Kerry Heavens - Still Human

We fill out the papers and choose Liv a small bouquet from the flower shop, then we walk around to the cute white Victorian Chapel. While we wait for a few minutes, we’re quiet as a group. I watch our friends. Following our lead, they’re all holding hands. Jen and Scott sit on a leather couch in the marble reception and Jen is speaking softly to Scott, while he strokes his thumb back and forth across the back of her hand. She giggles at his reply. It makes me happy to see them like this despite the stress they have gone through recently.

Charlie and Max are standing by the window. Max lifts their intertwined hands to his lips and kisses Charlie’s fingers. Charlie smiles shyly and smoothes Max’s collar. Max smiles. They’re so different at home than they seem separately and in moments like this, amongst friends, they can be so tender. I’m grateful for my time living with them so that I could really get to know them. I hope Liv and I are as happy after six years together.

Liv squeezes my hand. “Nervous?” she asks.

“No.” I shake my head. “Happy.” I kiss her on the cheek as she just reapplied the gloss that makes me want to get messy.

“We’re ready for you now,” says a lady from the doorway. We walk in as a group and Liv and I don’t let go of each other once until the minister asks us to place rings on each other’s fingers. Then we go right back to holding hands. It’s a simple ceremony, because I still want our wedding two weeks ago to be the real one in our memories. This is just a renewal to me.

We have some photos taken outside, it was part of the package, like the flowers. But aside from the included extras, we don’t really want all the Vegas crap added on. I chose this place because it wasn’t tacky. It’s still Vegas, but it’s nice.

“Thank you,” Liv whispers while we pose with our friends for a shot with Jen’s camera.

“Anytime.” I smile. “Mrs Morgan.”

The limo is waiting when we’re all done and we hit the town. Dinner, Chinese at Liv’s request, was amazing, thanks to Scott’s insider knowledge. I parade Liv around in her dress, showing her off like I just won the grand prize. We get a few congratulations from strangers and each one lifts me slightly higher. We wander through the casino back at the Bellagio and decide to have celebratory game or two. Then it happens. I find out something about my wife that I never knew.

My. Girl. Plays. Poker.

“What are you doing to me?” I whisper in her ear.

“What?” She looks puzzled.

“Poker? You’re killing me. Do you have any idea how hot that is? I’m in enough trouble around you already.” I shake my head.

“We play at the bar sometimes, Connie taught me.”

Can she get any more perfect? Not only that but she and Max are good. In the end, us lesser mortals give up trying and gather around them at a table. She’s something to watch. Does she go around doing stuff like learning how to play poker, just to make herself more irresistible to me? She must. I’m literally hard. I already have enough trouble with the mental image of her behind the wheel of the Shelby, now I have to have her at a poker table at the Bellagio wearing her wedding dress rolling around in my head too. I won’t get anything done!

Then she does something only a woman could do, she quits while she’s ahead and walks away $600 up.

“I have to have you right now!” I tell her as I scoop her into my arms.

Laughing, she pouts. “But I want to dance.”

I sigh. “Seriously, you’re going to be the end of me. You think I can go rub myself up against you when I already feel like this?” I settle her down and pull her tight so she can feel the extent of my predicament.

She smirks and presses in. “You’ll survive. Besides, anticipation is half the fun.”

“Jesus,” I mutter and follow her to cash in her chips.

We end up at The Bank, the club inside the Bellagio and Liv drags me straight out onto the dance floor. This is another experience I’ve yet to have with her. We danced at our wedding and a couple of times when there was live music in the bar. But we have never been to a club together. Our friends join us and it’s clear that we both have the same setup with our friends. Scott doesn’t dance and Jen loves it, so I was usually her dance partner. It seems like Max and Liv dance and Charlie doesn’t so much. Well tonight everyone makes an effort. Before long Charlie and Scott head to the bar, leaving Liv to torture me and Max to more than adequately partner Jen.

Liv can move. I mean it was obvious. She is unbelievable at everything else and I’ve seen her move her body in countless other ways. How could she be bad? But I’m in serious trouble, like the elevator last night but with about a thousand more witnesses. She faces away from me, but that doesn’t mean I’m safe. She backs all the way up against me and the rhythm she is keeping with her hips ensures I don’t get a break.

