Chapter 72
The alarm sounded incredibly too early for Olivia's liking. She turned and reached for Natalia only to feel cold sheets where Natalia should have been. Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes trying to wake herself up. Looking at the clock, she realized it was six ten. Natalia must have hit the snooze for her and gotten up. With a moan, she climbed out of bed and headed for the en-suit.
Opening the door, she was assaulted with warm heat. Natalia was still in the shower. A sly grin crossed her face. She stripped quickly and stepped into the shower stall behind Natalia. Wrapping her arms around the slender olive toned body, kissing the wet shoulders before her.
"Mmm. Morning my love." Natalia mewled. Leaning back into Olivia.
"Morning baby. Did you sleep well?"
"Mmmhmm. I always sleep good when I have your arms around me."
"I don't like waking up in bed alone." Olivia confessed. Kissing Natalia's neck and around to her cheek.
Natalia spun in her arms, kissing her lips gently. "I'm sorry honey. I just wanted to let you sleep a little longer. It's going to be a long day, driving to Chicago and back."
"I know, and I appreciate your efforts. I guess I'd just rather lose a little sleep for morning cuddles with you. Especially when they involve you wet and naked."
"I will keep that in mind." Natalia said with a chuckle as she kissed her sweetly and grabbed the bottle of body wash and squirt a dollop in her hand, rubbing her hands together before gliding them over Olivia's body.
Once they were both clean, the two spent a few extra minutes ravishing one another before exiting and preparing for their day. After they were dressed, Olivia went to Ava's door while Natalia went to wake Emma.
Olivia knocked on Ava's door. Once she got the go ahead, she entered and walked to sit on the edge of the bed. "Good morning my beautiful girl."
Ava slurred something that sounded close to 'morning mom' as she moved to sit up.
"I'm sorry you have to get up early."
"It's okay mom." Ava stated yawning. "I would be getting up shortly anyways. You and Natalia headed out?"
"About to. Natalia is getting Emma up and moving and then we are leaving. We'll be back tonight but I'm not sure how late. It depends how things are going. Jane will get Emma after school and take her to my suite until you and Rafe are outta work."
"Okay mom. Don't worry, Rafe and I got this. Just worry about getting to Chicago and home safely."
"Okay baby." Oliva kissed her forehead. "I love you Ava. I'm so glad you're here."
"Me too mom. I love you."
Olivia exited Ava's room and headed downstairs. As she descended the stairs, the smell of sausage, eggs, and coffee filled her nostrils. 'How in the world did Natalia get breakfast started so fast, and why is she cooking when we need to be leaving.' She thought to herself. Reaching the kitchen entry way, Olivia stopped dead in her tracks. The sight before her was both endearing and laughable. There stood Rafe, wearing Natalia's floral print apron, cooking up a storm. Stifling a laugh, she stepped into the kitchen.
"Morning Rafe." She said in a sing song voice, kissing his cheek as she passed him headed for coffee.
"Hey Olivia. There's travel mugs ready for you and Ma. Is Emma up? Her breakfast is just about done."
"Natalia is getting her up now, she should be down shortly."
As if on cue, the sounds of Emma's heavy footsteps could be heard on the stairs. She bounded into the kitchen and straight to her brother. Wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. "Good morning Rafe. Did you make me breakfast?"
"I sure did munchkin. Why don't you grab out the juice and set the table? As soon as Ava comes down we can eat before you get on the bus."
"Okay Rafe." Emma untangled herself from her brother and headed straight for the fridge, bypassing her mother.
"Hey there Jellybean. What am I, chopped liver? I don't even get a good morning?"
Emma set the juice on the table and ran to her mother. "Sorry mommy. Good morning. I love you."
Olivia kissed the top of her head. "I love you too. Go on now, finish setting the table."
Emma went to do as she was told, standing on her step stool to reach the plates. "Are you and Ma staying for breakfast mommy?"
"I wish we could Jellybean, but we are already running a little late." She walked to the kitchen doorway to holler for her love. "Natalia! Come on sweetheart, we need to get a move on."
Natalia bounded down the stairs with Ava close behind her. "Alright, I'm ready now."
