The Proposal - Kitty Thomas Page 0,32
a few more minutes, and then I announce, “We're going to go find Griffin and Dayne.”
Livia is caught off guard by this. I guess I failed to tell her they were invited. It won't seem strange to my parents though. They know Griff and Dayne have been my best friends since college and that of course they're in the wedding. The guys have also been present at every New Year's Eve party since college.
I pull Livia away from my parents and toward the buffet. “See? It wasn't bad. That's it. The whole confrontation. Nobody thought you were a gold digger. Nobody asked to see your bank balance. You weren't required to know which fork goes with what or to know which designer bags are fashionable this season.”
Despite my parents' lifestyle, they've always been graced with good manners and treat guests graciously, never drawing attention to differences in socio-economic status, which I've always thought makes them far classier than those who try to use etiquette as a weapon against the Emily Post neophyte.
Livia is too relieved by the non-event meeting my parents was to be irritated by my teasing. We get some food off the buffet and take it outside where it's surprisingly warm in spite of the falling snow. Dayne and Griffin wave us over to a table they've claimed in a far corner right next to one of the heaters. They've got a seat saved for her between them closest to the heat source.
She looks at me uncertainly. “Won't it look weird if I sit between them?” she whispers.
I shrug. “Probably not. Not if you don't make it weird.”
She sits. Except for the Miami trip, this is the first time the four of us have been alone together since the night we all confronted her a few weeks ago at Capri Bella, and it is as uncomfortable as you might expect. Just like that first night, we eat in complete silence. Prison cafeterias are more joyful than this.
I know she's uncomfortable. She does well enough when she's out with just one of us, but she's clearly still unnerved by the idea of all of us together. And no matter what it may say about me, I like that. In fact, I don't want all of us together at one time again until it's time for the pre-nup, and then the wedding. I don't want her to get too comfortable before that night.
Now that it's been decided that none of us are fucking her until the wedding night, I'm determined to do everything in my power to keep her off balance until it's time to consummate our union. I want to bask in all this delicious nervous energy, this timidity that I've never had the pleasure of experiencing in quite such a potent emotional cocktail.
I've never been the type consumed with virginity nor the type to fantasize about it. I'm not that into purity in a woman. And I know she's been with other men, but it's been long enough that it changes the feel of everything. I want to savor every moment of it. I want to initiate her into my darkness without her having too many glimpses of the light.
After we eat, I pull her up out of her chair and guide her to the dance floor on the terrace. We slow dance together with the snow falling down on us. I watch her watch the table with Griffin and Dayne.
I lean close to her ear. “You can dance with them both at the reception, but not now. Your face gives too much away.”
She nods and leans her head against my shoulder.
We're all exhausted by the time midnight gets here, but we dutifully participate in the champagne toast in the ballroom. My father announces our engagement a minute and a half before midnight, which is met with murmurs of approval and applause.
I kiss her a second after midnight as the balloons come down—a sweet, polite public-friendly kiss.
My mother finds her way over to us and kisses me on the cheek and gives Livia a hug and wishes us a happy new year.
When she pulls away, she says, “You two really shouldn't be driving such a long distance this late at night. There will be crazy drunk people on the road. Stay. You know we have plenty of rooms and you two can stay on the complete opposite end of the house from your father and I with plenty of privacy.”
I've had a few drinks and probably shouldn't be