A Wife for Stephen

by Valcine Brown

  Their kiss, the kiss of two hearts that have missed each other terribly, is hot enough to melt the snow on the streets. When their kiss ends, Stephen places his fiancé in the car and loads her baggage into the trunk of his sedan.

  Climbing behind the steering wheel, he asks as he starts the engine, “What’s in all those bags, you’re only staying a few days?”

  “You didn’t think that I would forget your Christmas present did you?”

  “Oh. You didn’t have to get me anything,” he says as he pulls away from the curb and then focuses his attention on getting back to the main highway that will lead them home. Once he has successfully navigated the car into the second lane of traffic and they begin traveling at a steady clip, he glances sideways at Celeste and ask, “What did you get me?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Why not?” he counters.

  “Because it’s a surprise, and if I told you then it would not stay a surprise.”

  Jokingly he says, “You better tell me before I pull this car to the side of the road and kiss it out of you.”

  With a motion that she remembers doing several times in elementary school she locks her lips and throws away the invisible key.

  “So, it’s like that is it? Well then. Two can play that game. I won’t tell you what I got for you either.”

  “What did you get me?”

  “She speaks. That sure didn’t last long.”

  Celeste points her finger at him and says, “You stink, Stephen.” They both laugh and then agree that they will wait for Christmas morning to find out what their gifts are to each other.

  Before arriving in Philly, Stephen suggests that they stop for lunch. Celeste, more than willingly agrees since she is starving. After eating, they sit and share a slice of apple pie a-la-mode.

  Before Celeste even knew what she was going to say, she opened her mouth to speak, “Are you sure it will always be like this for us?” She looked down at their entwined hands and finds her self-wondering for the first time if they could make it last forever.

  “Like what?” Stephen asks while bringing her hand up to his lip.

  “Like this? How do you know that you will always like kissing my hand, waking up to me every morning? How do you know that one day you won’t just felt like you’ve had enough of me and want to leave me?”

  “Celeste, Honey. I’m not some young, lusty teenager. I realize what commitment is; that it takes time and energy to make a marriage work and to keep it full of joy.” Cupping her face in his hand he adds, “From the moment I saw you I knew that we were meant for one another. Nothing will ever change my mind on that.”

  “But how can you say that you will always love me?”

  “I will ask you the same question.”

  “Steph, that’s not fair. I love you deeply and I gladly pledge my life to you.”

  With one quirk of his eyebrow he communicates his ‘I told you so’ look and then adds, “Besides, loving someone, I mean genuinely loving someone, is not built on emotions. It is a decision to stick it out come what may. A decision that says, ‘It’s you and me, Baby.’”

  After giving Celeste a moment to get her thoughts in order he asks, “What’s going on, Babe?”

  “I just don’t want you to decide after I have given you my all that my best just isn’t good enough. You are such a wonderful man; you come from such a terrific and caring family. And I come from a broken home. How can that add up?”

  “Because I will never betray you, Celeste. I give you my word. I love you and only you.” Stephen kisses her gently and sweetly. “I hope you believe me.”

  Before answering, Celeste searches her heart to find the truth of what she believes. When she looks up into Stephen’s eyes, it is staring at her as clear as day. “I do.”

  When they arrive at the Haule residence, all the family is there and has been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Celeste’s bags are taken up to her room, and she is urged to sit on the sofa by the fire to get warm.

  Everyone soon decides to turn in early. Christmas morning is only two days away and with the amount of family set to arrive in town the morning of, every bit of the next day will be needed to organize the feast and festivities.

  The storm has halted by Christmas morning, and the guests arrive on time. The hustle and bustle of family activity has Celeste looking on with amazement. Stephen’s uncles and aunts have come over, and each of them are excited to meet Celeste.

  The children had opened their gifts first thing that morning before breakfast and were in the den installing batteries and playing with their new toys. Now it is time for the adults to exchange.

