Kiss Me Tenderly

The party went off without a hitch. At first, harassed looking parents of smartly dressed children driving away with faces that said I don’t envy you, kids running and screaming in the backyard was enough to give both Alex and I massive headaches but soon after Alex and my own parent’s showed up. Both my mother and Isobel looked at each other and said to us, “We’ve got this one.”

Somehow, they managed to calm the kids down long enough to pique their interest in a few party games where all the prizes are dinosaur themed. Thank the good lord for our mothers.

All the men slumped into kitchen chairs, Alex squished into my lap so the two extra chairs would be available for our moms to sit down. Once the house was relatively quiet again and everyone was seated with their respective partners, it was silent for a moment.

“I have gathered you all here today,” Alex started, jokingly. The entire kitchen erupted with laughter, breaking the kind of awkward tension. I smiled to myself, nuzzling into Alex’s shoulder. This was why I loved him, because he could put an entire room of people at ease within seconds.

“So uh, we don’t know how to plan a wedding,” I said bluntly. That particular thought had been irritating me for the last few days; I never really liked not having a plan for something the second I decided on something big. Alex hadn’t had a clue what to do; he had never been married before. My mom laughed and leaned forward, rubbing my knee comfortingly.

“So are you asking your ol’ parents to help you out with that, Jacko?” she teased me, a sparkle in her eye. Alex and I both nodded and my mom leaned back, grinning. She looked over at Isobel and oh so casually asks, “Oh Isobel, would you be a dear and help me plan the wedding of these two fine gentlemen?”

Isobel giggled, giddy at the thought of her son getting married for the first and only time. “Of course, Joyce, I’d love the chance to be full involved in my son’s life,” Isobel grinned at the two of us. “In fact, I’ve already got a few plans started…”

“Oh, so have I, let’s trade notes.” Bewildered, all four men in the room – yes, our dads were quite left out of the picture – stared at the two women who had put their heads together and were already in full flow about flowers and linen colors. My dad cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Well, Peter, I can see that we’re not needed here.” He stood up and jerked his head towards the living room. “How about you and I go into the living room with a couple of beers and see what’s on the sports channel?” Alex’s dad looked relieved that he wasn’t going to get roped into organizing flowers and rose quickly.

“Sounds good. Have fun dealing with those two, boys,” he laughed. Both men continued to laugh as they walked out, leaving just my fiancee, myself, and our two mothers alone in the room.

I squinted at the notepad Isobel seemed to have pulled out of thin air.

Was that a seating chart?

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Alex sighed as he flopped into bed next to me, burying his face into the sheets.

“I know, I’m exhausted too.” I spoke basically into the blackness above my bed, too tired to slide underneath the sheets and actually go to sleep. Alex mumbled something but the words were lost in the folds of cotton he was currently trying to drown himself in.

I laughed and rolled over, trying to pull the sheets out of his grip. “C’mon Alex, I can’t understand you when you’re all mushed up like that.” He pulls the cotton away from himself and glares at me.

“Wedding planning with our moms is stressful.”

That it was. Our mothers sat at the kitchen table well into the night, after the cake, the presents, the obligatory beating of the paper machied donkey hanging from the oak tree in our backyard, only saying good night when the kids fell asleep in their pajamas in their grandpa’s laps. Who had promptly come into the kitchen at a loss for what to do because help, it had been too long since they last took care of small children.

“Don’t worry, baby, we’ll figure it out,” I murmured into his ear, kissing his cheek gently. I felt him relax in my arms and I grinned. “Besides, who cares as long as we’re married?” Alex hummed in agreement, his early bad mood forgotten as he rolled on top of me.

His fingers twisted in my hair and he stared lovingly into my eyes, the dim moonlight making it almost hard to distinguish his features but I could tell by the way his lips were twitching that he was grinning widely. “I love you.” My heart fluttered into my throat and my hands settled in his waist, feeling every little movement of his body, touching everything that would soon be mine and mine alone.

“I love you too. And I can’t wait for you to be mine.”