In Walked Love
Chapter 3
SapphireJ

I thought I was prepared for any question she threw at me, but when she asked why I was called Binkie, I lost it and started laughing. That was nowhere near what I thought her first question would be. Looking up in her eyes, I could see she was beginning to think I was laughing at her, so I stopped and answered, "I'm not laughing at you. I just never thought that would be the first question you asked me." Before I could go any further, I heard her stomach let out a huge roar. Standing up, I reached for her hand, "Shall we get some food while we talk?"

Standing up, Stephanie leaned into my side and allowed me to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Do you want to eat here or go out for food? I'm sure the food is cold now."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to let the food spoil."

"Don't worry about it. I'd rather get out of here and get some sunshine anyway." I walked us to the door, opened it, and motioned for her to go first, "Shall we?" Pulling the door behind us, we walked hand in hand to the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. As we stood in the elevator, I pulled Stephanie to me and we stood there face to face. I loved looking in her eyes and prayed I was able to do this every day for the rest of my life.

"Hey, what do you want to do tonight? Stay here or head back to Trenton?" I asked before I realized I wasn't sure either of us had a vehicle.

"Don't you have to work?" she asked quietly.

"No, I'm off this weekend. I don't have to be back until Monday morning. What about you?" The doors opened and she spun around to walk out first. My eyes landed on her ass and I couldn't tear them away; my God that woman has a great lookin' ass.

"I'm free until Monday as well. My skips were all caught up yesterday," she informed me with a smile.

Grabbing her hand, I walked towards the door and heard her phone start ringing. She reached in her pocket and fished it out. When she looked at the screen and scowled, I figured it was her mother, but when she answered, I was wrong. "Hey Les, what's up?"

I swear my heart stopped beating for a moment. I knew her and Les were close, but I'd never asked either of them how close they were. I knew he loved her; hell, more than half the guys were in love with her. I knew jealousy would do me no good, so I needed to get this figured out and fast.

"No, I'm not in Trenton. Still in Princeton. Um, you know, I'm not sure if I have a car or not," she laughed. "Binkie? Yeah, I know where he is." She held the phone out for me and I took it from her.

"Whazzup?"

"Dude, are you there with Steph?" he asked.

"Yes." I knew the one-word answers were going to piss him off, but I wasn't willing to offer more at the moment; Steph and I hadn't talked about if we were telling anyone yet.

He lowered his voice before he spoke again, "Did you spend the night with her?"

I could hear an edge to his voice and then I really began to wonder what they were to each other. I guess, once again, I took too long to answer, "Dude if you slept with her last night, I'm going to kick your ass."

Stephanie must have heard Les yell the last part, because all of a sudden the phone was yanked out of my hand and I heard my wife putting Lester in his place. "You listen to me Lester Santos. Binkie and I are grown adults. We can do whatever we want and you cannot stop us. You will not lay a hand on him for any reason. Do you understand me?" I'm assuming he agreed as she was suddenly smiling. "I'll be sure to stop in when I return to Trenton. Tell everyone hi for me."

She hung up, placed her phone back in her pocket, and smiled up at me, "Where to?" I just shook my head, smiled, grabbed her hand, and left the building. Mental note to self: Do NOT get on wife's bad side!

Walking down the sidewalk, I realized where we were and knew of a wonderful little sidewalk café a few blocks away, so I led us there. After we sat down and ordered, Steph looked at me, "Okay, time to spill."

I leaned back in my chair and relaxed, "How old do you think I am?"

She sat there and stared at my face for a few, "Well, I'd guess around twenty-seven." I shook my head. "Oh shit, please don't tell me you're younger that that!" I'm a freakin' cougar, she said out loud without meaning to. I laughed and shook my head again. "I give," she replied.

"I'm thirty-seven." I watched her eyes widen at my statement as she leaned back in her chair.

"No freakin' way. You so do not look a day past thirty."

"I am. I've always looked younger than I am. I don't know why, but that's just the way it is. When I was eighteen, I walked into the recruiter's office and signed up for the Air Force. The recruiter took one look at me and said, 'Son, I don't know what trouble you are in at home, but you've still got about three years until you can sign up'. I stood toe-to-toe with him and replied, "Sir, if you will look at my driver's license, birth certificate, and my passport, you will see that I am eighteen.' He looked at the paperwork five times before he looked at me and smiled."

I took a drink of my water and noticed how Stephanie hung onto every word I said. She really was one of a kind and she was mine! "He shook my hand, signed my paperwork, looked at me and said, 'Welcome to the Air Force, Binkie.' I stood there for a moment before I had the courage to ask him about the name. His reply was, 'Son, with your baby-face, I see a lot of names for you. Figured if I gave you one right off the bat. Now when people ask you can tell them your name is Binkie and they'll leave you alone.' I wasn't sure about that, but figured I'd give it a try."

Stephanie sat up and took a sip of her coke, "So, how many names did people come up with for you?"

"A lot! I won't lie, there were a lot of names, some I'll never repeat, but honestly, I've gotten use to Binkie. At first, I hated it… made me sound like someone's pacifier, but after about three weeks of hearing it all the time, I grew to like it and have a hard time answering to anything else."

