You and Me Could Write a Bad Romance

”You may now kiss your Bride,”

With that simple sentence, I leaned in, feeling all kinds of butterflies in my stomach, as I kissed Hallie for the first time as my Wife. The kiss was as innocent as an open mouth kiss could be before I pulled away and we turned around to the hundred or so guests to see them all standing up, clapping and cheering happily as Hallie and I held hands.

While walking down the aisle, as people congratulated us in a whirlwind of different emotions, I saw that some people had smiles on their faces while others had tears in their eyes. It wasn’t until we were out of the banquet room and I turned to Hallie that I noticed the tears in her eyes.

“Aw, don’t cry.” I laughed softly as I reached up and wiped her tears away, “You’re going to get my started.” I insisted.

Hallie just shook her head with a laugh before kissing my lips lightly, “We made it through our Wedding,” She smirked.

“Now we just have to make it through our marriage without killing each other,” I teased as I wiped away more tears, “You look absolutely stunning,” I assured her, not having gotten the chance to tell her seeing as how the first time I saw her was when she was walking down the aisle with her Father.

“Thank you,” She blushed, “You clean up well, La Quay.”

“Do I?” I smirked as I adjusted my tie, “Yeah, I guess I do.” I nodded.

“Cocky asshole,” She teased then leaned in and kissed me, “Come up to the room with me, I need to fix my face, my make-up is ruined, huh?”

“You look better without it,” I said simply.

She just smiled then tugged me away towards the elevator’s with her and as she led the way, I was careful not to step on her breathtaking Wedding dress knowing there would be hell to pay if I hurt it in the slightest way. In the elevator, Hallie pressed the number of floor our suite is on before turning around towards me and pressing her lips to mine passionately. And as we shared that kiss, there was no denying it, I made the right choice, I will forever love my Wife and no one will ever change that.

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“Fucking hell, La Quay!” Hallie screamed at me as I pulled up in front of her parents’ house, “I can’t believe you fucking forgot your Wedding ring!” She snapped.

“I can’t believe you’re still fucking going on about it! I told you what happened, I took it off to shower then when I got out you were nagging me to hurry up, so I did … I called the hotel, they have it and they’re mailing it to me.”

“Thank God,” Hallie growled as she stepped out of my car then slammed the door shut with anger.

I reached forward and killed the engine as I watched my Wife sway her hips angrily as she approached the front door, “Oh, married life.” I forced a smile to myself before getting out of the car and making my way towards the door as well but just as I came up to it, Hallie turned around then slammed the door in my face, “I love you, too!” I screamed before opening the door, “Bitch,” I grumbled as I quietly shut the door behind myself as I carefully kicked my shoes off.

“Fighting already?” April gasped as she walked in from the kitchen and eyed her daughter she started up the stairs.

“We wouldn’t be if fucking Einstein over there wouldn’t have forgotten his ring!” She snapped before storming up the stairs.

April looked over at me and I shrugged, “I forgot it on the bathroom counter at the hotel, they found it and are mailing it to me.”

She sighed and nodded.

“She has nothing else to bitch about anymore, might as well be my ring.” I said stressfully before climbing the stairs, “Babe?” I called out, “Babe, I said I was sorry, I’m not quite used to it yet.” I insisted as I walked into her room but found it empty, it was then I turned to the closed bathroom door and knocked, “Hallie?” I wondered.

“Go away, Cory.” She snapped.

I tried the handle but it was locked, “Let me in, I’m sorry.”

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

I laughed, “Like I haven’t seen that before.” I pointed out.

“I want privacy!” She screamed at me.

“Ok,” I muttered as I took a step away from the door then glanced to my left to see Nathan walking out of the Master bedroom.

He eyed me then looked at the bathroom door before back at me, “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot my ring at the hotel on the bathroom counter, when I noticed it was too late to go back so I called and told them what happened, luckily the maid who cleaned the room had found it and turned it in, they’re mailing it to me but Hallie flipped her lid.” I shook my head, “I swear it’s because the Wedding is over and she has nothing else to bitch about.”

“Fucker, I can hear you!” Hallie snapped behind the closed door.

