Everything's Better With Kimberly

by Lucy Eden

  “Of course.” I grabbed his face and kissed him, thinking about the little yellow box. “Feed me, Seymour!”

  He grinned down at me. “So, is tonight’s movie Little Shop of Horrors?” he asked.

  I nodded, still thinking about the little yellow box. Adam pulled out his phone and I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I put the toilet seat down, closed the lid then sat and waited for the water to heat up while I thought about the little yellow box.

  Just six feet away, there was an engagement ring in a drawer meant for me. A month ago, I was a twenty-four year old virgin who’d given up on love. Three weeks ago I was madly in love and definitely not a virgin anymore. Twenty-four hours ago I had my heart ripped out and thought love was dead. Eight hours ago I became someone’s girlfriend and spent the afternoon cementing my non-virgin status. Now, I knew there was an engagement ring just sitting in a drawer meant for me.

  It was crazy, but the craziest part was that it didn’t feel crazy. The fact that it didn’t feel crazy scared me. In four months with Kevin I hadn’t felt anything close to what I felt with Adam after only a couple of days. Isn’t that why I slept with him? Auntie Patrice was friends with that actress from The Jeffersons that married her husband after knowing him for less than two weeks and they’re still married forty years later. My parents got engaged after a few weeks of dating and they’ve lasted almost thirty years. Adam’s brother married his wife after a couple of weeks and they just had a baby. Mom said she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Dad after one date. Is this how she felt?

  “Princess.” I looked up to find Adam leaning against the door frame and smiling down at me. “What are you thinking about?”

  “I just thinking about how we could never have sex in your shower.”

  It wasn’t a large tiled shower like the one at The Sterling. It was a clawfoot tub with a shower head and a vinyl curtain.

  “Yeah, we would definitely break every bone in our bodies before dying.” He grinned, pushed himself off of the door jamb and walked into the bathroom. “But that’s not what you were thinking.” He tested the water in shower and pulled me to my feet.

  “Okay, I was thinking about…it, but only a little bit. I’m fine, I promise. I was just a little caught off guard and I’ll just need a little time to absorb it.”

  He nodded and kissed me. “Oh, I have something for you. Hold on.” He left the bathroom and came back with a large shopping bag. “So, I knew you used your aunt’s hair stuff but I didn’t know which ones. So, I went to the store and bought one of everything so that when you’re here—”

  I gasped, cutting him off mid-sentence, before reaching up and kissing him. This was the most incredibly thoughtful thing he could’ve done and he did it when we weren’t even speaking.

  “I’ve wanted to call you every day but I knew you would call me when you were ready.”

  He’d always known we would get back together.

  I pulled away and started digging through the bag. He really did buy one of everything from my aunt’s hair care line, including stuff I clearly didn’t need like shampoo for relaxed/color treated hair and dreadlock wax.

  “I even got you one of those big combs and a satin pillowcase. Did I do good?” He was looking at me expectantly with a big grin on his face. He knew, damn well, he did good.

  I nodded. “You did very good.” I kissed him. “Wait until I tell Aunt Patrice. She might try to steal you.”

  “She might have a chance.” He shrugged. “She taught me one of my favorite words and I hear she’s rich as fuck.”

  We ate Chinese food in Adam’s bed and watched both versions of Little Shop of Horrors. We talked for hours trying retell every detail of the three weeks we were apart and I drifted off to sleep listening to Adam’s voice vibrate in his chest and thinking about the little yellow box.

  I woke up at 3:17, still thinking about the little yellow box and I really had to pee, which I was dreading. I slid out from under Adam’s giant arm and tip toed towards the bathroom. As I passed the dresser, I paused and glanced at him. He was still out cold, so I slowly slid the drawer open and reached my hand inside until I closed my fingers over the box. I pulled my fist out of the drawer and tip toed into the bathroom.

