The next morning, I sat up and covered the alarm clock with my hand to stop the annoying beep. It had taken me forever to finally fall asleep the night before. No sooner had I gotten up but there was a knock at the door.
I ran down the stairs, tripped over the dog, slid across the tile, and banged my head on the doorknob. Unfortunately, the doorknob connected with my eye. Frustrated, I covered my eye with my hand and pulled the door open. “Hey babe,” Lance said, walking in. He went to kiss me but stopped when he saw my hand covering my eye. “What happened to you?” He slowly asked.
“Nothing,” I mumbled.
“Kelly!” He reached up and pulled my hand from over my eye. “Oh my God! Kelly, you need ice.”
“Let me get dressed first. Go get something to put on it and I’ll be back down in a second.”
Lance went to the kitchen as I went upstairs and threw on jeans, black velvet platform sneakers, a white sleeveless shirt, and a long sleeved green shirt over that, unbuttoned. I ran downstairs, carefully this time, and went to the kitchen. There, I found Lance at the table with a piece of raw steak that he must have found in the freezer.
“Sit,” he instructed.
Reluctantly, I sat. Lance took the meat and came towards me. I scooted the chair back. “Oh no... I am not putting that thing on my face. No.”
“It’s the best thing for an injury like this.”
“Lance, I am not putting raw meat on my face!”
“Kelly-”
“No Lance!”
“Kelly, would you rather have a black eye over the wedding?”
I sighed, grabbed the raw meat, and slapped it over the injured eye. “This is so not a pleasant thing...”
“What did you do to yourself anyway?” Lance asked as he stood to get some paper towels.
“I wanted to see how badly I could hurt myself before the effects of it showed,” I sarcastically answered.
Lance sat down next to me again. “I guess you found out,” He said with a smile.
I hit his arm. “I tripped over the dog and hit the door!”
He shook his head in amazement. “Twinkle toes Arquette strikes again.” He took the steak off my eye and used the towels to gently dry my cheek.
The phone rang and I went to answer it, finding I was too far away. Lance answered instead. “Hello?” He stopped. “Hey Alex. Yeah, she’s here.” He handed me the phone. “It’s Alex. She sounds panicked.”
“Alex?” I anxiously said into the receiver.
“Kelly, I got a problem!”
“That makes two of us,” I mumbled. “What’s wrong?” I asked louder, flinching as Lance touched my swollen eye.
“The airline went on strike! The soonest I can get a flight to Orlando is the tenth!” Alex sounded like she was about to cry at any second.
“But... the wedding is the seventh,” I dumbly answered.
“No kidding Dick Tracy!”
“Alex, give me the phone!” I heard Justin exclaim.
“What the heck?” I asked.
“Kelly?” Justin was now on the phone.
“Justin, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Alex was just being mean. There’s no airline strike, she’s here in Orlando...”
“Oww!” I yelled as Lance set the steak back on my eye.
“It’s okay Kelly... I didn’t need that ear...”
“Sorry Justin.”
“It’s all right. What happened?” Justin asked.
“Lance put a raw steak on my face.”
“Why did he just... never mind, I don’t even want to know.” Justin paused and I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah... Alex. She’s here, fine...”
I smiled. “Justin, will you make sure she’s at my apartment by two for her dress fitting?”
“Yeah, that’s okay. See you then,” Justin said.
I hung up the phone as Lance inspected my eye again. “Everything okay?”
“Alex was just trying to stress me out.”
“It wouldn’t have made that much of a difference... you already are,” He said as he handed me a cold pac, much like ones that school’s use. I kept them in my apartment because of my clumsiness. “Well...” Lance checked his watch. “We really should get going.” I pressed the cold square to my eye.
“I know... your driving though.” The two of us stood, went outside to the car, and got in. Lance drove us to our future home... a four story Victorian style house. The realtor was waiting on the porch for us when we arrived.
“Mr. Bass... Miss Arquette...” She shook our hands when we approached. “Am I correct in understanding that the only thing missing is your signatures for the house to be yours?”
