by Jamie Knight
I have to do whatever I can to keep a hold of her.
I go to the locker room after the game and get dressed after a quick shower. I definitely don’t want to get caught up with any journalists today, so I sneak out the back way and head for the bus. It’s always parked so no paparazzi can bother us, which I appreciate.
Soon, the rest of the team is on board, and we’re taken to the hotel. I go to my room and grab my wallet before donning a disguise. I know Jenny felt it was a dumb looking disguise, but I felt like it helped to keep people from recognizing me. At least it takes them a couple of extra seconds, and, by then, I’m far enough away that they can’t bother me.
Anyway, where I’m going isn’t too far away from the hotel. I walk down the block a little bit and find the jewelry shop that I am looking for. I go inside, and it seems empty. There’s not even a jeweler in the front right now.
I go and look at the display. There are all kinds of rings sitting in the case. I’ve never really bought jewelry for anyone before. I guess I’ve gotten my sister a necklace once for her birthday. It was pretty important, but this feels like kind of a bigger deal. This might determine whether or not Jenny leaves me. I’m sure she’s not the type of girl to walk out because of a ring, but I don’t want to upset her either.
“Hello, sir. How may I help you?”
I look up and there is a man who I assume is the jeweler. “Hi, I’m looking for a ring.”
He smiles at me. “A ring. Is it for anyone is particular?”
“Yes,” I nod. “Uh, it’s for my fiancée. I proposed kind of out of the blue and never got around to getting the engagement ring.” It’s kind of the truth. I’d like for the ring to be something akin to an engagement ring.
“Oh, if that’s what you’re looking for, follow me.”
He walks further into the store, and I follow him. He goes through a door, and I’m taken to a small room. There are a few cabinets lining the wall. He unlocks one of them and takes out a small box which he has to unlock with another key.
“Here we have a very special collection of rings. These ones are all custom, not another one like them existing anywhere. What is your fiancée like?”
What is Jenny like?
“Well, she’s funny. I know she doesn’t think so, but she can make me laugh. She’s incredibly smart, clever, beautiful, but doesn’t like too much attention. I think it’s because she doesn’t want people looking at her, but it’s hard not to, you know,” I shrug.
“Lovely,” he smiles. “I believe she’ll love this one.” He picks up a smaller ring. It’s delicate and, instead of having a single stone protruding, it has them set in the ring about three of four.
“Perfect! I think she will like this one.”
“Perfect, I can ring you up out front.”
I follow him back to the register and purchase the ring. He puts it into a nice box for me, and I go back to my hotel room. Heading to my bed, I’m already nervous to have to give this ring to Jenny. It’s not like I’m actually proposing. I just want to make her happy. And she deserves something nice for helping me out and stuff.
Chapter Twenty
Jameson
I wake up the next day, ready to be back home. The drive back is a long one, but, once we’re in the stadium, I find Jenny already waiting for me in the convertible. She stands and waves, wearing a beautiful dress. It’s long and shows off her figure. I can’t wait to take it off her.
“Hey,” I greet her, placing a kiss square on her cheek.
“Hi, Jameson,” she giggles.
“I am more than ready to go home,” I tell her, throwing my bag in the back.
“Then allow me to take you home,” she smiles. We both get in the car, and Jenny starts it. I have the ring I bought her in my pocket, ready to present it once we get home.
We’re back at the apartment no too much time later, and we go upstairs. I drop my duffle by the door, wanting to do this thing as soon as possible. I know the longer I wait, the less likely I am to actually go through with it.
“So, I’m guessing you’re hungry, but you probably don’t want to go out,” Jenny says from the kitchen. She’s facing away from me, looking in the fridge. “I bought some groceries, so I thought we could make something together.”
I don’t say anything, staying in position, waiting for her to turn around. I’m down on one knee, which might be overkill, but I thought it’d be more fun this way.
“Do you want something to drink?” She turns around, and I hear something drop when her eyes land on me. It sounds like the water jug with all the splashing I hear. I get up to make sure she’s okay.
“Is everything alright?” I walk over to her and see the container on the floor in a small pool of water.
“Yeah, sorry, you just startled me,” she’s shaking her head, trying to clear it. “Oh, Jesus, let me clean this up.”
Jenny grabs the water container and throws it in the sink and then gets the paper towels. She kneels down to soak up all the water on the floor. I kneel in front of her and help out. We quietly clean up all the water before standing up. Jenny leans against the counter and takes a deep breath.
“Sorry I startled you. I just wanted to give you this.” I take out the ring I bought, still in the box.
“Oh, I don’t know. This feels like it’s getting really serious.” There’s an intense look of concern on her face, the exact opposite of what I wanted. I thought she was going to be super happy.
“Well, I mean, my fiancée needs a ring. You heard all those reporters asking about it.”
“Oh,” she says again, this time like a realization. “Well, I’m still not sure. It looks really expensive.” It was, but that’s not the point. I do want Jenny to have it. She doesn’t seem so keen on it though. I’ve got to convince her it’s not as serious as she thinks.