“It’s the truth!” I snapped back then looked at my Father in Law, “I swear though, we had a great time on the honeymoon.” I smiled truthfully.

He nodded slowly then smiled, “It’s ok, when I first married April, I lost my Wedding ring in our apartment and I didn’t find it until six months later when I already replaced it with a new one, luckily April never found out.” He laughed.

Suddenly the bathroom door swung open, “Don’t encourage him, Dad.” Hallie ordered, “You made it sound like it’s ok to lose your Wedding ring.”

He looked at his daughter, “You don’t need a ring to prove you love someone and that you’re married to them. The ring is simply a symbol of marriage, nothing more and nothing less, it isn’t the marriage itself.” He pointed out with a shrug, “It’s not the end of the world, sweetie, he’ll have his ring back in a few days … it isn’t something to get so worked up about.”

“I’m not ‘worked up’.” Hallie growled as she shoved by me and went into her room, slamming the door then I heard the lock on it.

“PMS, Cory, PMS.” He chuckled then started to walk away.

I let out a soft laugh as well as I frowned then tilted my head to the side, noticing that Hallie was really good at keeping her period hidden from me last week or that she completely missed it altogether. Shaking my head, I just laugh then rolled my eyes knowing she’s on birth control, “Babe,” I said through the door, “Let’s go downstairs and open presents and write Thank You cards to everyone.”

The door slowly opened and Hallie stood there in a pair of PJ pants and a hoodie. Her eyes were puffy and glazed over with tears though none were falling down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I took her face between my hands, “As soon as I get that ring back it’ll never come off again.” I assured her.

She just shook her head then took a step closer to me and laid her head on my shoulder as she wrapped her arms around me loosely, “Look at us, we’re already fighting.” She whispered.

I smiled as I kissed her forehead, “Babe, it’s not like our relationship is brand new.” I pointed out, “We’ve been together for years and just because we got married doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to argue.” I rubbed her back slowly, “We’re fine, I promise you, we’re fine.”

She pulled away from me then gently touched her lips to mine and nodded, “Promise?”

“Promise.” I confirmed then I smiled a little more, “Let’s go see what those hundred plus guests got us and see if we need to take anything back to exchange it for something we really want.”

Hallie laughed softly then nodded, “Ok,” She muttered then took my hand in hers and started down the stairs. I followed her silently and when we were downstairs we both looked around for our gifts but found none. The deal was that Hallie’s Father bring home the gifts while my parents take home the left-over food and booze.

“Mom?” Hallie wondered, “Where are all of our gifts? There was an entire table stacked of them.”

April looked at Hallie and simply smiled before Nathan came in from the office. He walked over to Hallie and I then handed Hallie a large brown envelope, “Our Wedding present, well … it’s from us and Cory’s parents, we pitched in and got it.”

Hallie frowned deeply before she let my hand go and opened the envelope. Looking inside of it, she gasped ever so softly then closed it, “Dad … Mom, you guys didn’t.” She said sternly.

Her parents simply shrugged with smiles on their faces. I frowned then took the envelope from Hallie and peered inside only to see two sets of key rings, each with four keys on them. I raised my eyebrow then looked up at my in-laws, “No,” I frowned as I shook my head.

“We went to go look at those nasty apartments you two were looking into renting with Cory’s parents and the four of us decided we didn’t want our children living there.” April said simply, “Now, don’t worry about a thing, Dad and I got the house while, Cory, your parents furnished it.”

Hallie took the envelope back then reached in and took the keys out, “We can’t afford the mortgage on something like this.”

“We said, don’t worry about it.” Nathan pointed out, “You two don’t need to start paying rent until you can afford.”

“Dad,” Hallie said sternly then she looked over at me before back at her parents, “How about we pay you the rent that we would be paying if we rented out that apartment, six fifty a month.”

“Four fifty.” Nathan lowered the price, “You’ll need to pay the utilities.”

I nodded, “As long as you’re not just giving it to us.” I insisted.

Nathan looked over at me then nodded, “Deal,” He agreed, “Because those apartments were no good, they weren’t safe and I would’ve been worrying all day and all night knowing you two are over there.”

Hallie let out a gentle sigh, “Thank you,” She whispered before hugging her parents.

