The short flight from North Carolina to Manhattan was just long enough for Tony and Angela to catch up on some sleep they missed the previous night. Arriving at JFK, they quickly made their way to the train and headed back towards Connecticut, back home.
Still uncertain as to whether they were going tell the family of their new relationship and of their not so annulled annulment, Tony and Angela enjoyed the last few minutes alone before facing the family and their uncertain future, not to mention the hefty tax bill they would now be faced with since it was the IRS's probing that led them to discover they were married by common law marriage.
Arriving back home around a quarter to six, they were surprised to find the house quiet and what appeared to be empty. Calling out to Jonathan, Billy and Mona, Tony and Angela shrugged their shoulders, each a quizative look on their face, Angela sighed in relief, "I guess we're alone!"
"I guess we are," Tony looked at Angela, both clearly uncertain as to what to say or do next.
Clearing her throat, Angela suggested, "Perhaps we should go upstairs and unpack?" A seductive yet uncertain tone in her voice.
Catching her eye, Tony shock his head in agreement, "Perhaps we should."
Climbing the steps, Angela's free hand maneuvered its way behind her, catching hold of Tony's as she looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. The nerves and anticipation of their return home was monetarily eased as they found themselves alone once again. Reaching the hallway landing between their rooms, Tony dropped his bag and flipped Angela around into his embrace.
Surprised, Angela let out a soft yelp as their eyes met and Tony whispered, "Not sure when the next time I can do this will be so I wanted to take advantage of the moment while I could." His soft, dark eyes glowing with affection.
"I'm glad you did," she sighed, landing her lips upon his for passionate, lingering kiss.
Lost in each other's arms, they finally came up for air, "Tony," she whispered, still catching his lips with soft kisses, "Tony," she repeated.
"Uh hu?" He moaned, his lips still attached to hers, his hands exploring her back side.
"Tony, we better stop before we can't stop," she whined, melting into his arms.
Straightening himself up quickly, he cleared his throat, "Yes, yes your right, I'm sorry, I, I just got caught away in the moment."
"And what a moment," she gushed, "I like moments like this, and I hope we have a million more like it, if not better, but I think we need to finish discussing what we're going to do about our arrangement and how we're going to tell the family."
"Yes, we do! Okay, let's put our stuff up and meet downstairs, I think we're safer down there." He smirked.
"Yes, downstairs is much safer," her eyes scanning him top to bottom, "Meet you in fifteen?"
His voice, an octave higher, "Ya, ya, fifteen!"
Quickly changing and discarding his overnight bag's contents, Tony descended the stairs and headed to the kitchen to make a quick scan of the refrigerator in order to decide whether he should cook them something or go out to eat.
Hearing Angela call to him as she made her way back down to the living room, Tony opted to forgo any ideas for dinner until they decided on their next steps and tried to figure out where the rest of the family had disappeared to.
Reentering the living, Tony smiled as he caught sight of Angela who had changed out of her business, travel attire into a pair of tight, form fitting jeans, an oversized sweatshirt and her hair up in a messy bun,
"Oh, it feels good to me home," she sighed as he plopped on the couch, putting her feet up on the coffee table.
"You just made up my mind for me," he quipped, making his way to sit down next to her.
A perplexed look on her face, "Made up your mind about what?"
"I was trying to decide if I should make us something to eat or if we should go out, but my vote now is definitely stay in and fix us something, unless you want to order in, pizza or something?"
"Awww Tony, you know me so well," she smiled, "But I hate for you to have to cook, I know you're just as tired as I am so let's just order a pizza and make it easy. I'm willing to guess Mother took the kids out to dinner not knowing what time we would be back."
"Pizza it is," he leaned in and placed a quick kiss on her lips getting up again to call for delivery.
Having quickly placed their order, Tony returned to the couch where once again, words didn't seem to come easy to them, both knowing they had to make some pretty big decisions pretty quick, not knowing when the family might return.
"So," Angela finally began, taking his hand in hers, 'I guess we need to talk about us and what we're going to do now that we're home?"
"Ya, I guess we do," he sighed. Taking a deep breathe, he decided to take control on the conversation, "Angela, I love you and there's nothing more that I want then to be with you, and I know us not annulling our marriage was my idea but,"
Her eyes grew wide as the "but" escaped his lips fearing he had changed his mind,
"Would it be okay with you if we kept us and our marriage to ourselves, just for a little while, until I can, you know," his eyes dropped as he fiddled with her ring finger, "Until I can afford to buy you ring and properly propose?" His voice somber and low.
Exhaling the breath she held, fearing the worst, "Awww Tony, you don't have to buy me anything and you already know my answer so why propose?" She smiled.
