One Hundred Fifty-One

Richie paused in the doorway of the guest house living room, watching Allegra work her way through one of the boxes that Lexi had sent over.  She’d been doing the same thing for the last four days, and each time he asked her how it was going, he got a glare and grumble for his effort.

“Hey, beautiful,” he called softly, his feet spurring into motion.  The distance from where he stood to the couch was a short one, but it was much like a minefield in the fact that there were so many obstacles to avoid.  Bouquets, flowers, paper, scraps of material and doodads of all shapes and sizes were slung haphazardly around the sofa and coffee table.

Even when she’d had all of her adoption papers strewn around this room, it hadn’t been this chaotic.  Of course that was two file folders, not fourteen friggin’ boxes of crap.

He leaned over the back of the sofa, angling his head around to kiss her cheek.  As near as he could tell, she was inspecting invitation samples.

Huffing, she craned her neck to see him, a piece of cream colored paper held in each hand.  “Explain to me the difference between ecru and eggshell.  And while you’re at it could you tell me why I care?  They’re off-white.  Isn’t that close enough?”

He struggled to maintain a passive expression, when inside he was full of sardonic laughter.  She was truly cracking him up, and if she wasn’t careful, they would ask her to revoke her woman card for making comments like that.

“I’m just a man, baby.  A color blind one at that.  These things are beyond me.”

With an unintelligible grunt, she tossed both sheets into the box at her feet.  “We need to talk.” 

A sigh rattled in his chest.  In the history of all conversations, the ones that started with ‘we need to talk’ invariably sucked. 

Things had been so good lately.  Relaxed.  Easy.  What the hell could’ve gone wrong now?

The piles of wedding whatnots were swept back into their boxes to make a spot for him, and he settled in alongside her, the cushion dipping under his weight.    

“What’s up?”

Azure blue eyes blinked at him sadly.  Reaching for his hand, she curled her fingers around it until the little star tattoo hidden from view. 

“I can’t do this, Richie.  I’ve tried and tried to make it okay in my head, but nothing I’m telling myself is working.”  She squeezed his hand, taking a deep breath.  “I’m calling off the wedding.  I’m so sorry.”

Talk about lightning striking out of the blue.  He couldn’t have been any more surprised if she’d announced that she was a lesbian.  Scrambling to think, he sought to recall something that he’d done to piss her off, but drew a blank.  From his perspective, they’d been perfectly content since London.

So what the hell was going on?

“You  wanna tell me why?”

“Why? Isn’t it obvious?”

Great.  One of those loaded questions that he didn’t have a chance in the world of answering the right way.   All he could do was take the least damning route.

“Why don’t you tell me anyway?”

She huffed, releasing him and slumping back into the couch cushions, chin dropping dejectedly to her chest. 

“It’s this,” she lamented, gesturing at the clutter around them with a half-hearted flip of her wrist.  “I can’t do this.  Planning a wedding that involves a celebrity isn’t something I ever expected to have to do, and I hate it.  There are too many details and decisions to make – most of which I don’t care about.  I’m a simple girl, Richie.  There are women out there who appreciate this kind of thing, but all this Cinderella fantasy on crack just isn’t me.”

The tension flooded from Richie’s shoulders and they began to quiver with laughter at her assessment of the situation.  Never had he heard it put more articulately.  His girl called them like she saw them.

“Are you laughing at me?”  She poked him in the ribs, causing him to flinch, but it didn’t stem the laughter.  “Are you that happy to be done with me?  Do you feel like you’ve been paroled from Death Row?  Is that hysterical laughter from sheer relief?”

Okay, she was getting entirely the wrong picture here, and under the influence of pregnancy hormones.  It wouldn’t do to set her off.  Richie fought to pull himself together, but was unable to completely wipe the smile off his face.  It was under a much tighter rein, but the corners of his mouth twitched with the effort.

“No, I’m not laughing at you.  But Cinderella on crack, Allegra?  Really?  How can I not find that funny?”

“Well, I’m not laughing,” she pouted.  “I thought everything was perfect until Lexi threw that poofy little wedding planner at us and the two of you started talking about inviting Cher.  That got me to wondering what other celebrities you were going to want to invite.” 

The pitch of her voice rose and the words started tumbling out faster and her hands began waving in emphasis of her tirade.

“Then I started thinking of how many other celebrity weddings they’ve been to, one more extravagant than the next, and how yours would need to be on a scale with that.   Do you know how many weddings I’ve been to?  None.  Not one.  How am I supposed to whip up something spectacularly different when I really don’t even know what spectacularly normal is?”

His heart tugged.  God, this woman was sweet.  Would anyone else take such a monumental day out of their life and make it about someone else?  Had any other bride attempted to plan a wedding solely to please her future husband and accommodate his social status?   

I don’t know what I did to deserve her but thank you God, for sending her my way.

He slumped back on the couch with her, one long arm encircling her shoulders as he urged her against his side.

“Allegra, I will gladly have a big, splashy, frilly wedding with everybody and their brother in attendance – if that’s what you want.  But when you get down to it…”  He shrugged and waved his hand.  “Pfft! I’m just a guy.  All I really want is to beat my chest like a caveman, grunt that you’re mine and drag you off to a secluded cave where I fuck you for days on end.”

The humor in his words loosened her up, and soon she was jiggling with laughter against his side.  “Okay, that wasn’t exactly what I had in mind either.”

“Your wedding day is when your dreams are supposed to come true, Cinderella fantasy be damned.  It doesn’t make a shit what anybody else thinks.  It’s your fantasy that matters.”  He tunneled his fingers under her ponytail, lazily massaging her scalp.  “Now tell me your fantasy.”

Allegra snuggled against him, inhaling the masculine scent that was uniquely Richie.  His arms, warmth and smell all combined to surround her with familiarity.  Why hadn’t she talked to him sooner?  He had this way of making things seem so easy. 

