Page 58 of Screwed

“Yes, we would have. I was getting tired of waiting for you to be ready for me, for us. I would have asked you out soon.”

She smiles at me over her shoulder and I fall a little more in love with her. My wife is the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen in my life. Her curves have my mouth watering and even all these years later, I can barely keep my hands off of her.

She makes me laugh and think. She’s so smart and hardworking and it’s been a privilege to watch her make her store even more of a success over the last few years.

I don’t know how her parents couldn’t be proud of her and I get angry every time they do try to reach out to us. They weren’t thrilled when Iris told them that she was pregnant. I remember sitting next to her while they screamed down the phone at her. They told her that they weren’t going to help her raise a baby, that they can’t believe she got knocked up by some guy that she didn’t even know, and that when her shop failed, they weren’t going to be providing any financial help.

She hadn’t seemed surprised by their reaction and when I asked her why they talked to her like that, she said that it was pretty usual for them. They wanted her to go for a high-paying job but she didn’t want to. She’d rather be poor and happy than stressed out all of the time, miserable, and rich.

I couldn’t agree with her more.

They didn’t bother congratulating her when she announced the birth of Marley or when we announced our engagement. They never bothered to come see their granddaughter and I doubt that they would have come to the wedding if they didn’t find out that I was wealthy from working on Wall Street.

They spent the entire few days leading up to the ceremony telling Iris that they were proud of her for finding a good man but the truth was that they didn’t even know me. They were just judging me based off of my bank account.

I could see that it was stressing Iris out to have them there so I surprised her by having a secret ceremony the night before our wedding. It was on the beach with just our friends and our baby girl. I married Iris beneath the moon with the waves crashing by our feet and Madelyn officiating. She had gotten ordained at some website online about an hour before we said I do. It was crazy and thrown together with barely any planning, but it was perfect.

Her parents were upset the next day when they learned but no one cared. We haven’t talked to them much in the last five years and I know that neither of us really mind.

I quit working at The Fainting Goat Pub about a month before Marley was born. I didn’t really need the money and I would much rather spend my free time with Iris than pouring drinks. I started helping her out at Blast From The Past and became a stay-at-home dad. I’ve loved every minute of it these last few years.

Iris’s phone buzzes and she hurries to pick it up. Today is Marley’s first day of preschool and Iris has been a bit on edge because of it. This is the first time that Marley has been away from one of us for longer than an hour or so and even then, it was one of our friends watching our daughter.

“It’s Madelyn,” Iris tells me. “She wants to know how we’re doing.”

“Pretty good, right?” I ask as we make our way down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“Yeah, I miss her and I keep wondering what she’s doing and if she misses us, but I know that we need to do this. She needs the socialization and she was so excited to be going.”

I nod, pulling her into my side so that I can comfort her.

“Our big girl,” Iris says, and I can tell that she’s about to start sobbing so I tuck her closer against me, letting her bury her face in my shoulder.

“It will be okay. It’s almost time to pick her up,” I remind her when I catch sight of the clock in the kitchen.

Iris wraps her arms around my waist and I kiss the top of her head. We sway together slightly and I smile as I hear her sniffle into my shirt.

Iris and I got married three years ago. I had proposed to her a few months before Marley was born but Iris wanted to date for longer so we waited. She wore the engagement ring for a whole year before she finally said that she was ready.

Me, I was ready the night of our first date.

Maybe even before then.

“Want to get out of here? We can go to the new house and take a walk along the beach. Maybe find a seashell to give to Marley when we pick her up.”

“Okay, let me find my shoes,” Iris says, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes.

She heads into the bedroom and I smile and head over to the door where I know that she left them.

“I’ve got them,” I call to her and she heads out to me. “Sit down. I’ll put them on for you.”

She takes a seat on the couch and I slip the shoes onto her feet.

“So Prince Charming of you,” she teases me and I grin.

“Anything for you, my beauty.”

She takes my hand as we head outside and I smile. I never thought that this would be my life, but man, am I glad that it is.