“That’s right,” Lance replied.
“Well then...” She took a handful of papers from her briefcase along with a pen. “If I can get you two to sign everywhere there is an X, I can hand over the keys and title.” She gave the papers to Lance who sat down on the porch steps and signed his name everywhere it was needed. Within ten minutes, he handed the papers to me. My eyes scanned the page to the first blank X. I slowly and carefully signed Kelly Andrea... I paused, not knowing if I should sign Bass or Arquette. I thought for a second then finished signing the name. With a flourish, my signature now read Kelly Andrea Bass. I signed the few more times needed, then handed the papers back to realtor.
She checked to make sure that the two of us had not missed any of the lines. Finally, she gave us a smile and said, “Congratulations- the house is yours.” She handed Lance a few papers and a set of keys, then proceeded to leave the porch, get in her truck, and drove away. I turned to Lance and threw my arms around his neck in a hug. He hugged me back, and a second later, gave me a soft kiss.
“So, what do you say we go check it out?”
“Let’s go,” I said, taking his hand and following him into the house. We walked around the entire place, eventually ending up in the largest room on the second floor. I opened the door and wandered inside. “Oh yeah... this is our room okay?”
“It is?” He asked.
“Yeah... it’ll be the most fun to decorate... besides, look at this view!” I went over to the French doors in the room and sighed.
“Actually, I wasn’t planning on checking out that view too often,” he said before kissing the back of my neck.
I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “Get over it bud,” I said, with a slight smile. I turned and walked to the middle of the room. As Lance stepped behind me, I turned and wrapped my arms around his waist in a loving hug. “I love you so much,” I whispered.
“Bet I love you more.”
“Prove it.”
Lance kissed me then, with no intentions of it ending quick. He ran his hands from my neck to my shoulders, to my hands, to my waist. When it did end, I smiled and quoted a bodyguard from the 1998 Disney Concert Special that was on the opposing team in a basketball game. “Lance with the hands all over the place!”
He slowly smiled. “You had entirely too much time on your hands back then.”
“Just because I happen to remember that line?” Lance raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Okay, so I still have a majority of the thing memorized.”
“Kelly, Kelly, Kelly...”
“Do you really want to know how much free time I had when we first met?”
“Sure... why not?”
“Okay then... I’ll show you when we get back to my apartment.” A door on the other side of the room suddenly caught my eye. “Hey, what’s that?” I went over and opened it. “Dude! Lance, we got our own bathroom!”
He smiled at me. “I bet you forgot about the closet too, didn’t you?”
“What closet?” He pointed across the room. I scurried over to it and opened the door. “Dude! I got an idea.” I paused for dramatic effect. “Shopping spree!”
Lance groaned. “Before you ask, no, my credit cards aren’t maxed out, and no, you can’t borrow them again.”
“Why not?” I whined.
“I admit, the hundred dollars worth of shoes from Payless... I could handle. But, do you know how weird it was for me to get a bill for Victoria’s Secret in the mail? Which reminds me... I never got to see anything you bought from there!”
“Lance, if you really want to look at my underwear, I’ll take you back to the apartment and you can spend all evening going through my drawers.” Lance slowly smiled. “I meant, my clothes...” I began to blush at all my mistakes. “I mean... oh never mind!”
“I know what you meant.” He stopped talking and looked at me. “Oh no.”
“What?” I asked.
“You have that look again.”
“What look?”
“The I-Have-A-Decorating-Idea look.”
I smiled. “Well, now that you mention it... wouldn’t the bathroom and bedroom look awesome with like, a medieval theme?”
Lance looked around. “Actually... I can’t believe I’m saying this... I really like this idea...”
I smiled, proud of myself. “Great- I get to go shopping!” I paused. “And my mom gets to go!”
Lance laughed at me as we left the house and got in our car. “When does she get here?”
“Tomorrow. Dad and Tyler are flying in on the sixth because Tyler has school.” Lance nodded. “What about your side?”
“Stacy is here already... my parents get here tonight.”
