Footsteps for a Bride-to-Be

July 31st, 2011

My Father stuck around for quite some time, and he helped me out with my Wedding stuff too. Like the other day, we went to go look at the possible colours for the theme and the napkins and the Bridesmaid dresses, and to be quite honest, I was surprised that he managed to be less critical and we had a pretty good Father-Daughter bonding time. My fiancé would webcam chat with me every few days, when he didn't have a competition. Debbie, Hilary and Whitney would do the same, especially when Michael won something and I hadn't been told yet. They always kept me up to date.
That morning, Michael decided to wake me up so early just to ask me how I was doing and showed me his luggage that were packed and locked, ready for his flight home the next morning. He was very excited to be home, to see Baby Phelps and to sleep beside me again. He sounded guilty when he heard how much I've done for our Wedding and promised to make up for it.

"Dad stayed with me throughout the rest of the month, and he's headed back to LA in a couple of hours, to his own life with his second Wife and Step-Son, who was roughly around Ricky's age, or was it younger?" I felt my voice fade as I tried to remember how old my Step-Brother was, and I was certain that the kid was younger than me because I've lived with him for a couple of years. I stared back at the laptop screen, at the half-asleep Michael. The time difference was really killing us, but at least he made the effort to call me.
I weakly smiled at him as I ended my explanation with, "I'm not really sure, since Kim never really liked us interacting with her brat of a son."
Michael leaned forward, leaning his chin on his crossed arms atop the desk and had his signature goofy grin spread across his face. "Anne, I'm happy that you made it through," He commented. "But I really don't think I can last another day without seeing you and Mitch," He confessed as he let out a sigh. "I only see you through this laptop screen, but holding you is different-"
"-Oh for fuck's sake," I heard Ryan interrupt from the background and waited for the other Olympian to appear on the screen. I didn't wait long before Michael was pushed off the chair and Ryan casually landed his butt on the chair and looked at me with a cocked eyebrow. "Wow, Roxy, you look pretty sexy with your morning hair. Is this what you look like after a night with Michael?" He asked, nibbling at his lower lip. And even at the opposite end of the world, Ryan still managed to make me feel like I was being examined by his strong, charismatic gaze.
"You ass-" I covered my mouth before I could swear. I tugged the blanket higher up to cover my cleavage and straightened up my hair. While doing so, Michael and Ryan sounded like they were disputing over the chair, and when I looked back at the screen, my fiancé won and had taken his rightful spot back. He waved his hand about to try and get rid of his annoying roommate.
"Where's Derek?" I asked with my head tilted to the side.
"With Lia, they went on a date," He grumbled in response. I supposed he wanted to take me on a date too?
"I love you, honey," I grinned, trying to cheer him up at his sudden turn of mood.
"I love you too-"
"-I can't wait to see you," I cut in and blew a flying kiss his way.
"Hah! I caught it!" Ryan reappeared out of the blue and swept his hand across the gap between Michael and the laptop screen, and I saw him close his hand into a fist and waved it around in front of him like some idiot who won something. "You get it every day, Michael, give me this one."
"Ryan, you don't know how much of an ass you look right now," I commented with a giggle.
"I know, but makes your fiancé more of an ass when he's not laughing right now," Ryan remarked.
I saw Michael turn his head left and right. "I feel like an ass for saying okay to being roommates with an ass," He joked. His lips curved as he quickly added, "I'll see you tomorrow, Anne. And talk to your Dad about what's been bugging you."
"Bye Michael," I waved. "Bye Lochtenator," I laughed before our conversation ended just like that.

What he meant was that I complained to him about this feeling I've always had since Dad arrived. The topic that's been clogged at the back of my throat was that I wanted to ask him about the situation between him and Mom during their divorce, and his decision to remarry six years later. I've told Michael that I was scared about getting divorce, and he only laughed and told me that I was overthinking again.

Anyway, to end a perfect month with my Dad, we decided to talk about more personal matters.
In that case - Why did Dad remarry?

4:30pm - Patterson Park

Baby Phelps lay on his stomach, so comfortably on the blanket amongst the field of the park. Herman had been on the side on the grass, asleep and unwilling to go play, well, since his little girlfriend hadn't arrived yet for their usual afternoon date together. I sat behind Baby Phelps and Dad was opposite us.
I've brought up... Tried to bring up the topic of his remarriage for a while and I've wanted to talk to him about the whole divorce settlement, well, you know me and my insecurities, I really wanted to know what was going to happen if I was ever to go through that with Michael.