"Which would you rather I call you?" she asked with a slight hesitation.

I stood up, walked to her side of the table, sat down, and reached for her hands. "Honey, you can call me anything you'd like, just don't call me late to dinner."

She snorted at that, "I doubt that will ever happen… I don't cook."

Our lunch was placed in front of us and Stephanie moaned at the sight of it. She ordered Chicken Fettuccini with extra sauce. I decided to take a page from her book and ordered the same thing. As I took my first bite, I couldn't help the moan that escaped my lips. I've never been one to enjoy food that much, but then again, maybe I've just been eating the wrong foods. I glanced at Stephanie and saw a smirk on her face. She was enjoying this.

We finished the meal in silence but kept a constant touch… either our legs touching or a hand on each other. I've never been a touchy-feely person, but with Steph, it just seemed natural. When we were done, I paid the bill and we decided to walk to the White Wedding Chapel and pick up our souvenirs.

We came to a bakery and Stephanie stopped walking to look in the window. I realized then that I needed to go inside. "Stay here for a minute?" I asked her. She nodded and stared at the donuts in the window. When I walked inside, I was greeted by an older woman with flour splattered on her face.

"What can I do for you?" she asked as she wiped her hands on her apron.

As I smiled, I told her, "I was made the happiest man on earth last night when I became married to the woman I've loved for years." It was the truth; I have loved Steph for years, we just weren't a couple. "As we were walking by, I realized we didn't have a cake; it was kind of a spur of the moment wedding. I was wondering what you had available."

The lady smiled at me and led me to the showcase on the end, "What are her favorite flavors?"

Damn, what were her favorite? "Well, she loves Boston Crème donuts, chocolate, Pineapple Upside Down, and birthday cake. Any suggestions?"

"What about you? Your favorites?"

"I'm not picky. I like just about any flavor of cake." Yes, I love cake almost as much as Steph; I just don't get to eat it as much.

She reached into the showcase, pulled out a two-tier cake, and boxed it up. "Here you go. I just finished this about an hour ago. I'm sure she will love it; it's a Boston Crème wedding cake." I just knew that was perfect cake for Steph. "How much?"

"On the house. A wedding gift."

"Ma'am, I can't do that. I have to,"

"No. This is my shop and I want you to take this cake and enjoy it with your new bride. Congratulations! Now go and enjoy!"

I thanked her again, grabbed the box, and went outside to Steph. "What's that?" she asked as soon as I stepped out.

"A wedding gift for us for later," I replied as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulled her to me, and kissed her temple. After we picked up our pictures and DVD, we headed back to the hotel. Before we headed up to our room, we stopped at the front desk. I needed to make sure we could still have our room for the night; I wasn't sure how many nights we checked in for last night. We were told the room was ours until the next morning. Great, looks like we thought ahead!

Heading up to our room, I sat the cake on the table, and turned to Steph. She was standing at the foot of the bed and seemed lost in thought. I walked over to her, wrapped my arms around her, and squeezed, "Steph? You okay?"

"I'm fine, Matthew," she replied as she leaned back against me.

"Then what's on your mind? You look lost."

"I guess I was just realizing that I don't know much about you, and you don't know much about me. It scares me to think that when we find things out about each other that we aren't going to like something and it will tear us apart."

"Honey, I will tell you anything and everything you want to know about me and my life. If I tell you something that you don't like, let me know and we can work to figure things out. I'm sure there is nothing you could tell me about you that would change how I feel about you."

She turned in my arms and kissed me softly. "Tell me something?"

"What?" I asked her while running my fingers down her jaw.

"Anything. Just something about you that I don't know. I want to know all about you," she replied as she leaned into my hand.

"Well, my birthday is December thirteenth, I have an older brother and two younger ones. My parents have been married for forty years this year. I was in the Air Force for six years before I left."

She looked up at me and smiled, "I met one of your younger brothers last night, didn't I?"

Smiling back at her, I nodded, "Yes, you met Michael. He's new to Rangeman; just signed on yesterday. He goes by Chase."

She sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to her. I was comfortable sitting, so I walked to the side of the bed and laid on my side before patting the bed. She took the hint and crawled up next to me. I propped my head up on my hand and looked down at her. "My older brother is three minutes older than me."

Her eyes widened at that admission. "You have a twin?"

"I do. Martin is always telling everyone he is the oldest. The baby of the family, Malcolm, just turned twenty-one last month. Michael is twenty-nine."

"Wow. Do your parents like the letter "M" or something?"

I laughed, "Yes, they do. My mother is Martha and my father is Marshall."

"Huh, never knew a family that kept everyone with the same first letter."

"Well, it's a little more than that," I told her and watched as she began to look confused. "We all have the same initials."

"What?"

"Yeah. Marshal Allen, Martha Alice, Martin Andrew, Matthew Adrian, Michael Aaron, and Malcolm Anthony."

Wow, wonder what our kids names will be she said… I'm assuming it was to herself so I didn't comment, but that did make me think of the future.