Mid Life Love: At Last (3 page)

When we finally pulled away to catch a breath, we simply stared at one another in silence, smiling. Then I pulled her on top of me.

“What are you thinking about?” I looked into her eyes.

“
You
...How do you think Claire ‘
Gracen-Statham
’ sounds?”

“Like it’ll never happen.” I narrowed my eyes. “It’s an all or nothing deal.”

“Is your
jealousy
included in the package?”

“It’s the best part.”

“Hmmm...” She smiled. “How many days do I need to set aside for negotiations and paperwork?”

“
Paperwork
?”

“Yeah...” She lowered her voice. “I’m not silly enough to believe that you won’t draft a pre-nup for this. I mean, I’m sure you wouldn’t rake me over the coals if you and I didn’t work out, but—”

“Stop.” I pressed my finger against her mouth. “There is no pre-nup. And there won’t be one.
Ever
.”

She gasped.

“This is
forever
, Claire. Do you understand? It’s you and me, together forever, until the very end.” I kissed her lips. “Would you like a wedding?”

She nodded.

“A big one?”

She nodded again.

“Okay.” I smiled. “We can plan that the second we get back. In the meantime...” I slipped my hands underneath her dress and untied the strings of her bikini top. “I’d like to explore the future Mrs. Statham right now.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve told you over and over that sand and sex don’t go together.”

“I remember you saying that...” I ripped off the bottom of her swimsuit. “But I’d like to find out for myself.”

J
onathan

Claire drives me fucking insane...

I’m sitting next to her at Timeless, Weddings Inc.—an event planning firm, listening to her ask the director a list of never-ending questions: “How many people do you have on your staff?” “How confident are you about finding us the perfect venue?” “What’s the highest budget you’ve ever worked with?”

Even though it looks like I’m paying attention to everything the director says—casually glancing up and making eye contact every now and then, my attention is definitely elsewhere. The only thing I can think about is the woman at my side and how, although she is undoubtedly the love of my life and the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, she never ceases to find new ways to frustrate the shit out of me.

I’ve given her three months to marry me and in the past five days she’s managed to schedule us for twenty three catering interviews, forty wedding venue showings, and sixteen cake testing appointments. She’s turned my parlor room into a hoarding cell for hundreds of bridal magazines and fabric swatches, and every day when she gets home she insists on showing me the newest wedding ideas she’s found on Pinterest and YouTube.

“What do you think about that, Jonathan?” Claire interrupts my thoughts.

“What do I think about
what
?”

“Having a celebrity singer at the wedding
and
the reception. Two different ones...Would that cost too much? ”

“We can have whatever you want, Claire.” I hold back a sigh and she smiles.

I’ve told her over and over how I don’t need—much less
want
a damn wedding, but I know it’ll make her happy so I’m willing to spend however much it costs.

“It was a pleasure having you two here today, Mr. Statham and Miss Gracen.” The director stands up and shakes our hands. “I hope to be chosen as the director of your wedding.”

Claire says a few more words to the woman and then the two of us leave the room hand in hand.

“Is this the last meeting for today, or do we need to meet with every wedding firm in the city before you make up your mind?”

She rolls her eyes. “There’s two more and then we’re done. Oh, and don’t forget about our pre-marital counseling session. I scheduled it for tomorrow morning at nine.”

Marriage counseling. That’s another thing she’s doing, another thing that’s completely unnecessary. Outside of her testing my nerves every so often, we don’t have any serious problems and we don’t need any counseling.

As a matter of fact, I’m going to make her cancel those appointments. Marriage counseling is for couples with trust issues, couples who lack intimacy and have problems connecting. As soon as we get back into my car, I’m going to show her just how well we connect.
Literally
.

C
laire

“We don’t
need
pre-marital counseling, Claire.” Jonathan looked over at me as the elevator doors closed. “This is a waste of time.”

“I didn’t say we
needed
it. I said we should
try
it—to make sure we both have honest expectations about being married.”