"Alright, lets skedaddle." Olivia said, walking over to kiss her fiancé.
After bidding their children goodbye, the two women were in the car headed for The Beacon Chicago. After about a half hour of mindless chatter, mainly about their children, Natalia decided it was time to discuss their wedding. They finally had a couple of hours where they couldn't be interrupted and she was hoping they could decide on at least a few things.
"Hey honey, I've been thinking, and I was wondering how you would feel about having our ceremony in Phillips green house. It's so beautiful in there. It's like spring in the middle of winter. I was thinking we could talk to Phillip and see if he would be okay with that. I know it would be tight, but if we opted for no chairs and had our guest stand, we could do a short ceremony and then just have a long reception."
"Um, yeah, that could work. But let's not talk about it right now. We need to concentrate on the hotel."
"Olivia, we have like two hours in this car before we get there. We can't do anything until we know what progress has been made."
"I know, but we still need to decide on a few finishes and things."
"I know Olivia, but we really need to try and plan this wedding too."
"We will."
"Olivia!" Natalia said sternly.
"What?"
"I want to talk about our wedding. Why are you avoiding it?" Natalia asked, anger rising in her.
"I'm not, we just have a lot going on right now."
"I know that. But for me, becoming your wife is the most important thing. Do you not feel the same?" Natalia asked with unshed tears glistening in her eyes.
Olivia reached over and took her hand, squeezing it lovingly. "Of course, it's the most important thing honey. I just don't want you to stress over it. Okay?"
"Olivia we have to stress over it. It's not gonna plan itself."
Olivia glanced at her and then fixed her eyes back to the road. "Do you trust me?"
"What? Of course, I trust you." Natalia answered confused.
"Good. Then stop worrying about our wedding. It's going to be okay."
"What does my trusting you have to do with planning our wedding?"
"Let's just say, it's taken care of. So, stop worrying."
"What do you mean it's taken care of? We haven't discussed anything. We need to choose colors and flowers, pick out a cake and the menu for the reception. We have to get the girls dresses and Rafe's tux. We need to find out if Sam can make it. We have to pick out center pieces and decide if the ceremony is going to be traditional or…"
"Natalia." Olivia tried to interrupt.
"If we're going to…."
"Natalia!"
Through her rambling, Natalia finally registered that Olivia was speaking to her. "What!" She all but shouted.
"Stop."
"What do you mean stop? Why are you refusing to talk about this?"
"I'm not, really, it's going to be okay. Our wedding is going to be perfect. I have no doubt."
"How can it be anything if we don't talk about it?"
"It's being taken care of."
"What do you mean it's being taken care of Olivia?" Natalia voice was strained and rougher then she intended.
"Hey, calm down, what are you getting so upset about?"
"You did not just ask me why I'm upset." Natalia spat, anger lacing her words. "You just said our wedding is being taken care of as if it's one of your business deals. This is our wedding Olivia; I want it to be what we want."
"And it will be." Olivia said. Trying to keep the calm in her voice while irritation was building at the bite in every one of Natalia's words.
"How can it be Olivia? You and I have barely even talked about it. How can it be what we want if we don't even know what we want and you are having it 'taken care of'?" She asked, throwing air quotes around her last words.
"Natalia, you said you trust me, can you please just trust me on this?"
"Olivia, what did you do? How is our wedding being taken care of? You agreed, no wedding planner." Natalia was trying to fight the anger and keep her voice even but it was difficult. They had agreed, no professional wedding planners. She didn't want their wedding to be taken over and made to look like something out of a bridal magazine. She wanted it to be uniquely theirs. She wanted their wedding to represent them in every way.
"I didn't hire a wedding planner Natalia. I wouldn't do that. I know how important is to you that this wedding be ours and not some glamor shot."
"Then what did you do?"
"Natalia, please, can you just trust me. I'm trying to take some of the stress off of you and me. You said it yourself. I can't have all this stress, it's not good for my health."
"Just tell me Olivia. Please."
"Fine I wanted to surprise you. I was hoping to come to you after I had more information, but I asked one of each of our friends to plan our wedding."
