Taking Back Beautiful (11 page)

I giggle, “I didn’t forget. I actually got you something.” I reach into my purse and pull out a card.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

He peels the envelope open and slides out the card. There’s a picture of a cartoon donkey on the front. He reads it out loud. “To the biggest ass I know?” He glares at me. “What the hell kind of card is this?”

“Read it,” I giggle.

He opens the card. “Happy Burrothday? That’s fucking stupid,” he chuckles. “It’s not even my birthday.”

“I thought you’d like it anyway.”

He kisses my cheek. “I love it.”

“Open the other envelope.”

Inside the card is a small white envelope. “Money, I hope.” He winks at me and opens it. His eyes go big. “Two tickets to Universal Studios Florida!”

“You know what that means,” I grin.

“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! That’s what that shit means! And you know what else?”

“What?”

“Butterbeer! I’ve been wanting to try that stuff ever since I read about it in the books!”

“Me too,” I giggle.

He stares at the tickets for a long time and his brows slowly knit. “This is too much, Daph. It’s gonna cost an arm and a leg to fly down there and stay at the hotel.”

I shrug shyly. “I’ve been saving up for a special occasion.”

“For how long?”

“Pretty much since forever.”

“It’s not like we’re rich. Are you sure we can afford this?”

I love that he keeps calling us a we. “Sure. Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes already! We’re going to go see Harry Potter. And drink butterbeer.”

He kisses me on the lips. “I love you, babe. I got you something too.”

“What?”

“Dessert.”

“Oh.” I’m a little disappointed.

He waves at our waiter, who nods back before walking into the kitchen. A moment later he pushes out a dessert cart loaded with every decadent dessert imaginable. “What would the lady like?”

“Ummm, we’re not eating everything, are we?”

“No,” Apollo chuckles. “But we can taste everything. I figure one bite of each adds up to one full dessert. Unless you’ve been sneaking desserts when I’m not looking?”

“No!” It’s true. I rarely eat desserts anymore. It’s not hard to skip them when Apollo is my dessert every night.

“I know you’ve been a good girl. So tonight, we can enjoy ourselves.”

The whole time we’ve been talking, the waiter has been setting plate after plate on our table.

“This is ridiculous,” I laugh. “I’m surrounded by chocolate and frosting and every flavor of cake imaginable.”

Apollo wraps an arm around me. “Everyone deserves to be ridiculous once in a while. One other thing.” He pulls an envelope out of his back pocket.

It’s bent from him sitting on it. I open it immediately. It’s a fancy white card like you find at those boutique stationary stores. The front is embossed and has gold script printed in the middle that reads:
Your reservation…
I open it and scan the inside, reading aloud. “Hotel Del Coronado. One ocean view suite for two, Saturday, March—that’s tomorrow! Are you taking me on a weekend getaway? For our anniversary?”

“Yup. To San Diego.”

I throw my arms around him and kiss him all over his face. It’s the first official trip we’ve been on. We don’t exactly have a lot of money.

He nods at the waiter.

The waiter pulls a small gift bag out from under the dessert cart and hands it to me. “You two enjoy yourselves,” he says before walking away with the empty cart.

“Is there more?” I gasp.

“Open it,” Apollo grins.

I reach into the gift bag and pull out an electric blue… bikini. “You did not,” I chuckle.

“Did too.” Apollo’s eyes are all sunshine. “You know I’ve always loved you in blue. It makes your blue diamonds shine.” He gazes right into my eyes. His are liquid gold.

“Apollo…” I moan, my eyes wet.

He grins, “Since we’ll be at the beach tomorrow, I can finally see you frolic in the San Diego waves in a bikini like I’ve always dreamed.”

“As long as I get to see you in your teensy-weensy Speedo.”

“Deal. But we both know my weensy is not teensy.”

We both cackle with laughter.

Never in my life would I have thought I’d be wearing a bikini. In public, no less. Will I look like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model?

No.

But you damn well better bet I’ll be wearing it!

Unless…

I stare at the table full of desserts in front of us. “Are we going to eat all this? I don’t think I’ll be able to fit into this bikini tomorrow if we do.”

