In Love With a Stripper

I woke up this morning cranky. Gerard hadn’t let me have more than two minutes to myself since I ditched my own security detail and him too. After my mother was sure that things were settling down again she went home. As did Robbi’s mother and father. My mother said she would be back to visit again soon, but she had a few things at work she had to take care of.

“Jynx are you okay?” Gerard asked. I was still in bed and it was past noon. This was the one habit I’d picked up at the club and dropped just as fast.

“This room is the only one you will allow me to be alone in. So I’m staying right here until the baby is born.”

“Jynx you’re exaggerating.”

“Bruce and Alfonso are both huge and never leave my side. I bet you if I walked to the kitchen one of them would follow,” he rolled his eyes.

“You sound ridiculous. We both know they do a sweep of the house twice a day. Once at 12am and once at 10pm. When you are in public they are your shadows yes, but in this house it’s just you and me.”

“I can’t say I mind that,” I said honestly. “Why must you always speak with logic? I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all,” he let out a hearty laugh.

“One of us has too,” he crawled into bed and wrapped his arms around me from behind so that his hands rested on my stomach. It was a little funny that even though I was four months pregnant I still wasn’t showing. My mother said she didn’t show until she was about seven months along. “Hey how bout we go out tonight?”

“Okay,” I said dreading having to wait for the security people to get packed up and ready to leave.

“Just you and me,” I turned to look at him to see if he was serious.

“Don’t play with me Gerard,” I warned.

“Seriously just the two of us,” he smiled broadly. “Come on. I do listen to you and I don’t want you to run off again. Besides don’t you think I get tired of the new security?”

“Then please can we cut back? I’m tired of this.”

“You know its just until Jared is caught.”

“They aren’t ever going to catch Jared. He’s rich and I’m a pregnant ex-stripper. No one cares.”

“I care and so do a lot of cops who are still looking for him,” I rolled my eyes. They only cared because of him. Not that I was bitter, but if it were just me asking for them to catch him it wouldn’t be getting done. “Do you want to go out or not?” he asked obviously getting a little impatient with me. “Come on we’ll have fun I promise.”

“Okay, okay I’ll come,” I took my time getting showered and dressed. Then as we drove out of the gates I waved to the guards. They almost looked disappointed that they weren’t coming with us. I watched as the familiar scenery passed my window. I smiled feeling free, then I felt silly. The only difference between when the guards are with us and now is that I know they are there. Honestly they weren’t that bad. Alfonso took the time we had in the car to try and teach me Spanish and Bruce was nothing, but a big teddy bear. I was finally happy to be practically unsupervised.

I gave Gerard a quizzical look as he pulled into the parking lot of the diner we ate at on our first date.

“All this so we can…”

“Don’t underestimate me woman,” he said making me laugh. We both got out of the car and walked hand in hand into the diner. The place was empty accept for the hostess and I could hear someone in the kitchen. We followed the hostess as she led us over to the booth we sat in that night. It was covered in a burgundy linen table cloth. With place settings you would expect to find in a five star restaurant with candles sitting in the middle of the table. Then she left us and not long after a waiter came to stand next to the table.

“May I interest you in a drink?” I smiled even broader then realized that I wasn’t allowed to have any alcohol and my smile faltered a little.

“She’ll have sparkling cider and I’ll have the same,” I waited for him to hand us menus only he never did.

“Are they going to let us order?”

“No I’ve already taken care of that. Just relax and let me worry about everything.”

“Gerard this…this is amazing.”

“I hoped you would like it,” then the waiter came and sat the bottle of cider in a ice bucket beside Gerard. Then poured both of us glasses.

“The first course will be out in a few moment,” then he left again and the lights were turned off. Leaving just the candles to light our dinner. The first course turned out to be these spicy chicken egg rolls. I thought it was a little weird cause this dinner didn’t have them on the menu. Then he bought out crab cakes with a lemon pepper sauce and potato gratin on the side after the first course and like the first it wasn't on their menu.