"Dad, I've been meaning to ask you for a while," I started as I gulped down the fear that I had at the back of my thoughts. I didn't want to hold it back anymore, since that was the greatest opportunity before Michael got back and it'd be a while before I could talk to Dad about it again - and it may be too late. I stroked my hand across Baby Phelps's thick brown hair and asked, "What made you decide to remarry?"
There, it was out.
My Dad paused. He even froze. His face looked stunned at the sudden question. Probably since my Brothers and me never really thought of ever asking him about it, considering we all agreed that when time came, we had to individually decide when we wanted to ask him about it. "Well, about time," He suddenly smiled. "I guess you're ready for the talk," He added.
The mood quickly changed. It was my turn to look stunned. "What are you talking about?" I grunted.
Dad let out a chuckle. "Princess, a couple of years ago, before Ricky made his official decision to live with your Mom, he asked me about this," He revealed with a confident tone. "Before Ralph decided introduced me to Hailey, he asked me about my decision to remarry and we talked about how long it took for Mom to decide that she wanted to remarry and how she based it on your opinions while I married Kim without asking any of you," He explained.
"Oh," Was all I could get out of me as I adjusted my position and prepared for him to talk.

And Dad sounded pretty confident too.

"A year after breaking up with your Mom and having the three of you away from me, I met Kim, and I told you three all this before I got married," Joseph Miller started. "Two years after that, I married her. You three didn't seem pleased either, and I guess it was my fault, but I really wanted someone to be around, and since the three of you mainly spent time with your Mom after that, I felt bad," He sighed. "To be honest, I wasn't even sure why I went on one knee and proposed, but I'll tell you this, Princess, I'm happy."
I smiled. "That's good," I nodded and reached over to tap my Dad's shoulder. "But the divorce settlement-"
"-I didn't sign a pre-nuptial with your Mom," He blurted out. "And you know very well that I gave her everything I had just to make sure you three were raised well."
"Don't you own a few properties, Dad?"
"Your Mom owns some, since I didn't sign. But I brought it up with Kim, and we signed a pre-nuptial agreement, since she has her own business and what not. Doesn't Michael own a few things here too?"
I nodded slowly. "Now that I think of it, yeah," I exclaimed. "He owns the Aquatic Club and the Ice Rink place, and he has a house rented out in Ann Arbor," I listed down.
"And don't you own a few properties as well?"

Yeah, when I earn that bit of money when my first book came out, I instantly bought a few apartments in New York and rented it out to have a proper income, especially since I was only a part time journalist since I moved in with Michael.

"Are you two thinking of signing an agreement?" Dad sounded like he was afraid to even ask such a thing.

A pre-nuptial agreement... That never crossed my mind at all!



August 2nd, 2011

3:45am - Our Love Nest

I didn't go pick up Michael that morning because he arrived too early. Lia went to the airport to get them instead, and she forced me to stay home since she thought it'd be inconvenient for me to wake Baby Phelps up and have him get moody from the interrupted sleep. I actually fell asleep around midnight, after wanting to stay up and greet Michael once he walked through the door, but after spending a day with a Mommy-and-Baby swimming class that I attended with Janet and Joy, I was pretty tired.

Roughly near four in the morning, I heard a slam at the front door and I sat up. I felt my heart pace and pound against my chest from the excitement of seeing my significant other. To be honest, I really missed Michael, and being away from him for so long really made me feel lonely and empty without him around. I was told that it was something like a Love Bird Syndrome or something like that, when a significant other was away and there was a sudden emptiness in life, even when Baby Phelps made me happy every day, it wasn't the same. I pulled the blanket off of me, but the moment I placed my feet against the carpet, the door opened and I met eye to eye with my fiancé. I smiled and tried not to squeal loudly as I pushed myself off the bed and rushed to Michael, wrapping my arms around him and pressing my lips against his, which made him drop his bags and the bouquet of flowers and the teddy bear he brought with him.
"You don't know how much I missed having you around," I mumbled against his chest once we parted.
He chuckled and stepped away from me, cupping my chin and inspected me. "And you complained that you wanted me out of the house," He teased before he ducked down and lifted the flowers and teddy bear from the floor and said, "I'll take this to Mitch first, and then I'll deal with you."
I tugged his hand to stop him from taking a step away from me. He looked at me with a cocked brow as I shook my head and whined, "Can't I have you to myself? You have the rest of the day to be with him."
"You miss me, huh?" He smirked as he put the teddy bear and flowers carefully back down. He pushed his luggage out of the room and lifted me off the floor. I wrapped my legs around his torso, my arms still around him as he walked into our room, closing the door with his feet and took me to bed.

If you know what I mean.