  Dad takes his place in the overstuffed leather recliner and mom kneels on the floor next to the Christmas tree to pass out gifts. Celeste finds herself hoping that Stephen’s sisters will like the scarves and earrings that she has purchased for them, if mom will like her gift certificate to the local nursery, and dad will like his season football tickets. Even more than that, she hopes that Stephen will enjoy what she brought him.

  Her first worries are alleviated when Stephen’s sisters ooh and ahh over their gifts. Mom begins announcing the plants she wants to get for her spring planting and dad says he can’t wait to call his best friend Charlie and tell him that they are going to see every home football game.

  Now, Stephen is being passed his gift from her. After ripping into the wrapping paper all that is heard is, “Baseball, hockey, and basketball season tickets to the Los Angeles home teams.” Stephen leans over from his seat on the floor next to her and kisses her. “You sure do know how to buy a Christmas gift. Thank you, Baby. You are planning on going with me, aren’t you?”

  “Of course! You’re going to teach me all about sports.” Everyone gets such a kick out of them that they are giggling between sighs at the way Stephen shows Celeste how much he adores her.

  “Celeste, this is for you, Hon,” mom says as she holds out a flat box to Celeste.

  The tag on the package says that it is from Stephen. She looks at him and wonders, what can this possibly be? The box is too thin to be clothing and too bulky to be jewelry. Celeste knows that Stephen will give her no hints as to the boxes contents, and that the only way to find out what is inside is to open it. So, she does.

  Inside are two sets of keys and lots of papers. A long glance at the papers shows them to be escrow papers of some kind. She doesn’t recognize the street address, but the city was here in Philly. “I don’t understand,” she said looking to Stephen to clarify things for her.

  “With us getting married in a few months, I figured I didn’t need my other two pieces of property. The one in New York for obvious reasons, I knew I would be in L A. My place here in Philly is too small for a family, so I traded it for a bigger house with a massive back yard.”

  Celeste can’t hold back the tears that have come to her eyes at Stephen’s explanation of the papers. Always planning and thinking ahead, he is. “You are so wonderful.” She hugs him and holds him tight for long minutes, reveling in his thoughtfulness that goes beyond measure.

  After dinner, when they have time alone, Celeste wraps her arms around Stephen’s waste. Looking him square into the eye she said, “I love you more than I can express.”

  Stephen’s only response is to kiss her with all the love that he has for her. When he finally let her go for some air, he says, “Pastor Hinkley says that he can meet with us before you leave this week if that is alright with you. He seems to think that we won’t need as many meetings as he usually suggests for intended couples.”

  Celeste smiles at him and says, “That’s fine, but I wasn’t finished kissing you yet.”

  Two days later the two of them sit in Pastor Hinkley’s office, and they discuss the questions he had given them at their last meeting. Their assignment was to write down their answers to the individual questions and bring them to the next meeting so that they could discuss them.

  The questions are about the obvious things; where
they would live, who would take care of the finances, how many children they would have, and how long would they wait before having kids. The only questions that Celeste had not been expecting were the ones that seemed to be more psychological than logical.

  They are asked questions about issues regarding trust and honesty. Celeste knows that you can’t possibly have a successful marriage without those two things, but something still bugs her about the questions.

  When pastor asks her for her responses to those questions, she finds out why. Apparently she has an issue with giving trust. She, in herself, is extremely trust worthy but finds it hard to trust someone whom she feels has not proven themselves. This, Celeste already knew, but what she hadn’t considered was by what standards was she gauging whether or not someone had proven themselves to be trustworthy.

  Celeste has always had the nagging feeling that it would be imperative that she put her mistrusting feeling of her father behind her, but she hadn’t grasped the concept fully.

  “What we never want to do, Celeste, is measure someone by someone else’s shortcomings. What your father did to your mother and ultimately to you, was wrong, but you have to forgive and let it go,” Pastor gently encourages Celeste.

