In a moment of pure jubilation, Riccan picked Amanda up and twirled her around.
“Put me down, Riccan!” Amanda ordered while she laughed at his foolish expression.
“I will, for now.” He leaned close to whisper in her ear, “But I’m never letting you go once we get out of here!”
“You’re so silly! Let’s go sign the marriage certificate,” Amanda admonished.
They finished filling out the rest of the documents which legally bound them in marriage. Amanda handed the bouquet back to the receptionist and thanked her for her thoughtfulness. Riccan carried the certificate in a large manila envelope as they walked out of the chapel.
Riccan hailed a cab so they could return to the airport to fly back home. He had considered the idea of getting a hotel room for them to consummate their marriage, but he had decided against it. They could be much more romantic if they were in the privacy of his home.
This had been a hasty trip, but the end result was what really mattered to the happy couple. As they waited for their plane to arrive, they sat in the terminal. Amanda leaned against her husband in the plastic chairs. Exhaustion finally won the battle and Amanda slipped into a deep sleep.
Riccan draped his arm protectively around his wife. He kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair with his other hand. Never had he imagined he would be married in such a hurry. One thing he was certain of, his mother would be thrilled. She had already commented on how perfect Amanda was for him. Privately he had agreed, and now he had announced to the world that he had found the woman for him.
Another idea struck him: he had only been married on Earth. They would have to perform another ceremony on Tuala for it to be official everywhere. He was certain his dad would want to perform the ceremony. He could hardly wait to get back to Tuala to make his commitment official everywhere.
To keep himself occupied while they waited for their flight to arrive, Riccan watched the people playing the slot machines in the aisle. It seemed there were many people who were winning and he smiled at their happiness. He kept checking the reader board for the status of their flight and was relieved to see it was still scheduled as ‘on time.’ He looked out the window when something caught his eye, and he saw an airplane pulling into the gate where they would be boarding. Their plane had arrived, now they just had to wait for everyone to deplane and for the plane to be cleaned and restocked.
Riccan sighed. Everything was coming together so nicely. He could not get the sense out of his head that everything was too perfect. There had to be something which would spoil their happiness. He did not naturally have negative thoughts nor did he particularly enjoy them at the moment either. I must be overly tired, Riccan said to himself. There’s no reason to think anything will go wrong now that my life is finally getting started with the right person.
People streamed out of the now-open gate door. Soon they would be back in the air and heading home. Soon he would be carrying his bride across the threshold of their home. Soon he would be putting his wife in their bed. He had to stop his line of thinking, or he would end up embarrassing himself in public.
Finally, they were back in Florida and driving back to Riccan’s house. The sunlight was shining right down on them, but Riccan was struggling to keep his eyes open. He could not believe how tired he had become. He had taken a short nap on the flight, but the attendant had kept interrupting his sleep to ask if he needed anything. He had kept his temper and only said to himself that a sleeping person only needed to be left alone.
It was a close call, but Riccan managed to get them safely home where he parked in the garage. Amanda was still passed out in the passenger’s seat. He left everything in the car and walked over to Amanda’s door and opened it up. He unfastened her seatbelt and easily lifted her.
With only one stumble on the first threshold, Riccan carried Amanda up the stairs. He set her down gently on the king-sized bed. He grabbed a throw blanket and draped it over her. Riccan was so tired he was barely able to make it to the other side of the bed. Removing his shoes was too much to ask, so he left them on. In only a moment he was fast asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hours later Amanda woke up. Extremely disoriented, she opened her eyes without recognizing the room. She stretched out her legs allowing herself to roll over on the bed. When her eyes saw Riccan asleep on the bed, everything suddenly came rushing back to her. She lifted her hand and verified the two rings which told her they really had gotten married. For a moment she had the scary idea it had all been another dream. This was her new reality.
She reached over and touched Riccan’s tousled hair. A smile formed on his lips and he stirred on the bed. In a moment Amanda was looking into his brown eyes and saying, “Hello, sleeping beauty.”
“Hello, my wife,” he replied. He stretched out on the bed and groaned. Realizing his shoes were still on his feet he hastily used the toe of one foot to dislodge the shoe of the other until they both dropped to the floor in two loud thuds. “This is not how I ever expected to spend my wedding night. How is it at all exciting if we’re both fully dressed?”
“I must admit we don’t sound very romantic. We’ll have to work on that part of our relationship. In the meantime, I need to see if my mother called. I’m sure I’ve missed several calls by now. She’s going to be furious with me!” Amanda looked around and realized she had no idea where any of her stuff ended up. “Where’s my purse, Riccan?”
“I left everything in the car. I was too tired to mess with any of it until we both got some rest,” he answered as he continued to stretch himself out on the mattress. He watched Amanda rush out of the room to get her phone.
Amanda skipped down the stairs and out to the garage. She opened the truck door and picked up her purse from the floor in front of the seat. As she walked back into the house, Amanda rummaged one-handed in the purse to get her phone. Just as she was flipping it open to hear the messages she was certain her mother had left, it rang in her hand. She immediately hit the call button and brought the phone to her ear.
