Olivia Steele's wedding

At times when it was a question of work, seeing her daughter as thoughtful and reflective and with her eyes lost in an indefinite point of space, would have sufficed for Laura with an "Come on, honey, let it go" and the complicated edges of a In this case they would have been exposed, giving rise to that of "four eyes see more than two" and mother and daughter would have solved it. But this time the look was different. Livvy seemed immersed in a dark and secret past remembering her adorable Lord Steele ... Laura smiled. It was amazing how many women of these times (April 2018) called their husbands: "Mr. Gordon", "Mr. Applegate", "Mr. Huntchinson" and they heard them without even including the "lady". Many times he listened to his closest neighbor, Phillip Carlyle tell his wife "Hey, Carlyle pass me the salt" while doing a barbecue or Berenice's own husband say "Hey, Fox, come and see this". Queenie once told her it was "trending topic" or something like that. She was lost not only in the advances of technology but in the language as much or more than her adorable and stubborn Mr. Steele who continued to distrust what new device was presented to them. But going back to Livvy, three weeks before the wedding that would be Friday, April 27, she saw her very strange, so much so that Laura approached her gently, took her by the shoulders with a lot of tenderness and whispered with maternal sweetness:

"Is everything all right, treasure?" What's going on with that little head of yours?

Mom ... you are so perceptive ... Is it showing so much that something is not right with me?

- Honey, I think being your mother makes me know you more than you think and if you are a net mixture of me and your dad I have reasons to suppose ... is it about the wedding?

Mommy ... How did you and dad realize that ... it would be forever?

Laura, reviewing Remington's four years and she in her mind in two seconds, gave a giggle of sarcasm and self-confidence as if saying to herself ... "This is what I was afraid of."

She smiled frankly when she said:

Love ... we never knew! All around us yes ...! Your aunt Berenice from the first week. Your uncle Murphy although I tolerated your father two or three faults that "the" Laura that I was would have scandalized her and would have put him on the street, he soon knew that it would not be so simple that I would let go my Mr. Steele ... your grandma Mildred ... oh, she put it in front of our eyes all the time and we did not see it! When I talked to Dad it was to put the points on the I's with me and when she talked with me from woman to woman, I would sparkle at how foolish it was to persecute us and never stay still. Even your grandpa Daniel said it the day he met me ...!

Olivia stood up, walked nervously, with those physical gestures that Steele said were 100% Holt and said:

-And what about you? Dad and you ... do you see the same between Arthur and me?

Laura immediately understood what the point was.

-I will speak for myself ... your father disapproves of your wedding so that you marry a saint descended from the very altars, you are his baby and from there you do not get it ... - he smiled .- He only promised to behave at the wedding ... hahahaha ... I see in Arthur to a very good boy, honest, hard-working, educated ... of principles ...

Mother and daughter looked at each other. Olivia sighed:

Bored, right?

Laura sighed ... "That's what I'm afraid, little girl ... yes ... I mean I don't think he doesn't love you, he loves you so much and you can see it in his gestures, in his eyes, I think he admires you but ... poor Arthur has stoically endured the onslaught of your dad instead of facing him and in that ... maybe he should be a little more awake and attentive, dear ... You don't remember him because you were barely two years old when your grandfather Frederick appeared ... and your father gave him a welcome that ... my God! My father never forgot in his life ...

Tell me ... Olivia asked.

Well I can't be very objective telling you because Grandma Mildred told me ... I left my office stunned with the rumble ... of my father falling to the floor and yours touching his knuckles with pain after having given him a blow ... Mildred said that neither SHE knew how to concretely define the moment because your grandfather managed to say "Good afternoon. I'm Frederick Holt, I'm looking for my daughter Laurie "and it was the last thing he said. A clenched fist crashed into his face and sent him to the carpet.

Remington Steele's motives for receiving his father-in-law's jaw blow were not very clear, but in his own review of the facts, Laura continued to tell, was to express what he had wanted to do every time her eyes had darkened with the pain, each time they shone with those tears that she was reluctant to shed for the rage of abandonment so as not to be bowed to herself. Each time her expressive, jovial, roguish and adventurous being hid behind the prolixity imposed so as not to be natural and expressive, to hide from the danger of being herself, spontaneous and vital. Not being a Holt but what society wanted it to be especially his mother who hated to know her so similar to his father from the gestures to the physical. Remington reacted like this with the burden of knowing that she had retreated for years in her deep thoughts of why if it was the marriage Abigail-Frederick that had failed and had been destroyed and not the relationship father and daughter she had not counted for him at the time of making the decision to abandon them.