“Gerard you have to tell me how you pulled this off without me finding out,” I said as the waiter cleared away the main course.

“I planned when you napped,” he said with a smile. “And you napped a lot,” he got up from the table and walked over to the jukebox. “So when your mom was here. She told me a story about when you were five. She said you had a huge crush on your kindergarten teacher. She said you heard this song on the radio and wouldn’t stop singing it for weeks,” then turned to look at me and smiled. “Until you learned that he was actually married,” I smiled back knowing what song he was talking about. He put two quarters in the slot then hit two buttons and Etta James “At Last.” filled the whole diner. I smiled. “Hey I’m not only into the punk scene. I do like R&B too.”

“Hey I didn’t say anything,” he walked over to me and reached for my hand.

“Come dance with me,” I took his hand and let him pull me from the seat. His arms wound around my waist pulling me close against his body. My arms rested around his neck and I leaned my head on his shoulder. We swayed back and forth to the music. Just as the song came to an end he stepped away from me and quickly kneeled down onto one knee.

“Gerard?”

“Jynx, I love you. I want nothing more then to spend the rest of my life with you. So will you marry me,” I stood there stunned. “Well come on say something.”

“I…I have to use the bathroom,” then I rushed from the room and into the bathroom. I walked over to the sink and looked at myself in the mirror. I took my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Robbi’s number.

“Hello?”

“Robbi he asked me to marry him,” I said.

“Congratulations,” she said sounding more then happy.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Say yes dummy.”

“I…But… what if he‘s only doing it because of the baby?”

“You don’t really believe that do you?“

“I don’t know…”

“Jynxie all I know is that tomorrow when I see you. You had better have a damned ring on that finger or I’m going to personally kick your ass…”

“You can’t marry him Jynx,” I froze. I never would have expected to hear that voice again and yet here it was loud and clear. “You know deep inside that you belong with me.”

“Jared,” I said turning to look at him. He stood in front of the door and I wondered how he could have gotten in here. The place was empty.

“Don’t…I came back for you. I want us to start over, I know this place in Mexico. I know you’ll love it…” as he kept telling me about this Mexican paradise I slowly made my way to the bathroom door. “The weather is great and its right on the beach,” he rushed to where I was and pinned me against the door just as my hand clutched the handle. “Jynx I know that you don’t really understand what you feel for me, but you have to know that I wouldn’t ever hurt you. I saved you remember?” I nodded my head. “So what we are going to do is we are going to walk out of here together. Me and you. We’ll just leave all of this behind,” he was talking to me like I’d said I wanted to come with him or I was supposed to be with him. He took my hand and pulled me against his body. His other hand rested on my stomach. “We’ll raise the child together and it’ll just be us,” he leaned forward as though he was going to kiss me, but at the last moment changed direction and nuzzled my neck.

“Jynx…” Gerard said from the other side of the door. “Are you there? Look I understand if you’re not ready…You know what just…” I heard his phone ringing and then silence. Two seconds later the door was pushed open and I fell forward on top of Jared. He landed with a thump on the floor. Gerard froze as soon as he saw Jared. Then he saw me. It happened so fast I almost missed it.

Gerard pulled me up from the floor and punched Jared as he jumped up grabbing for me. Gerard stepped between him and I and punched him in the face again, busting his nose. He didn’t stop there. He pushed Jared against the wall. Jared didn’t even have a chance to react as Gerard started pummeling him. I stood back with my hand over my mouth holding in a scream. Finally Gerard stood up and Jared lay bloody and unconscious. “Are you okay,” He asked me walking to me. I threw myself into his arms and let the feeling of his arms and heart beat calm me.

“How did you know?” I asked burying my face into his chest.

“Robbi called me,” he said kissing my forehead.

“I was coming out to tell you yes,” I said. “I’ll marry you Gerard. I …” he cut off my words with a kiss.