Meeting her eyes again, Tony fretted, "Angela, we might may be married in the eyes of the law, but we're not married in the eyes of God, and I meant what I said in that judges' chambers about wanting to get married on our terms, when we were ready and not just because we signed at a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. I want us to get married because we love and cherish each other and have the wedding we both want." Holding her hand tight in both his hand, he brought it up to meet his lips with a gentle, soft kiss, "Angela, you deserve to have something more than the IRS telling us we're married, you deserve a beautiful ring," he rolled his eyes, "Well at least something I can afford and a proper proposal. I want you to have everything you deserve and more."
Tears swelling in her eyes, she gushed, "But Tony, I have everything I could ever want, I've got you and that's all that matters to me."
Wiping the tears from her eyes, "But it matters to me Angela. I don't want you to be Mrs. Anthony Micelli because that's what the government says we are, I want you to be Mrs. Anthony Micelli because,"
Quickly raising her finger to his lips, she interjected, "Shhhhh, I understand," she smiled, "And we'll wait till you're ready." She leaned in and captured his lips for a tender kiss.
"I love you Angela Bower-Micelli and I promise you; you're going to be my wife in every sense of the word," he whispered, his lips still caressing hers, "Really soon!"
"I love you too, Mr. Micelli and I'll be counting the days till then," she smiled.
Getting lost into each other temporarily, Angela finally broke loose of their embrace and questioned,
"So, what do we tell the family about us? We can't just get engaged out of nowhere when we're not even dating," She questioned.
"Well, I kind of thought about that and what do you say we casually start "dating"? The family will be happy that we're finally going out, at least and that'll also give us some alone time and they might not suspect the rest? Also, it'll be easier to ease Billy into the idea of us together since we already confused him as it was with him thinking we were already married." He laughed.
"Oh, so dating huh? I think I like the sound of that but what kind of dating are we going to do?" She blushed as she lowered her voice into a sultry, seductive tone, "Are we going to, you know, just go out to like dinner and dancing or we going to go steady and just hold hands and make out in the movie theater or are might we, you know," leaning in a little closer to him, "Be rebellious teenagers that sneak around, hoping their parents don't catch them in the act?" Her tone now suggestive and defying.
Clearing his throat as he adjusted his seat trying to easy the growing discomfort of his ever-prominent arousal, "uh, ummm, ya, let me see, I think I kinda like the sneaking around idea as long as it includes some repeats of last night?" He growled.
"I think that can be arranged," she leaned in, pressing herself close to him so that their bodies we're nearly fully pressed against each other and captured his mouth to hers in a passionate, deep kiss.
Lost in each other, they were suddenly startled as the front door began to open and they quickly parted to opposite ends of the sofa, both, flushed, breathless and Tony, a little bulging.
Preoccupied with corralling Billy, Jonathan was oblivious to the occurrences in front of him as he entered the room, closely followed by Billy and his grandmother.
"Hey Mom, hey Tony," he greeted catching sight of them, "Hey buddy," Tony's voice cracked as he grabbed a pillow and placed it on his lap.
"Hi sweethearts," Angela gushed, quickly rising to meet her boys, bringing them into a tight hug, hoping her mother hadn't taken note of their situation as she was right on foot with them. "Hello Mother," she continued her pleasantries, "What have you all been up to?"
"I could ask the same of you dear?" Mona eyed Angela with a suggestive tone.
"Us?" Angela sputtered, "Ah, we just got in a little while ago," she continued, trying to ease the blush on her cheeks, "We were just sitting here, wondering where you all were and waiting on our pizza."
"Ya, waiting on our pizza," Tony repeated, still not fully controlled of his discomfort.
"Hey, Tony," Billy ran towards him, jumping on him, landing full force on his groin, "Did you bring me anything?" The young boy squealed with excitement.
Sharp pains now taking over from his previous pleasure, Tony's voice rose three octaves as he squawked, "Ya, buddy, they're upstairs."
"Tony, what's wrong with your voice," Billy questioned.
Trying to regain his senses, Tony replied, "Nothing buddy, you just knocked the wind out of me a little." Wrapping his arms around the boy for a hug.
"Come on Billy, let's go upstairs and get ready for bed," Jonathan motioned the young boy.
"Glad you all are home," Jonathan relayed as he began up the stairs, Billy attached to his leg, "I hope everything went okay?" He disappeared before an answered could be made.
Studying Tony, who had yet to rise from the couch, and Angela whose face was still a bit flush, not to mention both of their unwillingness to make eye contact with her, Mona inquired, "Yes, how did everything go?" She raised her eyebrow, "Did you all take care of business?"
