A Honeymoon Vignette I

"Morning, sleepy head," a soft voice insinuated itself through the morning haze of Tony's return to consciousness. As the fog of sleep lifted, snippets of very pleasant memories flashed through his mind. There was Angela at the airport agreeing to the wedding; next Angela walking down the beach toward him, her radiance in that image still awed him, even in a rerun. Holding hands as they took their vows was next; he remembered the tender look on her face and the love in her eyes. Her giddiness at their reception filled him with joy; then thoughts of their wedding night put an ear to ear grin on his face before he even opened his eyes.

A simple, "hi," in a warm tone made him open his eyes and turn his head to the siren song of his wife and greet her with a kiss. The fact that Angela was running her hand up his chest might have had something to do with his morning salutation as well.

They took their time, savoring each moment of their first kiss on the first morning they woke up together as husband and wife. The morning sun glimmered through the curtains reminding them that today was their first full day of married life; if they were going to be sticklers for detail and count the day they obtained the piece of paper as the day they were married, which for the two of them was more of a technicality than anything else. In their hearts they had been married for years.

Tony finally stopped kissing his wife long enough to say, "good morning, Mrs. Micelli." As if his kiss hadn't expressed the same sentiment already.

Giddy Angela was back, although this time she brought along her sultry voice, she stroked her husband's cheek and purred, "good morning, Mr. Micelli. Say it again." Not even married 24 hours and already it was nag, nag, nag from his wife.

"Good morning," he teased.

Angela didn't seem amused, "funny," she managed to turn into a word of playful warning.

"I wasn't trying to be funny," he lied.

"The hell you weren't."

They laughed and Tony teased just once more, "oh, that's not what you meant?" he asked innocently, then acquiesced to his wife's request, "Mrs. Micelli."

That was more like it. Angela's eyes sparkled as she somehow cuddled closer, which of course led to more kissing and caressing. She was luminous this morning; a result of liberation combined with being a deliriously happily married woman. In marriage, Angela was finally able to love Tony wholeheartedly; she didn't have to hide her feelings from him, their family or even herself anymore. After so many years of repression, this freedom was intoxicating to her. She could now throw herself into loving Tony just as much as she threw herself into her work. The effect of this would be to create a better balance in Angela's life; once she finished indulging in reckless abandon that is, and even she herself wasn't too sure when that would be, if ever; hopefully, never.

"It's nice to see you so happy," Tony said when they paused for a moment.

"I was recently married," she said matter-of-factly, "see my ring," which would have been difficult to miss as she was dangling it in front of his face. The diamond dazzled in the morning sunlight.

"Your ring is beautiful," he complimented.

"Thank you," she said, gazing adoringly at the ring.

"But not half as beautiful as you," he said, earnestly.

"Oh, Tony," she sighed; then kissed him again.

Eventually, Tony was able to say, "that new husband of yours is a very lucky man."

"Not half as lucky as I am."

"No, I'm the lucky one."

"I'm luckier."

"Uh unh, I'm luckier."

"Tony, we're getting too nauseating, even for me."

He laughed and stroked her waist, "Ok, truce; we're both lucky."

Angela nodded, thinking their 'argument' was over.

"But, I'm luckier," Tony snuck in the last word.

"Tony!" she laughed.

"Hungry? We should see about breakfast," the man did have an appetite; a healthy one and it wasn't limited to only food.

"What? You mean Mother doesn't have an army of waiters outside setting up breakfast on the deck or the beach? Or perhaps trumpeters in full livery waiting outside the door heralding our emergence from this room?" Angela said that sarcastically; but with all of the other plans her mother had made they both realized the idea might not be so far-fetched. "She couldn't, could she?"

"Nah," Tony answered, "how would she know when we would wake up?"

Angela nodded in agreement.

"Or, more importantly, when we would get out of bed."

