(no subject)
Okay, after several months, I finally got the second part of this story written! http://lauriempress.livejournal.com/53151.html is the link to the first part in case you want to refresh your memories. Last time, Michael explained some things to Dina, now it's her turn.
"No don't go. It's just, I suppose it's my turn to explain."
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than a loud rumble escaped Michael's stomach. He flashed a sheepish smile, that turned into a smirk when Dina's stomach provided an echo.
"Hold onto that explanation, I'll go heat up some more of that soup and we'll have some dinner. Unless you want something more?"
"Not right now, but hand me my cell phone? I'll call Nina and ask her to pick up something for the three of us."
"Sounds good." Almost instinctively, he went to the pile of her discarded clothes rummaged around for a moment or two and then flipped the phone on the bed. "Glad to see somethings never change."
"Hey, I haven't washed one in seven months!"
"Yeah sure," he quipped with a wink. "I'll be back."
Dina picked up the phone, and hit the speed-dial button for Nina's cell.
"Hey D, what's up?"
"Nina, something amazing has happened tonight."
"Amazing like, you don't want me coming back to the house tonight, amazing?"
"Huh? Oh no, but I can't really explain it over the phone. I just wanted to ask you to pick up dinner on your way home. I'll pay for it."
"You'll pay? Wow, it must have been amazing."
"Funny, Nina. Oh, Nina, there'll be three of us tonight."
"Hmm, if it was Mortimer, he'd be insisting on paying the bill. Don would too, besides he's visiting Kaylyn and Baby Parker at her house this weekend."
"You'll never guess in a million years, Nina. Oh one last thing, don't make dinner to spicy, or at least mine. I've been 'worshipping at the porcelain throne' again."
"D, are you pregnant?"
"I think I might be."
"Mortimer Goth, you never cease to amaze me. Well, I gotta go, D. I'll bring dinner, and I'll get you something light."
"Thanks, Nina."
"No problem. Bye!"
"Bye."
After she hung up the phone, she slipped back under the covers, and waited for Michael to come back. She heard him rummaging around downstairs, opening and closing cabinets and what sounded like the broom closet. A few minutes later she heard him coming up the stairs.
He opened the door, and Nina noticed he didn't have any soup in his hands, but a picture frame. She took a deep breath. Michael wasn't dumb, and it didn't take a genius to figure out anyway. She searched his eyes for any clue as to what was going on inside.
Finally he moved over and sat on the edge of the bed beside her. "Well, I guess I know the reason for the breakup."
She nodded and scooted a little closer. "He called me shortly after he found out about Bella. He didn't say a word about you, just that Bella was home, and that they were going to try to make their marriage work. I was furious."
"That is a hell of a way to break off an engagement."
"Thinking back on it, I wonder if he didn't do it deliberately."
"To make you so mad you wouldn't feel guilty when I got home?"
"Something like that. Break all the ties quickly, so there was nothing to hold me back, maybe."
"Sounds like him."
"Yeah it does." The last word was punctuated by another stomach grumble from Dina.
"Oh, God, the soup!" Michael jumped off the bed and tore out of the bedroom, as Dina chuckled.
A few minutes later Michael came back into the room, with two bowls of soup and glasses of water on a tv tray.
"I managed to save it, barely."
"My hero."
"Smart ass."
"No, I mean it, Michael."
"Thanks. Here, start eating and then you can tell me what's happened the last three years."
"Well, that's a long tale, we might finish before Nina gets home."
"Then start talking, love of my life."
Dina sat back and took a couple of bites of soup, before she got into her story.
"Well, things were fairly quiet after you died. I stayed in our apartment in the city, and Nina moved in with me. It was probably a good thing, I was in shock for at least a couple of months. Then I went back to work, focused on that. After about six months, Nina started worrying about me. Said I needed to date again, that you didn't want me to live the rest of my life as a nun."
"Well, no, I wouldn't want that. I wanted you to be happy."
"I know. I kept trying to tell her six months was too soon, but part of me wondered if she was right. I felt like I was buried along with you. That I was stuck in a coffin in the world but not part of it. I was seeing a therapist, but it wasn't helping."
