A Life More Complete (20 page)

The words flow from me like water
from a tap. “Move in with me,” I say slightly slurred. “Not in that big
beautiful house. Just stay with me. Love me.”

He pauses and looks at me with wide
eyes. He pulls into my driveway before he answers. “I think we should talk about
this when you are not so well acquainted with tequila.”

“I think I just want to be well acquainted
with you. Please,” I beg. “Sleep in my bed. Stay forever.” I can hear myself
but for some reason this tequila-induced stupor has made me far bolder than I
would have ever been sober. He grabs me from the car by my wrist and drags me
up the stairs. I fumble for my keys as he grabs my purse and locates what I can’t
find. Everything is a little blurry. He picks me up and carries me to my
bedroom. He delicately puts me down on the bed and looms over me with those
eyes, that smile, that beautiful face and messy hair. I look up at him with my
drunken smile and half closed eyes.

“Please,” I request one last time.

“I’ll do anything for you,” he
whispers as he kisses me. “But I need you to do one thing for me.” His voice
has turned even quieter now.

“Anything,” I mumble.

“Marry me,” he says and my heart
stops.

When I roll over the next morning
with a killer headache and gritty eyes, my answer is still the same. Yes. I’ve
wanted nothing more than to marry Tyler since I was fifteen. I decide to
finally give into years of want. Some may say I settled, chose the option that
was the easiest, the safest and maybe I did. Or they may say I rushed it, that
I gave absolutely no time to get over my breakup with Ben. But for once in my
life I’m not going dwell on it and obsess over it. All I know is that I’ve
wanted Tyler for so many years and this is the answer. None of it matters now,
not the cheating, his first marriage, our arguments or even the fact we are
adults now and I know so little about his life. I love our past, it’s what
binds us, but I also love our present and eventually I will grow to love our
future.

Tyler arrives home a few minutes
after I wake with the hangover from hell. I should have seen it coming, but
whatever.
Dear Tequila, I hate you.
He
kneels next to the bed and pulls the most beautiful ring I have ever seen from
his pocket. It’s a stunning emerald cut halo ring set in platinum and the
diamond itself is so large it looks like a Jolly Rancher. It’s almost obscene. He
slips the ring on my finger and smiles at me.

“Is your answer still the same?” he
asks.

“Yes. How about you? Any second
thoughts with the rising sun?”

“Nope, but just to clarify, I wasn’t
the one who was drunk and giddy last night. I knew my answer wouldn’t change.” I
giggle at him and he kisses my nose. “Let’s have some breakfast. I got muffins
and coffee.”

“Okay, but I don’t drink coffee,” I
say slightly annoyed that he doesn’t recall my severe dislike of coffee.

“Really? What do you drink then?”

“Usually just water, sometimes
chocolate milkshakes.”

“You still drink chocolate milkshakes
in the morning? I always found that habit disgusting,” he says grabbing his
coffee from the counter. He hands me a muffin as he walks out on to the
balcony. I roll my eyes and take the muffin. I fill a glass with water and join
him.

Just as I’m taking my last bite of
muffin Tyler pulls a joint out of the pocket on the front of his shirt. He asks
if I want to celebrate and I tell him I don’t smoke weed anymore.

“Seriously?”

“Yep, seriously. I’m twenty-eight
years old. I gave it up after college. I now find the habit disgusting,” I say
quoting his words back to him. He glares at me slightly.

“I’m going to let you be crabby,
because I know you’re hungover. I’m sorry I said your chocolate milkshake habit
was disgusting.” He tucks the joint back in his pocket. He grabs my wrist and
pulls me onto his lap. “I know this is still new, but we’ll get there. I love
you and I want to make you happy. Whatever it is you want from me, I’ll do it.”

I push his hair out of his eyes and
lean down to kiss him. “I love you, too. Sorry I’m crabby. Judging by the way I
feel right now I might consider smoking with you. Maybe it’ll take away this
nausea wave that won’t stop. I feel like I might chuck.” He laughs at me. “What
time does your flight leave?”

