Indelible Love - Emily's Story

by D. W. Cee

  It took me a millisecond to replay what he’d just said to me. It took me another millisecond to answer, “YES!” as I flung my arms around his neck. Jake hugged me back just as fervently. He eventually tried to pry me off so he could place the ring on my finger but I wouldn’t let go.

  “Why’d you take so long?” I asked in a petulant and whiny voice. “You know I’ve been waiting!”

  “Have you been waiting? I hadn’t noticed.” He began laughing. “I rather liked the disappointment on your face each time you thought I might propose but didn’t. Your anticipation put me on an emotional rollercoaster every time.” His laugh turned into a guffaw.

  “I can’t believe you did that! How mean are you? You knew I was waiting but you kept it from me purposely and poked fun at me in the meanwhile?" I pulled myself away from him hoping this would serve as retaliation.

  “No, of course not… well, kind of.” He said pulling me down onto the blanket for a passionate embrace. Finally letting go he told me, he explained, “many times I wanted to propose but I kept thinking of reasons why it wasn’t the right moment.” Facing each other, head in our hands, he continued, “for instance, I wanted to ask you to marry me at the Japanese restaurant but it was a bit too soon after we had reconciled. I wasn’t sure you were ready and we still had too many issues to resolve. Then when we were at the park, I thought about proposing with the eternity band but I knew that if you had said yes, I wouldn’t have let you stay in Japan, not even for two weeks.”

  “Yeah, I probably would’ve had a hard time leaving you if you had asked that day. But, I was sorely disappointed when you didn’t.”

  “I know. I wish I could have taken a picture of your expression when I put the ring on your finger without much other than a warning for you not to take it off.” He fell back on the blanket laughing at the thought of my churlish expression back at the park. “Although I did feel terrible I didn’t propose.”

  “But Tuesday was the most difficult. I desperately wanted to propose to you at Boucheron. The look on your face when I placed this ring on your finger was magical. You absolutely glowed. I used every ounce of self control not to ask you to marry me that day.”

  “But why? You could’ve asked at Boucheron. That’s why I was so sad that day. I couldn’t get this ring and your would-be proposal off my mind. I was so bummed out. I even called Sarah to grumble.”

  “I didn’t go through with it because I had this picnic in motion already. Also, I didn’t want to give you another haphazard proposal like the one in the car on Christmas morning. I planned a deliberate expression of my love and forced myself to wait another few days. I was actually going to wait till tomorrow but I couldn’t hold out any longer.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t wait till the last day. You would’ve pushed me into depression if this didn’t happen soon. As it was, I was giving myself pep talks in the morning.”

  Jake gently slid the dazzling ring onto my finger. I couldn’t believe that we were finally engaged to be married. This elation was far superior to how I imagined I would feel. Our connection was finally complete.

  “Wait. Why am I wearing a substitute ring? Did you not bring my ring with you?”

  “This is your ring, my love.” His face beamed as he said this.

  “What do you mean? What about this whole story about your grandma’s ring? Did you make it all up?”

  “No, it’s all true. This ring belonged to my Gram’s mother and she told her to pass it down from daughter to daughter. As you know, my dad does not have any sisters so there’s really no designated heir to this ring. It probably would’ve gone to my mom and then to Jane. But, Gram offered it to us. When I talked to Gram in Kyoto she asked me to wait on the proposal till we got to Paris. She wanted you to have this ring. She was most impressed with our love for each other and is elated to welcome you as her granddaughter.”

  Tears drops percolated. Jake wiped them off and placed his hand on my cheek before kissing me.

  “Gram loves you, too.” He comforted me. “Let’s call her. She’s been waiting to talk to you. I wouldn’t let her talk to you because I didn’t think she could keep my secret.

  We sat up and Jake dialed his Gram’s number and gave her the good news.

  “Hi Gram. I’m calling to let you know that Emily accepted my proposal and we’re getting married.” Gram spoke for a long time and Jake nodded his head to everything she said. “Of course we can. Thank you for everything, Gram. I love you.”