Then they would listen to Mr. Holt and his reasons but in that coup Steele's frustration was all about having tried to beat the fear that the girl's heart harbored towards abandonment and loneliness since she was sixteen and even earlier when the silences of her father in the house became deeper and no longer approached her pampered daughter of the medium she had said to love. Mr. Holt no longer dared to approach her for fear of harming her as had happened with the only male Holt had ever had, little Frederick, who was seven years old when he died on the return of a family trip in which a motorist Drunk they hit and overturned. Frances was twelve years old, Laura nine and Freddie seven. All had little scratches but in the overturn, the little boy flew out the window and the family's life stopped forever. The guilt, the silences and the mutual accusations dissolved the family joy and that hard tension made a definitive impression on all of them. Abigail never recovered from that terrible loss and Frederick didn't know how to help her. The couple could never meet again at a point of dialogue. A month after giving Frances in marriage to Donald Piper at age 18, Mr. Holt felt he didn't fit anywhere inside his home. Remington, who had never heard that other bell, could only see in the arrival of Mr. Holt in their lives, that if Laura had been his weakness, he should feel with that punch at least all the weight of having failed to take away the trust in what men were capable of doing beyond abandoning helpless and hurt women.

Laura continued saying that at that moment she couldn't help but help her father to sit up and sit him in one of the armchairs of the reception of the agency. That avoided the cold that should have enveloped the first encounter with his father in so long ... no less than 17 years without a single news and all thanks to whom? Well to her Mr. Steele. Her man. Her husband. Her vigilante without cape or sword and without shining armor, who had determined it.

-Your father and your grandfather were great friends later.- Laura smiled remembering how things had been. The explanations. Your intimate reserves. The embrace in which alone Frederick Holt and her were able to merge when everything was clear.

"Your father was a man of my own, my daughter ... I would never have been able to speak with Daddy Holt if that punch had not been mediated. Your father has always been impulsive, tortuous to put it in some way ... I know we are for each other because I had millions of doubts and reservations especially because I set a straight path while your father insisted that the shortest distance between two points It was a curved line and even ... maybe a circumference! Following it has sometimes been the most absurd and illogical and the most successful that I did in my life and then it became the most correct and natural thing in the world. Trusting him (which cost me and enough) has been the best thing I could do.

You see how we have been able to compensate for their many faults and my many in a symbiosis that has been our way of escaping from the world itself to that place where we could be at the end of the day. Simply us. Without fears or doubts. Your father ... my Remington ... is the sweetest, most sympathetic and tender man that has ever passed my life without judging me. And I saw that I gave him reasons ... to the point that I once infuriated him so much that he told me that I was the most ridiculous woman he had known for my reserve attitudes without letting him enter my private world and refusing to be intimate with him for fear of abandonment. I was sure it would happen and I know that he did it to somehow justify his own fears above all to talk and recognize how intensely involved he was with me. When it became clear to me that I, with him or not, would continue with my life and solve it in some way, he began to show signs of wanting to tie the knot ... to unite something more than us in a bed ... because it was not just the physical thing. There was something else ... notice that if it had not been for the impulse of your father I would have received mine with a slap ... in payment for similar debts that your father accumulated against him and exploded when he met him except that he hadn't I didn't even know what Frederick Holt was like, who decided to leave my mother and me when Aunt Frances had already married.

With Mildred, who was more like a mother to us than your own grandmother Abigail, we used to talk about this ... more when my father and she tuned in so well and ended up getting married. Which definitely made our Mildred family ... "Laura smiled nostalgically remembering the skillful woman who died in 2016 at age 90. She said that my father had a huge emotional burden, my little brother died in that awkward traffic accident that never He forgave himself, whose guilt he didn't have, destroyed him before Mom's eyes but never sought to form another home or have more children. It was his way of living in penance and in an ostracism that now that I am older I just understand. Mildred could appreciate Frederick Holt tender, sweet and true. A man in need of love and to recover my love ... which he has achieved in all this time ... and dad ... a Holt anyway ... (Laura lowered her eyes with a touch of pain for being so similar to her father in some ways during many years) he fell back on himself and was so proud that only when he met Granny Mildred by chance at a meeting of the Dragons ... in the bowling, and after much talk with her without us knowing it was encouraged to come and say what I felt. Mom could never accept it.

