Ann: A Love Story Ch. 91

My eternal thanks to Annanova for editing this chapter. Your friendship means the world to me. I love how you inspire me to be better at this whole writing thing. Enjoy everyone.

© 2012, All rights reserved – mimaster

~*~*~*~*~*~

Leaning against the doorjamb, I stared into the empty room. Well, it was almost empty. The big, ornate trunk was there, sitting where I thought it would eventually end up, at the foot of a bed that had yet to be purchased. The sight of that trunk and the knowledge of the erotic treasure it hid underneath its locked lid brought a smile to my face. Yet it was a melancholy smile, one wrought with disappointment as I thought about how I wished things could be.

Feeling a hand touch me from behind, snaking around my waist, the hug I knew was coming made me sigh as I turned my head. The bright smile practically blinded me, my eyes blinking as I refocused on the angelic face looking up at me.

"You okay?" Carol asked, her sweet southern voice soothing in its tone and cadence.

"Yeah, why?" I responded not so convincingly.

"No you're not. What's wrong?"

"I...I'm just..." my voice lowered with my eyes, the sentence too much of a burden to continue.

Carol's fingers lifted my chin and her eyes caught mine, their brilliance captivating me. Pulling me into the bedroom by my hand, she sat on the floor, folding her legs underneath her as she patted the carpet to tell me to join her.

"You're supposed to be happy, Neil. Tell me what's wrong?"

"Carol...you need to get to work. I'm fine," I replied, all the while moving to the floor to join her.

"I've got time. Andy knows I'm helping you move a couple of things."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Actually, I needed Carol to help me move just one thing...the trunk. Ann had somehow gotten it into the back of her Honda Civic when she brought it out from Indiana. But the angle on the hatchback of my Nissan was different, not opening wide enough to get the big chest inside. Carol offered to bring it from the hotel to the house in the back of her pickup.

It was strange bringing it down on the luggage cart. It was stranger still that that was the last item left in my hotel room. I'd packed up my car with the rest of my things, so as we wheeled the chest through the lobby, I stopped by the front desk to drop off what had been my house keys for the last two months. Oddly, it was a much more emotional moment than I'd anticipated.

Of course, most of that emotion came from Heather, who had insisted on coming in during her off-hours to be the one to check me out. Tears were streaming down her face as she handed me the bill to sign. I wasn't actually paying it – my company was – but I had to autograph the paperwork.

"I can't believe you're leaving," she said as she put the forms in a big folder marked 'Armada'.

"I'm not leaving, Heather. I'm just moving. I'm still going to be around."

"Not like you have been. I won't see you again after this," she sniffed, staring at the countertop, unable to look me in the eyes.

"Sure you will. Why wouldn't you?" I laughed.

"Because...you'll be married. And in your new house."

Carol stepped up to the counter and patted Heather on the arm. "I know you only met Ann briefly, Heather, but you've talked to her dozens of times. Has she ever given you the impression that that's the kind of person she is? Or Neil for that matter?"

A tiny smile appeared on her face as she slowly shook her head. "No."

"Good. Because if you think they're going to forget you, you're crazy. That's not how Ann thinks. That's not how either of them think."

Leaning down a little, I glanced into her face to make eye contact. "She's right, Heather. You're our friend and that has nothing to do with where we live. It's all about how we feel about you. Where we live doesn't factor into the equation at all."

"That's good to know," she sighed. "Still, I'm going to miss seeing you every day. Well, almost every day."

"Me too. But that doesn't mean we won't ever see each other again. And it doesn't mean I'll ever forget you."

"I won't forget you either."

Carol cackled, "How could you? He fucked your ass right where you're standing. I bet you'll think about that every day you work for the rest of your life!"

~*~*~*~*~*~

Carol helped me take the trunk into the house. She even stuck around and helped me unload my car, bringing clothes inside so I could put them away in the closet. She'd commented on how much she loved the house, as well as the couch and loveseat that were in the living room. Those were the first official pieces of furniture Ann and I had bought together, with the notable exception of the trunk full of sex toys now strategically placed in the master bedroom.

As I leaned my back against the trunk, Carol looked into my eyes, trying to get a read on my sudden mood change.

"Are you going to tell me?" she asked.