7:10am

Okay, so we didn't fall asleep until it was nearly six in the morning. We only had an hour and a bit to sleep until the sound of a gurgling baby woke us up. I blinked my eyes open and met with Michael's, which I missed so much after weeks waking up by myself. Sometimes, Herman was there, but it wasn't the same.
"I miss this," Michael whispered, reaching over and brushed his fingers along the side of my face before he shuffled over and pressed his lips against mine.
I held onto his hand and smiled. "Is it time to get up?" I innocently asked.
"Time for me to give my attention to my son, you know," He replied. "Stop being greedy," He teased, which was basically a mockery of what I always said to him every time he wanted to spend more time with me.
I retaliated by stretching and rolling on my back. "Ah, fine by me," I calmly responded while pulling the blanket over my naked body and closing my eyes while I mumbled, "Your turn anyway."
I only felt Michael's body move away from me. The sounds of his feet stomping against the carpet, his body shuffled about as he placed some pants on and opened the door. "I love you too," He laughed as he walked out, leaping over his luggage and seemed like a hurry to get to his son. I couldn't blame him, every time we had a webcam chat, Baby Phelps was asleep and he didn't want me to interrupt the baby's sleep.
Being rather curious and impatient to wait for him, I rolled out of the bed, lazily tossing his shirt over my body and putting on my underwear to cover the private parts. I tugged his luggage into the room and lifted the gifts he brought for me and Baby Phelps and walked towards the other room. I walked through the door and watched Michael interact so happily with the baby, the two both laughed and with their similar goofy grins, they looked adorable. I even took a photo of it and posted it in his social media accounts, captioning it as, 'Reunited with my boy', which had a few of his celebrity friends sending him messages about it.

I didn't want to ruin the moment by telling him that I actually wanted to sign a pre-nuptial agreement. It wasn't for me, per se, but for him.

4:19pm

It was a struggle to get him alone. Ever since he got home, he made sure we spent the whole day as a Family, and I didn't want Baby Phelps to see any disputes between his Father and I, so I held back. It was a sensitive topic, and I asked Mom about it at some point while Michael went out to the store with Baby Phelps at tow. She said that she and Nick didn't sign any agreement, but they talked about it like civilized people, especially since they needed to as Nick was a business owner in Chicago. Mom told me that Nick didn't want to sign it because he felt that the rest of his life was with my Mom, which was sweet, but I forced her to spill the beans on what he really said, and it was because the pre-nuptial agreement was the cause of the failure of his first marriage.
So then, I got more scared.
Baby Phelps was taken by Debbie by the afternoon as she wanted some time alone with her grandson again, and she forced Michael and I to spend some alone time too, despite Michael's wish to spend time as a three of us. I was actually relieved that Debbie took the baby, since I really needed to talk to my fiancé.

"Michael, we need to talk," I quickly blurted out without thinking once we walked through the door of our lovely home. I watched him turn to me with a confused look.
"That doesn't sound good," He muttered.
"I don't know," I shrugged. "It depends on your opinion on it."
"Okay," He only nodded as he tossed the keys to the side and we both made our way to the living room. We sat opposite each other on the sofa and stared into each other's eyes.
How was I going to start it?
"Um, it's about the businesses and real estate you own," I mumbled. It wasn't how I wanted to start it.
"What about them?" He calmly replied.
"Well, you on a few, and I thought about an important topic, especially since we're getting married and those become mine too," I spoke like I was in a hurry. It was probably too fast for him to comprehend as he only cocked an eyebrow up and asked me to repeat, which I did, and I even added, "The properties I own will be yours too, you know."
"Yeah, I know that, what's wrong with that? I'm actually really okay with that. Unless you're-"
I waved my hand in front of me. "Oh, don't think that. I actually want to share ownership. Being a sole owner stresses the hell out of me," I told him. "But anyway, it made me wonder, do you want to sign some sort of pre-nuptial agreement?" I had to say it, or else I was just stalling.
Michael fell silent. He looked away for a moment. He pushed his hand through his hair a few times, over and over before he finally looked back my way and just laughed.
"What's so funny?" I crossed my arms and furrowed my brows. "You know that I'm being serious."
"I thought about this as well," He revealed. "And I don't want to sign one."
"Huh? What?" I stammered and more words clogged at the back of my throat. "I'm being serious, stop making it sound like I'm not."
"I am serious, Anne," He sounded it too.
"Aren't you going to make me sign some sort of agreement that you don't want me to gain weight, and if I cheat on you, I won't get any settlement?" I was probably rambling by the sounds of it. And Michael made me go on for a while before he finally decided to silence me and told me to be quiet. He raised my left hand and pecked the engagement ring and said, "I'm not shallow, so I don't care about you gaining weight, and I know you, you're going to be conscious and end up working out anyway. As for the cheating part, don't you think we trust each other enough to not think about it anymore?"
"What if you have some secret mistress and you're addicted to sex?"
"My over-thinker of a fiancée," He cooed and tugged my hand to make me lean forward and land on top of him the moment he lay on his back. "I'm only addicted to sex if it's with you," He chuckled. "And if I ever do that, I'll give you permission to cut my penis off."
"Really?" I laughed as I adjusted my position to straddle him and sat up. He sat up too and gave me an uncertain look when I seemed to look like I enjoyed the idea a bit too much to his liking. I pressed my hands on both sides of his face and shook my head. "I know you won't cheat on me. I'm taking your word for it."
"That's a lot of pressure," He murmured under his breath as his fingers began to fiddle with the buttons of my blouse. "But I'll prove to you that I have an addiction with you," He grinned deviously while he stripped me off my clothing and made his way with me like he had something to prove.

"What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine," Was the only thing I could remember him say to me that time. I suppose, he really didn't want to sign such a thing.
Michael Phelps must've really loved me to make him not want to sign one.