Chapter 7

We actually left the room several times over the next few days. It wasn’t all sex, unicorns and rainbows. Often, it was good food, curios, chickens, unicorns, and rainbows. We decided a few days later to make it home, have me meet her parents, see Beverly again, and make some plans.

She sat up front on the trip home, looking in awe at the clouds flying by, and the ships under us as they cut through the water, looking like toys in a bathtub. She asked about a lot of the gauges and screens and listened as I talked to the controllers during the flight. She also played a wonderful stewardess, I mean flight attendant, fetching us soft drinks and granola bars on more than one occasion.

We decided not to spend the night in California, but instead to refuel and head to Denver, thinking we could always go back later if we wanted. She said she had always wanted to go downtown San Francisco, but she’d been watching on the news what it was like lately and didn’t want to do it any time soon.

We got into Denver and were able to park the plane there with no issues. The people there were great, belonging to an international firm I frequented at many of the locations where I often flew. The problem of getting to her car was fixed almost immediately when one of the staff offered to drive us over to the parking area where her car was located. That worked out amazingly well. She called the parking people and told them who she was and that she wanted to follow a shuttle in and out so she could get one of her customers to their car. It worked out famously, and we were dropped off near a little white Cherokee Latitude. Cute ride, in all honesty.

We spent the time I was there in her little one-bedroom apartment. I guess it wasn’t really all that little. It was a lot more substantial than any one-bedroom place I remember from college, and I’d stayed in a lot of one-bedroom vacation condos that were maybe a bit smaller. It was surely comfortable and had a very respectable kitchen.

“You think you could handle this while you’re visiting, Josh? I call it home.”

“Absolutely, honey. It’s nice.”

She gave me a tour of the entire apartment, including the laundry and storage area, which in itself was more than anyplace I’d ever witnessed could boast. The bathroom was also out of the ordinary, having both a large shower stall, big enough for four people, at a minimum, and a bathtub, deep and long enough for really taking a bath and soaking one’s entire body while one’s significant other was at the other end. It wasn’t jetted, but a bathtub that big didn’t need to be to be nice.

“Yeah, babydoll, I think I can handle staying here with you. It’s fantastic, Brenda. Really nice place you have here.”

“Good. After the last week together, I don’t think I could handle you staying in a hotel around here. I don’t see the need, either. I’d rather be home in my fuzzy slippers, anyway.”

“Good call.”

We went out for a bit to find fixings for a home cooked meal, went back and cooked it, then made plans for the following day. We were to look around the area where she lived, then she was taking her parents out for dinner with us so we could meet in a public place.

“I don’t expect any strange reactions, Josh, but I think if we’re in public, no one is going to scream and wonder why I’m marrying someone after only knowing them for ten days. I’m asking Beverly to meet us for dinner as well. It gives us another witness in case Mom attacks you with her steak knife.”

“We don’t need to advertise that yet, hon. I mean, I don’t see a need. I understand you might want to be forthright and honest with them, but still, we can hold off if you like. I also think your sister might side with your mother. She and I are not that close yet, I don’t think. While we’re here, though, if you’re going to announce it, I might as well take you ring shopping.”

She squealed and jumped up in my arms, almost knocking a spatula out of my hand. After the kiss, I put her down and hugged her.

“I told you I was serious, Brenda. Don’t act too awfully surprised.”

“I know, but it’s getting more and more real. I love you, sir. The thing about Beverly, Josh, she and Mom ... Let’s just say until Mom sees the new Beverly, there’s not a lot of love lost between them. Mom was pretty upset by how she treated me sometimes.” She looked up at me. “Josh, how did I get so lucky?”

“Serendipity, my dear. It all started because you failed to reserve a rental car if my memory serves.”

We finished making dinner, then ate, put the leftovers away, cleaned up the kitchen, and fell asleep on the couch holding each other while trying unsuccessfully to watch an old romcom.

At two in the morning, she woke me gently, pulled me to her bed, undressed first me, then herself, put us under the covers, and we both fell asleep again with my arms around her and her butt up against my half-mast erection.

We found a ring set she was very enamored with at Jared. We found matching wedding bands to go with it and told them we’d be back after the wedding, whenever that would be, to have hers soldered together if she decided to do so. They told us to hang on the receipt, just in case, as they would have records as well, but that it would be no charge to do it, and if they needed cleaning, to bring them in as well.

Her parents were extremely devout Red Lobster fans, so that’s where we wound up eating dinner. Her father was a fan of their baked potatoes, her mother their biscuits. It wasn’t the biscuits that got her attention that night, though. Her mother noticed the engagement ring as soon as they met us in the lobby and took each other’s hands.

“Oh, my God, girl, you didn’t. You aren’t...”

“Yes, Mom, I did, and yes, I am. Mom, Dad, this is Josh, Joshua Coats, my fiancé.”

Her father looked a bit set back by that news, but reached out with his hand to shake. “David. David Williams. This is kind of short notice, isn’t it Mr. Coats?”

“Yes, sir, it is. I had the same thoughts until she kissed me goodnight the first time.”

“Well, I declare. Brenda, you didn’t...”

“Yes, Mom, the third or fourth night I sent him away, I kissed him goodnight. It’s a tradition in humanity. Didn’t you ever kiss Daddy goodnight? I mean before Beverly was born?”

“Be careful, Brenda. Momma looks like she’s about to slap you senseless.” Beverly had just walked in the door and snuck up behind her father. She hugged him from behind. “Hi, Daddy. Good to see you guys again. Don’t be afraid of Josh. He’s a good guy. He’s also trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, thrifty, brave, and fairly clean. I don’t know about obedient and reverent. You’ll have to ask your other daughter.”

She approached Brenda, and as both parents looked on in fear, forgetting all about me and the damage I was doing to their youngest’s life, they prepared for the worst.

Beverly hugged Brenda, getting a hug in return, then they kissed each other on the lips, nothing salacious, but you could tell there was no animus between them anymore.

Her father spoke first. “To what do we owe the honor of you two getting along like sisters instead of opposing pit bulls, or lawyers?”

They both, in unison pointed at me and said, “Him.”

You could have heard a pin drop after the parents both said, again, in unison, “Oh.”

David again reached out for me with his hand. “Josh, was it? Nice to meet you, young man. Tell me all about yourself, will you? The girls will be chatting for a while, and we won’t get a word in edgewise. Not that we’d want to. Let’s go sit at the bar while they do that.”

David, not Dave, Williams explained to me how the girls had been at each other’s throats for about eight years, now, and no one could figure out why, or what to do about it.

“David, I didn’t really do anything except conspire with one daughter against the other. Brenda and I met over a rental car debacle. She explained that it might have consequences involving Beverly, and I kind of put myself in the mix.”

“I’m sure I’ll hear all about it. What do you do, Josh, if you don’t mind me asking?”