Libby hung her head and let out a long, deep sigh. She was practically shaking. This conversation had come virtually out of nowhere and I almost didn’t know how to respond to it. I expected to be making a similar speech myself at one point, but now that I knew how Libby felt, everything else seemed to fall right into place.
I leaned in closer to her and kissed Libby’s sweet lips. Then I pulled her close. She was trembling, the tears falling hard now. I could tell she was trying to be quiet due to Toby, who was playing quietly in his room.
“Honey,” I said quietly. “It’s ok. When I first met you, I couldn’t believe that you were real. I’d just resigned myself to the fact that I would probably be alone for the rest of my life. I didn’t think that there was any woman in the world who would capture my heart. I was in a dark place, even though I did my best to put on a brave face to the rest of the world. I’m supposed to be the guy who has everything going for him. I don’t think I have to tell you the kind of stress that can put on someone. I think I was glad that you didn’t see me as the rich, famous guy and that you treated me just like any other parent. It’s been a while since I had someone really treat me like a normal man. It was refreshing.”
“I’m curious as to why you didn’t make your feelings known sooner. I thought that you just didn’t find me attractive.”
“But you weren’t interested anyway,” I laughed.
“That’s true, but I still wanted to be desired by you.”
“This is suddenly sounding like we belonged on a teenaged soap opera.”
Libby hit my arm playfully. “I resent that. I love teenage soap operas.”
“Oh, have I hit upon a guilty pleasure?”
Libby sipped her wine and sat it back down on the coffee table. “I do. One Tree Hill, The O.C, and even old episodes of 90210. That is how I spent a lot of time, well, before I started to attract the wrong type of attention.”
“I would love to plead ignorance and pretend I don’t know what any of that is, but I’ve watched my fair share of teenage melodrama.”
“I grew up watching all those old shows and I guess a lot of it has still stuck with me. I guess it was just about a much simpler time in my life. Those innocent teenage years, sometimes you want them to go on forever, right? No one ever tells you how complicated being an adult is.”
“True,” I said. “But you remember what I’ve told you about my teen years?”
Libby’s eyes widened as the images from stories I’d told her about my shenanigans with the Zeffaris.
“Well, I guess some of us decided to complicate our lives a bit earlier. I forgot about your days as a juvenile delinquent.”
I held up my hand in protest. “I was not a delinquent. I was really just a misguided, young adventurer.”
Even as I said the words I heard how ludicrous they sounded.
“Ok, if that helps you deal with your past mistakes,” Libby joked.
“I don’t think we need to be comparing past mistakes…”
Libby’s mouth dropped open and she playfully hit me on the shoulder again. “Oh, you are so bad!”
“You wouldn’t have me any other way, right?” I asked.
She paused a moment, pretending to think it over. “I guess not.”
Libby kissed me hard on the mouth. I glanced at the clock and realized that unfortunately we had little time to do any of the things I was thinking about. And Toby was still awake.
But soon… oh soon I would ravage my sweet love.
***
“Are you sure?” Libby asked. “This is crazy.”
I smiled, looking down at her. The look on her face, the atmosphere, Toby in his little tuxedo looking all excited—everything was going right according to plan.
If I had to think about when the idea first planted its seeds inside my head, I would say it was the day after we first made love. I knew that I had this upcoming trip I was planning to Vegas, and I started thinking about all of the other people who went to Vegas and the things that they went there for. One of the biggest was to elope.
I knew that eventually Libby and I would have a huge, fantastic wedding. Wedding… was I crazy? We’d just been together a short period of time and we’d only just recently begun to confess our love to each other. But it felt right to me. The romance of it, the symbolism, the fact that we were in one of the most romantic cities in the world and the fact that we were more or less hiding from real danger---all of it was very romantic.