"It's just...I wish I wasn't bringing my bride back here and making her sleep on a hide-a-bed, that's all."

"What?"

"We couldn't afford to buy a bed yet. We needed to get a washer and dryer, and Ann didn't want to have the living room empty. I just wish I could have bought us a bed. We'll end up spending our first night in our new house sleeping on a bed inside a couch."

"Sleeping...you mean fucking, right?" she laughed.

"Ha...well, both I suppose," I replied, trying to laugh at her comment, but still feeling sorry for myself, and for Ann.

"But she knows that though, right? I mean, you must have bought the couch with that in mind."

"Yeah, we had to make choices. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Neil, I don't understand. If you talked about it, I'm sure she's okay with it. Besides, you're bringing a bed when you move out, right?"

"Yeah, but it won't be here until the day after we come back. Maybe two days...the movers weren't sure. They may have another stop or two on the way because we don't have enough stuff to fill out the entire trailer."

"Okay, so what's the big deal? So you have to spend a night or two on the hide-a-bed. I'm sure you'll make the best of it," she winked.

"Of course we will, Carol. You just don't understand," I barked, my anger rising.

Her hand returned to my arm, trying to calm me even though she didn't know why I was upset. "Neil, this isn't like you. What's really bothering you?"

Taking a deep breath, I let it all out; the angst and the built up frustration coming to a boil. "Ann deserves a bed, Carol. And I can't buy her one yet, because we don't have the money. We had to shell out a lot for the stuff we did buy, we had to put a deposit down on the house, and it just hurts that I had to tell her we couldn't do it right now."

"You have one in mind, don't you?" Carol said, her intuition kicking in.

"Yeah. We picked one out at the store where we bought the couches," I nodded as I stared at the carpet. "Two, actually. There was an amazing king-sized one that we both fell in love with. But we know it's too expensive. Actually, so is the queen-sized one we picked out, but at least we'll be able to afford that a lot sooner."

"Didn't you go all the way to Virginia to buy the couches?" she asked, recalling a casual conversation we'd had earlier in the day.

Giving her more detail, I replied, "Yeah, Ann wanted to go visit where I grew up. It's about sixty miles south of here. We toured the town and ended up walking by the furniture store on Main Street. She thought it was, well, she called it quaint. She liked the idea of buying our furniture there since I used to live in that town, and they were willing to deliver."

"Wow, that's so neat."

"Yeah, but I had to make her choose. First between the couch and loveseat or a bed, and then between the beds...when we actually get around to getting one. I know she loves the bigger bed. Hell, so do I...but we're years from being able to afford that. So, she gracefully said she likes the queen because she knows we can get it sooner. It just hurts."

"Okay, but she understands, right?"

Looking up into Carol's eyes, she saw the tear running down my cheek and it caught her off-guard. "Yes she does. I'm not so sure I would if I were her."

"Neil...what in the world –"

"It's my ex-wife, Carol. For the first time, having an ex is biting me in the ass, and Ann is the one who has to suffer because of it!"

"What?"

"She has an eating disorder."

"Who...Ann?"

"God no. My ex. She had it when we started dating."

"I don't understand."

"When things got serious, I told her she needed to get help. In fact, I insisted on it. I told her I couldn't be with someone that wouldn't do what they could to make sure they were around for a future to begin with. So, she checked into the hospital. It cost twenty grand because her insurance wouldn't cover it. And I got custody of that bill when we divorced."

"But you weren't married when she went in."

"No, but I signed for it. I felt I had to, because I pushed her to get help."

"Well that was silly. She should have never stuck you with that."

"As opposed to sticking me with the depression that came from her screwing around on me?"

"I'm not saying that, Neil. It's just that she owned the eating disorder, not you."

"Uh, she still owns it, just like she owns spreading her legs for any guy that smiles at her. That doesn't change the fact that I have to pay for it. And now, so does Ann."

"Wait, she STILL owns it? You mean she's still doing it?"

"I never said it cured her. That's part of her entire problem. She's a gorgeous woman, but what she sees in the mirror isn't what everyone else sees. Of course, the problem is really on the inside. That's where she's ugly. She gets that from her mother."

Carol laughed and said, "Yeah, it's always about the mother."

