KP – The Light at the End: Part 11
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Kim unlocked the front door of the apartment and headed straight for the couch, collapsing onto it, heedless of where the throw pillows were. It had been a long day. No, scratch that, a long week. So long, that she actually had to call her mother and cancel their plans to go look at dresses and meet with a prospective 'wedding planner.' She was sure her mother thought she was ducking out on the preparations, but she literally had too much on her plate. Between school and the rest of her responsibilities, she suddenly had no time.
She seemed to hit the ground running from the moment she got back from the east coast. It was just after seven in the morning, Middleton time, meaning she had just spent the entire night awake. Even on the flight home she had been too wound up to get a little rest on the flyer, even though it was on a totally pre-programmed flight. Sleep would have to wait, as she had a nine-o'clock class she would rather not miss. It was a lot more difficult to flake out on a particular course as a senior than it was as an underclassman. Students learned pretty quickly in classes with over a hundred of them they could pretty much show up when they pleased. It was the ones who did that too often, or at all that served to thin the herd. By the time she reached her fourth year, the classes were smaller than many she had in high school. Lack of sleep or not, she was going to be there, even if it was just a notes taking lecture.
The first surprise of the new day was waiting for her at home. Her eyes flared open when she spotted Ron, sound asleep on the couch, his hand on the television remote. The sole reason he flaked on the mission was because he had a major test at eight o'clock, and there he was, apparently staying up all night long watching who-knows-what on cable instead of getting a proper night's sleep in bed.
If she hadn't gotten home when she did, he would have missed the test altogether. To say she was a bit angry was to say her hair was just a little red. He was so flustered she pretty much had to dress him, shove an granola bar and an energy drink down his throat and shove him out the door, all the while realizing that getting him up and out the door was cutting into her shower time.
The rest of the week was a complete blur to her. Her professors were piling the work up on her, there was a festival planned for Middleton Park, so the organizers wanted her assistance, her mother was kicking into overdrive about the wedding and, to top it all off, as if she needed any other complications, the cramps were starting, signaling a particularly intense bout of PMS in the offing.
Ron acted like he wanted to talk about something, but he chose a particularly bad moment to try. One look from her and he scurried off to another room of their home and didn't broach the subject again. It didn't dawn on her until later that he actually might have wanted to talk about whatever it was that had been preoccupying him the last few weeks, but she pretty much blew her chance. It couldn't have been too bad, since they had discussed at length how there would be no secrets between them. He knew better than to keep something critical from her, so whatever it was couldn't be that important. He would let her know about it when he was ready.
It also became much clearer to her why things had slowed down considerably in the bedroom. Sleep, whenever she could come by it, was a lot more important, even to the point they were regularly foregoing everything but a quick kiss, if one or the other wasn't already asleep. More often than not, she was the one who had nodded off before he even wrapped up his work and came to bed.
We are so old marrieds, she told herself repeatedly.
Kim was actually in the process of dozing off on the couch when she heard a key in the lock. She mentally berated herself for not waiting outside Ron's last class so they could walk back together. It was only a couple blocks, but it was something they had done since the semester started. What did he think when he left the building and didn't see her there waiting in the quad.
If it bothered him, he didn't show it. He threw his book-bag and chef's jacket onto a chair an plopped down on the couch right beside her.
"Did that week just happen?"
"I think so. Ask me again in about an hour when I'm not so numb. Did you get your test back?"
"Yeah. Got a 'B', though Snyder took me aside and said I was only a hair's breadth away from a 'C'. I did okay on the questions part, but he could tell I was coasting on the essay questions."
"If it was any other teacher, I'd ask why you didn't try to explain what happened to you."
Ron leaned forward, wiping his face with his hands. "He actually thought I had just been on a mission. How 'bout your test?"
"I think I did pretty good. Should get an 'A', but sometimes you get a bad surprise. I'm just glad it's all over."
"Did you call Mom P to re-sched the shopping trip?"
