by M. E. Tudor
The Perfect Proposal
(A Sequel to The Wrong Place at The Right Time)
By M. E. Tudor
Text copyright©
2015 M. E. Tudor
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: All characters are fictitious. Any resemblance to a person present or past is purely coincidental. Lexington, Kentucky is a real city, but the places described do not exist. Any place that may seem similar is purely coincidental.
Publisher: Tea Rose Books
Cover art: The original cover white cover was created by K'Anne Meinel. The new rose cover was created by Ruth Loiacano.
Editing: Trish Shields
This story is being dedicated to Rose, Jacob, Jazmyn and Julian, who put up with my craziness daily.
And to all the fans who keep asking for more stories about Jackie and Mary!
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter One
Jackie Meredith perused the selection of engagement rings waiting for one to jump out at her. She wanted something amazing. For six months, she had been saving money and waiting for the right time to ask Mary to marry her. They had been living together for almost a year, and life was perfect; it was time to make their commitment to each other official.
They both worked during the day, Jackie at her UPS delivery job and Mary as a legal secretary. They were saving money for their first vacation together. Jackie convinced Mary that Maine would be a great place for a vacation. They would be able to check out all the wonderful lighthouses. Even before she asked Mary about going to the lighthouses, she already knew she wanted to propose to her. Jackie toyed with proposing to Mary in Maine and then having a ceremony in Kentucky. But, gay marriages was still banned in Kentucky, so she planned on having a small ceremony in Kentucky for their friends and then have the actual ceremony in Maine. At least that was what Jackie wanted, and hopefully Mary would agree to her plan.
The woman working the counter of the jewelry store glared at Jackie disapprovingly. She probably guessed that Jackie was looking for a ring for her girlfriend. Standing at her full height of five foot, ten inches and dressed in her UPS uniform, Jackie knew that she carried herself in a very masculine manner. She wasn’t ashamed that she looked like a butch dyke.
Shaking her head in disappointment, she decided she was not going to find what she was looking for here. Jackie left the store and headed to the only jewelry store in town that she hadn’t been to yet.
The store was small and in a middle-class part of town. The salesman was a middle-aged, balding man in a light gray suit, who was slightly effeminate. “Good afternoon,” he said with a thick southern accent when Jackie entered the store.
“Good afternoon,” Jackie replied.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes,” Jackie said, “I’m looking for an engagement ring. I want something different and extremely beautiful.”
The salesman directed her to a case filled with a selection of engagement rings. Jackie studied them but wasn’t happy with any of them. She let out a sigh of frustration.
The salesman said, “I have another collection of engagement rings that are a little more expensive.” He directed Jackie to look at a grouping of rings at the end of the glass counter.
Jackie’s breath caught in her throat. In the center of the group was the perfect ring. Pink gold surrounded a collection of diamonds in the form of a flower with a large heart shaped diamond in the center. “This is the one,” she said, pointing to the ring in the center.
The salesman opened the case and took out the ring Jackie pointed had chosen. “This is a vintage floral ring with a 14 karat rose pink gold band and a .4 karat heart shaped diamond. There are twenty-four .2 karat diamonds in the leaves and band.” The salesman took the ring out of its box and handed it to Jackie for a closer inspection.
“This is just beautiful,” Jackie said, studying the ring in awe.
“It is,” the salesman agreed.
Some other people came into the store. The salesman wrote some numbers down on a piece of paper and handed it to Jackie. “Here is the price for this ring.”
“Wow,” Jackie said looking at the numbers.
The salesman smiled. “Would you like to take a few minutes to think about it?”
“How much do you need to hold it?”
“Twenty percent,” he said.
Jackie took her checkbook out of her back pocket and started writing the check. “How long will you give me to come up with the rest of the money?”
Surprised that Jackie didn’t hesitate, the salesman said, “We do have financing plans if you would like to apply for one.”
Jackie thought about that for a few minutes. “What kind of interest are we talking about?”
“It varies depending on your credit, but the minimum interest is 12.99 percent.”
“Let me put this deposit down and look into some financing from a few other places.”
The salesman nodded. “I can hold it for up to a month without some a financing arrangement.”
Grinning, Jackie handed the man her check. “It won’t take that long for me to get something worked out.”
“Okay,” he said and handed Jackie a form to fill out for holding the ring. Jackie handed the filled out form back to the salesman, turned and walked out of the store. She’d been to every store in town and hadn’t seen anything as perfect as this ring. It cost almost twice as much as she had saved.
She went to her truck and called her boss. “Hey Darren, do you know if I can get a loan on my retirement?”
“Why do you want to get a loan?” Darren wanted to know.
“I’m going to propose to Mary and I found the perfect ring. It costs more than I was expecting to spend, but it’s the perfect ring,” she explained.
“Did you try to get the dealer to come down on the price?” Darren asked.
“No, I didn’t think about that. I just wanted that ring, period.”
“Where are you?” Darren asked. “I’ll come out and take a look at the ring and then we’ll talk about getting you a loan.”