"I'm serious, Carol. Her mother is a bitch. She used to ride her as a kid because of how much she ate. Hell, she did it as an adult too, even when she was in the hospital trying to get better. That emotional abuse is what led to the eating disorder."

"Is that why she slept around on you?"

"That was her reasoning, but that's a load of crap. I can accept that her mother drove her to become bulimic, because I've seen how she's been treated. I can only imagine what that was like as a teenager growing up. But that's no excuse for what she did to me. Just because a guy tells you you're pretty, that doesn't mean you rip off your clothes and spread your legs for him."

"You're right. But it doesn't surprise me that she used that as an excuse."

"Yeah, well, that's all behind me now, except for the payments. It just hurts that I had to tell Ann that she has to wait for the bed. I mean, we could have gone without the washer and dryer, but she said she didn't want to deal with a Laundromat. I can understand why she wouldn't want to, so we had to make a choice."

"She must have been okay with it, Neil. I can't see her as the type to get angry or upset over it."

"Oh no, she'd never do that. She knew about the divorce settlement. I told her, but I didn't think my past would come up so soon. I was hoping we could pull it off, we just need too many things. Hell, our dining room table is going to be an old card table for a while. We'll manage. It's just that she's going to be a bride... she deserves the bedroom of her dreams."

"I'm sure if you asked her, she'd tell you that whatever baggage you bring into the marriage caused by your ex, she'll gladly deal with it."

"I suppose," I sighed, my spirits actually lifted up a little. "Thanks Carol."

Leaning over, she kissed me on the cheek. "You're more than welcome, sweetie. It's going to be fine. Ann's going to love coming home to this house, no matter where she sleeps, because she gets to sleep with you. She's not just getting the bedroom of her dreams, or the house of her dreams, Neil... she's getting the husband of her dreams."

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was a little hard for me to believe that I was already there. Yet as I passed the decorative sign announcing the little town I used to call home, I checked the clock on the dashboard of my car. Indeed, I'd made the trip in well under the normal nine plus hours it usually took. In fact, it was closer to eight.

Yes, I'd driven a little faster than I usually did for part of the trip. Still, I couldn't help feeling I was getting a little payback for having to endure the same trip in the other direction just four days before. Somehow I'd managed to cut almost six hours off that nightmarish journey.

Instead of dealing with thousands of holiday travelers returning home late on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the return trip was during the day and during the week. Traffic was light to say the least. I'd also missed rush hour around every major metropolis along the route, most notably Columbus, where I knew I needed to watch my speed a lot more carefully. The end result was that I found myself sitting at one of the two stoplights in town a little after four in the afternoon.

"I think I'll go surprise Ann," I said as my hand rested on the gearshift, my foot revving the engine as I waited for the light to turn green so I could let out the clutch.

It would be a surprise because I'd never told her that Andy, the company VP, had given me Wednesday and Thursday off. It wasn't like I went out of my way to keep it a secret. It was more that I was rushing around trying to get things done, and with the daunting task of moving out of the hotel, it kind of slipped my mind. And Ann had been busy too. We were down to the final few days before the wedding and I knew she was going over her list of items that still needed to be done, checking them off one by one.

I smiled as I turned the corner and saw her parents' house, the little blue Honda parked out front along the street. I pulled into the driveway, letting the engine idle as I coasted to a stop. My heart was pounding with excitement as I quietly got out of the car. I couldn't wait to see her face. I couldn't wait to have her in my arms once again.

Ringing the doorbell, I felt like a teenager showing up for a date. I was anxious. I was nervous. I was...horny.

I was surprised. The door swung open, the shriek filling the air as I soon found myself enveloped in a death squeeze. "Oh my GOODNESS! NEIL!"

"Hi Jean," I groaned as I held onto Ann's mom, feeling the air in my lungs being hugged out of me.

"What are you doing here?" she said as she kissed me on the cheek.

"I'm marrying your daughter. I figured it would be a good idea if I came back for that."

She started cackling, a small tear running down her cheek as she stared at my goofy grin. "That's a great idea. I'm just amazed to see you so soon.

"I was hoping to surprise Ann, but I'm sure she heard you."

"Surprise her?"

"Uh...yeah," I answered bashfully.

