AN: My muse decided I needed to write this 4 shot story regarding the Instagram photo of Mariska and Stephanie at the grand opening of Rouge NY to add to the Cabenoah universe instead of working on either 'Forbidden' or 'ISBY'... and anyone that writes knows you always listen to your muse otherwise they throw a tantrum and abandon you :-S. As usual, it will alternate between POV's starting with Olivia before changing to Alex in the following chapter, then back again. FYI: it will start at a T rating for the first 2 chapter before definitely increasing to M rated for the last 2 chapters ;-). The Instagram picture has been added to the Pinterest board regarding this 'universe', as has another item mentioned in this chapter for those readers interested :-) Link is on my lookup ;-)
I hope readers enjoy and please let me know what you think :-)
Seeing a newly vacated parking space on the busy street, I indicate and quickly pull in before cutting the engine to my vintage Mustang, then turn to face Alex.
Lost in thought, it takes a moment before she registered that we've reached as close as was can to our destination after finishing work a little earlier than normal. From behind her blacked framed glasses, my fiancée looks at me with a full, toothy smile and I know she's as excited as I feel right now... and perhaps with the same tiny hint of nervous too.
"You ready?" I ask, reaching my hand over and placing it on top of hers with a reassuring squeeze.
Without a word, Alex turns her hand over so we are palm to palm and interlaces her fingers with mine. She returns the gentle squeeze before raising our combined hands and places a lingering kiss on the back of my hand.
"Then we'd better get moving if we want to pick Noah up from day care and have some family time before we get ready for dinner," I prompt as Alex lowers our hands down.
"Ok," Alex replies, reluctantly letting my hand go.
I exit the car and make my way around to the passenger side to open the door. Alex told me not long after we began our relationship, that when I did this... hold the door open for her, that is... she knew I was the one for her. I asked her what she meant by that and she replied because if anyone else ever held open the door for her... whether it be a car, elevator, office or entrance door... it would rile her so much. Whereas when I held the door open for her, it didn't rile her in the least. In fact, she said it made her feel special and loved. I told Alex without a moment's hesitation that she was very special and very much loved.
Alex gets out of the car and once I have locked it, she links her arm through mine and we make our way a little further up the street.
We got the call we've been waiting for since the day we adopted Noah.
It takes less than a minute to arrive at our destination, and once again I hold open the door for Alex.
"Thankyou," Alex says with a smile as she enters.
She waits for me to enter as well and re-links her arm though mine as we approach the young man and middle age woman quietly chatting to each other.
"Can I help you?" the woman behind the counter questions when we reach the counter.
I nod, "The owner of the store is expecting us."
"She's just on the phone right now. Can I tell her who's waiting?"
Alex glances at me lovingly before addressing the sales assistant, "The soon-to-be Cabot-Benson's."
The woman gives us a smile and disappears behind the door. The young man tries his best to discreetly watch us in hope of making a sale while Alex and I look at the items on display in the counter to pass the time. Unfortunately for the young man, we have no intention of buying anything on display because our purchases have already been accounted for. The sound of the door buzzer echoes around the small space and the young man's attention is diverted to the older gentleman that's just entered.
"Robyn won't be a moment..." the woman reappears and holds the door open, "But she would like you to both come this way with me."
I don't mask my confusion at the request and nor does Alex.
The woman gives us another smile, "She just thought you might like some privacy, but if you're more comfortable out here-"
"No, no! It's just..." Alex tries to explain our similar reactions, "We weren't expecting... this."
The woman leans closer and whispers almost conspiratorially, "Special customers get special treatment."
She indicates for us to come behind the counter and follow her. Alex unlinks her arm from mine so she can squeeze past, and I follow just a step behind her. My hand automatically rests on the small of Alex's back as we follow the woman down the corridor. The woman stops at an open door on right side of the corridor and motions for us to go through. Inside, there is a cosy 2 seater maroon leather chesterfield sofa and a matching single seat; a narrow coffee table with a vase of colourful blooms; a couple of different framed watercolours and rural landscape prints on the wall; and a large gilt framed oval wall mirror.