"What happened?"
"Believe it or not, Don. He came over one day, started doing all the normal things a doctor would do when he's giving you a physical. He said his professional diagnosis was that I was in a funk. He prescribed a weekend fling with someone who knew me, someone I trusted, and someone who understood that this was just a fling."
"Himself in other words."
"Exactly. I almost turned him down, but part of me wanted out of the coffin, wanted to try anything that would get me living again. We did just what he suggested, rented a hotel room for the weekend, had wonderful casual sex, and when it was over I felt free for the first time in seven months.
"A month after that, Cassie and Don floored us all by announcing their engagement. Bella especially was suspicious of Don's intentions."
"Yeah she did tell me about that. She said Don invited her over one night for dinner, Cassie was supposed to arrive on her way home from work. While they waited for Cassie to arrive, he tried to make out with her, and she decked him. She says he apologized, and begged her to wait for Cassie, and they would both explain what was going on. Bella was just curious enough to agree, and while Don went downstairs to nurse his eye, and finish dinner she checked out the telescope. Then she said there was a bright light, and then the next thing she knew she was waking up to the grim reaper. She always worried that Cassie married him. But you said earlier she didn't. How did that happen?"
"Well,all this happened almost exactly a year after you died. I'd just bought this house, with the insurance money, about a week or two before. I wanted to get out of the city. So when all this happened, Cassie asked me to come over so she could explain it to all her family at once.
"We all met at Mortimer's place. Don and Cassie sat us down, and told us the whole story, or at least the parts they knew. First, Cassie wasn't in love with Don, the engagement wasn't real. She was actually in love with one of her colleagues, Pascal Curious. She said they'd had a couple of dates, and it looked like it might go somewhere, when all of the sudden he took a sabbatical to Three Lakes to work on some research project and hadn't contacted her for months. She had hoped that a phony engagement might shake things up. Oh and Cassie told us, she had arrived outside Don's just as the abduction took place so she saw the whole thing. We all waited for her return, and it never happened so the rumors really started flying."
"What about Cassie? What happened with her and that, Curious fellow?"
"Oh, well, Cassie and Don called off their engagement while everyone was in an uproar over Bella's disappearance. Poor Cassie, she'd just about given up on the guy. That's when Don and Mortimer got together and worked out a plan. They found out where Pascal was staying, flew Cassie up there in a helicopter, and then set her down right outside the cabin. The plan was for the two of them to talk, and she'd contact them if she needed the helicopter to get her.
"Did it work?"
"She married him a month later, and eight months after that she gave birth to a beautiful little girl they named Katherine Isabella."
"Oh that's beautiful."
"Yeah, we call her Katisa. Alex started it, and it caught on. Now everyone calls her that. Oh and Cassie found out why Pascal hadn't contacted her. It seems he'd been abducted and when he found out he was expecting he didn't want him and his child to be the newest research project at the lab they worked at. He'd went to Three Lakes to lie low until the baby was born. She was born shortly after Cassie arrived. They named her Galexia. And Mortimer spoils Lexi as much as he does Katisa."
Michael laughed, "I imagine he loves being a grandfather."
"Oh definitely. Well, after Bella had been gone six months, Mortimer asked me to come with him to a fundraising dinner. After the dinner, I invited him in for a nightcap, and we ended up having breakfast together."
"On the first date?"
Dina blushed a bit and nodded. "After that we started going out fairly regularly. When Bella had been gone a year, Mortimer had the marriage disolved due to abadonment, and we announced our engagement four months later. The wedding was supposed to be next month."
"You loved him?"
"Yeah. But not the way I loved, love you. I think he loved me too, just not like Bella."
"So, Dina."
"Yes?"
"If I asked you to marry me again, what would you say?"
Dina blinked, and a smile spread across her face like butter on a hot pan. "Yes!"
He grinned and pulled her against him, kissing her hair.
"Marry me, Dina. Marry me and make me the happiest man in the world a second time."
"Of course, I will! How about three weeks from Saturday?"
