“Uh-huh.” I nod. “Are you?” I frown, she doesn’t get it. I need to take care of her. She convinces me to not treat her any differently and then somehow we end up in that crazy frenzy and now I’m not supposed to show any concern.
“I’m fine, Danny.” She shakes her head in exasperation. “More than fine actually, I’m floating. I probably won’t be able to walk today, but that was beyond incredible.” She laughs and drops her head back down on my chest.
“So it wasn’t too much?” I ask, knowing it’s going to piss her off, but I can’t find a way not to ask.
She sighs. “If you do anything that is too much, I’ll tell you then and there and if you won’t stop killing my buzz then I’m afraid it’s your turn to shut the fuck up.” She lifts her jelly-like hand and carelessly mashes it onto my face.
“Liv?” My voice is muffled and distorted by her hand.
She lifts her head and narrows her eyes, daring me to bring her any further out of her post-orgasmic haze.
“Wanna go again?” I laugh.
“Fuck off!” she says laughing with me. I pull her up my chest and our mouths lock.
“Three times? Fuck off, you’re so full of shit!” Scott shouts, waving my claim off. “Three times in one night, fine, but three times in ten minutes? Fuck off!”
I shrug. “I’m telling you, she digs it. I tell her what to do and she falls apart.”
“Liv? We are talking about Liv here, right?” Charlie laughs from across the table. “Liv? About your height, tattoos, nice girl, control freak, beautiful, wouldn’t fuck with her…Are you sure you don’t mean you tell her what to do and she slaps you in the head so you don’t do it again?”
The three of us belly laugh. “I know, I nearly shit myself the first time I did it. But I swear, it gets results.”
“Wow. Max won’t believe this,” Charlie says shaking his head and reaching for his coffee.
“Oh hell no! This is bachelor party talk. He made his choice when he when to the spa with the girls, this stays between us.”
Charlie holds up his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. I won’t say a word. But you know they’ll be discussing it right now. Liv tells Max everything.”
“This is one twisted little circle we have got ourselves here,” Scott mutters.
“Yeah, I think we went past twisted around Tuesday. There’s no word for the place we are now.” I joke, looking at Scott, still waiting for some sign that he’s not fine with the whole my-sperm-inside-his-wife-thing.
“I think it’s one of those situations where we have to agree that the details stay between us, I mean it works, but I doubt anyone would understand.”
“We’re not, like, gang-banging here!” I reply.
Charlie laughs, “No, but come on, there’s you and Liv, right. You both have these questionably close friendships with members of the opposite sex. Just about everyone already accepts that. But here we are in Vegas, getting you secretly married because the first one was a fake, you’ve knocked your bride up already. Then you, hopefully, get your best friend pregnant while on your honeymoon. Now there is talk of Liv helping us if we want kids. People are going to think there’s some bed swapping going on. ”
“I don’t care what anyone thinks, it is what it is. I’m happy.” I watch the pool for a moment, reflecting on how utterly inadequate the words ‘I’m happy’ actually are. I’m complete, alive, ecstatic, delirious, content, excited, relaxed, overwhelmed and most of all deeply in love. Is there a word for that? Happy is a piss poor excuse if that is all there is. I shrug, with all that in my life, people can think what they like. They can’t touch us. “So, what do we have planned?”
“We finish breakfast,” says Scott. “Then we hit a strip joint.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
Charlie groans and throws his head back, although I get the sense that he would tolerate it for the sake of the group. But I screw up my nose.
“I’m kidding! I’m not telling you what we have planned. Drink up.” He grins.
“Easy, it’s bad enough you are making me eat breakfast without Liv, now I’m on the clock?” I knock back the rest of my coffee, wishing secretly I could have gone to the spa.
“This is your bachelor party, suck it up. Tonight you’ll be married, this is your last stand,” Scott moans.
“I’ve been married for two weeks,” I remind him. God, if he keeps mentioning it, I’m going to kill him. I can’t wait to get this paperwork straight to shut him up.
“Whatever, come on let’s go.”
When I get back to the room its 4pm. Liv is drying her hair wearing a hotel robe and doesn’t hear me come in. I watch her from the doorway to the bathroom. She’s just beautiful. I could watch her all day. She looks up and shuts off the dryer.
“Hi, I didn’t hear you come in,” she says smiling sweetly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” I step over to her and wrap my arms around her. We both face the mirror and look in each other’s eyes. I kiss behind her ear. “How was your day? You smell fantastic.”
“My day was very relaxing thanks. How about yours?”
“I wouldn’t say it was relaxing, but it was awesome! We went to the Speedway, took a tour and got to drive some fast cars. Then we stopped in at the Shelby HQ for a tour. Honestly, you should have seen some of the cars, Liv; it was a great day.”
“I can see you enjoyed it.” She grins and kisses me on the forehead. “You look like you did when your dad gave you that BMX when you were eight.”
I laugh, I love that she knows that much of my life. “I feel like an eight year old.” I agree. “I’d better shower and get ready.” I turn on the shower and Liv finishes her hair. Then we help each other get dressed. She straightens my tie and I zip up her dress.
“You should leave the jacket,” she says. “It’s way too hot. But here…” She turns back the cuffs of my dress shirt in wide neat folds until they are just above my elbows and then she buttons my vest. Then she steps back to appraise me. I put my hands in my pockets, self-conscious with her eyes on me.
“Do I pass?”
“Pass? You look perfect. I might make us fashionably late.” She purrs running her hands around to my back and pulling me tight.
“No you won’t, not for this, I need to get this done, it’s been driving me crazy.” I admit.
“Okay.” She laughs. “Come on then.”
I grab my wallet and shades and take her hand, lacing her fingers between mine. I stop and look at her. “You are perfect, you know that? I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I hold the door open for her and she walks through still holding my hand tight. We stay like that, firmly connected while we knock for Max and Charlie, and then Jen and Scott. We ride in the lift and I lead her proudly through the lobby, wanting everyone to see how beautiful she is and that I’m the lucky guy she’s marrying. We don’t let go while we climb into the waiting limo and we’re still holding hands when the limo arrives at The Chapel of the Flowers.
We fill out the papers and choose Liv a small bouquet from the flower shop, then we walk around to the cute white Victorian Chapel. While we wait for a few minutes, we’re quiet as a group. I watch our friends. Following our lead, they’re all holding hands. Jen and Scott sit on a leather couch in the marble reception and Jen is speaking softly to Scott, while he strokes his thumb back and forth across the back of her hand. She giggles at his reply. It makes me happy to see them like this despite the stress they have gone through recently.
Charlie and Max are standing by the window. Max lifts their intertwined hands to his lips and kisses Charlie’s fingers. Charlie smiles shyly and smoothes Max’s collar. Max smiles. They’re so different at home than they seem separately and in moments like this, amongst friends, they can be so tender. I’m grateful for my time living with them so that I could really get to know them. I hope Liv and I are as happy after six years together.