Jennie
"I've got some papers for you to review when you have a moment, love." The warm affection in Lisa's voice drew my attention away from the microscope I was glued to.
"This is a nice surprise," I said, lifting my lips for a kiss for my sexy, smart, well-dressed, devastatingly beautiful girlfriend. It was a Saturday morning, or at least it had been two hours ago, I winced, noting the time on the clock. A beautiful, hot day outside, and I was happily toiling over a blood sample and new, life-changing data.
"It's almost quitting time," she said, dropping a neat stack of legal documents next to me on the stainless steel work table. "I thought I'd pick you up and we could head to the beach bar for a late lunch. Maybe finish the afternoon off with a naked swim and drinks at home?"
She knew how to woo me away from my work like no other.
"That sounds like perfection," I said, rising from the stool and slipping my arms around her neck. "What's wrong?"
She looked… nervous? A nervous Lisa was a suspicious Lisa.
"What are you up to?" I demanded. "Did you steal the Porsche keys again?"
She laughed, brown eyes twinkling and it gave me a start to know that soon, I might know someone else with her beautiful eyes.
"You're a suspicious one, aren't you?" she said, stroking a hand affectionately over my hair. I'd pulled it back in a short stub to keep it out of my way while I ran tests and chewed over data.
"You're the one standing there like you've got a secret," I pointed out.
"Maybe my secret is in those documents," she prodded.
With a sigh, I released my hold on her. "This better not be another speaking engagement contract."
Six months after I left Flawless and after Byul's in-depth, behind-the-scenes article came out, I was still swatting away offers for speeches and interviews. But I was far too busy readying AHA's blood test for its phase one clinical trial.
To me, the past was in the past. The disgraced and under investigation Irene had left town and the last Lisa's research team had told me was busy conning Junhoe Koo into marriage. My brother, Bobby, was getting ready for his fraud trial. His new girlfriend, actress Zoey Grace, was fronting the money for his legal fees because our parents were embroiled in their own divorce proceedings.
"Jennie, darling, would I waste your time with that?" Lisa asked dryly.
"Yes. You would."
"It's not a speaking engagement. It's a merger. An important one. And there's one thing missing." She reached into her pocket and withdrew a black velvet box and placed it on top of the papers.
My heart skipped a beat.
Marriage. Marriage to Lisa. Another layer of partnership. Was I ready? Was she? Did she know my lovely little secret? Was that why?
"Before you overanalyze this to death, read the agreement," she said, nudging the papers and ring box closer to me.
With shaking, careful fingers, I picked up the jeweler's box and set it carefully on the table top.
"It's not going to bite," she teased me.
"This is big, Lisa."
"That's what she said."
"You need to take that back immediately because I am not recounting that to our children when they ask how we got engaged," I warned her.
"You can't say yes already, not without at least reading the agreement."
I skimmed the first few sentences. "Lisa, this is a prenup."
Had I finally found the limit to the her perfection? Was she a solid shoulder to lean on, a best friend to be counted on, a maestro of orgasms, but a horrible proposer of marriage?
She leaned on the work table, the picture of casual confidence in one of the many refined suits that now hung in our closet in Bluewater. "It would appear so."
"Are you proposing to me with a prenup? Because if so, I really expected something more stylish."
"You were expecting my proposal?" she asked, eyebrows winging up in innocence.
"I woke up two months ago with you measuring my ring finger."
"Read the agreement, Jennie," she insisted.
"You better have something pretty great up that tailored sleeve of yours," I teased. "Or else I'm going to tell everyone that you're only human after all."
Helpfully, she shoved the papers upward until they were an inch from my nose. "Read, please."
I cleared my throat, choosing a section at random.
"Both parties agree that marital disputes will be settled in the ring," I read with a laugh. "The ring?"
"No hitting below the belt, love." Her eyes weren't just warm, they were scorching. "Keep going."
With a slightly shakier voice, I pressed on. "Both parties agree to do everything in their power to love, honor, and support the other including but not limited to date nights, enjoying occasional meals during which no work is discussed by either party, counseling or mediation if needed if conflicts aren't settled in the ring."
"Lisa promises to keep annoying business and social functions to a minimum for Jennie."
"Jennie promises to always let Lisa cut her hair."
"Lisa promises to fill Jennie's dining room table on holidays," I read, my voice breaking. I loved this person beyond words.
She took the papers from me. "Jennie promises to always tell Lisa when she's stressed and what she needs from her," she read, with one hand stroking my back.
I blinked back tears.
"Both parties agree to do whatever it takes to stay together and to fulfill each other's dreams," she said, her voice raspy now.
"This will never hold up in court," I said on a choked laugh.
"It's not for court. It's for a much stricter judge," Lisa said, drawing me into her arms. "Us."
"I love you, Lisa," I whispered.
"And I love you, Jennie. You continue to dazzle me every day. Now, would you like to see your signing bonus?"
She plucked the box from the table.
"Wait," I said. "I have a signing bonus of my own."
"What's that, love?"
"How do you feel about being a parent?"
"I'll be thoroughly excited when the time comes," she promised. "I want a family with you, Jennie. I want to raise a new generation of pick-pocketing scientists."
"Good, because we're going to get our first crack at parenthood in about thirty-six weeks."
She blinked.
"What?"
"That's what I was doing in here today," I said, gesturing toward the microscope.
Her brow furrowed. "Good God. You didn't make us some sort of test tube clone baby, did you?"
I laughed. "Don't be an incredibly beautiful idiot. I just ran the blood test myself."
"You're serious, aren't you?" Her fingers tightened on my arms. "We're having a baby?"
I nodded, tears still clouding my vision.
"I think I need to sit down."
I pushed her into the stool I'd vacated. "Are you all right?" I asked.
She nodded, then kept nodding, stars in her eyes. "What an adventure we'll have together," she said. "Of course, we'll have to sell your Porsche and get a bulletproof minivan."
"Oh, of course," I agreed.
She slid her hands inside my lab coat and reverently placed her palms over my stomach. "How do you feel?"
"Elated. Terrified. Surprised. Hungry."
"How are the intestines?" she asked.
"No troubles since the day we walked out of Flawless," I said smugly.
"My parents are going to be over the moon to meet this little one," she said, gaze lifting to meet mine.
"At least we can count on a positive reaction from one set of parents," I quipped. I had a tenuous truce with my mother that no longer required me to bend to her whims and revoked her right to criticize me. We still didn't spend holidays together. But that was just fine with me.
"Maybe your mother will welcome our impending nuptials and baby news as a distraction from trying to rake your father over the coals in divorce court."
"Unlikely. But Bethenny and Ed will commission a nursery designer," I predicted.
"And Alison will buy him or her a teeny tiny stun gun," Lisa said, a smile spreading across her beautiful face.
"And Chu, Chaeyoung, and Nayeon will be weird and wonderful aunts," I said.
"Our baby will know nothing but love, Jennie," she promised me, her voice breaking on the word baby.
"Are you happy, Manoban?" I asked her.
"Dazzled." She opened the jewelry box and then I was the dazzled one.
In the facets and shine of precious gem and metal, I saw our future. Our life together would sparkle.
"That is a big one," I breathed.
"Hush, love. Not in front of the baby," she teased, sliding the ring on my finger. "I'm of course assuming your answer is a yes."
I glanced from ring to papers and back again. "Do you have a pen?"
THE END . . .