“Okay,” Jackie said and gave him the address of the jewelry store. She wasn’t sure what he thought his coming out there was going to accomplish, but she wasn’t going to argue with him.
Darren pulled into the jewelry store parking lot ten minutes later in his new Dodge Ram and parked next to Jackie’s older model Ford F-250.Jackie got out of her truck and walked over to Darren’s.
“So, you’re going to make an honest woman out of Mary?”
Laughing, Jackie said, “I’m hoping to.”
“You don’t think she’ll say yes?” Darren asked.
“I hope she will.”
Darren shook his head as they walked toward the jewelry store. “I can’t believe you sometimes. That woman is nuts about you. She is definitely going to say yes.”
The salesman was surprised when Jackie came back in the store with Darren.
“Which ring?” Darren asked.
“Can you take the ring back out?” Jackie asked.
“Wow,” Darren said, taking the ring from the salesman. “That’s beautiful. Let me take a picture of it and send it to a few dealers. Maybe someone has one similar for a lower price.”
The salesman’s eyes bugged out of his head. “We are the only dealer in town that has this ring. You are not going to find it cheaper.”
“There are hundreds of dealers online,” Darren said and took a picture of the ring. “We’ll send this picture around and see if we can’t find someone who has it or something similar for less money.”
Jackie watched the whole deal a little afraid that Darren was serious about checking with other dealers. The salesman pursed his lips and grabbed his notepad. He wrote a new number that was about a hundred dollars less than the first quote. Darren looked at it and wrote down a number that was four hundred less than the first. The salesman took the pad back and wrote a new number, one that was two hundred less than the original price. Darren looked at Jackie. “What do you think?”
“I’ll still have to borrow some money, but I like that price a lot better.”
Looking up at the salesman Darren said, “This includes any resizing that may need to be done, right.”
“Yes, of course.”
“You’ve got a deal,” Darren said and pulled out his checkbook.
Jackie watched in shock as Darren started writing a check for the balance of the ring.
“Wait,” she said. “I don’t have the money to pay you back unless I get a loan.”
“I’m sure you can get one, so don’t worry about it,” Darren said, tore the check out of his checkbook and handed it to the salesman.
Fifteen minutes later, Jackie and Darren left the jewelry store. “Thank you,” Jackie said. “I’ve never bought anything at a jewelry store, not for that kind of money.”
“I spend seven months hunting for the perfect engagement ring for Jane,” Darren said, referring to his wife of ten years. “I didn’t think I was ever going to find one I could afford that I liked. I finally found the perfect ring, but it was a thousand dollars more than I had. I haggled the dealer down and even got him to let me make payments on it.”
“How long did it take you to pay it off?”
“Six months,” Darren said. “Did you talk to the salesman about payments?”
“Yeah, but the interest was high. If I borrow from my retirement fund, there’s very little interest,” Jackie said. “What do I need to do to get a loan on that so I can pay you back?”
“We'll figure something out,” Darren said, giving Jackie a pat on the back. “I’m going to head home. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Thanks, Darren,” Jackie said. “I really appreciate your help.”
“No problem,” Darren said as he climbed into his truck.
Jackie got into her truck and patted her jacket pocket where the ring rested. It was going to be hard to keep from asking Mary for a few more days, but she wanted the moment she proposed to be perfect, and she still had plans to map out.
Chapter Two
Mary was stretched out on the couch with her eyes closed when Jackie got home. She studied the beautiful Mary Hanon and wondered if they would make some combination of their last names after they got married. Maybe Mary would take her last name; Mary Meredith has a nice ring to it.
“What are you thinking about?” Mary asked, snapping Jackie out of her daydream.
Jackie sat down on the couch and pulled Mary’s stocking feet into her lap. “I was thinking about things I want to do to you.” It was only a partial fib.
“Oh yeah,” Mary said. “Rubbing my feet wasn’t one of them, was it?”
Jackie arched an eyebrow seductively and said, “It’s a good place to start,” and began massaging Mary’s feet.
Mary moaned and closed her eyes. “That is wonderful.”
Jackie focused on massaging Mary’s small feet, but her eyes kept straying to where Mary’s skirt was riding up, showing off her slim legs. Her hands moved from Mary’s feet to her ankles and calves, eliciting more moaning from Mary.
It had been a little over a week since the last time they had made love. Jackie was itching to slide her hands up Mary’s legs and pull the hose and panties away from the prize she wanted. She kicked off her shoes and shifted, so she was straddling Mary’s legs.
Mary opened an eye and asked, “What ya doing?”
“I thought I would massage your thighs too.”
“Is that right?” Mary said, a grin playing on her lips. “Well, by all means, please continue your massage.”
Jackie gently squeezed Mary’s thighs before working her fingers into Mary’s hamstrings and gently massaged them.
Mary sighed deeply and looked at Jackie with hooded eyes. “Were you going to massage some other places?”
“I was thinking about it,” Jackie admitted with a grin.