  I put the toilet seat down again and after peeing, using a tip my aunt gave me about using a glass of cold water, I washed and dried my hands before picking up the box again and staring at it. I was just about to open it when something in the bathroom caught my eye.

  There was a basket on the floor next to where I was standing. Inside, mingled with magazines about architecture, horse racing and half naked women, was a book. I picked it up and read the cover: Loving Someone with Anxiety: Understanding and Helping Your Partner by Kate N. Thieda, MS, LPCA. I flipped through the book. There were dog-eared pages and highlighted passages. It looked like he’d read the entire thing and more than once. My eyes prickled with hot tears, and I blinked them away. With the book tucked into its exact spot in the basket, I picked up the jewelry box again, deciding that it would be best to wait until Adam was ready to give it to me.

  I had opened the drawer and was slowly lowering the box into it when I heard Adam’s voice.

  “Kimberly Naomi Simmons, you are so busted!”

  I jumped and dropped the box making him laugh. I’d forgotten that my mother had told him my middle name.

  “Come here and bring it with you.” I took the box out of the drawer and crawled into bed feeling like a kid who literally got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Adam was sitting up and he tucked me against his side and wrapped his arm around my waist.

  He took the box from me and held it up. “Worst. Burglar. Ever.” Every word was punctuated with a kiss and I rolled my eyes. “Did you open it?”

  I shook my head.

  He held the box between us, slowly flipped the lid open and I gasped. It was a large square-yellow diamond surrounded by a square of smaller white diamonds. It looked like it was set in platinum and was the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen. Adam lifted it out of the box to show me the details in the setting. When I looked closely, I saw that it looked like construction scaffolding and had tiny white diamonds set where the bars intersected.

  “Do you want to try it on?” he asked.

  I exhaled a shaky breath. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more at that moment, but was I ready? “Yes, but if I do, does that mean…?”

  He smiled at me. “No pressure, Princess.” He slid the ring on my finger. It was a perfect fit and it was even more beautiful on my hand than in the box, but it made me realize that I was badly in need of a manicure. I felt my eyes stinging with tears again.

  “How did you do this?” I asked.

  He grinned sheepishly. “I tied a string around your finger while you were asleep.” He kissed the side of my head.

  “Was this the ‘stuff’ you were doing while I was sleeping on Sunday morning?”

  “You were asleep for a really long time.” He laughed. “Do you like it?”

  I nodded as the first tears fell. “I love it. It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.”

  He held my hand up admiring it. “It’s a three-carat, canary yellow, princess-cut diamond.”

  “Princess cut?” I grinned.

  “Naturally.”

  “It kind of reminds me of your house.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “The aerial view that shows the atrium with all the natural sunlight coming through.”

  “Wow,” he whispered.

  I sat up and looked at him. “What?” I asked. He was smiling at me and his expression confused me.

  “That’s exactly what I envisioned when I was designing the ring, except you’re the sunlight.”

  “What?” I repeated even more confused.

  “Everything got brighter when I met you. You shined a light in corners of my life that I chose not to see and made everything better. You’re my sunlight, Kimberly.”

  Now, I w
as really crying. “Oh,” I sniffled, “I just thought it was because you knew my favorite color was yellow.”

  He laughed. “That, too.” He kissed me. He held the empty box open between us. “Ready to take it off?”

  “Um, can I wear it a little bit longer?”

  He chuckled and nodded. “Wear it as long as long as you want.” He got out of bed and put the empty box back in the drawer. “But since you’re awake, there is one more thing I’ve been waiting to do with you for the last three weeks.”

  I frowned. “Didn’t we spend the whole day doing that?”

  He laughed and pulled me to my feet and wrapped his arm around my waist. There was tiny remote on the nightstand. He pushed a button and the first acoustic guitar chords of Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur filled the bedroom. I grinned up at him.

  “We danced at my parent’s house.”

  “Yes, we did, but we weren’t naked.” He pulled his t-shirt over my head and tossed it on the bed. “And you weren’t wearing this.” He held up my hand.