“Hello,” Amanda answered the call.
“Amanda! Where have you been! You promised to answer every call, and I’ve left five messages. Tell me you’re on your way home,” her mother almost yelled into the phone.
“Mom, please calm down. We’ve had an exhausting day. Besides, Riccan and I are going to come over and talk with you and Dad in a little bit. Is Dad going to be coming home at his normal time?”
Diane did not like how this conversation was sounding. Amanda sounded different from her normal self. Her daughter’s questions about her father were not doing anything to ease the sense of dread she felt overcoming her. She reluctantly answered, “Yes, he’ll be home at his normal time. What’s going on, Amanda? Has something bad happened?”
“No, Mom, nothing bad has happened. Riccan and I will be over after five o’clock. I’ll talk to you both then. I’ve got to get going, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you, too. I wish you would talk to me about whatever’s going on right now,” Diane implored.
“You’ll just have to wait, Mom,” Amanda said patiently. “I’ve gotta run, Mom. Bye.”
“Bye, honey,” Diane dejectedly answered.
Amanda flipped the phone closed and decided she did not want to ruin her mood by listening to her mother’s messages. Since she had just spoken to her, it was a moot point anyway. She dropped the phone back into her purse and walked back up the stairs to be with her husband.
Thinking they might do something a little more adventurous, Amanda breezed into the bedroom door prepared to flirt with her husband. Unfortunately, Riccan had other plans as he had fallen back asleep. Amanda tried to be disappointed, but she decided to take advantage of his nap to go into the bedroom she remembered from her dream to freshen up in its en-suite bathroom.
She did not want to wake her husband by using his bathroom. She walked across the hall and into the room she recalled from before. As she walked in the door, she was s
till amazed at how perfectly her dream had imagined this room. Every detail was exactly as she remembered. She went into the bathroom half-way expecting to find her bathing suit drying on the edge of the tub. Naturally, it was not there, and she shook her head for even thinking it might have been.
She turned on the hot water spigot and began to undress. She folded each item as she removed it and set it on the counter. For some reason, she could not bring herself to drop her clothes on the floor like most people would have done. Steam rose from above the shower door, so she hurried to get in.
Just short of getting under the stream of almost boiling water she turned the cold water spigot until her hand was comfortable in the warmth. She stepped under the flow of water and let it rain down onto her body. It felt like it had been forever since she had last showered. The water felt like silk caressing her skin as it slipped down and pooled at her feet.
The shower must have lasted at least thirty minutes. She twirled around and around getting every part of her so warm her skin turned pink. Finally, she decided she should get to the business of actually getting clean. She soaped up her body, shaved, shampooed and conditioned her hair, and finally rinsed everything clean.
She turned off the water with a sigh and reached out of the shower to pull the plush towel from the hook just outside the door. Her hand met empty air. She reached again and then peeked out of the shower to discover it was truly gone.
“Are you looking for this?” Riccan asked with a devilish grin on his face as he held the towel in both hands while he leaned against the counter top several feet away.
“Yes. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll hand it over before I get you all wet!” She hid her body behind the shower door.
“Oh, I know what’s good for me. Why don’t you be a good girl and come and get your towel.” Riccan tossed the towel up and caught it.
“Riccan! Give me the towel,” Amanda growled playfully. For some reason, she had become unaccountably shy. This was her husband, after all. He had every right to see her naked body. She could not overcome her shyness and remained behind the door.
“I don’t think I will. I’ll meet you in the other room,” Riccan said as he slung the towel over his shoulder and sauntered out of the room.
“Arghhh,” Amanda growled. She was going to get even with him. She launched herself out of the shower, ran, and tackled Riccan just as he got near the bed. Riccan managed to twist himself around as he was falling and she landed squarely on his chest. “Give me that towel. Now look, you’re getting all wet, too!”
“It was worth it,” Riccan replied as he still would not relinquish the towel. “With what I have in mind you won’t need to worry about getting dried off,” he said as he pulled her head down to kiss her deeply.
Amanda forgot her frustration and kissed him back just as passionately. She no longer worried about the towel as she began unbuttoning Riccan’s shirt. She felt Riccan’s hands leave her hair and begin to explore her body. Now, this is more like how a honeymoon should be, Amanda thought as their mutual pleasure became more intense.
Chapter Twenty-Six
AN HOUR LATER Amanda was still snuggled next to her husband in the guest bedroom bed. They had not bothered to go back to the master bedroom; it hardly seemed necessary since they had a bed so handy. Amanda giggled at how silly the whole scene had been, but then she was glad it had not ended up being awkward. This was the first time she ever remembered having sex even though she was still convinced she had given birth to twins.
“That was perfect, Riccan,” Amanda whispered.
“So are you,” Riccan replied. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said and sighed.
“That was a big sigh and certainly not what I’d expect from someone who was so obviously satisfied.” Riccan twisted his head to look down at her face.
“Oh, well, I got a call from my mom when I went down to get my phone,” she began and then was silent.
“So…,” Riccan prompted.