“I think seven, but I’ll have to check.
Do you want me to come here when I get back on Monday?”

“I thought I made that clear last
night. My speech might have been slurred but I think you heard me.” I mock
myself asking him to move in with me, slurring my words intentionally.

“Just checking.”

I grab him a key to the house and my
extra garage door opener. I can’t help but think about where he will stay while
he’s in Chicago. Will he stay with her? It is still his home. Will he sleep in the
same bed as her? Will he stay in a guest room or at his parents’ house? A hotel?

“Where are you staying?” I ask.

“Tomorrow?” he questions. “At the
Ritz in the city. Why? Did you think I was going to stay with Charlotte?” He
sounds astonished that I would have even thought it. I nod my head. “My
marriage to Charlotte has been over for months. We were sleeping in separate
beds and we hadn’t even been married three months. I wouldn’t even consider it.”
I breathe a sigh of relief and I ask the question I probably shouldn’t.

“What’s she like? You obviously
married her because you thought you loved her.”

“I thought I did love her, but it
wasn’t love. It never was. I think I thought it was the next step. I saw my
parents loveless marriage and just assumed that mine and Charlotte’s
relationship was as good as it gets.” He shrugs his shoulders. “I felt
pressured into it by her. I know that’s a lame excuse, but that’s the reason I
proposed. When we first met, she was fun. She laughed a lot and we had a good
time together. She was a nice distraction from you. But the longer we were
together the more serious she got. Maybe she always was, I don’t know. She
stopped being fun and by that time I was too far gone to leave. We lived
together and her parents were crazy obsessed with us getting married. She
constantly brought it up until I finally just asked to shut her up.”

“Did you ever think about calling it
off?” I ask.

“Sure, plenty of times. My mother
hated her with a fiery passion. Even more than she hated you, so I should have
taken a hint from her and ran.” He laughs slightly. “Charlotte refused to sign
the prenup for months and that took a serious toll on what little was left of
our relationship. There was not a chance I was marrying her without a prenup. She
became greedy and had it re-drafted so many times it was ridiculous.” He shakes
his head as if he’s recalling the memory. “It always came back to the same
thing. She wanted more money if we were to divorce. It was out of hand. I told
her I wasn’t going to marry her unless she signed the original agreement and
for some reason she signed it that night. What was done was done, though. She
was miserable from then on, so I filed for divorce six months ago.”

“So what happens now? You have your
hearing on Monday? Will it be officially over?”

“Yep. Done. She gets only what we
agreed upon in the prenup and I get to walk away. She gets our house in
Wrigleyville and gets to keep her car and that’s about all. I get the contents
of the home, my law practice and my car. Any joint money we had gets split down
the middle and her hands stay off my trust fund.” He makes it sound like a
business transaction as opposed to the end of a marriage, but I guess that’s
really all it is at this point. “It was never meant to last and I should’ve
been smart enough to realize it from the start. If I hadn’t dealt with this
bullshit though, I’m not sure I would have realized how wonderful you are.” He
smiles at me and whatever doubts I have about us fade away.

While Tyler showers I clean out a few
drawers in my dresser to make room for him. I clear out the extra bedroom
closet and hope that it gives him enough room for his stuff. He said he gets
the entire contents of the home and my house already has its own entire
contents. I’m not exactly sure where the hell we are going to put all his shit,
but I try not to dwell on it too much.

“Hey, Ty? I yell as he gets out of
the shower. “What are you going to do with all your furniture and stuff?”

“Um, I haven’t really thought about
it. I get everything, but I think I’ll probably just let Charlotte have most of
it. There are a few things I really want, so I’ll just put them in storage
until we can decide what to do with them.” It’s the “we” in that sentence that
gets me. The “we” is finally him and me. It makes me excited and I hop my way
to the bathroom to tell him how much it pleases me. I stop short when I see him
holding the picture of Ben and me.
Shit, should’ve
hid that better.