  “I’m just trying it on,” I reminded him.

  “Oh, I know.” He smiled and kissed me.

  We started swaying and Adam sang to me about meeting me in the dark and how I’d lit him up. I laughed at him singing about holding my hair back when I was throwing up. He kissed me and I kissed him back as we continued to sway.

  “Good morning, Princess,” Adam’s voice rumbled in my ear and I swear I could hear him smiling.

  I looked at my hand and saw that I was still wearing the ring. I arched up and kissed him.

  “Wow! A morning breath kiss? And all it took was a giant diamond ring.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him and held the ring up. It sparkled even more in the sunlight. “I haven’t said yes. I’m just trying it on, remember?”

  “Of course,” he said, still grinning and kissed the top of my head. “Hey, I was thinking… your Master’s in Corporate Psychology, right?”

  “Industrial and Organizational Psychology, but close enough.” I was still admiring the ring wiggling my finger back and forth. “Why do you ask?”

  “Well, I need to expand my team and I was wondering if I could use that big beautiful brain of yours to help me vet some candidates. It was brought to my attention recently that I may not be the best at putting together the strongest team, so I thought maybe I should call in a professional?”

  “I would love to help you, but I’m gonna brush my teeth first and you should join me.”

  He laughed. We brushed our teeth in the bathroom mirror and I kept angling my wrist so the ring was more visible. Adam definitely noticed and stifled his laughter the entire time.

  When we finished brushing our teeth, we made love and I kept positioning my hand so I could gaze at the ring and it somehow made the sex better.

  It wasn’t about the glittering piece of jewelry with a price tag that I didn’t want to think about. This ring was a symbol of how much Adam loved me and how much I loved him. He always wanted me in his life, through good times and bad. He would never leave me. He would never hurt me. He knew me better than anyone ever could and he wanted to be with me. I was his sunlight and he was my protector.

  The morning dissolved as I was resting my head on Adam’s chest and, of course, admiring the ring.

  “We have to start getting ready soon if we’re going to make it to brunch on time.” He kissed my curls.

  I jerked my head up to face him. “I thought Sunday brunch was a family thing.”

  Adam brought my hand to his lips and kissed the engagement ring. “It is.” He smirked.

  “I still haven’t said yes,” I said, trying rub off the smudge on the diamond that Adam made with his lips.

  “Okay, no Nutella pancakes for you then.” He shrugged and sat up.

  “Wait. Are you asking me to make a life altering decision based on the availability of breakfast food?”

  “Of course not.” He leaned down and kissed my nose. “But they are really good pancakes.”

  The last month of my life flashed before my eyes. I thought about Adam holding my hand on the plane, every time he made me laugh, and every time he held me when I cried. I thought of my Aunt Patrice telling me to stop looking for reasons to be unhappy and live my life, which made me think of the unnecessary jar of dreadlock wax that Adam bought for me just because he wanted me to be comfortable at his house. I was also willing to bet there were a few boxes of flavored decaf tea in the kitchen cabinets. I thought about the book I found in his bathroom and knew that the man who gave me this ring didn’t want to fix me or change me. He just wanted to be with me, to understand me and to make me happy.

  “Okay.” I nodded.

  Adam turned to face me and furrowed his eyebrows. “Okay what?” he asked.

  I reached up and ran my fingers through his beard, using the hand wearing the ring, of course.

  “Let’s go get some pancakes.” I smiled biting my lip and raising my eyebrows.

  “Okay, seriously. Are you saying yes to the ring or yes to Nutella pancakes? Because you know, I was joking abo—”

  “I’m saying yes to both.” I smiled at him. “But mostly the pancakes.”

  He burst out laughing.

  “I wanna be your wife, Mr. Price.”

  “That’s good, because I really wanna be your husband, Mrs. Price.” He cradled the back of my head and crawled on top of me, waggling his eyebrows.

  “Mrs. Simmons-Price?” I suggested.