“Yeah, Thank you.” I agreed with a gentle smile before hugging them as well.

“So,” April grinned, “Want to go to your new home?” She wondered.

“Yeah,” Hallie laughed happily, “What’s it look like?”

“You’ll have to wait and find out. Hallie, we already drove your car over there and your gifts are there as well. We were thinking about packing up your room but decided against it knowing you may freak out.” Nathan laughed a little.

Hallie just smiled, “You could’ve packed it up, and I’m not hiding anything up there.” She walked to the door and started to put her shoes on, “Cory has a pipe up there and there are a couple bottles of KY, that’s the worst of it.” She shrugged.

Nathan wrinkled his nose at the sound of KY, “Good God, Hallie.” He mumbled.

“What?” She defended, “It’s not like I let him smoke up in my room, I made him go outside.”

April and I simply laughed knowing that’s not what Nathan was referring to. Hallie walked out of the front door while her parents followed her and I shoved my feet into my shoes and walked out as well. Looking around, I raised my eyebrow, “Where’s Ted?” I questioned.

“He’s at my parents house, he wanted to do something fun and we needed him to be taken care of while we were at the hospital with Aaron.” April answered.

“When is he coming home?” Hallie wondered.

“Not till next week sometime.” Nathan insisted before they climbed up into his SUV, “Follow us,” He ordered.

I nodded a little then hurried down to my car that’s still packed up with mine and Hallie’s luggage from South Lake Tahoe. In the car, on the way to the new house, Hallie was silent as she simply stared down at the keys in her hands. I reached over and rubbed her thigh, “You ok, Babe?”

“Yeah but they didn’t have to do this, Cory.” She looked over at me, “They’ve already done so much for us, they didn’t need to buy us a house. I don’t know how we’re ever going to repay them and then we have to think of some sort of payment agreement with your parents, you know that furnishing a house is just as expensive as buying the house.”

“We’ll figure something out, Babe.”

She nodded, “This is just so much, I figured we’d live in a shitty one bedroom apartment until we were well into our twenties, just making ends meet.”

“Now we’ll live in a decent house, just making ends meet.” I smirked, “Living paycheck to paycheck.” I laughed.

She laughed softly then looked over at me, “Hopefully some people gave us money instead of actual gifts.” She blushed, “That way we can put it in a savings account and keep it for later.”

I shrugged, “We’ll see but I have a feeling we have a lot of blenders and coffee makers.” I smirked then fell silent as I continued to follow the black SUV through the city streets of Elk Grove California.

Before I knew it, we were entering a new housing development that has been in the works for the last year or so. All the houses are two stories and in the price range of 400,000 to 700,000 dollars. As we drove through the neighborhood, I had no idea they were even putting these things up for sale yet because they aren’t finished with some of the neighborhood. Slowly, Nathan turned right into a cul-de-sac and it was then I saw Hallie’s black ford focus in the driveway of a house that looks just as amazing as both our parents’ houses.

Nathan parked in front of house while I pulled up and parked my silver Honda civic next to Hallie’s car. I looked over at my Wife and saw that she was completely shocked, “Is that my car?” She wondered.

I simply smiled, “Really babe? That’s all you have to say?”

She looked over at me and nodded.

“Yes, it’s your car.” I confirmed before turning the engine off in my car and climbed out.

Nathan and April were already walking up, cutting across the yard, “So? What do you think?” April smiled.

“Mom!” Hallie snapped, “This is too expensive!” She wailed.

April laughed, “Hallie, this is cheaper than our house.”She pointed out, “It just looks expensive because it’s new,” She insisted, “Give it about two or three years when it’s not so new.”

“It’s three bedrooms, four if you turn the office downstairs into a guest room.” Nathan informed us as we walked up to the front door, “Two and half bathrooms, family room, a formal living room, a dining room, kitchen, the washer and dryer are in the garage. There’s a pool in the back, you have a finished attic that you can turn into a game room or storage if you want to park the cars in the garage.” He let out gentle sigh, “It looks and sounds like a lot but, I know the contractor who built the neighborhood, he gave me a good deal on the house, especially with everything that it has in it.”

April pointed to the door, “Open it,” She ordered.