Her muscles began to unknot for the first time since David’s cookout.

“I don’t know.  I always knew I was going to go into the Church.  There was no reason for me to plan a fictitious wedding.”

“Come onnn,” he urged with a nudge.  “There has to be something.”

“No, not so much.”

There really wasn’t, but her ridiculously sensitive, sweet fiancé wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“Close your eyes,” he demanded. 

With an indulgent sigh, she complied.  “Okay.”

“It’s your wedding day and you’re just about to walk down the aisle.  Look around you.  What do you see?  Where are you?”

The muscles that had so recently relaxed began to seize up again.  She knew he thought she was kidding, but she honestly couldn’t do this.

“I don’t see anything.  Just a blinding whiteness.”

“Allegra, you’re going to marry me.  You have to, because life without you is no longer an option.  Everything else is just details.  Let me help you work them out.  Relax and concentrate.”

She drew in a deep, cleansing breath and willed her muscles back into pliability.  This was part of that whole teamwork thing.  As futile as it may be, this was as much of a relationship building moment as any they’d had so far. 

“It’s you and me, the happiest we’ve ever been,” he set the scene.  “We’re standing in front of a preacher, looking into each other’s eyes with so much love.  Can you see it?  Feel it?”

It was weird, but she could.  Hearing his voice, low in her ear transported her to another place. 

His gooey chocolate eyes were devouring her like the sweetest dessert, making her heart flutter.  The orange halo surrounding him was warm in contrast to her imagined toes.  A soft ‘swooshing’ filled her mind and a slow smile curved her mouth. 

“It’s Hawaii.  We’re on our beach in Hawaii, and the sun is just coming up.”

“Oh yeah?  What else?  What am I wearing?”

“Mm.  A really thin button-down shirt.  It’s white, and only half the buttons are fastened.  The sleeves are rolled up to the elbows and your pants are rolled up, too, past the ankles.  They’re black.  You don’t have any shoes, barefoot in the sand.”  She felt herself grin.  “You’re the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

He chortled with amusement.  “You know that if you open your eyes, I’m right here?”

“Yeah, but you’re so pretty here in my head.”

“Okay, I’ll pretend not to be insulted and we’ll move along,” he pretended to sulk.  “What about you?  What are you wearing?”

Her brow furrowed as she considered it.  “It’s an off-white dress.  Kind of lacy with a jaggedy, handkerchief hemline.  There aren’t any sleeves and it’s got a v-neck, plunging low in the back.  And I have the most beautiful bouquet of tropical flowers.  All shades of orange, purple and bright pink.”

“I can see it,” he agreed, fingers stroking along her side.  “You’re gorgeous, hair flowing everywhere in the breeze.”

“My hair is in a French-knot at my neck,” she corrected.  “With a hibiscus flower in it.”

“Nuh-uh.”  Richie pinched her hip in reprimand.  “Hair down, with a hibiscus behind your left ear.  Please?”

Recalling the significance of the flower placement behind the left ear, she smiled.  “Okay.”

“Who’s there with us?” he pushed on, with an appreciative hug.

“Ava, Jon, Dot, David and Tico.”  There was no hesitation, but she quickly found herself backtracking.  “And your mom of course, and I guess my mom and dad too.  And Uncle John and Aunt Carol.  And – Oh good grief,” she blew with frustration.  “This is where it gets complicated.  Everyone has to be there so no feelings get hurt, and then it’s a circus and I have to worry about bridesmaids and groomsmen and catering and all that other crap and I’m back to square one.”  Wrenching out of his embrace, she sat up, kicking the nearest box.  “I can’t do this!  There is no wedding.”

Strong fingers curled around her bicep and tugged her back into his arms.  “Don’t say that again,” he rumbled fiercely.  “Or you’re gonna piss me off.  You’ve already got most of it planned.  If guest list is the sticking point, then there won’t be a guest list.  Me, you and a minister on the beach.  That’s it.  We can have a reception in Jersey later for our family and friends, and let the goofy little wedding planner do his thing.  Let him take care of it all.”

Talk about tempting.  All of those people interfering with the serenity of their beach wasn’t… right.  And the ‘Renaithance’ was a whole lot more appealing as a reception theme than a wedding.  After all, a reception was just a party, not the milestone that set the tone for their entire marriage.

“Am I allowed to be completely selfish?”

“In planning your wedding?  Absolutely, baby.  Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?”

“For my part, I want Jon, Dot, David and Tico there.  They can bring whomever, but those are the ones I want to share our wedding with.  They’ve been with us since before the beginning and we wouldn’t be here without them – any of them.”

“Agreed.  And I want Ava.  Ma will be just as happy with the reception.  She hates the long flight to Hawaii.”

“So…”  Allegra lifted her face to look at him.  “It kinda sounds like we have a wedding planned.  Wanna get married?”

His dimple winked as he tapped her on the nose.  “I thought you’d never ask.  When?”

“Labor Day weekend?”

“It’s a date, Sunshine.”  He slanted his mouth across hers, sealing their plans with a kiss before pushing her back on the couch.

“Hey!” she objected with a scowl.

Not even acknowledging her protest, Richie pushed her clothes aside, clearing the way to rub her bare tummy.  “Did you hear that, Bug?  Mommy thought she was getting rid of Daddy because of some silly flowers and seating charts, but no.  Daddy wouldn’t stand for it.  I can’t live without you and your Mommy.  That means we’re doing things a little different, but that’s okay.  Love comes first.  Everything else is just details.  Don’t forget that, Bug.  Don’t ever forget it.”

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Author's note:  Sorry that I'm so predictable!  You all guessed what kind of wedding Allegra really wanted.  Or maybe you just know her that well?  :)