Attraction - 23. Chapter 23 - Epilogue

Sun was shining brilliantly on Oregon’s beautiful hills as Kent and I drove on the winding roads of its wine making country. It had been a long drive from Seattle and I was hot and testy.

“Man I hope they have a nice bubble bath to go with the bottles of bubble.”

“Seeing as I am doing the driving, I believe those would be for me?” Kent supplied.

“Us both”, I blew him a kiss. “You’ll wash my back.”

“Ha ha. You’ll wash my back, which by the way is stiff because we took your little car.”

“Aww, poor baby! I’ll give you a back rub when we get back. Ok? Of course it’s my fault you’re a freaking giant!”

“You can’t be complaining about it, seeing as it was my towering height that hooked you in the first place.”

“Well, it gets boring after a while when you have to bend over backwards just to look into your boyfriend’s face.”

“So I’m boring now.”

This was usual banter between us. Domesticity does that to a relationship I guess. Thankfully it hadn’t turned us bitter. Touch wood.

“You know the questions we’re going to get at the wedding, right?” I asked, changing topics.

“I know.” Kent closed off like he usually did on this topic.

I was referring to the fact that people were constantly speculating on the status of our relationship, when we'd get married. I did not know what his deal was exactly, Kent was OK talking about house and kids but hated marriage talks; I suspected it had to do with the fact that he was once engaged to a woman. I had found out that he could get completely closed off when he wanted to. A habit that infuriated me into a swear fest normally, until he’d do something sweet to win me over.

This summer would be our second since we met. We’d moved in together after Kent finished his MBA and took a job with a Seattle based PE firm. I had switched over to work with a start-up there. Both of our jobs were pretty demanding which made our time together at times stretch the extremes of bitchy and ultra-romantic. More often simple chores of domesticity acted like a soothing pills. Whoever would get back home first would take care of dinner, even if it was only take out. Weekends involved washing, overseeing cleaning, reading, taking long walks and meeting friends. We still managed to go out for movie or clubbing on occasion, but the intervals between our outings were getting longer. I wondered if our passion was subsiding with time. Or was it increasing? Sex was still good, so maybe we had become more discerning about how to spend our time together.

“What’re you thinking about?” He asked after I had lost myself in my musings.

“Nothing. Us.”

He rolled his eyes. I felt proud every time he did that. He had picked it up from me.

“What new enlightening thought have you come up with?”

I shrugged, “I was thinking about sex.”

He gave a sideways glance, “What about it?”

“I think we do it well.”

“And?” he was not taking his eyes off the road given its trickiness.

“And nothing. You killed my line of thought.”

We did not discuss it anymore as the sign posts of the Guest House we were headed to came in sight. We stopped in its gavel driveway, the beautiful vista of vineyards stretching ahead of us making us sit and watch for a bit. Our reverie was interrupted rudely by Trevor’s knocking on the window, he seemed down a few glasses, it was just after noon. I pulled down the window and squinted up at his grinning face.

“About time the best man got here.” He greeted.

“Now I know why you came nice and early. Tested all the wineries in the neighborhood?”

I stepped out of the car and hugged my best buddy. Kent and Trevor did a fist bump before hugging each other. “Howz it hanging bro in law?” Terv asked.

“Rightways. How ‘bout yusself bro in law?”

“Pointing straight to the ground.”

“Ha ha, good one” Kent quipped.

“How many did it take for you to get drunk Trev?” I chided again, beginning to walk.

“Dude, they have awesome wine collection.”

“Hey, hey, I’m not carrying everything by myself.” Kent shouted from the trunk.

My shoulders slumped and I walked back to my sweetly grinning boyfriend who was holding up one of the luggage bags.

“What’s the point of fucking a hunk if he makes me do the heavy lifting?” I complained.

“Watch your language, there are children in the house.” Trevor warned.

As if on cue, out of the guest house appeared a ball of dark curls muttering unintelligible gibberish. Kent ran up to the toddler and lifted him in his arms. They were both giggling deliriously. If they were not so cute together I would have been jealous of the fact that my Godson was more attached to my boyfriend than me. It was down to the fact that Kent knew how to have fun with kids better.

Jenny and Cara followed little Charlie out to greet us. Cara was in her second trimester and looing radiant. I gave them each a single handed hug.

“There’s still time for you to switch over to the bridesmaid role instead of the best man.” Jenny teased.