Not having either set of the keys, I looked over at Hallie and waited as she reached forward and unlocked the door then pushed it open.

“Oh, there is one thing that I’m jealous of, you two have a walk in pantry.” April mumbled then looked at Nathan, “We need one.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” He insisted before falling quiet.

Hallie was already inside, looking around the house we’ll call a home. I stepped in and I too glanced around. The furniture my parents picked out was simple and elegant, it was almost like they were in our heads and knew what we wanted. The inside of the house wasn’t as fancy as Nathan and April made it out to be, it looked like your generic two story house but it was perfect for Hallie and I.

“Hardwoods floors,” Hallie said from the kitchen, “And Granite counter tops.”

I turned to my in-laws and simply smiled again, “Thank you,”

They both nodded before pointing towards the kitchen, “We’re going to let you guys look around and get to the hospital to get Aaron some decent dinner,” Nathan insisted, “We’ll be back tomorrow.” With that, they both left quietly.

Once they were gone, I found my way to the kitchen to see Hallie standing at the sink as she looked out of the window above it with tears in her eyes as she gazed out over our rather large back yard. I walked over to her and hugged her tightly from behind, “Of all the beautiful things in this house, you stop and look out of a window at the back yard?” I wondered.

She nodded, “I want a play set right there,” She whispered as she pointed towards the middle of the yard, directly in front of window’s view.

“Well, we won’t need one there for a while.” I insisted as I kissed her neck softly.

“It’s sooner than you think, Cory.” She muttered before I felt her guide my hand down to her lower stomach, “A lot sooner than you think.” She insisted.

I frowned and suddenly my mind flew back to twenty or so minutes earlier when I noticed that she had gone the whole month of December without a period, “Hallie,” I whispered.

She just nodded, “It’s not like I meant for it to happen, Babe.” She whined then turned around to me, “Don’t leave me.”

“What makes you think I’m leaving?” I questioned as I caressed her face, “I’m not leaving.” I assured her before kissing her lips lovingly, “We can handle this.”

Hallie just nodded before taking my hand in hers, “Let’s go check out the rooms,” She demanded.

I said nothing as I walked away towards the staircase with her, once upstairs and at the first door, Hallie pushed it open to see a simple guest room with a bed in it. The next door was a closet then a bathroom, meaning that the last two doors were bedrooms and the one at the end of the hall was most likely the Master bedroom.

Pushing the door next to Master bedroom open, Hallie gasped as she walked in, “They knew!?” She exclaimed.

I walked in behind her and saw a beautiful crib in the middle of the room but nothing else was hanging up on the walls and there was no other furniture either.

“They did know!” She confirmed as she turned on her heel and shoved a note towards me. I looked down at it was a simple note in my Mother’s handwriting, ’Together April and I have had six kids, we figured it out before you probably even knew. Love You, Melinda.’

“Well, wouldn’t they have felt bad if you weren’t pregnant?” I wondered then smiled as I looked up at Hallie who was just staring at the crib, “It’s an amazing crib,” I said softly, “I just got my sister’s old crib when I was born and my brother got the same crib when he was born.” I nodded, “My parents probably dressed me in my sister’s old baby clothes when I was an infant too.” I laughed.

Hallie looked up at me silently and I saw the fear and anxiety in her eyes. Sticking the note back onto the crib, I walked over to my Wife and wrapped her in my arms, holding her close without a single word to be said because she didn’t need words right now, she just needed a comforting hug. I swayed slowly as I closed my eyes, “How did they know this is the room we wanted for the nursery?” I teased.

Hallie giggled softly as she buried her face in the crook of my neck more, “Don’t make me laugh,” She ordered, “I don’t want to laugh right now.”

“Ok, I’m sorry.” I apologized before rubbing her back while continuing to sway, “We’re going to be alright.” I assured her before I fell quiet and looked out of the window, wondering why I wasn’t freaking out as well. Maybe it’s because I got my wish, I didn’t want to know about a pregnancy before we were married, I always said that after we were married we can have kids but not before. I guess all that baby talk Hallie made me go through prepared me for this.

We’re married and starting to make our own little family. I hope to God I don’t screw this up anytime soon.