Not Yet Yours

Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

Liam

I gently put a finger on her lips, and she stops talking and peers at me from beneath her eyelashes.

“The fact that you are so reluctant to have me spoil you is one of the reasons I want to. I have known girls who want to date me simply because they want gifts and the lifestyle I can give them. I love that you are not like that. But I need you to meet me halfway and allow me to spoil you a bit because that’s what I want to do. And if it makes you feel better, let me put this into perspective for you. I am going to sound like an absolute asshole here, but I think you need to hear it,” I say.

Harriet nods for me to go on. She doesn’t look nervous anymore, just curious as to what I’m going to say.

“By the time I book the extra rooms for our moms and for Cullen and Max, plus pay for the wedding ceremony, the rings, the dress, and my suit, Cullen’s suit, and Max’s dress and something for our moms to wear, plus all the other things we’ll need for the wedding, like flowers, the buffet and so on. I have probably missed stuff but are you with me so far?” I ask.

“Yes,” Harriet says.

“Right, so the wedding, the trip, and the epic party we’re going to throw when we’re back home,” I say. “I don’t know exactly how much it will all cost, but going off a reasonable guess, the amount it will cost is about the equivalent of you buying me a coffee.”

Harriet blinks at me a couple of times, but she doesn’t say anything, and I hope I haven’t sounded too much like a douchebag.

“And not even an artisan coffee at that,” I add in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit.

It works. Harriet smiles at me.

“I hope you’re not implying I would skimp on the coffee Mister,” she says.

“Never,” I laughed, holding my hands up in surrender. I turn serious again. “I’m just trying to make you see that I can afford to spoil you and I want to. I don’t have a hope of spending all my money in my lifetime. I donate to charity, I put money aside for if I have kids for their college or whatever and I live a luxury lifestyle and I still won’t come close to it. I have ordered you a credit card to use and if you max it out every day for the rest of your life, I will still be rich. Do you understand what I am saying and why I am telling you all of this?”

“Well, yes, it’s obvious that you just want to show off and make me feel like crap because I don’t have a shit ton of money,” Harriet says.

She looks down at her lap and her shoulders shake slightly. Oh, fucking hell, she’s crying. This hasn’t gone how I wanted it to go at all.

“Harriet no, that’s not what I meant at all,” I start and then she looks up and I see she’s not crying. She’s laughing. She thumps me playfully in the arm, and I relax. She’s just winding me up.

“Yes, I know why you told me,” she says. “But I couldn’t resist that, sorry.”

“I will get you back you know,” I say, and we both laugh. We sit for a minute and then I stand up and offer Harriet my hand which she takes, and I help her up. “Come on, let’s go and choose an obscenely expensive engagement ring.”

“Not too big though, remember I have to carry this bad boy on my finger every day,” she says.

We’re laughing again as we head to the jewelry store and go inside.

“Hello Sir, Ma’am,” a man greets us as we enter the store. “My name is Michael. How can I help you today?”

“We’d like to see some engagement rings please,” I say. “Diamond?” I look at Harriet and she nods. “Yellow gold?” I look at her again and she shakes her head. “White gold?” She nods this time and I turn my focus properly to Michael. “Diamond rings please, white gold. Nothing below a three-carat.”

Michael nods to me. “Would you like something to drink while you try on rings? Perhaps some champagne to celebrate the occasion?”

I look at Harriet and she nods and smiles at me.

“Sure,” I tell Michael.

“Excellent,” he replies and disappears behind the counter and through a door there. He comes back a few moments later with a large tray with a good selection of rings on it as well as two glasses of bubbling champagne. He puts it down on the counter in front of us.

“Thank you,” I say, grabbing one of the flutes and handing it to Harriet, and taking the other for myself.

“To forever,” I hold my glass to Harriet’s, and she repeats me as we clink glasses.

“Do any of them jump out at you?” I ask after we have both taken a sip.

She points to a pretty princess cut ring and Michael slides it out of the little holder and hands it to her. She puts it on, lifts her hand up, and smiles.

“What do you think?” she says.

“I like it,” I tell her. “But I want you to choose something you like because you’re going to be wearing it. Try a few others, see if any look better on than you thought they would.”

