend for himself. I’m going to lay on the guilt even harder if you’re not around to be with your grandchild.”
“Paul… way too early to start talking about kids,” I whispered again so his parents couldn’t hear.
“Call us after the ceremony is over and send some pictures,” Paul’s mom requested. “We love you.”
“We love you too,” Paul said and hung up.
“Are you tired? You want to nap for a bit? We still have about two and a half hours before we get into Vegas.” Paul tried to lean my chair back for me.
“No. I want to talk some more. There are so many things I don’t know about you.”
“Olivia, can you get some time off so we can go see my parents?”
“I can go at any time. My work is flexible and I can do it anywhere as long as I have a computer. Do you have an office in your house where I can work? I don’t have to have an office but I might bother you if I’m translating a movie. I start and stop the thing a million times.”
“Our house has an extra room you can turn into an office or you can share my office with me.”
“Where do you live?”
“It’s close to your mom’s. I take it you and your mom are really close?”
“Yes. My mom’s the greatest. She’s so wise about everything. She’s caring and loving but still strict. She helped me through my difficult hormonal pubescent years. I wasn’t an easy child.” I gave a weak smile.
“I don’t know that you’ve come out of that stage yet with the way you yelled at me the other night.”
“Speaking of… who was that woman you met at dinner?”
“An ex-girlfriend.”
“Oh my gosh, you were that friendly with your ex?” My voice grew louder. “If I had known she was your ex, I would’ve been so angry with you.”
“You were plenty angry that night. And you were also absolutely adorable. Even with your mom standing right there, I was tempted to kidnap you back to my house and keep you there the whole weekend.”
A nervous laugh came out. “Paul… I’m not exactly ready for a wedding night…”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for starters, I don’t have anything fancy to wear.”
"That’s not a problem. It’ll come right off anyways.” He noticed my wince. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not very experienced either.”
Paul looked over at me but didn’t say anything. He looked to be processing everything I was saying but still drew a blank.
“Do I need to spell it out for you? I’m still a virgin. I’ve never had sex. I came close to it a few times but decided not to go through with it.”
Once again, I saw that laugh that wasn’t a laugh.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“No I’m not laughing at you. Just when I thought you couldn’t get any cuter. Olivia, life with you will be tremendously exciting. So I was thinking that after tonight, we can stay another night in Vegas then go back and start moving some of your stuff into our home. I’ll try and get the next week off and we can go see my parents then maybe we can go visit David and Sheila and the kids for a long weekend towards the end of the month. Oh yeah, your mom wanted us to set aside a weekend for us to have a small ceremony at her house and… Olivia? Are you sleeping?”
My head was down on my knee and suddenly all the bliss was gone. My chest tightened like I was going to have a heart attack and I lunged into my panic attack. What had I gotten myself into?
“Paul, I can’t do this.”
“What?”
“I can’t do this right now… this marriage thing… Vegas… all of this. We just met. We don’t know anything about each other. Oh my gosh, what have I done?”
Paul got off on the next exit and pulled into a gas station while I started trembling, distraught at what I had just done to the both of us. He got out of the car, came over to my side and pulled me into his arms. “It’s okay, Olivia. We don’t have to do this tonight. We can get married later, after we get to know each other better. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” His arms were still around me.
“What if I’m a terrible wife? I’m such a selfish person I don’t know if I’ll be nice to you all the time. What if I don’t love you enough? What if you stop loving me like my dad stopped loving me? What if you’re mean to me? What if you get tired of me? I don’t even know how old you are…” Doubt, along with the tears, came on stronger. Scared, I announced, “I can’t marry you.”
DANI 2005
“And???” I looked at Mom to continue her story.
“And… it’s time to go home and do homework. You need to finish it up so we can get to the baseball game. I wish your father hadn’t renewed these tickets. You know how much I hate going.”
“Mom! You can’t leave off in the story like that. Did you get married?”
“Well, since you’re here, obviously we got married.”
