"She's lucky."
"And very rich."
Alexa sighed at that. "You rich people really are different. Never having to worry about paying bills, or where your next meal will come from. If you got cancer..."
"We are," I said and kissed her. "When you're my wife, you will be rich, too. None of your family will ever have to worry about medical bills or anything. When I marry you, we become family and your parents will be mine. You don't know how happy that makes me. I love your parents."
She smiled finally, her eyes crinkling in the corners. "I'm so glad," she said, her voice catching from emotion. "They're wonderful."
"They are."
We kissed. She exhaled when the kiss ended and laid her head on my shoulder.
"Your mother is always going to hate me," she said. "Nothing I can do will win her over."
"Time will win her over. When she sees how happy I am with you, when she sees how good we are together, she'll come around. When we have children, she'll realize she's missing out on family if she cuts us off. She'll be the one who suffers, not us. Even if she does follow through, my father will keep seeing us and treating us like family."
"You think so?"
I nodded. "He's not a snob like her, even though he is a profligate cheater. I like him a lot more than I like her, in the end."
"They seem to tolerate each other," Alexa said. "They don't seem like they really love each other. I never saw them giving any affection to each other."
"That's my mother. She can't really show emotion. She's always so worried about how everything looks and what everyone in her circle of people will think of us. I hated it growing up. It was like she didn't do things because they were good for us, but because her friends would approve."
"That's a sad way to be. I don't want us to ever get like that if we get married."
"If we get married?" I said and forced her to look in my eyes. "You already said yes. Are you changing your mind?"
She shook her head quickly. "No, I didn't mean that. It's just that things can change and none of us know what's going to happen tomorrow."
"I know," I said and squeezed her to emphasize the point. "I know I'm going to wake up tomorrow loving you even more than I do today. I know that next week, I'm going to love you even more. And that next year, after you're done your coursework, I'm going to love you even more the day we walk down the aisle and every day after that. That's what I know."
Her eyes filled with tears and she moved up and kissed me, her kiss passionate. Our arms went around each other even more tightly.
When the kiss broke, she pulled away and looked in my eyes. "I'm so glad you were bad at transcribing that email address." Then she smiled.
"Me, too," I replied.
Then I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom to show her just how glad I was.
The next morning while Alexa slept, I got up and went to the bathroom for a quick shower. When I was finished, I dressed and slipped on my jacket and shoes, then I wrote a quick note to her and left it on her laptop cover.
Just going out for a quick visit to Dragon Lady to set her straight.
When I come back, we should go get some brunch.
Love you.
Sunday morning traffic was busy, but I managed to get downtown to the apartment where I grew up in decent time, finding a spot behind back where the family parked. I still had a key to the building, so I was able to get inside without buzzing up if I wanted. I had planned to just go inside and confront my mother, but I decided to send her a message first. I didn't want a scene. I just wanted to clear things up.
LUKE: I'm outside the building and want to come in and talk to you about your visit with Alexa yesterday.
I sent the text and waited on the street for her to respond.
She finally called me, so I answered.
"Luke, why didn't you call first?"