Harriet nods and for the next ten minutes, she points at various rings and tries them on while we slowly sip from our matching flutes. She keeps coming back to her first choice and eventually, she runs out of options.

“Definitely this one then,” I say.

She nods.

“We’ll take this one,” I say.

Michael nods and begins measuring Harriet’s finger for the right size. He makes a note of it.

“Will there be anything else today?” he asks, looking between Harriet and me.

“Wedding rings,” I say.

“You’re very organized,” Michael says with a smile.

“Just a very short engagement,” I laugh. “We have a trip booked in two months’ time and we decided to do it there.”

“So much easier than organizing an entire wedding,” Michael says with a smile. “What kind of wedding band would you like?”

I look at Harriet.

“Something plain for me,” she says. I open my mouth to argue but she shakes her head and explains quickly. “I’ve always liked just a plain gold band, but could it possibly be white gold to match my engagement ring?”

I glance at Michael who nods to confirm that is possible.

“And just a plain yellow-gold band for me, please,” I say.

“Very well,” Michael says, and he disappears and returns again.

This time, he has two smaller trays, one with yellow gold bands, which he places down in front of me, and one with white gold bands, which he places down in front of Harriet.

We both select a band. They are both plain and mine is a little thicker than Harriet’s. Michael measures my finger and notes that down.

“Let me get those ordered for you,” he says.

He goes to a computer and types for a bit and then he comes back with a printed copy of the order which he hands to me.

“Will you be paying now or when you collect the rings, Sir?” he asks.

“I’ll pay now if that’s ok then if I’m at work, I can have someone else collect them for me,” I say. “Will that be ok?”

“Of course, Sir,” Michael says. “Just have the person collecting them bring the receipt in with them.”

Michael walks back over to the computer which I realize is attached to his till.

“So that’s one hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars for the engagement ring,” he says to himself as he types the figure into the till.

I feel Harriet freeze beside me, and I shake my head at her. I rub my thumb and my two fingers together in a money gesture.

“Remember?” I whisper.

She nods.

“And if it makes you feel any better, that’s about middle of the road pricewise. It’s not like you picked the most expensive one,” I say.

I would have said something along those lines anyway, but it’s actually true, and I am glad I said it because I can see Harriet visibly relax a little bit when she hears it.

“One thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five dollars for the first wedding band, and nine hundred and fifty dollars for the other wedding band,” Michael says. He presses a button and comes over to us. “Your total with tax, Sir,” he says as shows me the total on the credit card machine.

I get my wallet out and hand my credit card over. Michael runs it through and returns it with my receipt.

“Thank you for your purchase,” Michael says. “Remember to keep your receipt safe for collection. The rings should be in within the week. Can I take a contact number so I can call you when they come in, please?”

I give Michael my cell phone number which he adds to the computer and then he smiles.

“All done,” he says. “Congratulations to you both. Enjoy your wedding.”

“Thank you,” Harriet and I say at once, and laughing, we leave the store.

As soon as the door closes behind us, Harriet turns to me.

“When you did your whole ‘the wedding will be like me buying a cup of coffee’ speech, were you really expecting my engagement ring to be that price?” she demands.

“Honestly, no,” I say. I rush on before she can insist on canceling the order or anything. I grin at her. “I was expecting it to be double that price.”

“Oh. Ok. Well, that’s alright then,” she says. “I love it Liam and I obviously want to wear it every day, but I am going to be so scared of anything happening to it.”

“Don’t be. We’ll get it insured,” I tell her.

“This cup of coffee sure goes a long way,” Harriet says, and we laugh and head back out of the mall and back to my car.

We get in and drive back to my place. As we drive, Harriet chats excitedly about the wedding, and talk turns to her wedding dress.

“I never expected to get married, as you know, but in my wildest dreams, I would let myself picture my dream wedding dress. What girl doesn’t, right? And it was always like a princess dress, a big ball gown style dress with lots of netting. Obviously, I can’t have that now,” she says.

“You can have whatever dress you want,” I say.

Harriet shakes her head.

“No, this isn’t me being paranoid about the cost,” she says. “Can you really imagine what I would look like in a ball gown at a destination wedding?”