Alex sits down and I sit beside her, to her left, and we wait. I can't help turning my head to right slightly and studying Alex's profile during this moment of privacy. Then again, I take the time to look at Alex at every available opportunity because I know it makes her smile. Sometimes I wonder if she can feel me watching her? As if on cue, I watch as the corner of Alex's mouth turns upwards. I reach my right hand out and brush a loose tendril of hair back behind Alex's ear before my fingertips trail down the column of her neck. Alex swallows reflexively, then crosses her left knee over her right, revealing the tiniest hint of lace from her thigh high nude pantyhose peeking out from underneath her pencil skirt.
Oh geez.
Now I'm the one to swallow reflexively.
Waiting until after dinner tonight to make love is going to be torturous, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Alex isn't going to make things easy for me.
Thank goodness Robyn enters the room at that moment, otherwise I'd have my hand buried between Alex's thighs right now... or my head.
"Sorry to keep you both waiting," Robyn takes a seat in the single leather chair opposite us. She places a rectangular velvet tray on the coffee table that separates her chair and the sofa Alex and I are sitting on and slides it across to us. On the velvet tray sit a pair of closed black leather jewellery boxes, each have a single upper case letter in a cursive script embossed in gold leaf on the top. One with the letter 'A', the other with the letter 'O'.
Our custom made engagement and wedding rings.
Most people would assume that Alex would by me something from 5th Avenue... something expensive from the world renowned jewellery companies like Cartier, Tiffany and Co, Bulgari, De Beers or maybe even Harry Winston. Believe me, she offered to... and I know she could afford it, but I didn't want that. I wanted something that represented us... something that was a little bit of her, a little bit of me, and even a little bit of Noah as well. When I explained this to Alex the day we got engaged, which was also the day we adopted Noah, she said it would take a little while to get something custom made. I said I didn't care and that it would be worth waiting for. So while we decided exactly what we wanted our rings to look like, we purchased our engagement necklaces at Robyn's jewellery store. When we told Robyn what we were planning on doing, she offered to help us with the design and to personally create the engagement rings for us.
Alex and I share a glance before opening our respective jewellery boxes.
Inside the velvet lined cubes sit a platinum ring with a round cut central diamond, 2 trillion cut sapphires on either side, surrounded with pavé set diamonds. The wedding rings are plain shaped platinum bands that fit around the engagement rings snugly. I remove the rings to examine them more closely.
The engagement ring is engraved on the inside with the word 'TOGETHER', and the wedding ring with the word 'FOREVER'.
They are everything I wanted them to be: 3 main stones to each represent our family of 3; triangular stones to again represent the 3 of us; a blue stone each to represent Alex by her eyes, me as a 'girl in blue', and combined as Noah's eyes seeing he is visually a combination of the both of us.
Alex goes to put her ring on her left ring finger but I hastily place my hand over hers to stop her.
"May I?" I ask with a slight waiver.
Alex nods, "As long as I get to do the same to you?"
"Of course!" I respond.
We place the rings back in their boxes and exchange them. With slightly shaky hands, I remove the engagement ring from Alex's box and take a calming breath before I slowly slip the ring on her left ring finger. If this is how shaky my hands are just putting on Alex's engagement ring, how will they be when I put her wedding ring on when we get married?
The ring looks absolutely perfect on Alex and I lean over and kiss her on lips.
I can't help noticing that Alex's hand is trembling as much as mine was as she slips my engagement ring on. For some reason it reassures me that she's feeling the same way I am. Alex's eyes dart down to my mouth before she leans in and kisses me. We take a few more moments to admire our rings before we remove them and place them back inside their respective boxes.
Robyn is stunned to say the least, "You're not going to wear them now?"
"Not just for the moment." Alex sees the puzzled look Robyn is giving us and clarifies for the jeweller as we stand up, "We're surprising a few close friends with our engagement tonight. Even though we've been engaged for almost 2 months now, only one other person knows... apart from yourself, of course."
Robyn calls back over her shoulder as the 3 of us head back towards the store to pay for the rings, "Ah! So, a big celebration then?"
"Oh yeah! We'll definitely be celebrating our engagement long into the night!" I smirk, my hand moving from the small of Alex's back to give her ass a squeeze.