"Three weeks from Saturday?"
"Hey, I already paid for a wedding dress, I want to use it while it still fits."
"No don't go. It's just, I suppose it's my turn to explain."
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than a loud rumble escaped Michael's stomach. He flashed a sheepish smile, that turned into a smirk when Dina's stomach provided an echo.
"Hold onto that explanation, I'll go heat up some more of that soup and we'll have some dinner. Unless you want something more?"
"Not right now, but hand me my cell phone? I'll call Nina and ask her to pick up something for the three of us."
"Sounds good." Almost instinctively, he went to the pile of her discarded clothes rummaged around for a moment or two and then flipped the phone on the bed. "Glad to see somethings never change."
"Hey, I haven't washed one in seven months!"
"Yeah sure," he quipped with a wink. "I'll be back."
Dina picked up the phone, and hit the speed-dial button for Nina's cell.
"Hey D, what's up?"
"Nina, something amazing has happened tonight."
"Amazing like, you don't want me coming back to the house tonight, amazing?"
"Huh? Oh no, but I can't really explain it over the phone. I just wanted to ask you to pick up dinner on your way home. I'll pay for it."
"You'll pay? Wow, it must have been amazing."
"Funny, Nina. Oh, Nina, there'll be three of us tonight."
"Hmm, if it was Mortimer, he'd be insisting on paying the bill. Don would too, besides he's visiting Kaylyn and Baby Parker at her house this weekend."
"You'll never guess in a million years, Nina. Oh one last thing, don't make dinner to spicy, or at least mine. I've been 'worshipping at the porcelain throne' again."
"D, are you pregnant?"
"I think I might be."
"Mortimer Goth, you never cease to amaze me. Well, I gotta go, D. I'll bring dinner, and I'll get you something light."
"Thanks, Nina."
"No problem. Bye!"
"Bye."
After she hung up the phone, she slipped back under the covers, and waited for Michael to come back. She heard him rummaging around downstairs, opening and closing cabinets and what sounded like the broom closet. A few minutes later she heard him coming up the stairs.
He opened the door, and Nina noticed he didn't have any soup in his hands, but a picture frame. She took a deep breath. Michael wasn't dumb, and it didn't take a genius to figure out anyway. She searched his eyes for any clue as to what was going on inside.
Finally he moved over and sat on the edge of the bed beside her. "Well, I guess I know the reason for the breakup."
She nodded and scooted a little closer. "He called me shortly after he found out about Bella. He didn't say a word about you, just that Bella was home, and that they were going to try to make their marriage work. I was furious."
"That is a hell of a way to break off an engagement."
"Thinking back on it, I wonder if he didn't do it deliberately."
"To make you so mad you wouldn't feel guilty when I got home?"
"Something like that. Break all the ties quickly, so there was nothing to hold me back, maybe."
"Sounds like him."
"Yeah it does." The last word was punctuated by another stomach grumble from Dina.
"Oh, God, the soup!" Michael jumped off the bed and tore out of the bedroom, as Dina chuckled.
A few minutes later Michael came back into the room, with two bowls of soup and glasses of water on a tv tray.
"I managed to save it, barely."
"My hero."
"Smart ass."
"No, I mean it, Michael."
"Thanks. Here, start eating and then you can tell me what's happened the last three years."
"Well, that's a long tale, we might finish before Nina gets home."
"Then start talking, love of my life."
Dina sat back and took a couple of bites of soup, before she got into her story.
"Well, things were fairly quiet after you died. I stayed in our apartment in the city, and Nina moved in with me. It was probably a good thing, I was in shock for at least a couple of months. Then I went back to work, focused on that. After about six months, Nina started worrying about me. Said I needed to date again, that you didn't want me to live the rest of my life as a nun."
"Well, no, I wouldn't want that. I wanted you to be happy."
"I know. I kept trying to tell her six months was too soon, but part of me wondered if she was right. I felt like I was buried along with you. That I was stuck in a coffin in the world but not part of it. I was seeing a therapist, but it wasn't helping."
"What happened?"