I consider this and I see she’s probably not wrong.

“Plus, imagine how hot I would be,” she says.

“Oh, good point,” I say. “You’d best get an appointment booked somewhere then so you can try on a few different styles and see what you feel comfortable in.”

“I will. I’ll have to see when my mom and Max are free,” she says. “What about you? What are you planning on wearing?”

“I’m thinking a suit, but like a linen one so it won’t be so hot and stuffy. Maybe in a light gray color?” I ask.

“Yes, that sounds nice,” she says. She beams at me. “It’s all starting to feel real now and I am so excited. Are you?”

I nod.

“I can’t wait to call you my wife,” I say honestly.

We reach my building’s parking lot and I park the car and we walk to the building. We go inside, up the stairs, and into my apartment.

“I’m going to have to call Cullen and tell him what the lawyer said,” I say. “He’s going to rip me so bad.”

“Let me do it,” Harriet says. “I’ll call Max and tell her what happened and then tell her to tell Cullen. It’ll give us a good laugh and it means you will get away without getting a ribbing for now.”

“You just want to talk shit about me with Max,” I say.

“Well yeah,” Harriet says with a grin.

“Go for it,” I say. “I’m never going to live it down either way so one of us may as well have fun with it. I’ll make us some coffee while you make your call.”

Harriet gets her cell phone out of her purse and disappears toward the bedroom. I go to the kitchen and put a pot of coffee on like I said I would. I stand and watch it drip through the filter for a bit and then I grab two cups and the cream and sugar. I wait until the whole pot is done and then I pour the two cups out and add cream and sugar to Harriet’s. I put the cream and sugar back away and then I take them into the living room to wait for Harriet.

She soon comes into the living room, laughing softly to herself.

“You can imagine Max’s reaction I’m sure,” she says. “But she wanted me to tell you personally that she said you’re a total dumb ass.”

“It could have been a lot worse than that to be fair,” I say.

“Yeah, but don’t forget you have to hear what Cullen has to say about it yet,” she laughs as she sits down beside me.

“I’m glad we can laugh about it now. Really, I am. But I keep thinking how close I came to losing you over something that wasn’t even a thing and it’s scary,” I say.

She moves closer to me, and I wrap my arm around her shoulders.

“I didn’t exactly handle it well,” she says. “I completely overreacted.”

“In hindsight, yes, but I can understand why you reacted the way you did when you thought I had a wife that I was still with,” I say. “I can’t say I’d have been too happy if I thought you had a husband.”

“Oh, if that had turned out to be true, I would have cut your balls off,” Harriet says. She’s laughing as she says it, but I don’t think she’s entirely joking so it’s a good thing I would never ever cheat on her. “Seriously though, I should have at least stuck around and to give you a chance to explain instead of just running out on you like I did.”

I kiss the top of her head.

“I guess we both learned something then,” I say.

“Well, you learned what a fake marriage certificate looks like,” Harriet says, and we both laugh.

“No, I learned not to keep anything from you. Not that I intentionally kept that from you, it just wasn’t on my radar, but I would never lie to you Harriet,” I say.

“And I learned not to fly off the handle with only half of the information and I promise from now on, if something upsets me, no matter what it is, I will talk to you about it and not just bail on you,” she says.

“Me too,” I say. “How did I get so lucky as to have you?”

“You must have been really good in a past life,” Harriet says.

“Yeah, I must have been,” I agree, and we both laugh, although I’m not entirely joking. I am really lucky to have her, however, that came to be.

“I love you, Harriet,” I say.

“I love you too,” Harriet says. She looks up at me and I lean my head down and kiss her and then she speaks again. “You are by far the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I squeeze her against me, and she rests her head on my shoulder.

“Enough soppy shit for one day,” she says. “Let’s just go back to talking shit about you over the marriage that wasn’t even real.”

I laugh and shake my head. God, I love this woman and I don’t know how I got so lucky. Maybe I was good in a past life like Harriet said. Whatever I did to deserve her, I am not going to throw it away. I am by far the happiest I have ever been, and I’m not going to do a thing to risk losing her ever again.