Grandmother Abigail died ten years ago without forgiving and unforgiving. Something that I swore to myself that it would never happen to me and that even if your father was clearly an error, a fraud, a scam, or whatever the world dared to say about him ... he was MY ERROR, MY FRAUD, MI TIMO, my lovely and wonderful Mr. Steele. I want that for you, darling, I don't want you to feel that you marry with an error, of course, but the world can say what it wants while you DO NOT THINK IT OR FEEL YOU. I gave the votes of confidence necessary for Remington to feel safe and loved, I did it knowing that I was not wrong, I loved him from the first day ... entangled as he was ... and in the eighties things weren't like now ... you know what You want, you know how you feel about Arthur, you must feel it ... if not, it's a bit silly to get married and tie the knot ... do you feel that way?

Oh, mom, it's so hard to know ... Arthur is sweet, sincere, understanding, but sometimes I think he's missing something ...

And what do you think is what it lacks?

Self-confidence Security. I think he doesn't feel comfortable with me being as liberal as I claim to be ... I think his conservative upbringing prevents him from being himself ... I know he isn't a stiff man, no ... I feel vividly that he isn't ... but I also feel that I don't know it allows to be him and that I don't know the real Arthur.

Go ... another Holt ...

You see? I believe in the curved line joining the dots as a father ... he is a supporter of the straight path ...

Have you raised it?

No. I plan to do it tonight ... we'll see each other in your apartment ... I'll make the decision mom ... I know that the invitations are distributed, the reservations made and that everyone is excited about this marriage ... but I will not tie the knot if I'm not sure that my thing with Arthur will be as or better than yours with dad ... that is to say, I don't want to get married to be divorced every year as it has happened in the last three years to most of my friends. I want to feel that I am going to be with a husband to whom I can feel my equal, but at the same time my protector, my accomplice, my friend, who invents a crazy escape to any place and makes me feel in the best of the worlds with only look at me ...

Oh ... Steele there is only one my love and I will tell you that your mother tied that knot 35 years ago and hasn't managed to untie ...

I want that emotion mom. I want to feel it. I somehow know it's Arthur Porter. I know it is. But I do not want it involved in accounting matters. I do not want things planned. I do not want planned things. I don't want anything that is understood ...

Talk about it, Livvy ... it's the best you can do ... look, dad, if you decide not to get married, he'll be very happy to call personally and cancel something for what he's been paying for months with a few friends' face.- Laura laughed.- Daughter ... I've seen them. You together are for each other ... I've seen that look in Artie's eyes ... it lights up when you enter the room just to see you arrive ... you must capitalize on that ... loosen that tie ... do you know I've never seen it in jeans? Lie with him on the carpet ... does his bachelor department have a rug? Is April, even days are cold ... turn on the fireplace ... I light it all with candlelight ... your beauty, your scent and your eyes will do the rest ... hidden in his disinhibition will emerge and ... do not miss it ... when it happens ... tie the knot and trust ... just trust ...

Thank you, mom. - Olivia said about to wring some tears down her cheeks ... - I will, of course I will ... ah ... a question ... Is it so bad for dad that I get married?

Laura hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

Love, dear daughter ... dad loves you and will do what he should do that is to hand you over to the man who loves you if you are sure that it is that and that it is forever. Dad growls and gets angry ever since I met him but nothing has left the beast inside him to bend more than the love he feels for you. Somehow he knows that you will do the right thing if you tie the knot, my life ... and although he seems happy with his small triumphs of saving in this or that he will be proud of you whatever you do. And even happier still look with his bravado intimidating Arthur, he knows you're a good man ... that, as a good reason to get married quiet of what you do, should sufficient for you ... your father has such a keen nose for these things ...

Oh ... .mami ... sure he likes him?

He has great respect for you. Well, Artie did not run away with Lord Steele's first thrusts like some of your other little boyfriends did and see that he's been relentless ...

Olivia smiled. He hugged his mother tightly and taking his wallet announced that he was going to Arthur's apartment to prepare everything for that evening.

At ten o'clock the next morning, Alessandra the executive secretary of the agency Steele & Holt Associates was extremely curious to see a sing-song Olivia Steele enter humming a tune in the office. The other employees also turned to look at her. A halo of special beauty illuminated his features. Nobody would know, but that night they were lying on the carpet in Arthur's apartment and they had talked a lot, sharing how good they felt together and how much they loved each other. They kissed ardently and making love was the most exciting thing that could happen to them because in that opportunity there were no reservations or fears. Not only did she remove her tie and open her shirt by blowing the first three buttons through the air, but he took one initiative after another that he had never allowed before and took her on paths that until then he had not dared to go through. sex. They chatted a lot, safe in every gesture and with every word of what they felt for each other. When at dawn they found themselves again enveloped in the passion that Olivia knew Arthur was holding him back, they both knew that this would be a firm knot, without fear of being tied, but lost one in the trust in the other and in a feeling full of passion that wouldn't end so easily if each time they managed to reinvent themselves.