Stepping towards the desk by the door, Angela busied herself with the mail, still unwilling to look at her mother, "Yes Mother, everything went fine, just fine. It's all been taken care of."
Moving towards the couch and sitting next to Tony, "Hey bub, what gives, you've been awfully quite over here, not even a hello hug for your favorite ex-mother in-law," looking down at the pillow still on his lap, "Was it harder than you expected?" she snickered.
Panic setting in, Tony was glad to suddenly hear the knock on the door, "Pizza's here," he jumped up, "I'll be right back with that hug, Mon," he offered as he quickly fled to answer the door, despite Angela standing two feet away from it.
Making idle conversation with the delivery boy, Tony tried to prolong the conversation with the young man in hopes of delaying his conversation with Mona.
Finally bidding the pizza boy a good night, Tony turned with eagerness, "Who wants pizza?"
"I do, I do," Billy came running down the stairs.
Sighing in relief, knowing that the young boy would now consume the conversation, Tony cheered, "Come on champ, let's have some pizza!"
"Hold it right there, buster!" Mona exclaimed!
Tony froze, bewilderment plastered on his face.
"Young man, how much did you just not eat at dinner because you said you were so full you and couldn't eat another bite?"
"I couldn't eat another bite of that food," Billy gleamed, "I can always eat pizza." He smiled at Tony.
Under normal circumstances, Tony and Angela would never allow Billy to eat something other than his dinner if he hadn't eaten it at dinner time, but given the fact they both knew he was their escape from conversation with Mona, they both chimed in together,
"Just this once, it's okay!"
Looking at each other in surprise that they had the same thought and words together, Tony continued, "Just this once buddy, let's call it special occasion since we've been gone, okay?"
"Okay," the boy excitedly repeated.
"Special occasion huh?" Mona huffed, "I bet it was a special occasion!" She turned and exited the room heading towards her apartment.
Sighing a breath of relief, Tony and Angela retreated to the kitchen, with Billy in tow for a satisfying serving of pizza a-la-delivery.
Finishing their dinner, Tony and Angela quickly cleaned up the kitchen and took Billy up to bed, tucking the young boy in. Checking on Jonathan, who had been glued to the phone with a potential female friend, they bid him goodnight and proceeded back downstairs.
Taking a seat on the couch once again, they opted to keep a safe distance from each other as they reflected on the struggles they faced getting through the evening.
"That was a close call," Tony fretted, "I know Mona knows! Did you hear those comments? I honestly don't know how that woman always sniffs this shit out!"
"She claims it's a gift," Angela shock her head in bewilderment. "But I don't think she knows; I think she was just trying to get under our skin hoping she would insinuate something. I mean, really, she couldn't know anything?" A pensive look covered her face.
"Angela, did you see the way she looked at me? Thank God for these little pillows or we would have had some real explaining to do." He shook his head in frustration. "And that damn comment about it being hard! Holly crap Angela, I thought I was going to die right there. Thank God for the pizza guy arriving!"
"Ya, I didn't know what to do," she laughed, "The look on your face was priceless!"
"Hardy har har, you think it was funny? You should have seen how red your cheeks were when you were trying so hard to play it cool." He rolled his eyes at her.
"Okay, so neither of us handled that very well but we got through it. At least we won't have to deal with her this weekend! She told me yesterday she was leaving early to visit Uncle Cornelius for the weekend so maybe by the time she gets back, she'll forget about anything she thinks she thought."
"Mona forget something that could have something to do with us and sex?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you have a point but still, after all these years, my mother thinks we're boring and never going to get together so what she doesn't know, won't hurt her." Inching her way closer to Tony.
"I guess we kinda almost got caught sneaking around huh?
"Ya, I guess we did! You know, it's kind of a turn on." Her voice low and seductive.
"Oh ya, well why don't you scoot over here a little closer and I'll see if I can light that switch?" He smirked.
"Oh, Mr. Micelli, I think I like the sound of that!" She leaned in, capturing his lips.
"TONY, ANGELA!" A holler came from Billy's room.
Jumping up, startled by the boy's yell, Tony caught his breath as he yelled back up to Billy, "What's wrong buddy? We're coming!"
Quickly exchanging glances, Angela whispered, "This sneaking around isn't meant for almost middle-aged parents, my heart can't take this!"
They turned to go upstairs and check on Billy.
Having re-tucked him in, Angela and Tony decided it was best to bid each other goodnight and retreat to their respective rooms, alone, after making plans for a family weekend adventure to the park the next day, then dinner and family movie night; Anything to try and keep themselves occupied and some relative distance between them.