Chapter 6 #3
“Happy New Year, my darling love,” he said to her, and kissed her again. “I hope it’s a perfect year for us.” She nodded and kissed him back, and had nothing to add to it, except a wish to see more of him. But everything they had at that moment was all she wanted, and she whispered to him.
“I love you, Bill.”
“I love you too,” he said, and they went back to bed in a brand-new year that belonged to them as it began.
* * *
Taylor and Felicity made love on New Year’s Eve, after dinner with his parents, and he was sound asleep long before midnight.
Felicity couldn’t sleep, and sat on the window seat in their room, looking out at the stars in the sky.
She knew she loved him, and his serious, traditional ways, but there were so many more things she wanted to do with him.
Dance and laugh and go to Paris, and walk around the city on a warm night.
She wanted to have fun with him, not be trapped with his parents for their holidays and vacations.
She wondered if he would want to continue that after they were married.
It had never occurred to her before to ask him.
She didn’t want to be rude about his parents, but they were total bores, and she wanted to be married to him, not them.
She had finally gotten used to the idea of being married sooner than she’d planned, but she wanted to be sure that she was marrying him and not his family.
It had suddenly become an important question in her mind after the past week with them.
It was stifling having dinner with them every night, though Taylor seemed to enjoy it, and wanted her to enjoy it too.
When midnight came, she was sitting alone, looking out the window, wishing she were somewhere else in the world like her mother and sister and brother, not in Vermont with Taylor’s parents.
She didn’t know how to say it to him, but she thought she should, to make sure that this wasn’t the life he had in mind.
She slipped quietly back into bed, beside him, and looked at him sound asleep.
“Happy New Year,” she whispered to him, and wondered what the coming year would bring.
* * *
Jamie and Violet went back to the samba bar that night for the second time.
They danced until they couldn’t dance another step, and then they went to a disco down the street with French music.
They had a drink and danced to old Charles Aznavour songs, and went back to their villa.
Jamie poured them each a glass of champagne at their pool.
They had given the butler the night off.
They sat down and looked up at the stars in the sky, and when she looked at him, he was smiling at her. He looked like the happiest man on earth. And she felt the same way. He was smiling because he knew he was going to do something with her that he had never done before, if she was willing.
“You look like you have a secret,” Violet said, grinning at him. He wasn’t drunk, but they’d both had several rum drinks, and were happy enough.
“I want to do something special with you tonight,” he said seriously. She looked worried for a minute.
“If it involves video or photographs, forget it,” she said firmly, and he laughed.
“It doesn’t, but that’s not a bad idea.”
“Yeah, not with me, Bozo. You’re a sex addict,” she accused him jokingly.
“If I am, it’s all your fault. I think you put a spell on me.” He kissed her after he said it, and she didn’t resist him. She was totally at ease with him. They shared a kind of bond and trust that she had never had with anyone else.
Then he rolled off his deck chair with an easy gesture, and was on his knee next to her, and spoke earnestly, looking straight into her eyes.
“Violet Walker, I love you. Will you marry me?” She was totally shocked for a minute and couldn’t speak, and after he said it, he took something out of his pocket and put a huge ring on her finger.
It looked like a joke of some kind and she thought he was kidding.
“Holy shit, for a minute, I thought you meant it. What is that thing?” She looked at the huge ring on her finger, laughing, but he stayed serious.
“I do mean it. That’s an exact replica of a World Series MVP ring. It’s real gold and diamonds. I bought it because it’s so beautiful, and now I know I’ve been saving it for you.” He had tears in his eyes and she stared at him, with the ring still on her finger.
“You can’t mean it, Jamie. You don’t mean it.
It would ruin everything between us. I told you I don’t ever want to get married.
My grandparents weren’t married and they loved each other.
My grandmother still loves him almost fifty years after he died.
My parents were married and hate each other.
My father has always been a jerk to my mother, he dates twenty-two-year-olds with big tits and no brains.
Marriage ruins everything. I love you too, but I don’t want to marry you.
I don’t want to marry anyone. I want to be like my grandmother. ”
“Then let’s get engaged to love each other forever and never get married. How would that work for you?”
She thought about it for a minute and looked at him. “Do people do that? Does that sound too stupid?”
“Who cares? I just want to know that there is something more between us, an agreement, a commitment.” He looked sheepish then. “And you can have a real engagement ring if you want. I just brought that with me kind of as a starter. It probably looks dumb to you.”
“No, it doesn’t. I love it,” she said, smiling at him.
“I went steady with a boy in seventh grade for a week, and he gave me his Captain Video Decoder Ring. It was very cool, and I had to wrap a Band-Aid around the back so it fit. He took it back after a week when he fell in love with my best friend.”
“The idiot,” Jamie said, and smiled at her. “You’re the coolest girl I’ve ever met. We can get it sized for you if you really like it.” They both looked at it on her hand and it was enormous, but she smiled at him and looked like a child when she did. She was all innocence and love.
“I think it’s really beautiful. I love it. Do you think we should get engaged—to not get married?”
“I do. The first part anyway. I’ve never loved anyone like I do you, Violet. I would love to marry you. Or not marry you until you change your mind about it. And I’d love to be engaged.”