At eleven o'clock, Arthur had arranged with his future wife to go through the Steele's to adjust some financial details of the wedding with Laura since several guests had been added from her side.

A freshly bathed and perfumed Arthur Porter, dressed in light blue jeans and a white shirt, appeared in his red convertible that he rarely took to the streets of Los Angeles because it seemed ostentatious. Curious Steele, attracted by the voices, went down the main stairs of his house watching his future son-in-law chat animatedly with Queenie who congratulated him on his attire and Laura embraced him also effusively.

What fuss is this? He asked descending carefully and surprised by the change of look of his future son-in-law and for a long time were the only words he would pronounce.

A firm fist crashed into his jaw sending him straight to the floor. And a triumphant Arthur turned around and disappeared from the scene with a haughty but not sure step praying that Steele and the surprise didn't get up yet. Laura and Queenie drowned their laughter helping Remington to stand up with the bewilderment painted on his face. Laura's cell phone rang. While Steele's angry tirades were heard throughout the house ... she went to the gardens to answer. It was Arthur.

Nooo darling, no permanent damage ... well ... just his pride ... but you will not be so affected of course ... son, don't worry ... noooo treasure, Olivia will not know ... do you want to die before marrying my daughter?

Laura entered the house again meeting with a furious husband and a daughter who couldn't understand anything at all but in reality -and although she loved her father superlatively- had just verified that her future brother-in-law was capable of confronting the beast and putting his place to the relentless Mr. Steele and his acidity as a jealous father. Hummm ... he told himself with great insight ... it will be good to see this Arthur without the starch that she had intuited that she was hiding behind those nerd glasses ...

Did you see what he did to me ...? What bug stung that guy? . "his astonished husband bellowed indignantly while massaging his ass.

Humm ... could you say, my sweet Mr. Steele that Artie literally "has laid" the foundations of his future relationship with you ... to see if you respect him as a son-in-law, honey ... so that again ... there are no surprises ...

but ... but ... What did I do to him?

Laura looked at him with those seductive eyes that they achieved so much thirty-five years later in his person. Steele did not know what was happening and was torn between mitigating the pain in his back or his jaw.

Damn if he has a good right that whipper ..!

On Friday, April 27, before three hundred guests Olivia and Arthur would say yes. Never in two years had they seen Livvy so happy before. Everything was just perfect. Remington Sr. looked impeccable with his black jaque and the white rose on his lapel, his graying hair charmingly dominated back in a perfect hairstyle. A few meters from Arthur both angry men were measured but Laura was reassured seeing that they played a skirmish of blows that never came though Steele feigned first transforming under his watchful eye the clenched fist on the boy's cheek in a paternal caress. Artie did not slacken at any time. Artie's parents were very excited. They adored Olivia. It was everything they had dreamed for his son who looked very handsome. Queenie and three very close friends of Livvy were bridesmaids. All dressed in pastel blue impeccable and beautiful. Steele was excited standing in the place he had been told. She saw her little girl advance first alone, wrapped in a dream wedding dress, then at five paces, Frederick Holt, at ninety, activated his wheelchair and it was moving to see him moving forward with the granddaughter towards the altar. The grandfather wore a mustache that provided oxygen and did not hide the pride of escorting her to Junior who was splendid in his jaque. Olivia wanted it that way. With arms of her grandpa Holt to those of her brother who in the exact middle of the room on the red carpet left her in the arms of Father Steele. The man's eyes shone with tears of genuine emotion, going from his girl's eyes to Laura's to ask for her support, feeling her legs tremble. Finally, fixed his eyes on Arthur who also held his gaze steadily, Steele pretended not to hand it over, which caused the complicit giggles of all those present, but in doing so he warned in an audible voice only for the boyfriend: " Love her, my friend, she is my girl and I will be attentive to you."

Laura rolled her eyes ... but she couldn't stop smiling and tearing at the same time.

-Yes, sir.- Artie murmured in turn

And right there began the beautiful ceremony that would unite them with the best omens.

Remington my love ... are you happy? Laura murmured, still smiling.

Yes, my life, of course. You don't often have the opportunity to see Queenie in a beautiful dress. It makes me very happy ... Why deny it?