After dropping Kyle off, Justin drove back to the apartment and opened the door expecting to find Adelyn lounging around somewhere after a long day’s work at the station. Instead, he found her at the kitchen table looking over stacks of brochures and catalogs. He patted his pocket to make sure the ring box was still there, and then sat across from her at the table with a huge grin on his face.
“Good evening, Miss Adelyn,” he said, propping his head up on the palm of his hand.
“Hey,” she replied, but barely looked up at him as she reached over and yanked a piece of paper out from underneath his elbow.
Justin put his hands in lap and stared at her. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked slowly.
She stopped shuffling through papers and looked up at him. “Justin can’t you see that I’m busy here? The wedding’s in less than a month and I still have all these things to order.”
“I can help,” Justin offered. “It is my wedding, too, after all.”
“We don’t even have wedding bands yet!”
“Speaking of rings…” he trailed off, reaching down into his pocket.
“I don’t think you understand,” she said while she made more stacks and piles. “We don’t have a caterer or music. We haven’t even really talked about it!”
“Adelyn, there’s something I wanted to—”
“Justin!” she exclaimed, interrupting him. “Look at these papers… How did we ever think that we’d get this done in time!?”
“Adelyn, calm d—”
She held two brochures up to him. “Look at these. This place serves my father’s favorite dish, but this one, this one offers that expensive china my mother likes so much. How am I supposed to pick!?”
“Pick what YOU like!” Justin said, but he must have said it a little too loudly, because both sheets tumbled from Adelyn’s fingers and fluttered to the table. The expression on her face was one of shock. If he didn’t know any better, he would have sworn she was going to start crying.
“How can you say that?” she breathed. “I can’t just pick! I know I haven’t said much about my parents, but Justin… if they’re paying for this wedding, then they’re going to want to see it done their way. Not mine.”
“Fine, then pick what they want,” he said calmly. “It’s not a big deal.”
Adelyn put her head down on the table and sighed. “I’m so stressed… I think I’m going to pass out under this pressure.”
Justin let go of the ring box and pulled his hand from his pocket. Maybe now wasn’t such a great time to give her the ring. All she would do is question him about where he got the money for it. And what was worse, was the fact that he didn’t even know what to say to make her feel any better. Instead, he just sat there, staring at the top of her head.
She finally sat up to stare back at him. “Well, aren’t you going to say anything?”
“I love you,” he tried, a smile spreading over his face. “Does that help?”
“I love you, too, Justin,” she sighed. “But these plans are driving me nuts. When my father asked if he could hire a wedding planner, I should have said yes.”
“A wedding planner?”
“That’s exactly what I thought. What do we need a wedding planner for? It’s not going to be a huge wedding, I thought. I can handle it myself…” She looked over at him with helpless eyes. “What was I thinking!?”
Justin shrugged. He didn’t want to say anything else to upset her.
“Go watch TV or something,” she said, waving him off. “I’ll work on this for a while and then join you.”
Justin reached back into his pocket and set the ring box on the table. “I have something for you,” he mumbled. “Phil and I went down to the jewelry shop…” he trailed off, watching as she reached for the box and flipped the lid open. “You deserve more than I can give you,” he went on, “but this is it.”
Adelyn didn’t say anything. She just stared at the ring so intently, that he couldn’t even read the look in her eyes.
“I hope you like it,” he added, sitting up straighter in his seat, awaiting any sort of response. “Kyle was mad he didn’t get to come and pick it out, but I wasn’t going to let him get out of class…” he kept right on rambling, “It’s okay, isn’t it?”
Still, she didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t pick out the ugliest ring in the store, did I?” he demanded.
She hid her face in her hands, and as far as Justin could tell, she had started to cry.
Justin stood up from his spot and went over to comfort her. “Is it really that ugly?” he wanted to know. “I swear, I tried my best. Phil and Kyle both said it was okay.” He paused when she just continued to sob. “We can’t ALL have bad taste… can we!?”
He pulled her up from the chair and into his arms, rocking her softly. “Seriously, Adelyn, is it that hideous?”
“Here I am,” she sobbed into his chest, “going on and on about how many problems I’m having with planning this wedding, and there you were, sitting there patiently waiting to give me the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’m such a horrible person!”
Justin frowned. “Maybe the stress of this is getting to you more than you think…” he muttered. “Maybe you should lie down and let your sister help with the plans instead. This is nothing to be so upset about. Here…” He grabbed the ring box from the table, took out the ring and then tossed the box back down to the table. “Give me your finger, and we’ll make this official.”
She only held him tighter. “You already gave me a ring, Justin. I don’t need two of them.”
“I told you,” he said in her ear. “That one was only temporary until I had saved up enough money to buy you a new one. Now that I have, I want you to wear it on your finger.”
With a sniff, Adelyn pulled away and held her hand out to him. “Good,” she said with a chuckle as she wiped away her tears with the back of her other hand. “I didn’t want to argue about it anymore. Put it on, Justin!”
Justin pulled the claddagh ring off of her finger and then slipped the diamond on. “It’s perfect,” he observed, holding her hand up so he could see it more closely. He put the claddagh ring on her right ring finger and grinned at her. “You still wanna marry me, don’t you?”
“Justin, I don’t know how to tell you this…”
“What!?”
Even before he could even start to panic about what her response would be, she threw her arms back around him and pressed her lips against his. When they parted, Justin’s breath was ragged. She grinned at him.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?” he said, looking back at her with awe.
“Yes, I still wanna marry you!”
It was Justin’s turn to grin, and as he did, he lifted her up from her feet. He was about to carry her to the bedroom, when the phone interrupted his thought process.
“Ignore that,” he said, and took another step toward the bedroom.
“Oh! Justin, put me down. I was expecting a call from the florist.” When he did nothing but look at her with pleading eyes, she forced herself down. Justin watched her dash to the phone, which was now on its third ring. Two seconds later, she was shoving it into Justin’s chest. “For you. It’s your brother.”
Justin sighed as he put the phone to his ear. “Not a good time, Kyle.”
“Try Phil,” his brother’s voice came back at him. “And what’s so bad about calling at six? Are you eating dinner?”
Justin couldn’t even reply.
“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Phil went on, “I need your help.”
“With what?” Justin demanded as he leaned back against the wall with a sigh.
“I’m planning… well, a party for… a friend. And I just wanted to ask you… well, let’s just say that this was something like a bachelor party for someone like you, and this person who’s someone like you is marrying someone like Adelyn. Would someone like Adelyn let someone like you have strippers at this sort of bachelor party that’s not really for you?”
Justin froze. “What?”
“I asked Lalie, and she said, no way, but I thought maybe Adelyn would perhaps feel differently?” he wondered in a hopeful tone.
“Let me get this straight… you’re throwing a bachelor party for me and want to know if Adelyn will be okay with strippers being there?”
Adelyn looked up from the brochures at the table. “No, I’m not okay with that,” she said, her eyes wide.
“That’s not exactly what I said,” Phil added in. “I’m not talking about YOUR bachelor party. I said it’s a friend’s party. Not necessarily a bachelor party.”
Justin almost laughed. “You are the worst liar that I’ve ever met. And no, Adelyn is not okay with having strippers at my bachelor party.”
“It’s not your party, damn it!”
“Phil…”
“What’s that, Justin? You say Adelyn thinks it would be okay to have strippers at my friend’s party?”
“Phil!”
“Great! Well, I’ll talk to you later!”
Justin was left listening to dead air. He chuckled nervously for Adelyn’s sake. “Okay, then, Phil,” he said into the phone. “See you soon!”
Chapter 21
Keeping the Peace
Family: Timberlake
Non-Nsync Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email Me