  He just hung up the phone. “How come I didn’t get to talk to her?”

  “She wants us to Chunnel into London right now. Do you mind if we cut Paris a day short?”

  “Of course not. I can’t wait to finally meet Gram.” I said. “But Jake, shouldn’t this ring be handed down to a Reid?”

  “Sweetheart, you were a Reid the moment I laid eyes on you. You just went about in a circuitous way of becoming one. Mom and Dad have known for a while that Gram had plans to give me this ring. They were pleased it would be handed down to you. And as for Jane, she won’t care that she didn’t get the ring. Her future husband can buy her a new ring. But… this does mean you need to bear a daughter so you can pass it down to her. Speaking of, how many kids are we going to have?”

  “Five.”

  “Five? I’ll be paying college tuition the rest of my life. I’d like to retire one day.”

  We laughed as we headed back to the hotel to pack up our belongings.

  Emily Reid – I reveled in that thought.

  Chapter 18 Meeting Gram in London

  We Fed-Exed all the gifts and worn clothes back to Sandy’s house and took my small suitcase to London. By time we were ready to leave, Gram had sent a couple of tickets for us to come visit her. During our two hour trip on the TGV, I had many more questions for Jake.

  “Honey, what kind of ring is this and how big is it?”

  “Do I sense a complaint that it’s too big?”

  “I’m not complaining, though it’s a bit... monstrous. How can I go out with such a huge rock on my finger and not have people stare at me? Oh, and where’s my eternity band? I really miss it.”

  “You band is right here,” he said taking it out of his pocket.

  “Why’d you make me give this band to Henri?”

  “I had to hand it to Henri because we had to fix it a bit.”

  “What could you possibly fix on this band? It’s perfect. I love it.”

  “It only fits on your ring finger and you can’t wear it there anymore now that you have your engagement ring. So, I had Henri carefully enlarge the ring. This is very difficult to do. Only an expert like Henri can add to an eternity band. Here.” He put out his hand asking for my right hand.

  He then placed the band on the fourth finger of my right hand.

  “Jake, I can NOT wear both these rings at the same time. People will think I’m asking for a mugging. I look so pretentious.”

  “I think it looks great. Also, your engagement ring is an original Asscher cut diamond. Joseph Asscher patented this cut back in the early 1900’s and my great grandmother bought one of the original cuts before the Nazis came and seized all their diamonds during World War II. The Asscher cuts nowadays have 74 facets on the diamond as opposed to the 58 you have on yours. I thought about having the diamond updated with more cuts but I decided to leave it as is. There are very few originals out there.”

  “So how big is this diamond?”

  “It’s about 6 carats.”

  “Monstrous,” I said.

  “Gorgeous,” he said.

  When we arrived in London, Jake’s Gram sent her driver to pick us up at the station. I guessed this was how the Reids travel in London as well.

  “No Underground?”

  “No Underground. Get used to it, Mrs. Reid,” he answered putting his arms around me. My new title gave me a warm tingle. It sounded delightful.

  Gram also stood around 5 feet 7. She had a pale complexion with bright blue eyes like Jake’s a
nd her face was quite lovely. She was dressed from head to toe in designer clothing. As soon as we arrived, Jake went over to hug his grandmother but she passed right by him and came over to hug me instead.

  “Gram, this is my Emily,” he attempted to introduce us. No introductions were necessary.

  “Emily!” She hugged me like my grandmother used to hug me whenever we hadn’t seen each other in a while.

  “Hi Gram.” I hugged her just as lovingly. “You’re so beautiful! Jake must have been crazy to think I was anywhere as beautiful as you are.”

  “Welcome to the family!” was my warm invitation from Gram. “Let me look at you. Why are you so thin? Has Jake not been feeding you?”

  “Are you kidding me, Gram? She eats like a horse. And, she’s got tremendously expensive taste.” Jake tried to put his arms around me and pull me away from Gram. They got into a bit of a tug of war. Gram won.

  “Gram, thank you for giving us your ring. It’s stunning.”