"Believe it or not, Don. He came over one day, started doing all the normal things a doctor would do when he's giving you a physical. He said his professional diagnosis was that I was in a funk. He prescribed a weekend fling with someone who knew me, someone I trusted, and someone who understood that this was just a fling."
"Himself in other words."
"Exactly. I almost turned him down, but part of me wanted out of the coffin, wanted to try anything that would get me living again. We did just what he suggested, rented a hotel room for the weekend, had wonderful casual sex, and when it was over I felt free for the first time in seven months.
"A month after that, Cassie and Don floored us all by announcing their engagement. Bella especially was suspicious of Don's intentions."
"Yeah she did tell me about that. She said Don invited her over one night for dinner, Cassie was supposed to arrive on her way home from work. While they waited for Cassie to arrive, he tried to make out with her, and she decked him. She says he apologized, and begged her to wait for Cassie, and they would both explain what was going on. Bella was just curious enough to agree, and while Don went downstairs to nurse his eye, and finish dinner she checked out the telescope. Then she said there was a bright light, and then the next thing she knew she was waking up to the grim reaper. She always worried that Cassie married him. But you said earlier she didn't. How did that happen?"
"Well,all this happened almost exactly a year after you died. I'd just bought this house, with the insurance money, about a week or two before. I wanted to get out of the city. So when all this happened, Cassie asked me to come over so she could explain it to all her family at once.
"We all met at Mortimer's place. Don and Cassie sat us down, and told us the whole story, or at least the parts they knew. First, Cassie wasn't in love with Don, the engagement wasn't real. She was actually in love with one of her colleagues, Pascal Curious. She said they'd had a couple of dates, and it looked like it might go somewhere, when all of the sudden he took a sabbatical to Three Lakes to work on some research project and hadn't contacted her for months. She had hoped that a phony engagement might shake things up. Oh and Cassie told us, she had arrived outside Don's just as the abduction took place so she saw the whole thing. We all waited for her return, and it never happened so the rumors really started flying."
"What about Cassie? What happened with her and that, Curious fellow?"
"Oh, well, Cassie and Don called off their engagement while everyone was in an uproar over Bella's disappearance. Poor Cassie, she'd just about given up on the guy. That's when Don and Mortimer got together and worked out a plan. They found out where Pascal was staying, flew Cassie up there in a helicopter, and then set her down right outside the cabin. The plan was for the two of them to talk, and she'd contact them if she needed the helicopter to get her.
"Did it work?"
"She married him a month later, and eight months after that she gave birth to a beautiful little girl they named Katherine Isabella."
"Oh that's beautiful."
"Yeah, we call her Katisa. Alex started it, and it caught on. Now everyone calls her that. Oh and Cassie found out why Pascal hadn't contacted her. It seems he'd been abducted and when he found out he was expecting he didn't want him and his child to be the newest research project at the lab they worked at. He'd went to Three Lakes to lie low until the baby was born. She was born shortly after Cassie arrived. They named her Galexia. And Mortimer spoils Lexi as much as he does Katisa."
Michael laughed, "I imagine he loves being a grandfather."
"Oh definitely. Well, after Bella had been gone six months, Mortimer asked me to come with him to a fundraising dinner. After the dinner, I invited him in for a nightcap, and we ended up having breakfast together."
"On the first date?"
Dina blushed a bit and nodded. "After that we started going out fairly regularly. When Bella had been gone a year, Mortimer had the marriage disolved due to abadonment, and we announced our engagement four months later. The wedding was supposed to be next month."
"You loved him?"
"Yeah. But not the way I loved, love you. I think he loved me too, just not like Bella."
"So, Dina."
"Yes?"
"If I asked you to marry me again, what would you say?"
Dina blinked, and a smile spread across her face like butter on a hot pan. "Yes!"
He grinned and pulled her against him, kissing her hair.
"Marry me, Dina. Marry me and make me the happiest man in the world a second time."
"Of course, I will! How about three weeks from Saturday?"
"Three weeks from Saturday?"
"Hey, I already paid for a wedding dress, I want to use it while it still fits."