Kim closed her eyes, letting her fingers drift lightly across Ron's back. "So not. Honey, I swear I think she's going to end up getting some Vera Chang monstrosity with a forty foot long train and a veil that could be used in a Middle Eastern country. She won't even let me get a word in edge-wise about the whole thing."
"Go easy on her, KP. You're her only daughter…that is, unless she gets a wild hair to be like my Mom."
"Oh, puh-leeze. Mom has one thing, and one thing only on her mind, and that's for me to pop out a grand-baby for her to spoil. It's like she has this notion the moment we walk down that aisle I'm going to flush my pills right down the toilet. I think I see why she was always so, I don't know, eager for us to get together."
Ron sat back and put his head on Kim's shoulder. She leaned her own head against his, both of them keeping their eyes closed. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about. Oh, Joss called, said she couldn't get you on your Kimmunicator."
Kim touched a control on her wrist-unit. "Sorry, turned it off while I was taking the test. Was it about that last mission she and the Tweebs went on?"
"No, she called on the personal line. I think she just wants to talk to you."
She rubbed her temple. "I hope she's not wanting to ask me if she can sneak her boyfriend over here."
"I thought those two were on the outs."
Kim sat up, shaking her head. "She's worse than Bonnie was with Brick. One week he's moving too fast for her, the next she's practically ready to have him right there in his pickup, then it's like he only thinks about one thing."
"Wow, teenagers wanting to make out all the time. What a concept." Ron said, gently rubbing the small of her back.
"Oh, very funny, Ron. Joss is a…little more experienced than we were."
"Uh, KP, she just turned eighteen. It really wasn't that long ago we were there…" He stopped for a moment, even his hand freezing in place. "You don't mean they're?..."
"I don't know if she's slept with this Bobby guy yet, but I bet she intends to, sooner than later. Not everybody waits until they're twenty, baby."
"We wouldn't have waited that long if stuff didn't keep happening to us." He countered, his fingers going back to their kneading.
"Why does she come to me with all this stuff? I feel like the world's biggest hypocrite every time I open my mouth around her. It's like every time I see her, all I see is a little twelve year-old kid dressed up like me, not a young woman, a grown young woman."
"It runs in the family."
"What?"
"You heard me. What's it going to be like when our daughter hits, oh, maybe fourteen and starts really noticing boys. I can just hear it now. 'Okay, Jean Anne…'"
"You're so sure we're going to have a daughter?"
"Just go with me on this KP. 'Okay, Jean Anne, so you're grown up now, that means there are some new rules. First off, no boys, ever."
Kim turned on him, her green eyes getting huge. "I am so not turning into my Dad!"
"So are. Listen to yourself, KP. Next thing you know you're going to be saying something like 'I know what's best for you, even if you don't.'"
"I…" Her hand went to her mouth. She had said that very thing to her younger cousin back in the summer when she wanted to come spend some time at their first apartment so she could have some cooling off space between her and her uncle.
Kim sat back on the couch, throwing an arm over Ron's chest, burying her cheek on the space between his chest and his shoulder. "Tell me this is all over, tell me we don't have to go back Monday and do all this over again. I just want to curl up with you and sleep clear to next week. I want to jump in the car and just head up to the Ski Lodge. I don't care if the place is full of mountain-bikers, all I want is to turn off our Kimmunicators, turn off our cell-phones and tell Wade to disable our tracking chips and not tell anybody where we've gone."
"Uh, well, we do have a meeting with Rabbi Katz Sunday afternoon, not to mention you told me not to let you forget to put in at least a couple hours on that sociology project you're working on."
"Don't know whether to say I love you or punch you in the gut." She grimaced, having indeed forgotten both.
"Kim, check my math. I just turned twenty-one a couple months ago, right?"
"Yes, baby, you're twenty-one."
"Then why do I feel like I'm forty-one?"
"Ron, forty-one is not old. You're just worn out because we got so slack all summer. We really should have done something besides just lounge around, like get a job or something."