“Cool.”
“And they want to meet us for dinner.”
“Where?”
“Red Lobster.”
“Calories!”
“It’s not gonna hurt,” He said as he parked in the driveway of my apartment.
The two of us went inside and I pulled him up to my room. I sat Lance on the bed and went to the closet, digging through a box. Finally, I found what I was looking for. I turned and sat next to him, handing him about eight three ring binders.
As Lance opened the binder on top, I slowly asked, “Lance, have you ever heard of fan fiction?”
“Isn’t that where people write stories where we are characters?”
“Yeah... or any group for that matter.”
Lance looked down at the first page. “You didn’t.”
I nodded. “I did.”
“But... why?”
“Let’s just say life in Missouri got quite boring. Besides, knowing you guys gave me an edge over other authors. I was able to write your real personalities... not just what I thought you were like.”
Lance nodded. “Understandable.” He looked down at the binder again. “Do you mind if I read these?”
“As long as you won’t make fun of me.”
“I won’t.”
“Go ahead then.” Lance slowly turned the page and began reading. “I’m going to go call and reorder the wine.” Lance nodded, keeping his eyes on the page. I got up and walked to the door. As I reached the top of the stairs, Lance laughed. I shook my head in amusement.
I went to the kitchen and called to reorder the wine. I was in luck. The kind Lance and I had originally bought was still in stock. I had a couple bottles held back for us and hung up.
Suddenly, the sound of the doorbell echoed throughout the apartment. I went to open it and found Justin and Alex. “Alex!” I exclaimed. Yes, I was happy to see her again. I threw my arms around her neck and proceeded to jump up and down.
“Kelly- your choking me!” Alex gasped with a smile.
“Sorry...” I replied, but didn’t release her from the hug. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe your here!” Alex hugged me back. Justin stepped around us into the apartment.
“Kelly, where’s Lance?” Justin asked.
“He’s-” Before I could finish, he laughed again.
“Upstairs,” Justin finished for me.
“Right. Go on up. Alex and I will be up in a minute.” Justin ran up the stairs as Alex and I went to the kitchen to finish loading the dishwasher.
“What’s Lance doing up there?” She said as he laughed again.
“Reading.”
“Reading what?”
“Remember the stories that me and you wrote that one time? The fan fiction?”
“Yeah,” Alex slowly answered. I raised my eyebrows at her. “Your letting him read your stories?!”
“Yeah. I kinda mentioned it during a conversation about me not having a life back then.”
Alex slowly nodded as Lance laughed yet again. “Well, he seems to like them.”
I closed the dishwasher. “Thank goodness... so... let’s go see if your dress fits.” Alex followed me up the stairs. In my room, we found Lance still reading and Justin reading over his shoulder. I opened the closet, going through the dresses for the wedding until I found Alex’s size. “Here you go.” I handed it to her and she left the room.
Lance looked up from reading then. “Am I really like you wrote?” I nodded. “No wonder girl’s kept e-mailing me with their problems!” He then went back to reading as Justin and I glanced at each other trying not to laugh.
After a moment of silence, Alex’s head reappeared around the doorway. “Alex? You going to come in?” She shook her head. “Alex, get in here.” She slowly entered the room. There was still one problem. She had her arms crossed over her chest. “Alex, will you move your arms?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s kinda low cut.”
“Well, I knew it would have to be altered... let’s see how much.”
“No.”
“Alex!”
“Only if Justin promises not to look.”
“Hey Justin?”
“I know... I know...” He reluctantly turned around as Alex uncrossed her arms. My mouth fell open as I saw how bad of a mistake they had made on her dress. I reached over and covered Lance’s eyes with my hand, though he was still reading and not paying attention to the other three of us.
Because of how the dress was made, a bra should have been needed. Unfortunately, Alex’s was so low cut, she couldn’t wear one. “Alex, go change.”
“Thank you!” She exclaimed, crossing her arms and running from the room.
I fell backwards on the bed between Lance and Justin and muttered, “Are the problems never going to end?!”