  “Jakey told me that you refused his first proposal because the two carat diamond wasn’t big enough. He came and begged me for a bigger diamond so I had to pass down my heirloom so you would finally marry my favorite grandson,” Gram accused.

  My jaw dropped.

  I started stammering. “No, Gram. That’s not true. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you told her that.” My eyes shot daggers. “Gram...” Then I turned to my fiancé, “Jake...”

  They both started laughing at me. “Gram’s just kidding, Love.”

  “Oh!” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Funny, Gram.” I tried to laugh.

  Holding hands, Gram led me to a grand dining hall. She lived in a mansion-like Flat with butlers, drivers and maids. All of her furniture looked to be antiques and although she lived most of her life in the States, she was born here so she fancied herself more English than American. I felt like I was having tea with the Queen of England.

  The maid brought out an elaborate tea with more food than we could consume. There were a variety of scones, biscuits, and pound cakes. I couldn’t figure out the variety of creams that accompanied the tea cakes. There were fruits and chocolate and a myriad of teas to choose from. Of course, Jake broke the tradition and asked for coffee. I followed his lead as hot tea was not my favorite.

  “So when’s the wedding?” Gram inquired.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “We haven’t discussed it.”

  “How about the fourth of July?” Jake asked.

  “Next year, fourth of July?” I questioned.

  “No, I mean, July 4th, as in three weeks from now.”

  “In three weeks?” Gram and I both said, our voices raised.

  “Yup!” Jake wasn’t fazed at all. He obviously didn’t realize that you couldn’t put a wedding together in three weeks.

  Gram wanted to know, “What’s the rush, Jakey? She’s agreed to marry you. She’s not going anywhere.”

  “Gram, Emily won’t have sex with me till we get married. I need to get married right away.”

  I just about wanted to die. I hoped that the ground would open up and swallow me whole. I couldn’t believe Jake just told his Grandmother about my sexual history, or lack thereof. My face flushed, my head fell to the ground and I went mute.

  “Good for you, Emily. I’m glad to see that my Jakey is marrying someone with virtues.” That sounded like a compliment but I was too embarrassed to thank her.

  Jake realized that he would be in trouble once we were alone.

  “I’m sorry, Emi,” he said trying to snuggle up to me. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You see, Gram thinks highly of you for holding out on me.”

  Nothing he said made me feel any less annoyed with him. If my head were up, I would have shot something even worse than daggers, at Jake.

  While Jake tried to make amends, Gram called everyone back in the States. The butler got Jakes parents, Uncle Henry, Aunt Barbara, Jane and Nick all on conference call. We told them the good news and Jane seemed the most excited as we would become sisters shortly.

  Jake announced to the family our plans to get married on the fourth of July and I could hear Sandy gasp.

  “Mom, consider it a slightly bigger Christmas dinner. Let’s have the wedding at the house and we’ll just use all the people you use regularly.”

  “Emi, do you mind getting married at the house? This idea just came to me. Also, we live so close to the fireworks display, it will be beautiful at night during the reception.”

  Getting married at the house was a fantastic idea if Sandy didn’t mind.

  “Mom,” I couldn’t believe I had a mom again. My heart exulted. “Do you mind if I call you Mom, already?” I asked with hesitation. I wasn’t sure Sandy would feel comfortable with me jumping into the family.

  “Emily, Bobby and I’ve loved you since the day we met you in Hawaii and knew you would be a part of our family. I am thrilled you want to call me Mom.”

  Sandy’s answer brought a smile to my lips and a tear to my eye. I felt this weird mixture of sadness and joy as I no longer had to wish for a family anymore. They were all here on the phone with me. Jake put both his arms around me and kissed my head

  “Thank you, Mom and Dad. I love you too.”

  “Are you okay with getting married at the house?” Sandy asked.

  “If you don’t mind… I really like Jake’s idea. Could you get the preparations started for me? I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

  “Sandy, Barbara,” Gram said. “I’ll buy Emily and Jake their dress and tuxedo here. You get started on the reception.”