Angela looked at her husband and grinned. Still, there was the nagging thought of her mother's thoroughness. She had to check; the trumpeters were certainly out of the question; but breakfast was at least a highly remote possibility. Which meant she had to get out of bed. Which was the last thing she wanted to do this morning. Quickly, she pulled a sheet around her and ran to the window. She peeked through the curtains. There were no waiters in sight. There were, fortunately, also no trumpeters in sight. In fact, there was no one in sight. The only sight that greeted Angela's eyes was the view of the sun glinting on the water. "Oh, Tony, you have to come see this," she urged.

Tony was momentarily alarmed, Mona couldn't have set up breakfast, could she? He, very reluctantly, got out of bed; for not only did he not want to get out of bed, leaving the bed meant he would also lose the fine view currently in his line of vision. He still thought it adorable that Angela bothered to cover up in a sheet. Without bothering to cover up at all, Tony joined his wife at the window and put his arm around her. She snuggled in.

"Look, Tony; the beach and the sky and the sun...wow."

It was beautiful, but it was second place in Tony's mind, "it's nice, Angela; but the view I just had from the bed was better," he paused, then added, "much better." Tony was appreciating nature as well; just not the same nature.

Angela's smile turned from a wistful appreciation of nature to a full out smile and blush. "Tony; oh, Tony...I love you," she sighed as chills ran through her. The look in his eyes made her forget there was anything on the other side of the curtains. She shut the curtains as he said, "I love you too." They shared another kiss; carefully, because no matter what, Angela was not going to drop that sheet, even though she knew Tony was currently providing a prime specimen for her 'naked' research. They ended their kiss, Angela turned and walked away, the very definition of a 'come hither' look on her face as she approached the bed. The 'come hither' look made a slight change with a raised eyebrow to a 'you coming back to bed?' look as she threw the sheet on the bed; giving Tony a tantalizing glimpse as she quickly nestled back into bed and patted the pillow next to her.

"I'm just giving you a chance to appreciate nature," he said as he walked toward her.

"Oh, I'm appreciating;" this was obvious from the way she was openly taking her time staring at him from head to toe, "but I think this is the kind of 'nature appreciation' that's better close up," she said pruriently, "very close up. Intimately close up."

"Angela, are you thinking of me as a sex object?" He pretended to be shocked and offended, even going so far as to grab a ridiculously small corner of a sheet and try to cover up in a false attempt at modesty.

"Yes," she answered simply and honestly.

"Good," he dropped the sheet as he slipped back into bed, "after all, we do have to make sure this marriage is well and truly consummated."

"I thought we took care of that last night; well and truly," Angela flirted as she cuddled up to him.

"A couple can never be too sure about this," Tony mentioned pedantically as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"I see. Oh well, if we must; we must," she agreed as she trickled her fingers up from the inside of his wrist to his shoulder. "We certainly wouldn't want to have this marriage questioned on a technicality, now would we?"

"No, we wouldn't; and I don't want to hear the words, "unable to perform husbandly duties" ever again," Tony felt triumphant even though they weren't in a contest as this remark caused Angela's face to light up in laughter.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," she said as she nudged her leg along his thigh, "but I should warn you, I still don't kiss on a first date."

"Good thing this isn't our first date," he stated truthfully; even more truthfully, the date they went on after they left the judge's chambers after the annulment of their first "marriage" wasn't their first date either. That could be why they spent time kissing that day too.

To prove even more that today definitely wasn't their first date, they kissed again and when they next parted Tony continued pragmatically, "and we have to work up an appetite for breakfast." Breakfast? At the moment Angela didn't care if she ever ate again. Tony kissing his way down her neck scattered any thoughts she might have had about anything as prosaic as food. If Tony ever thought breakfast was a viable option for this morning he was happily mistaken.

"If we spend too much time 'working up an appetite' we may not eat until lunch," Angela noted, although how she managed to articulate the words, even she didn't know.

He paused long enough to say, "then we'll be well and truly hungry, won't we?"

"Yes," she sighed languorously, her eyelids fluttering shut in ecstasy. Tony wasn't sure if that melodic "yes" was in reference to a skipped breakfast or an encouragement of their appetite whetting, he quickly decided it was both, and went back to his delightful exploration of the wonders of nature.

Breakfast? There would be no breakfast for the happy couple this morning.

Lunch?

Maybe.