“And what expectations are those?”

“You’ll find out when we get there.” I smiled at him and he rolled his eyes.

I’d told him I wanted to attend a few sessions before we got married—something Ryan and I didn’t do, just to make sure we were on the same page about a few things. Of course, he was one hundred percent against the idea, but after I told him it would make me “happy,” he slowly gave in.

We were scheduled for a two hour session with the top counseling firm in San Francisco—Waldo and Emerson Associates. The doctors had assured me that it would be a light and easy process and that Jonathan and I would come out of it feeling closer than before.

As our elevator came to a stop and the doors glided open, I realized that there was
nothing
ahead of us. There was no secretary’s desk, no simple sign that read “Waldo & Emerson,” nor was there anything that resembled any sort of professional counseling business. Instead, the entire floor was covered in white sand, the few clear columns that stood ten feet apart were filled with colorful fish, and there were three beige beanbags that surrounded a small makeshift fire-pit.

Before I could accuse Jonathan of tampering with our session, a man dressed in an all-white tunic stepped in front of us.

“Ahhhh,” he said, smiling. “The future Mr. and Mrs. Statham. Welcome to Waldo pre-marital counseling. I’m Dr. Choate and I’ll be assisting you through the first stage of unity today.”

“Wait a minute. I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “We’re supposed to be meeting a Dr.
Clinton
. Is this the wrong floor?”

“No. You’re in the right place. This is it.”

“Then where is Dr. Clinton?”

“He retired last week. He didn’t send you an email?”

I shook my head.

“Oh, well sorry about that. The company decided to hire me in his place the same day that he left. After all my success with the Zen rituals at Statham Industries, they thought I was the best choice.” He reached out to shake Jonathan’s hand. “That’s why it’s an absolute
honor
to bestow my new and exclusive Zen practices with the man who made me a household name.”

Oh god...

He instructed for us to take our shoes off and then he led us over to the bean bags.

“So...” He put on a pair of glasses and looked at a sheet of paper. “Miss Gracen, I see that you’ve signed up for the two hour session. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And when asked what you wanted the main focus to be on...” He flipped the paper over. “You said that you two are having problems in the
intimacy
department?”

Jonathan quickly turned his head to face me, raising his eyebrow.

“NO. I never said that. I said that—”

“Ah, ah, ah. It’s right here. My secretary never makes a mistake.”

“You don’t even have a—”

“Shhh.” He leaned forward and pressed a black pen against my lips. “Don’t be ashamed of your bedroom problems, Miss Gracen. Every couple has them in some form or another. That’s what today‘s all about.”

I could feel Jonathan glaring at me, begging me to look his way so he could say something, but I kept my eyes straight ahead.

“If you’re hurting about something—anything at all, no matter how small it is, these next two hours are the perfect time to let it out.” He took a deep breath. Then he shut his eyes and slowly exhaled. “Let it all out.”

He sat like that for at least two minutes—shut eyes, Indian style, head tilted up to the ceiling, and I signaled to Jonathan so we could leave and end this joke of a session, but Dr. Choate’s eyes suddenly flew open.

“Now that that’s done,” he said. “Let’s get down to business. Why are
you
here today, Mr. Statham?”

“To help fix my fiancée’s
intimacy problems
.”

“See that, Miss Gracen?” Dr. Choate nodded. “He wants to fix things too! So, on a scale of one to ten, how satisfied are you with your current sex life, Mr. Statham?”

“
Twenty
.”

“Okay, that’s great. Miss Gracen, how about you?”

“Twenty,” I whispered.

“Hmmm. I see...” He wrote something down and held out two notecards. “I want you to write down your honest expectations for sex after marriage. Is it going to be the same as it is now? More? Less? Well, definitely not
less
because Miss Gracen clearly isn’t satisfied.”

“
Thank you
, Dr. Choate.” I snatched my notecard from him, still avoiding the intense glare that was coming from Jonathan.