  “God can heal that pain and help you to get over it, but you have to ask Him. All you have to do is ask. And each time you find yourself falling into that old habit of mistrust, just remind yourself that God has healed you from those old scars, and then you keep going.”

  By the time they leave Pastor Hinkley’s office, Celeste has a new resolve that she will turn these hurtful memories over to God and let Him deal with them. She will even call her father and tell him that she forgives him, something she has never before even considered. In fact, to her father, she had never even mentioned his infidelity. She had just acted like it hadn’t happened.

  And Stephen, being most supportive, promises that he will pray with her and for her until she feels strong again.

  When Celeste boards her plane to return to Los Angeles, she has solid plans to put into effect. She will begin by calling her father when she gets home this evening.

  Taking care of Thomas is Celeste’s first priority upon entering the house. But once this is done, Celeste, determined to stick with the plan she has come up with on the plane ride home, reaches for the phone and calls her father. Her hands are sweaty and even shaking slightly as the words she had planned to speak fly through her mind at a rapid pace.

  But she will do it, for the sake of starting out fresh with Stephen; she will make the call. She will speak feelings she had never shared with anyone; she will bare her soul to her father.

  Celeste’s father cries. He cries to know that Celeste has been carrying around hurt, pain, and rejection from the breakup of their family.

  “I am so sorry, Baby. I hadn’t been thinking. If I would have known how you felt I would have had this conversation with you years ago. I never meant to cause you any pain, and you were never far from my heart or my thoughts. I love you, Sweetie, and I will always love you. Please say that you forgive me?”

  “I do, Dad. I do.”

  After disconnecting the call, Celeste dabs the tears from her eyes and again picks up the receiver, this time to call Stephen.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The smell of spring is poignant in the air with the blooming of day lilies, chrysanthemums, and tulips. Celeste can’t help but stand in awe of the beautiful colors that God has created for enjoyment. Over the past three months, she and Stephen have been together every single moment that he could spare.

  Celeste’s assignments at Vine’s and Robert’s have drastically slowed with the announcement of her departure from the firm. Of course she could understand why they wouldn’t assign too many cases to her considering that she might not be around to fulfill them if something were to occur that prolonged the filming or technical aspects, as is often the case in ad campaigns.

  With the amount of time they have been able to spend together and complete their marriage counseling with Pastor Hinkley, here it is the middle of March and they have already made every arrangement for their wedding, which is due to take place the second Saturday in May. Truly their union is already off to a great start. And true to his word, Stephen has not once been neglectful of Celeste. And after this week that he is spending with his family in Philadelphia, he will be coming to California.

  Next Saturday Stephen is scheduled to attend a fund raiser to benefit underprivileged children in San Francisco, CA. Unfortunately, Celeste won’t be able to attend with Stephen since he and Mario purchased their dinner tickets a year ago immediately following the same event.

  Stephen arrives at Mario’s hotel room door so that they can leave for the annual fundraiser. After knocking, instead of the door being opened by Mario, it is opened by Nadia, Mario’s baby sister.

  Although not quite a baby any more, that is still how Stephen thinks of her since he has known her since she was in diapers. “Hey, Nadia. I didn’t know you were going to be in town the same weekend we were.” Entering and closing the door behind himself, Stephen asks, “Where’s Mario?”

  “He’s in the bathroom. He’s been in and out of there all day. I don’t think he’ll be able to go tonight. He’s really sick.”

  “I am not,” objects Mario as he enters the living room. “I just need some ginger ale to settle my stomach, and then I’ll be ready to go.”

  “You tried that two hours ago , and you’re still puking your guts out.”

  Completely unfazed by Nadia’s attempt at a motherly tone of voice, Mario frowns at Nadia and says, “Hey, watch your mouth, Lil' Sis.”

  Knowing that Mario doesn’t like to hear her use improper speech, Nadia gives Stephen a wink and says to Mario, “My bad. You want me to get you a drink or what?”