“It’s more of a window dressing thing. It’s really not that big of a deal. You can give it back once we part ways.”
“O-kay…”
“Give me your hand,” I motion for it.
She hesitantly holds it out, and I open the box, taking the ring out and the sliding it on her ring finger. It does look really nice on her. I’m glad I bought.it. Maybe after wearing it for a little while, Jenny will be able to accept it. I can see how, from her perspective, it was a little weird to find me kneeling down on one knee and then I take out a ring. I probably should have been a little more direct in the first place.
Jenny holds out her hand and takes a look at her finger. “Thanks, Jameson. It’s a really nice ring.” At least she likes it. “Are you hungry?” she asks, bring her arm down to her side.
“I’m hungry for a side of you,” I tease.
She starts giggling, holding her hand in front of her mouth. “Seriously,” she sputters out.
“Is that so ridiculous?” I ask while moving closer. I wrap my arms around her waist, bringing our pelvises together.
“I guess not,” she acquiesces. She leans up to kiss me, and I back her up against the wall by the front door.
“Where did you get this dress?”
Jenny shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve had it for a few years.”
I push it up, exposing her legs. “I love it.” I almost have her dress all the way up her legs, but then the doorbell rings. Shit. It’s probably Selena. I haven’t spoken to her since leaving for my away game. She probably wants to talk about all kinds of stuff.
I don’t let go of Jenny, opting to yell something instead.
“Selena, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Jenny gives a look but doesn’t say anything.
“Jameson Alistair Kendrick, this is your mother and we are here to ask you a few questions!”
Sudden fear goes through my body. Holy shit my parents!
Jenny seems to have the same fear on her face. I let go of her, and we straighten out our clothes. Honestly, I’d completely forgotten about my promise to Selena to talk to my parents. But I’m not surprised my parents fou
nd out. Given the news coverage, everyone knows at this point.
I open up the door, and there’s Dean and Sara Kendrick.
“Son,” my dad says.
I don’t know what to do. I know the reason why they are here, and it’s one hundred percent my fault. I really should have just called them.
“Do you guys want to come in?” I step aside to let my parents in. They walk inside, and Jenny stand by me nervously.
“Hello,” she squeaks. She must be feeling a whole lot of things. I will have to apologize profusely later on.
“Oh my goodness, hello!” my mother exclaims. She rushes over to Jenny and gives her a hug. “It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she says pointedly towards me.
My dad is next, shaking Jenny’s hand.
“Hello, Jenny, our daughter has told us quite a lot about you.” Once again, a pointed comment towards me. I wonder if I’ll ever hear the end of this. I have a feeling my parents are going to get more direct with their irritation later.
“Mom, Dad,” they both turn to me, “why didn’t you guys call? We could have planned something nice.” Maybe come up with a game plan on how to deal with my parents.
“Well, we wanted to surprise you, honey. Your Dad and I thought it would be fun to treat you and your fiancée to a nice dinner.”
I have zero doubts that my sister had a hand in this.
“Yeah, okay, just let me get changed.” I head towards my room, but, before I go through the door, I call, “Jenny?”
She looks at me from her spot in the living room. Her eyes are extremely lost. There’s a lot going on underneath the surface that she doesn’t know about, and I feel kind of bad that she’s about to get the full brunt of the Kendricks. She’s already dealt with my sister, but my parents are a whole different beast.
“Could you help me with something?”
“Yeah, of course,” she follows me into the bedroom, and I shut the door. All of the air leaves her body as she collapses on to the wall. “What are we going to do Jameson?”
I go to my closet and take out some clothes. While changing, I give Jenny a quick rundown.
“Look, Dad and Mom aren’t that bad. They’re more upset with me if anything. I’m sure everything will be just fine if we just go to dinner with them. My parents really are pleasant people.”
The only time they ever really blew up at me was after my accident. Even though I have kind of been lying to them, one of the few things I want is to make them proud.
“Okay, I can do this.” She looks down at her dress. “Should I change?”
“No, you look great.” I on the other hand, looked like I just got off of a bus, which I did, so a change of clothes is necessary. I get on a nicer outfit and look over at Jenny. She’s standing up straight and looks a little less worried.
“You look nice,” she says.
“Thanks.” I kiss the top of her head and then takes us both out to the living room. My parents are standing close to one another, probably talking about me and Jenny.
“Are you two ready?” I nod. “Okay, you guys can follow behind us in your car.”
We all leave, and Jenny and I get into the convertible. I’m driving tonight, since Jenny’s been carting me everywhere. I pull out of the parking lot, following my parents to whatever restaurant they’ve decided to take us to.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going?”
I shake my head. “My parents are very big on surprises. They like to keep everyone on their toes.”
It can be fun sometimes, just having your parents randomly whisk you away to an amusement park or let you take a skip day from school, but, also, sometimes it’s nice to know what is going on.
We pull up to a somewhat fancy looking restaurant and meet my parents at the door. We get a table pretty quickly and, soon, have our appetizer.