He played with a couple strands of her hair as she snuggled against him. "I'd have to say moving into two apartments in rapid succession was plenty of work. Here's the bad part, KP. It's just starting. The rest of our lives is probably going to be like this. I was just thinking the other day that growing up was about a whole lot more than, well, this." For emphasis he gave her waist a little squeeze.
"I know, it's just…whenever I thought about this part of our lives I always thought it would be going to class, doing the work, going on a couple missions every now and then, and finally coming home at night and falling into your arms."
"Whose to say we can't still do that?" His hand crept a little lower, causing a slight smile to form on her lips.
"So tired." She closed her eyes and snuggled down a little more.
"I know what you mean, though, uh, it's been since the weekend."
"I know, baby. That's why I want to get away so bad, just to put all this stuff away, just for a little bit, where all I have to worry about…well, so I don't have anything to worry about." She noticed movement in his pants, though lower than she was expecting. A moment later, Rufus popped out of his cargo pocket and went scampering down the hall. "I think somebody thinks we're about to get frisky."
"Either that, or the half a reuben he had for lunch is going through him. You know what pastrami does to him."
"Ronnie?"
"What, KP?"
"I think we're alone now." Her leg drifted up over his lap as her hand went up to his cheek, to pull him in for a long, soft kiss.
"Rufus does seem to have a sixth-sense about this sort of thing, doesn't he?" Ron breathed as certain parts of their clothing started disappearing. Kim giggled slightly when she realized he was still having trouble unhooking a bra that fastened in the front. The regular kind he picked up on pretty quickly, but those little plastic clips down in the middle gave him fits.
Kim was about to give up on his fumbling big fingers and unfasten it herself when the doorbell rang. She put her forehead down on his shoulder, her hands still on his freshly undone belt buckle. "Oh please, go away, this is our time." She said softly.
Whoever was at the door switched to knocking, being rather insistent at it.
"Go away, we're having…we're about to have…" She said a little louder.
Ron rolled his eyes and squeezed out from under her, grabbing his shirt. He gave her a meaningful glance and she started putting her blouse back on, looking much more than mildly put off. "There's always tonight." He softly suggested, making sure his clothes were fastened.
The knocking started again just as Kim finished buttoning her top. Ron was just as tweaked as she was at the interruption, but he stood less chance of actually biting somebody's head off if it turned out to be something like a Pixie Girl selling muffins. Kim tucked her blouse in and gave him a nod, the anger still evident in her green eyes.
He stopped at the door and looked out the peep-hole. He glanced back at his fiancé, rolling his eyes, mouthing the words "It's your mother." Soundlessly. Kim's own eyes shot to the top of their sockets.
"Hi, Mom P." He said, finally opening the door. He still often had the habit of calling her Mrs. Dr. P, or just Dr. P. from time to time, but he was finally getting tired of her correcting him. It was bad enough that he wouldn't just simply call her 'Mom,' but that was what he called his own mother and felt it would just be too confusing.
"Mom! What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by to see my kids. I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?"
"As a matter of fact, we were…" Kim started, until Ron cut her off.
"We were just about to change clothes so we could go out to dinner." He smiled, and held it, even though he noticed Kim's blouse was buttoned crooked.
Anne either didn't notice, or simply kept her mouth shut (which was by far the more probable) "Why don't you kids go right ahead and we'll all go out for something. It'll be my treat."
"O..kay." Kim grabbed Ron's hand and pulled him into the hall.
"I don't like this." She said plainly
"Oh, come on. It's not like your mother has psychic powers. There was no way she could have known we were going to have a little afternoon delight."
"That's not what I'm saying. Why would she be 'in the neighborhood? She's up to something."
"Like what? Kim, she's your Mom. If she wants to see us, she doesn't need to make up an excuse to drive over here."
"I'm willing to bet this is because I flaked on that wedding planner thing." She shut the bedroom door behind her, frowning as she realized the mistake she made with her top. "A wedding planner! I don't need a wedding planner, I can plan it all myself. I know what I want and I know how to put it together."
"Kimila, she's just trying to help. Look how much stuff you have to do, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better."
"But it's my wedding." She whined, a little louder than she meant to.