When I see that Scott and Charlie have secured a small table near the dance floor, I suggest we go cool down. I signal to Jen and she grabs Max and follows. They’ve got beers and cocktails waiting.

“Those had better be virgins,” Liv shouts to Scott.

“Well you sure as hell ain’t sweetheart!” he jokes.

Liv laughs, but clocks him in the arm anyway. She grins as she takes a gulp of her virgin daiquiri and winks at me. Seriously? How long do I have to put up with this shit before I can take her upstairs? I have maybe thirty minutes left in me and that’s it. After that I can’t be held accountable for my actions. After a quick pit stop, the girls drag Max and I back out onto the floor.

Liv turns and wraps her arms around my neck, looking in my eyes as she moves. We can’t talk, it’s too loud, but she says everything she wants to in that look.

I love you too, baby, you’re everything to me.

“I was just imagining them…”

“Oh don’t, I was fighting that mental image.” He cringes.

“No, but just think of how exciting this is for them.” I point out as Danny winces again.

“Please stop telling me to think of them. I’ll never be able to get it out of my head.” He laughs, but shifts me off him. “Can we put the TV on or something before I start freaking out.” He shudders.

“Oh stop being a baby!” I laugh. Grabbing the remote and scooting under the covers. “What do you fancy?” I ask casually. “Knocked up? Nine months? Oooh, what about What to expect when you’re expecting?” I tease.

He narrows his eyes and presses his lips together, suppressing the smirk. “You’re evil,” he says, getting in bed beside me.

“Come on, laugh. This is quite funny and the more positive we are about it, the easier it will get.”

“It’s just…” He shudders again. “THAT bit of me…it’s IN…THAT bit of her.” Another shudder. “I know I didn’t put it there, but it’s there. That’s weird isn’t it?” His face twists in disgust. “I’d imagined myself blissfully oblivious when it happened. Not sat here waiting for their Skype call.” He pulls the sheet over his head and starts rocking, hugging his knees. I’m beside myself by this point, hysterical and no help whatsoever.

“Thanks for your support!” he says huffily from under the covers.

“Oh don’t! I have to pee!” I leap up and run to our bathroom. The new house certainly has its advantages. Right now, my favourite thing is the number of bathrooms at my disposal, because this baby took up residence on my bladder about six weeks ago and seems to like it there.

When I come back into the bedroom, Danny is still rocking under the covers. I pull them back and he grimaces.

“I don’t think I can talk to them, can you just tell them I had to run to the bar?”

“No! It’s you they want to tell.” I wrap my arms around him and nuzzle his neck.

“Hmmm, that’s nice.” He sighs.

I drop a kiss behind his ear where he likes it. He rolls his head to the side, a clear invitation, which I accept, scraping my teeth on his earlobe. He groans and has me on my back in two seconds flat.

He stares at me and touches the end of his nose to mine. His lips curl into a tender smile that melts my heart. Then he raises his eyebrow and smirks as he presses himself against me.

Just then his laptop trills from the end of the bed.

“Oh for the love of…” Danny strops and drops down beside me.

I pat his shoulder. “Get used to it babe, because in a few days this little one will be calling all the shots.”

“Ugh!” He groans, adjusting himself.

I grab the laptop and settle it on my knees and Danny yanks the sheet over his head, beside me.

“Hello!” I say happily as Jen and Scott appear on my screen.

“Hey!” they both reply in unison.

“Where’s Danny?” Jen asks.

“Being a big baby.” I laugh, elbowing him.

He waves his hand outside the sheets and I pull them off him.

“Hi,” he says reluctantly.

“Oh there he is,” says Scott. “The man who just tried to knock-up my wife!” He shakes his head slowly. “People have been trying to tell me for years it would happen, but would I listen?”

Danny groans and tries to cover himself back over. I don’t let him, while Jen tells Scott off for teasing.

“So how did it go?” I ask Jen, Trying to ignore the boys

“Great!” She grins. “It all went smoothly, so now we just wait.”

“And you can find out in a couple of weeks?”

“Yeah, but we aren’t getting our hopes up. We know the odds, so we’re just trying to put it out of our minds.”

“Oh Jen, it will work, I just know it, we will get there eventually.”

“Eventually,” she says. “It’s a long road. But thank you.” Then she speaks just to Danny. “Thank you for what you’ve done, I’ll never forget it.”