“I told her that you and I would be coming to their house when Dad got off of work. I didn’t tell her why and I can imagine her reaction to this new turn of events.”
“Yeah, I know this will be hard for her. I’ll just have to convince her that I’ll do my very best for you,” Riccan comforted. “You’re not alone anymore, Amanda. I’ll always stay by your side and help you in times of trouble. It’s my job now and one I look forward to performing.”
“Speaking of jobs, why are you not going to yours in Durseni?” Amanda finally thought to ask.
“I took a leave of absence for eight weeks.”
“How much more time do you have before you need to go back?” Amanda hoped it was still a long time. She wanted to spend as much time with her new husband as she possibly could.
“I still have six weeks left,” he replied, hugging her tighter to him. “I can think of some great ways to spend each and every moment of those six weeks.”
“I think you’d have to eat eventually.” Amanda’s practical tone instantly reminded her of her mother’s.
“I can just nibble a bit on you.” He squirmed down until he was biting on her neck.
Amanda squealed and tried to get away from the onslaught. In the end, Riccan convinced her they could wait a while longer before they needed to face reality. Amanda was quite agreeable to his manner of spending time.
A while later, Amanda reached over and twisted Riccan’s wrist so she could see the time. She swatted Riccan’s arm and exclaimed, “We’re going to be late! Get up; we’ve got to get dressed.” She threw back the covers, almost jumping off of the bed as she raced to the bathroom to get dressed.
Riccan watched with an amused expression while his wife streaked through the room. Her long hair trailed out behind her, caressing her perfectly toned body, making him want to skip meeting with her parents. He knew he would have to face them eventually, so he groaned while he got out of bed. He picked up his clothes from the floor and put them on.
Amanda came out of the bathroom raking a brush through her almost dry hair. “Good, you’re ready. I can finish getting ready in the car while you drive.” She kept walking through the bedroom and out the door to the hallway. She had not heard any noise from Riccan and looked over her shoulder to see what he was doing and said, “Aren’t you coming?”
He chuckled as he stood up from putting on his second shoe. “It’s going to be that way is it?” He was teasing. He liked seeing Amanda have an air of confidence. He walked over to her and put his arm around her waist and said, “Let’s go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was an awkward silence as the four of them sat in the living room facing one another. Amanda had her hands folded in her lap and decided to begin the conversation. She thought she should probably get the worst over first and said, “Riccan and I eloped last night in Reno.” She picked up her hand to show her parents the two rings.
“What?” both Chris and Diane exclaimed at the same time.
“I know you both think this is too soon…” Amanda began.
“That’s an understatement,” Diane interrupted. “What were you thinking? You’ve known each other for four whole days, and you think that’s enough time to make a life-long commitment. Chris, go find out how we can get this annulled.”
Chris remained seated and quietly asked, “What was the rush?”
Diane looked at him with daggers and said, “You can’t possibly think I’m going to allow this to happen?”
“Well, Diane, the truth is, Amanda is an adult and can do whatever she likes. We don’t have to agree with her decision, but we will have to live with whatever she decides,” Chris reasoned with his wife.
“Well, I’m not going to sit here and listen to this.” Standing up in frustration, she planned to storm out of the room.
“Sit down, Diane,” Chris demanded. He looked over at his daughter and repeated his question. “What was the rush?”
“It doesn’t feel like
we’re rushing, Dad, honestly. We know we were meant for one another and couldn’t see any reason to delay the inevitable.”
“Do you hear what she’s saying, Chris. She’s been brainwashed. I knew we shouldn’t have let her go on the trip. Bad things happen when she goes somewhere with a man!”
“Diane, please stop. You aren’t making any sense right now. Just listen to what your daughter is telling you from her heart.”
“Thank you, Dad. I promise I did this of my own free will. In fact, it was my idea,” she ended.
“Why would you do this to us, Amanda? Did we do something wrong to make you want to get away from us?” Diane implored.
“Mom, it’s not like that at all. If I hadn’t been in the coma for so long, I would most likely be married right now anyway. I’ve decided it’s time for me to start living my life. I can’t wait years and years for you to come to terms with the idea that I’ve grown up. I’m sorry, Mom. I got married because I wanted to, not because of anything you’ve done, or not done. I love both of you!” Amanda looked from one parent to the other beseeching them to understand. She reached out and held Riccan’s hand for support.
Diane did not answer, but the tears started to fall down her cheeks. She felt certain Amanda was acting out because she felt as though she had missed out on so much. She still remembered Amanda’s reaction when she was told about her sisters both being married. This had to be because she did not want to be left behind. She just hoped her daughter would discover the error of her decision before they ended up having children together.
Riccan spoke up for the first time. “I love your daughter, and I promise to care for her and love her. I know it seems strange to you how we seemed to rush the process, but we didn’t want to delay the inevitable.” He squeezed Amanda’s hand lightly to show her he was there for her.
“So, Riccan, since we know virtually nothing about you,” Chris began, “Why don’t you two stay for dinner and you can tell us all about who you are. Since you’re now a part of the family, we should at least know the basics.”
Ascension Discovery Page 106