I wrote down “same” on my notecard and waited for him to speak again.

“Okay, now toss your cards into the fire pit.”

What?
We both crumpled them up and threw them into the small fire.

“Now,” he said as he handed us two more. “This time I want you to answer the question that is printed on the notecard and be as honest as possible. And actually, could you address them as ‘Dear Future Husband’ and ‘Dear Future Wife’? We’re going to toss them into the fire again as soon as we’re done, but make sure you take this seriously.”

He reached behind him and turned on a small radio—a radio that played the sound of ocean waves, and then he shut his eyes again.

There was only one question on the card:
What’s one thing you wish you could change about your current intimacy exchanges?

I looked over and saw Jonathan scribbling away, but I couldn’t think of anything. I suddenly felt guilty for suggesting this session in the first place. Whether I wanted to believe in my current fairy tale or not, there was nothing I would change. Not a damn thing.

Sure, he and I argued about things from time to time—me working late so often, him being so damn controlling, me redecorating every room in his house, but for the most part we were great. More than great.

As a matter of fact, last night he’d held me in his arms and told me everything he loved about me, assuring me that our marriage would be the greatest accomplishment of his life.

“Miss Gracen?” Dr. Choate snapped me out of my thoughts. “You’re not writing anything down. Don’t be afraid to unleash your honesty. You have to let him know
exactly
how you feel. How else can you expect your
bad
intimacy to change to
good
intimacy? Unless you want to experience bad sex for the rest of your life that is. I know you only said ‘twenty’ because he said it first.” He winked at me and then whispered, “It’s okay. We’re going to fix this.”

Jesus...

I rolled my eyes and wrote down a few words so it would seem like I was trying. When I looked over at Jonathan again, I realized he was still writing.

He has that much to say?!

“Time’s up!” Dr. Choate beamed. “Now, before we feed the fire, we’re going to exchange the cards and read them out loud.”

What?!
“No...I can’t.” I started to crumple mine in my hand. “I didn’t know that was going to happen. I would’ve written something else...”

“What’s wrong,
dear
?” Jonathan smirked and held his card out to me. “I thought we were working on having
honest expectations
for our marriage.”

I sighed and handed him my crumpled card, taking his into my hands, not bothering to look at it.

“Mr. Statham, you first.” Doctor Choate smiled. “What’s the one thing your future wife would change about your current intimacy?”

Jonathan looked down at the card, then he looked back up at me—smiling with his eyebrow raised.

Please don’t read it out loud...Please don’t read it out loud...

“She says
better communication
.” He smiled even wider and I exhaled, relieved.

“And what about you, future wife? What did your future husband have to say about you?

I flipped the card over and forced myself to look at it:
Dear Future Wife, the only thing I wish I could change was letting you wake up late this morning because I should’ve woken you up early, taken you in the shower, and made you forget about this dumb ass meeting. However, now that we’re here, I want you to be fully aware that right after this is over, I’m going to make sure the words “marriage counseling” and “intimacy problems” never come out of your mouth again. :-)

I blushed. “He says the same thing.”

“Okay, well great. Now we’re getting somewhere. Communication is very key in having a successful intimate relationship. Moving on... In an average week, how many times do you currently have sex now, future wife? And in all honesty, is it
fulfilling
?”

Is he fucking serious?
“A few times,” I said, hoping he would move on to something else.

“A
few
times?” Jonathan looked into my eyes. “That’s what you honestly think?”

Stop it...
I knew he was reading my mind right now and could sense that I wanted him to stop, but he was clearly enjoying my embarrassment.

“Doctor, what classifies as
a few
times?” Jonathan kept his eyes locked on mine.

“Two or three times a week, Mr. Statham.”

“Hmmm...And
a lot
?”

“Well, I guess I would say eight to ten times a week.”

“Interesting.” He leaned forward and ran his fingers across my golden anchor necklace. “So Claire, having heard that, you think
a few times
is accurate for what we do?”