“Well, then you will have to help me get your hose off.”
“My pleasure,” Jackie said and moved her hands under Mary’s skirt to the top of her hose and underwear, pulling them down together. Mary shifted her weight to help Jackie but left her hands behind her head.
Jackie began massaging Mary’s upper thigh muscles, keeping her hands just shy of her final target.
“You are such a tease,” Mary whispered.
Jackie could hear Mary’s breathing speeding up. She leaned down and placed a kiss on the inside of Mary’s thigh before giving her attention to the other thigh. Her heart pounded as she pushed Mary’s skirt up further revealing the glistening mound. She kissed the top of Mary’s mound before sliding her lips downward.
Mary opened her thighs giving Jackie full access to her throbbing center. She gave a small cry when Jackie sucked her clit into her mouth.
Pushing Mary’s legs further apart, Jackie settled between them and began giving Mary a very thorough massage with her tongue. It didn’t take Jackie long to have Mary writhing and begging for release. When Jackie finally brought her to orgasm, Mary’s hips pushed Jackie high off the couch before both women collapsed, panting from their excursion.
“Come up here,” Mary commanded. She pulled on Jackie’s shirt until Jackie's mouth met hers. She kissed Jackie deeply, tasting herself on Jackie’s lips and tongue.
“We’re going into the bedroom for the next round,” Jackie said and lay her head on Mary’s shoulder. “This couch is killing my back.”
“Poor baby,” Mary cooed. “I’ll massage it for you when we get in the bedroom.”
“Is that all you're going to massage?” Jackie asked.
“Oh, I don't know,” Mary teased. “I might massage some other parts of your body if I'm not too tired.”
Jackie raised her head. “Too tired, huh,” she said and moved her hands to Mary's sides. “Let me see if I can't wake you up a little.” She began tickling Mary, who immediately retaliated.
Jumping up, Jackie called as she ran toward the bedroom, “Are you awake now?”
“Oh yes,” Mary said as she jumped off the couch and chased after her. “And you are in big trouble when I catch you.”
Chapter Three
“Stop grinning,” Ashley Jessup demanded.
“What's the matter? Jealous?” Mary asked and grinned at her friend and coworker. She couldn’t help grinning, though. Jackie had been more attentive and loving this past week than she usually was, which was hard to imagine considering how affectionate Jackie was on a regular basis. Mary wasn’t sure what had inspired Jackie’s new insatiable spell, but she was not complaining.
“No,” Ashley snapped and then sat down at her desk. “Well, maybe a little. Jean has been so busy starting her new practice that we haven’t had much time for, well, you know.” Ashley looked toward the offices of the two law partners Mary and she worked for and then said in a low voice, “Well, you know.”
Mary let her grin fade slightly and nodded. “You said that she has been working a lot of late nights.”
“I’d be worried she was seeing someone else if she weren’t working at home,” Ashley admitted. “I’ve been trying to help her as much as I can, but there’s not much I can do when she’s mostly reading over case files.”
“Be patient,” Mary encouraged Ashley. “It will get better once she reestablishes herself as a lawyer.”
“I know,” Ashley said, “but I still want to be in
honeymoon mode.”
Mary gave Ashley a knowing smile as one of the lawyers came out of his office. She and Ashley had been roommates for a long time before Mary and Jackie became a couple. The three of them had lived together for a short time until Ashley and her dominatrix, the former Judge Jean Carlisle became full-time lovers, and Ashley moved in with her.
Mr. Lowry handed Ashley a stack of papers. “Please call Carlton and Bishop’s firm and have them send a courier over to get this information.”
“Right away, Mr. Lowry,” Ashley said as she put the papers down on her desk and picked up the phone.
Mr. Lowry looked up as the door to the office opened, and Jackie came in with a two-wheeler loaded with boxes. “Good morning, Jackie,” Mr. Lowry said.
“Good morning, Mr. Lowry,” Jackie replied. “Do you want to sign for these, or do you want me to have one of the ladies sign for it?”
“I’ll sign for it,” he said and took the electronic pad from Jackie.
Jackie looked over at Mary and smiled. Mary returned her smile and then busied herself at her desk.
Mr. Lowry saw the exchange, smiled at the two of them, and then went back to his office. He knew about Jackie and Mary’s relationship and was okay with it. Mary had been terrified when she first started seeing Jackie that Mr. Lowry and Mr. Winslow would find out about her relationship with Jackie and fire her, but her fears had been unfounded. Mr. Lowry and Mr. Winslow turned out to very accepting and understanding of her relationship with Jackie.
Jackie unloaded the boxes, two were supplies, and the others were correspondence packages. She placed the supplies in the closet and put the packages on Mary’s desk.
Mary looked up at Jackie’s twinkling eyes. “What?”
“I have special plans for tonight unless you’re doing something else,” Jackie said.
“Really,” Ashley said from across the room. “Do you two have to flaunt your plans in front of me?”
Jackie turned and gave Ashley a questioning look. “What’s the matter with you?”