“Mom! Let’s continue the story.” I couldn’t quite figure out why I was begging for the rest of the story since I already knew the ending. Even after the hundredth time, this story was better than any movie.
“We can’t. Uncle George is sending us someone from his firm to help me solve this tax mess. I have to get this done today. Your daddy was such a caretaker, and I don’t quite know how to financially run this family. I have a lot to think through.”
“I miss Daddy!”
“Yeah. Me too.” Knowing how much my parents loved each other, it was hard for me to be sad just for myself. Mom looked like a lost puppy most of the days. She didn’t know how to fill her hours when not with me or working. Her usual chatty self got swallowed up by the loss of my father.
We both sighed.
While I started on my homework I saw Mom greet a really cute guy at the door.
“Hi Mrs. Kingston. I’m Jamie Hutchison.”
“Hi Jamie. It’s nice to meet you. Please come in.” In walked a guy with movie star looks trapped in a stuffy suit holding a briefcase. He was cuter than the seniors in my high school. Maybe I could ask him to the prom.
“I’m very sorry to hear about your husband. I’ve met him a few times and he seemed like a great man.”
“Thank you. That’s kind of you to say. Paul was a great man. We miss him terribly.” I heard the sniffles again. My mom was such a leaky faucet. “Let me show you where the computer is located.”
I followed the two of them into the office hoping to meet this dreamy man.
“Hi.” Jamie looked at me with the bluest of eyes. I thought my dad was handsome… this guy was even more handsome.
“Oh, this is my daughter, Danielle.”
“Call me Dani,” I answered.
“Hi Dani,” he shook my hands and continued talking to Mom. “If you will show me where he keeps his files it should take me anywhere from twenty minutes to a couple of hours.”
“Can I get you a drink or something to eat?” I offered politely. Mom gave me a funny look.
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
Jamie got to work, Mom went into the kitchen to start dinner and I hung out in the office a bit longer.
“How old are you, Dani?”
“I’m eighteen. I’m a senior in high school. How old are you?”
“I’m thirty-three.”
“Oh, you look so much younger. Are you married?”
“No.” He cracked a smile though he tried hard not to smile.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Uh-huh. Melinda and I have been dating for three years.”
“
Wow.” I said but what I really wanted to yell out was, “Bummer! You’re too old and you’re taken already.”
“So Dani, what are some of your hobbies?”
“I love to read and swim and I’m an avid baseball fan.”
“No way! I am too. I love watching and playing baseball. Do you play softball?”
“I do. I’m the short stop for our team.”
“Wow. You must be good.”
“Jamie, do you want to go watch the game tonight with me and Mom? We have season tickets and since my dad isn’t around, there’s a ticket not being used.”
Before Jamie could answer, I hollered to my mom. “Mom, can Jamie join us at the baseball game?”
Mom stepped out of the kitchen and gave me a what have you just done?
“Jamie likes baseball. We have an extra ticket. Can he come?”
She walked into the office. “You’re more than welcome to come with us but I’d hate to keep you from any prior engagements. You don’t have to humor Dani. She only asked because I dislike baseball and she knows it’s no fun to go with me.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d love to go. It’s the opening game and I actually wanted to get tickets but was late in purchasing them. Do you mind?”
“No.” She did sound like she minded but I didn’t care. I wanted to spend more time with Jamie.
“By the way, Uncle George and Aunt Meghan might be there. They have seats next to us.”
“I don’t know if they’ll be there with the baby and all.” Mom called out.
We convinced Mom to go out to dinner before the 7:30 game and I feverishly finished my homework while we were waiting for our food. Mom and Jamie were having a pleasant conversation and they seemed to be enjoying each other’s company.
“So Mrs. Kingston…”
“Oh, please call me Olivia. You’re making me feel old.”
“Sorry. Olivia, George told me that you and your late husband got married after one date.”
“Yes. We were both a bit on the spontaneous side.”
“A bit spontaneous?” I added. “My parents never planned anything. They got married the moment they met, conceived me the moment they got together and were insanely in love with each other and only each other.”