  When Nadia goes off to get his ginger ale, Mario takes a seat on the sofa and puts his leather loafer clad feet on the coffee table. “What’s the matter?” Stephen finally gets a chance to ask.

  “I’ve got a touch of the flu. I haven’t been able to keep anything down all day.”

  “Maybe you should stay here tonight.”

  Nadia returns with Mario’s drink and adds her opinion into the mix, “I think so too.”

  “I don’t want to leave Stephen at the table by himself.”

  “Please. Stephen is a big boy. I am quite sure he can take care of himself,” says Nadia.

  “I don’t doubt it, but would you like to sit at a table with people you don’t know, discussing who knows what for endless hours?” Mario directs the question to Nadia.

  “Well then, I’ll take your place, and he won’t have to be bored to death by the rich and snobby.”

  “That’s a good idea,” says Mario.

  Stephen looks Nadia up and down and teases her by saying, “You aren’t going anywhere with me dressed like that.” He adds insult to injury by pointing down to her feet where she is wearing an extremely well-worn pair of tennis shoes.

  “Like I would really go out in public dressed like this. My room is just one story down. If you give me half an hour, I’ll be ready to go.”

  “Make it twenty minutes and you have a deal.”

  “Cool,” she says before quickly heading to the door. Over her shoulder she calls back, “I’ll be back in twenty.”

  True to her word, Nadia is knocking on Mario’s hotel door in twenty minutes and is dressed to the nines in a silk emerald green dress with matching pumps and handbag. Looking just the fashion model that she is. At five feet ten inches in her bare feet, she looks him eye to eye wearing heals.

  In the car on their way to the fundraiser, Stephen asks Nadia how she came to be in San Francisco the same weekend as himself and Mario.

  “Although I usually have a few photo shoots lined up for the Easter break week, it is purely coincidence that it happened to be where you both are. It’s a good thing too or else you would have no one to save you from boredom,” she says. They both laugh.

  Beca
use of Nadia’s quickness in getting ready, they arrive only fashionably late. The curb where the limo is dropping them at is lined with red carpet and a doorman waits to open the door for them to exit the vehicle.

  Photographers are lined and packed like sardines in a can along either side of the red carpet and snapping photos rapidly. Instantly upon their exit from the limousine, both Stephen and Nadia put on their public smiles as Nadia holds tightly to Stephen’s arm to keep herself from falling. The rapid succession of flashes going off makes it incredibly hard for them to see, but experience has brought Stephen to know that all he has to do is put one foot in front of the other, and he will soon make it into the dimness of the building.

  After entering, they find their table and take their seats. The waiter introduces himself and offers to get them something to drink.

  The night passes with a surprisingly good chicken dinner and pleasant conversation with the other table guest. When a song is played that Nadia says is her favorite, which Nadia says every song is her favorite, she exclaims, “Oh, we just have to dance to this song.”

  Stephen has always considered Nadia just as much a sister as his own blood sisters. How can he refuse? As he is skillfully guiding her around the dance floor, a photographer who is paid by the organization, snaps a few photos of them on the dance floor.

  The organization which plans and runs each fund raiser tries to get as much publicity as possible out of each event, knowing that it will help with future fund raisers.

  After their dance, Stephen says, “What do you say we leave now? I have an early morning, I have to fly to Los Angeles.”

  “That’s right. Your fiancé lives in Los Angeles. Congratulations. Yeah, I’m ready to leave as well. I have a photo shoot scheduled for ten in the morning.”

  Stephen escorts Nadia to her hotel room door and gives her a hug and a peck on the cheek just as he usually does. When she is safely in her room, and he hears her click the lock into place, he turns on his heels and heads for his own room.

  A smile is on his lips as his heart is filled with thanks giving for all the many wonderful blessings that the Lord had bestowed upon him. Next month he is marrying the woman of his dreams, and they will set about starting their lives and futures together.