"News flash, KP, it's mine too, and for that matter, it's the only one your mother is going to be able to do since you're her only daughter."
Kim put her hands on her hips, her blouse half undone. "If she wants to play that game, she can wait until Joss gets ready to tie the knot. She hasn't had a mother since she was a little kid, so she deserves it."
Ron slipped on a pair of casual slacks, complete with a Rufus pocket. "Have you considered how your Mom feels about this? I think she's looking forward to it."
"Well, if she wants to help me plan it, then fine. I just don't need some stranger coming in and mucking with the works, telling me I can do this and I can't do that. Like I said, Ron, it's my wedding we're talking about here. I'm the bride, it's going to be my special day. If I want the place decked out in two shades of pink, I'll do it. If I want to wear a white dress, even though I'm not a virgin, I'm going to do it."
"Tell me one thing." Ron said as he buttoned a long-sleeve dress shirt.
"What?" Kim put on a slightly dressier blouse and went to rooting through the closet for a pair of slacks to go with it, still not being one to wear skirts or dresses all that often.
"What is the big plan you have for our wedding?" he sat down on the bed and crossed his arms, looking at her through the open closet doors.
"Whatta ya mean what is my plan?"
"Just that? You said you have this vision in your mind about what it's going to be. I guess that means it's just like in the tenth grade and you had that dance all planned out in your head. Must be a good plan, since you managed to put the whole thing together in just under a minute when you were wearing those shoes. Go ahead, illuminate me? Maybe you've got this notion all the groomsmen and me will be wearing Nehru jackets or something, or maybe I'll be wearing my mission gear. I could wear my black battle-suit, you could wear the old white one."
"Enough, okay. No, I haven't planned any of the little details yet. Honey, it's not even Christmas yet. I figure we've got all winter after the holidays, then into the spring to plan it."
He finally took his eyes off her to put on his nicer everyday shoes. Like any man, he only had a few pairs. The nice, dressy ones he wore to Temple or church, his mission boots, his old battered white sneakers, and a pair of brown in-between shoes he wore on most of their dates, unless the called for real dressing up.
"We're getting married in July."
"Yes. That was your idea, getting married on the fourth so you wouldn't forget when our anniversary was."
He smiled at her. There was another reason for picking that date, but it really was funny thinking about it that way. Anniversaries were really big with her, like the date of their junior prom, or that September day when they first met over seventeen years ago. It was likely when February rolled around she would want to celebrate a certain event from that month, though it seemed the celebrated that all the time anyway.
"Most women want to get married in June. Don't know why exactly, but you always hear about a June bride."
"Uh huh. I wanted to get married in June, but I decided to go along with you on that. So?"
"So, we're going to get so wrapped up in this last year of school we're going to wake up one morning and it's going to be June. Now, I don't know about you, but I know for a fact we're going to have all kinds of Stoppables and Rokowskis coming around first for my graduation from college. You know Mom and Dad, you remember what they were like when I finished high-school. We're not going to get a moment to ourselves for at least a week, maybe more.
"Now add the fact that everybody who is anybody who is involved with weddings is going to be busy as beavers all June. That means we're probably going to have a bunch of trouble trying to line something up. Babe, if we don't play our cards right, we're both going to need some of those silly red shoes to get everything done in time."
Kim sat down beside him, putting the side of her head on his shoulder. "I know you're right. It just seems so…impersonal to have somebody plan it for us."
"Then do it yourself, or better yet, team up with Mom P and the both of you can do it. Maybe if you do that, she'll back down about this planner guy."
"Okay."
"Now, finish getting dressed, I'm hungry."
"I am too, but it wasn't so much for food."
"Hey, it's not like your Mom's gonna be around all night. Tell you what. We come back home tonight and we can do this right. Light a few candles, take a nice long bath together, et cetera, et cetera."
Kim nuzzled the tip of his nose. "I like how you think, Ronnie."
Just so long as the blasted Kimmunicator doesn't go off the moment I shut off the water, she thought with a wry expression.
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