“So, Jenny,” my mom starts, “Jameson hasn’t told us a single thing about you. I want to know more. Like, how did you two meet?”
“Oh, um, we kind of just ran into one another at a club. We actually went to high school together, so we reconnected on that level. Things just kind of randomly fell into place for us,” she shrugs.
I know this is the script for us, but I wonder if Jenny feels like there’s any truth to it. We did just run into one another albeit she was passed out in the locker room, but that’s a minor detail. And we really did go to high school together, not that we’ve talked about that a lot. It was a fairly large school, so it’s not totally wacky that we never really hung out or anything back then.
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” my mom gushes. “Is that the ring?” she points at Jenny’s finger.
“Yeah,” she offers up her hand for my mom to see. My mom takes it and inspects the ring I bought just yesterday. Looks like I got really lucky making that purchase.
“Wow, good choice son. It’s beautiful.”
A good thing about this dinner is that my parents do seem to like Jenny. I guess I was more worried about that than I thought. Maybe that’s why I was so reluctant to call them.
“You know,” my dad starts, sipping on his wine, “you are the first girlfriend of Jameson’s that we’ve ever met.” I’m not sure where my dad is going with this.
“Really?”
“Yeah, he must really like you or something,” my dad jokes.
“I thought so, too. I mean, I was a little surprised when he proposed because I thought we hated each other, but he proved me wrong on that one.”
My parents are quiet for a second before they both start laughing. I shake my head and bring Jenny in for a quick peck. A lot of the tension I was feeling dissipates, and dinner proceeds.
We order food and talk and laugh. Everything feels great. That comment that Jenny made earlier about our situation feeling serious, I can feel where she’s coming from. Having dinner with my family is definitely a serious thing.
We finish up, and I promise to call my parents more often. I drive us back home, and the two of us head back inside. I’m definitely tired now. It’s been a long day, and I’m ready to sleep. But, once we are inside, I can tell Jenny is a little anxious.
“Are you okay? Was the dinner too much?”
“No, your parents were really nice.” She grabs on to her arm. “You know, you’ll have to meet my parents now,” she jokes. It’s clear that she’s joking, but in my mind, why not?
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
I can tell she wasn’t expecting me to say that because she looks panicky.
“Oh, you want to meet my parents? Like really meet them?”
“Sure, I’d like to meet them.”
“I don’t know, Jameson. Don’t you think this charade is going too far? Like we’re not actually engaged. What’s going to happen when all this ends?”
“We might not be engaged, but we’re friends, right?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess,” she says slowly.
“I feel like we’re getting kind of close, and I’d like to know more about you. Plus, it’ll help us lend authenticity to our engagement. Why not take this show on the road?”
Jenny seems to be considering my words. “Yeah, you can meet my parents. I have to call them first, but they should be fine with it.”
“Cool, I’m sure they’re going to love me.”
“I have no doubt about that,” Jenny answers. “I’m going to take a quick shower. I’ll meet you in the bedroom in a little bit.”
Jenny goes to the bathroom, and I go to my room. Maybe I was being a little pushy, but I feel like the more people in my corner regarding this engagement, the better chance I’ll have of convincing her to make this thing permanent. The sex has been great, and she’s my good luck charm. I don’t think I’d be able to just let go of Jenny.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jenny
Jameson somehow convinced me to have him meet my parents. I don’t now why I said yes. He was saying all these things, and they made sense in the moment. Honestly, Jameson could get me to say yes to j
ust about anything.
I called my parents, and they were more than happy to have my fiancé come and have dinner. I’m not sure how I feel about bringing my parents into this. They sounded pretty surprised to hear that I was engaged. I kind of thought they already knew, but they hadn’t called me after the news was released. We were a pretty big football family growing up, but we never really followed the players lives, so I guess they didn’t see me in the news or anything.
Jameson is still asleep, so I go to the bathroom to get myself ready for the day. Today is the day we’re going to see Mickey and Beth, my parents. I called them the day after Jameson said he was down to meet them. They wanted to have us come right away, but I needed a couple of days, and, so, we’re heading out, three days after meeting his parents.
I hear the door open and turn to see Jameson entering the bathroom. He’s shirtless, wearing only a pair of boxers. I avert my eyes because I know exactly what happens when I get all Lookie Lou.
“Good morning,” he mumbles. He kisses my cheek and watches me wash my face. Once I’m done, Jameson wraps his arms around my waist, placing his lips on the crook of my neck. “Are you ready to have me meet your parents?”
“Yeah, they’re really excited to meet you. They were actually surprised that I was seeing anyone.” They were even more surprised that I was dating a football player. My parents were more than aware of my sudden dislike for football – they didn’t really know why – but it was palpable in our household. Family Football Nights became a thing of the past.
“Do you think they’ll like me?”
“Maybe, probably.”
“Do you like me?”
“Maybe,” I sigh.
Jameson turns me around, and I grab on to the edge of the sink to steady myself. He cups both sides of my face and kisses me. It’s deep, our faces pushed together as we take the passion out of one another.
“Do you like when I touch you?”
“Maybe.”