"What? Who Olivia? We said we were going to plan it so we knew it would be what we wanted."
"Doris and Blake, and before you say anything else, I emailed them your list of ideas and I told them the things I know you would want and what I want. I trust Doris and I know you trust Blake. With everything we have going on, I knew you were worried that our wedding was being pushed to the back burner and wasn't gonna be everything we want. I asked Blake and Doris Saturday morning when I met Doris for coffee."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Natalia replied. Still half angry, not sure how she felt about this.
"I wanted to give them some time to come up with some ideas before I told you. I thought that if they had some things planned and you liked them, that you would be more open to this. Honey, I know you want to plan this ourselves, and I would love to, but unless we want to postpone it, there's no way. We have way too much going on, and I don't want to shortchange our wedding. I thought allowing our two closest friends to plan it would be okay. They know us, and with your list and my suggestions, I know it will be everything we want, even though we aren't really sure what we want right now. I have faith that we will walk into that wedding and it will be perfect. We can trust them."
"I know we can trust them Olivia, I just wish you would have talked to me about this."
"I know. I should have. I'm sorry. I just wanted to surprise you with the wedding of your dreams and with taking some of the stress of our lives away from you. You're right, I should have talked to you about what I was planning. Please don't hate me."
"I could never hate you Olivia. I just, we are a team Olivia, you can't keep making decisions for the both of us. You and I, we talk and we figure things out, and we do it together. You can't go back to functioning like it's just you."
"I know." Olivia said deflated. "I'm so sorry Natalia." She apologized again, trying to keep her tears at bay.
"Pull over Olivia."
"What?"
"Pull over."
Olivia pulled off at the next exit ramp. Pulling into a gas station, she parked the car and turned to face Natalia. Fear stretching over her face. Natalia took her face in both hands and kissed her sweetly.
"Calm down baby."
A few tears escaped Olivia's eyes as she gazed into deep brown orbs. "I'm so sorry Natalia. I really thought I was doing a good thing. I just wanted to help ease some of the craziness of our lives right now."
Natalia kissed the tears off Olivia's cheeks. "I know. It's okay. I just want us to talk about these things. This is our wedding and I want it to be just that, ours."
"It will be. I promise. At first I wasn't going to tell you, just try and eek it out until the wedding and have it all be a surprise, but Doris called me yesterday and told me I needed to tell you. That you would be upset from now until the wedding if I didn't tell you. She was right, so I told her to try and get somethings planned and when they came over for Thanksgiving we would all talk about it." She explained, sniffling.
"Alright. That sounds good."
"So, you're okay with this?"
"Yes, I'm okay with it. Not happy about the way you went about it, but I'm okay with it." Olivia half smiled, still worried that Natalia was mad. Natalia saw her hesitation in accepting that she was okay with it. She kissed her again and then pulled back to meet her eyes. "What am I going to do with you? Huh?"
"Keep me?" Olivia said. Trying to sound light but Natalia could hear the fear in her voice.
Natalia pressed their foreheads together. "Always my love. So, what's the plan then? Hmm?"
"Well, we're still gonna be a part of it all. Doris and Blake are going to run everything by us for approval. We can go with them to get the girls dresses and Rafe's tux and everything. They are just going to do the main planning and then we can decide if we need to change anything. This way we can still be a part of the process, but not have to deal with calling the caterer and the flower shop and the dress shop. They tell us what they planned, we let them know if we like it, and they take care of it all. We just get to say yes or no to everything and then show up at the wedding."
Natalia kissed her again. "That sounds perfect querida. I'm sorry I got so upset."
"No, I'm sorry I didn't ask you how you felt about this before I set it up. I should have."
"Yes, you should have, but it's okay. I understand why you did it. Just next time, please talk to me first."
"I will. I promise."
"Good. I love you Olivia. Now let's get back on the road so we can get there and then get home to our children."
"I love you too." Olivia placed her right hand on the base of Natalia's neck, pulling her in for a tender slow kiss. This kiss was a reminder that they were not alone anymore. They had each other. They were a team and they would tackle whatever came at them together, good, or bad.