“Really? But I can’t get a dress at this short notice.”

“I’ll abdicate and hand you my dress. It will work with a few pins here and there.” Cara offered.

Trevor walked in on the conversation to say with a sorry face, “You’d need to need to cut the length too.” I flipped him. Cara was three inches taller than me.

Kent joined the flock with Charlie on one hand and our tuxes in the other. He kissed Cara’s cheek first then Jenny’s. “No teasing my boyfriend ladies.” Even in jest, I loved it when Kent got protective. I gave my knight a quick peck before we all walked into the house.

Later, I was lounging in Jenny’s room, on her bed. “Where’s the Groom?” I asked.

“He’s taken both sets of parents out on a wine tasting tour.” Jenny replied.

“Too much?”

“Yes. Especially his mom. Total control freak. I think he got half the tattoos just to revolt against her.” We enjoyed this stolen moment of bitchiness and giggled.

“I’m going to tell on you.” I threatened.

“Try and see what happens.”

“He won’t believe me would he?”

“Oh he will. My bitchy side makes him horny, so you won’t hear me complaining over it.”

“God you’re like always on. Start acting like a responsible mother for once.” I was joking of course. "Don't you have pre-wedding jitters?"

“Jitters? I'm not a drama queen like you. Besides, we are practically married anyway.”

Choosing the perfect moment, Clinton waltzed into the room wearing cut-offs, in all his tattooed glory.

“Dude” he exclaimed and came over to the bed to give me a hug.

“Can’t you wear a proper shirt for just two days?” I complained as I got on my knees to hug him back.

“I gave him till four PM today to get into proper clothes before the rest of the guests arrive.”

“Which I’ll have to endure both today and tomorrow.” Clinton said as he went and gave his would be bride a kiss, "Where's Charlie?"

"With Kent and Trevor" Jenny replied.

“Whatever, make sure Jenny doesn’t mistake you for a stranger once you’re all dressed up." I continued with my ribbing. "Give her time to get used to it before the wedding”

Clinton retorted with a wink, “Oh she'll know who I am, no matter what the dress code.”

The wedding itself, on the following day, was an intimate affair. Only family and close friends were involved. In total there were about fifty people I think. I was the best man, Cara the bridesmaid and Charlie the ring bearer. Jenny and Clinton had started dating soon after the Thanksgiving incident. I had stopped calling it a fiasco because so much good had come out of it. Clinton as it turned out was working on his psychology thesis at the time. After finishing he took up work in the research wing of an ad agency. They moved in together after Charlie was born, making Clinton the dad in the kid’s life. He still did bartending once in two weeks, just for kicks. As Jenny and he were exchanging their vows I could not help the happy tears for my best friend who had found herself such an awesome guy.

I noticed that Kent, who was seated in the front row, was staring at me with a very keen expression. If I was not wrong, he had not taken his eyes off me throughout the ceremony. I gave him a questioning glance but he shook his head almost imperceptibly. Later that day after most of the event was over, we were slow dancing in each other’s arms, exhausted with the festivities, toasts and general good cheer..

“What were you thinking during the ceremony?” I asked him.

“I was just watching you. You were looking so happy.”

I buried my head in his chest. “Now you’re going to tease me because I’m a sucker for this stuff.”

“No. Not at tall. In fact, it made me think that maybe this is not such a bad idea after all.”

“What do you mean?” I looked up into his eyes. We continued our dancing but looking straight at each other.

“I mean. If this thing makes you so happy, I was thinking we should do it.”

Stopping the swaying for a moment I questioned him. “Is this your way of asking me to marry you?”

“I guess so, Yea.” He gave a nervous shrug. When I had fallen in love with Kent, one of the things I admired was his clear headedness. Overtime I had come to realize that he was a man who was evolving constantly and his convictions were generally a result of solidifying thoughts and not mere leap of faith. It made me admire him more. I gave him a small kiss on the lips and resumed dancing.

“I hope you don’t think I like weddings just because of some girly princess fetish.”

“You don’t?” He teased. He had relaxed now and I could hear it in his chuckle.

“No, I like marriage more than weddings.” I said placing my head against his chest. “Trevor once put it very well. He said something like, marriage is a promise made by two individuals that from that moment on, everything they do in life is for each other. I like that concept.”

“Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Let’s do it.”

THE END