“Who’s this?” he says, looking at me
strangely. Tyler knows my hatred of pictures, so I’m sure one being in my
bathroom drawer with my toothbrush baffles him.

“That’s Ben, my ex.” I grab it from
him and toss it in my closet as he follows me. I can feel my heartbeat increase
and my cheeks flush. I don’t want to talk about Ben. The connection is still
there. It won’t be like talking about Tyler’s ex.

“Sorry. I made you uncomfortable,” he
says coming up behind me. “I’m not used to seeing you with someone else. I’m
jealous.” He wraps his arms around me and pulls me back against his chest. I
reach behind and entwine my arms around his neck.

“It’s okay. I have a confession. I’m
jealous of Charlotte.” He turns me to face him.

“No reason to be. I never wanted her.”

I lie and tell him the same thing
about Ben. But he should be jealous of Ben. If there’s one person who can make
me question my loyalty to Tyler it’s Ben. I reach up on my tiptoes and kiss him
and as I press my lips to his I feel the urgency move though my body. I need to
forget Ben and Tyler pressing against me is the best way to do that. We move to
my bed and all is forgotten as he climbs on top of me.

While we are lying in bed, I decide to
take a nap. My hangover is still with me and I have that stupid event tonight. Tyler
kisses me and begins to leave the room to catch up on some work.

“Wake me in a few hours. I have to be
in L.A. by five,” I say. “So make sure I’m up by two.”

“No problem. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” I smile and say, “It
never gets old.” He agrees and leaves me to sleep.

I wake a few hours later feeling much
better. I climb out of bed and hear Tyler on the phone with someone. I listen
for a few minutes before he notices me. He walks over and pulls me into a one
armed hug and kisses the top of my head. He is talking to another lawyer, I
assume. He’s talking about someone possibly not getting probation and how this
really fucks up the case. It gets too wordy for me and wiggle out of his grasp.
I do a little strip tease for him in the doorway to my bedroom and he shakes
his head at me and narrows his eyes. At one point he mouths the words “stop it”
but when I do he puts his hand out indicating that I should continue. I shake
my head as I stand in a red bra and underwear. He grits his teeth and moves
back toward the kitchen to finish his call.

I shower and stand in my closet in a black
and white bra and matching underwear when Tyler comes up behind me. He kisses
my neck making me tremble just a little.

“If you were trying to distract me,
it worked,” he says.

“I’m always trying to distract you. A
work call?” I ask.

“Yep. Our little princess got herself
into a heap of trouble. This is gonna be a train wreck.”

“Trini?” I ask and my voice is full
of worry. “What happened?” This is the first time she has come up besides our
meeting on Friday.

“She stole a car from the valet last
night and crashed it. So in addition to her drug felony, DUIs and battery case,
I have this shit to clean up. She’s not going to get off easy. I’m guessing
jail time.” He can see the look of panic in my eyes. “But in L.A. that means
she’ll be placed in holding for a few hours and released. As long as she can
stay out of trouble she should be fine.”

“I’m not sure she can. I think you
should clear your schedule for a while. That is until you quit. She’s a pain in
the ass. I’ve been with her for a long time now. Seven years and it just keeps
getting worse. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“It’s a job Krissy. Nothing personal,
but you need to remember that. I couldn’t give a shit about my clients. Just do
your job and move on. Being a criminal defense attorney, I’ve seen it all. They’re
all asses. Since I’m not a public defender, I get the worst of the worst. I get
the paying clients, the ones with money. They think they can buy their way out
of everything and sometimes they can. She’s just another screw up with money.”

“She’s a friend,” I say. But maybe
that’s been my problem all along. She should’ve never become my friend. It
would have put me in a much better situation when she went off the deep end. I
could have washed my hands of her and moved on. But no, I jumped right in along
with her. “Have you actually met her?” I ask.