  “Whatever you want, Princess.” He brushed his lips against mine.

  “What about brunch?” I asked as I felt him kissing, licking and nibbling a trail down my chest and over my belly.

  “Fuck brunch.”

  THE END

  Epilogue

  Adam

  It was 3:15 and I was awake staring at my phone. I’d just sent Kimberly a princess emoji and was waiting for her to respond. If this was a regular night I wouldn’t like my odds. Between her punishing work schedule, all the planning, life little surprises and whatever magic Dr. Marquez had been making twice a week in their sessions, Kimberly’s insomnia is almost non-existent.

  Almost.

  Tonight, I had a good feeling she’d be awake. I saw the three dots and waited. The hammer emoji popped up on my screen and I called her.

  “Hey, sunshine,” I whispered.

  “Hi, honey,” she replied. My chest seemed to expand with a warm tingly feeling that Kimberly could never fail to produce whenever she called me honey. “You can’t sleep either.”

  “Nope, I’m too excited,” I said. She laughed. “Come over.”

  “I can’t. It’s bad luck.”

  “I don’t care. I miss you.”

  “You just saw me at dinner.”

  “That was like nine hours ago.”

  “You really have no patience, Mr. Price. You’ll see me again in nine more hours.”

  “That’s not a very good incentive, Princess.” She giggled and it made me miss her even more. “In the last three years how many times have we been in the same place at the same time for this long?”

  I’ve been almost exclusively based in Barbados for the last two and half years and Kimberly still works for Vittoria which means she’s based in New York and travels all the time. It’s been three years of carefully coordinating our schedules, thousands of airline miles and a lot of late night phone calls.

  “It hasn’t been ideal,” she agreed.

  “Exactly. So come over and bring your sleep mask.”

  “What are you up to?”

  “Trust me.”

  Twenty minutes later there was a knock on my door.

  “Princess?”

  “No, the other woman you invited to your room at 3:30 in the morning.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, we’ll have to hurry because my fiancée is coming and she’s mean when she’s pissed off.” I heard her giggle on the other side of the door. “Put your sleep mask on.”

  “Okay, it’s on.”

 
; I opened the door and led her inside. I could tell she was wearing a t-shirt and what I guessed were her favorite pajama pants that I now call her fightin’ PJs. I closed the door behind her and lifted her in my arms kissing her.

  “Hey, love.”

  “Hi.” She kissed me again. “I don’t know what your ‘plan’ is but if you mess up my hair my aunt is going to kill you.”

  “Then we’ll have to be careful.” I lowered her onto the bed

  “Babe, I thought we were saving ourselves for our wedding night.”

  “Don’t worry. We are. I found a loophole.” I pulled her pajama pants down planting kisses on her thighs.

  “You know it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding.”

  “Don’t worry. I can’t see you. Now, what do the rules say about the groom eating the bride’s pussy and making her scream so loud that she wakes up the entire resort before the wedding?” I found her panties and tugged them down.

  “I think you may have found another loophole, Mr. Price.” She moaned as I closed my mouth over her core, parting her lips with my tongue and circling her clit. “Oh my god!”

  Kimberly did scream, but not as loud as I wanted because she’d used a pillow to muffle the sounds of her orgasms. When the leg that I’d hoisted over my shoulder finally stopped shaking, I got up to go to the bathroom and she put her arm out to stop me.

  “No,” she whispered. “Kiss me.” She felt around for the collar of my shirt and tugged me on top of her so hard that I had to put my arms out to keep myself from falling on top of her and crushing her.

  “Whoa, Princess. Be careful. You’re carrying precious cargo.” I whispered as I brushed our lips together, my breath carrying the scent of her arousal between us. She tangled her fingers in my hair and pulled our faces together, slipping her tongue in between my lips and exploring my mouth. I slipped a hand under her t-shirt, slowly caressed her belly before closing a hand over one of her breasts and gently pinching one of her nipples.