  By the end of the conversation, everyone had a to-do list. Once the wedding dress and tuxedo were taken care of here, we’d fly back with Gram and finish up the rest of the wedding preparation.

  Gram’s driver took us shopping the rest of the day. Gram and I walked into a designer wedding dress shop while she sent Jake over to get fitted for his tuxedo. As soon as we walked in, Gram and I instantly gravitated towards the same wedding dress. The silk organza gown that hung on the first rack called my name. This was the gown for me.

  “Emily, go try it on,” Gram urged.

  The sales lady led to me to a suite sized dressing room and helped me into my dream wedding gown.

  The gown fit as though it was made expressly for me. The slightly puffed sleeves naturally fell off my shoulders and the clean bodice hugged my waistline. The skirt was also a clean sheet of pure silk organza. It had no lace, no beading, and no details - just the simplicity I wanted. There was a semi long train and a bow that tied beautifully in the back. I felt like Cinderella going to her Ball.

  “Gram, I love this dress.”

  “Emily, I think we are done looking. You look gorgeous,” she exclaimed with an approving nod. “Let’s buy this dress.”

  “Gram, Jake and I will pay for this dress. I don’t want you to spend any more money on us. Your ring is present enough.”

  “Nonsense. Don’t you know that I’m the richest person in this family?” She probably wasn’t kidding.

  “Thank you, again, Gram!” I said while hugging her.

  “Emily, you’ve made my favorite grandson a very happy man. I hope you two will love each as much as his grandfather and I loved each other.”

  “We will,” I promised. “We will.”

  The saleslady agreed to ship the dress to their Los Angeles store overnight and I would have my final fittings over there. We walked over to Jake and he was finishing up with the tailor. I was overcome with emotion thinking of Jake standing at the altar. He looked so handsome.

  “Why are you back so soon?”

  “We’re done.” I was beaming.

  “Jakey, your bride is going to be stunning in her dress!”

  “She’s always stunning, Gram.” He delighted.

  The tailor put the last touches on Jake’s tuxedo and we walked to Harvey Nichols Department Store and had a bowl of noodles for dinner. I hoped we were done for the day but Gram wanted to buy a few more items for the w
edding.

  “Jakey, you go look around by yourself in the department store and I’m going to take Emily up to lingerie.”

  My face turned red at the thought of buying lingerie with Jake’s grandmother.

  “Gram, I’m coming with you,” he absolutely insisted. “I should have a say in this. It’s really more for me than it is for her.”

  I was mortified at the thought of both of them arguing over which lingerie would look better on me. I hoped Gram would not allow Jake to follow us. Without a doubt, Jake won this battle. He practically ran to the lingerie department with a silly grin the whole way up. Gram and Jake enjoyed picking out lingerie while I stood there flustered. Jake, of course, picked out the skimpiest outfits. Gram picked out classic and demure ones I felt more comfortable looking at.

  Jake feverishly summoned me with a continuous curling of his hand and suggested, “Emily, try these on. I can come in and help you if you like.”

  Gram and I both slapped him on the arm. Jake was having a ball.

  Luckily, Gram didn’t make me try on any of the pieces and she purchased them all.

  “Gram, I don’t think I need so many outfits,” I said trying to sway her from buying me too much.

  “Emily, a girl can never have too many diamonds or lingerie.” With time, I could get used to this adage.

  “Amen!” Jake added.

  We got back to the flat exhausted. The maid set up our rooms while I helped Gram up to her room. I noticed that she had two twin beds in her room and I asked if I could sleep with her in the unused twin bed.

  “Would you mind, Gram? I’d love to hear stories about Jake’s Grandpa if you’re not too tired.”

  “That would be lovely, Emily. This bed hasn’t been used since my husband died two years ago. I’ll have the maid get it ready for you.”

  “Thank you, Gram.”

  Jake and I got ready for bed and we said our goodnights by his door. He watched me walk up to Gram’s room and curiously followed me in. When he realized that we were sleeping in the same room, he insisted on sleeping with us.