Jean looked in my eyes, hers rolling. "Men!"

"What?"

"You aren't looking to surprise her, Neil. You were looking for something else."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," shaking my head, playing dumb.

She arched her eyebrow and cracked, "You're going to have to settle for me instead."

"Excuse me?" My eyes bugged out, which had her laughing even harder as we stood on the front stoop.

"See, I knew you were looking for something a little more...intimate. Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait until you're married."

"Wow, you've become strict since the last time I saw you."

"Oh, it's not like I could stop you if I wanted to. I'm sure if she was here, she'd be all over you. Probably right here on the porch," she cackled.

"She's not here?"

"No. Tina picked her up in a limo a half hour ago. They're on their way to Fort Wayne."

"What?"

"Bachelorette Party. Remember?"

"But it's only four-thirty."

"I think they were going to Tina's to get ready first. But they're gone. I'm afraid you won't get to see her until tomorrow at the rehearsal."

"Wow."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I know you're disappointed."

"I guess I hurried home for nothing."

"I wouldn't say that. Aren't you going out with Matt tonight?"

"I guess so, but that hardly makes up for not getting to see Ann."

"Aw...it's sweet of you to say that," she grinned, patting my cheek lovingly. "Don't be disappointed. Just remember, you're less than two days from never having to worry about that again."

~*~*~*~*~*~

That was a heady thought. The wedding actually was less than forty-eight hours away. As I let the hot water run over me in my parents' shower, I wished I could fast-forward time. It seemed like I'd been waiting for Ann forever in some way, shape or form. I was tired of waiting. I was ready to be married; ready to be with her for the rest of my life.

What I wasn't ready for was my bachelor party. The only reason I was getting ready at all was because of Matt. Ann had insinuated that he had gone to a lot of trouble to plan something for me. Washing my hair, I was resigned to going through with it. What I was struggling with was working up any enthusiasm. I'd been so excited about seeing Ann that when she wasn't there, the letdown was intense.

"Knock it off, Thomas!" I scolded myself. "She's out having a good time with her friends. She wants you to have fun too. So stop moping and enjoy the night!"

I didn't talk in the third person often, but when I did, it was usually because I was angry with myself. In this case, I needed a good talking to...and I was the only one there to do it. Matt was an incredible friend. He'd saved me in so many ways during those lonely months when the depression from my divorce was threatening to swallow my soul.

Time and again he pulled me out of my parents' house, often when I was in no mood to face the world. Yet I always ended up happy; thankful that he put up with my initial crap and refusing to take no for an answer. To give him the impression now that I didn't want to go when things were great in my life wasn't fair. Besides, Ann had said it before about her own party. The night wasn't just about me...it was about my friends too.

Once I finished lecturing myself, I actually felt good. Having gotten home early, I was able to take a little nap, although it was a short restless one. Jean had been right. I'd been excited to see Ann, but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't an ulterior motive. I was hoping we'd be able to fuck, or at the very least have some kind of oral sex. While I was horny, it wasn't like I needed to cum so bad that I couldn't stand it. I just longed to be close to her, to feel her body against mine...to feel her loving touch and sweet, tender kisses.

My new outlook improved my mood. Being with Matt was going to be fun, no matter what he had in store. Still, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly that was. Based on the little hints I'd been given, I knew it was likely to be something sexual in nature, and that whatever happened, Ann had pre-approved it. With that in mind, I decided to go with the flow and just enjoy the night.

I'd called Matt to let him know that I'd gotten home a lot earlier than I'd expected. He was ecstatic, going on and on about how he could now give me the Complete Bachelor Party Experience he'd been planning all along. He said he'd pick me up a little after 6PM, and hung up to make some calls. While it was sooner than I'd expected the night to start, it also allowed me a chance to rest and get ready, something I'd needed more than I thought. When the limo pulled up in front of the house right on time, I was actually excited and ready to go.

The driver opened the door and I climbed into the back to see Matt beaming, as were three of my other friends that he'd obviously invited along for the evening. Two of them, Ben and Adam, were guys I'd met through Matt; guys we played a lot of sports with over the last year and a half or so. The other was Ted, my closest friend from my old job. They were more excited than I was, but just seeing them, I knew we were going to have a blast.