“Like I said, just take one bite of everything. And, if it’ll help, I’ll stick my hand up your dress and finger you the whole time. You’ll be too busy coming on my fingers to eat.”

My eyes flare, “Deal!”

#b#b#b#

DAPHNE

“I hope it’s not too late for breakfast,” I giggle as we stumble out of our room at the Hotel Del Coronado on Sunday morning. “I wanted to have French Toast.”

“You should’ve thought of that before you climbed into the shower with me.”

“Don’t blame me! I just wanted to give you a blow job but you insisted on a four course meal.”

He chuckles, “What can I say? I never get tired of eating your pussy.” He says it
right
as we’re passing a silver haired woman in the hallway.

“Disgusting!” She gasps, her eyes bugging out.

Apollo leans against me and whispers, “She’s only acting like that because she can’t remember what it’s like to have anyone go down on her.”

I giggle, “You won’t let me forget, will you?”

“Hell no.”

We walk downstairs and outside to the Sheerwater Restaurant overlooking the ocean. We’re seated at a table near the green lawn.

I ask the waiter, “Is it too late for breakfast?”

“Not at all, madam.”

Apollo and I order French Toast, no powdered sugar of course. But I do pour the thinnest drizzle of maple syrup on mine. Since I eat so little sugar these days it’s more than enough.

We eat.

“Wow, that was incredible,” I moan after finishing mine.

Apollo finished his ten minutes ago. He eats like a vacuum cleaner. “You want some dessert?”

“We had dessert last night.”

“Yeah, but you only tried half of everything.”

I glare, “That’s because you had your hand up my dress!”

“You agreed. So don’t blame me.”

I smile, “I love you, you sex maniac.”

“Me too. So, dessert?”

“Do they even have dessert for breakfast?”

“I told you I never follow the rules.”

“Okay. Fine. What are we having this time?”

“Have you ever had blue velvet cake?”

“I thought it was red velvet cake.”

“I had them make it special.”

When he catches our waiter’s eye, the man nods and strides toward the kitchen, much like the waiter did at ReaXion on Friday night.

“You sure planned out this weekend,” I chuckle.

He grins, “Yup.”

A minute later, the waiter carries out a silver tray that holds a single wedge of blue velvet cake with white buttercream frosting. A lone candle pokes from the top, already lit.

The waiter stops at the table. “Would the lady like her cake?”

I clap my hands over my mouth. “Oh my God, is that a…”

Apollo smiles and nods at the waiter, who sets the tray on the table before walking off.

A ring with two blue diamonds circles the base of the candle.

“Oh my god, Apollo. What did you do?” I’m crying now.

“I’m marrying you, Daph. What does it look like?”

“Oh, Apollo. This is too much.”

He lifts the plate with the cake off the silver tray and holds it in front of me.

The candle burns. The blue diamonds are beautiful and catch the sunlight magnificently.

He says, “Daphne Bowman, will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Armstrong?”

“Yes!”

“And will you do me the honor of being my wife and my forever love?”

“Yes!”

“And will you bear our children and be the best mother our kids can possibly have?”

“Yuh-yes.” I say it because I
want
it to be true. I want to be a mother. I want to raise
our
children. Even if it isn’t meant to be, I still want it. I almost say out loud,
I don’t care if we never have children, Apollo. As long as I have you, as long as we have each other, that’s all that matters
. But I don’t because I don’t want to ruin this moment. “Yes, of course.” I sniffle and reach out to hug him.

“Hold up. Make a wish and blow the candle out first. So I can put the ring on your finger.”

I bite my lower lip, “Ummm… I wish for…” I break into soft laughter. The tears are coming.

“Don’t tell me. It’s your wish. It has to be secret or else it won’t come true.” His eyes shimmer.

“Okay, okay.” I’m crying. Good thing I’m not wearing any makeup this morning. I look him straight in the eyes. “I love you, Apollo. I love you so much.”

I close my eyes and hope with all my heart.

I wish for…

Epilogue

DAPHNE

One year later.

Wishes do come true.

“I put them down for the night,” I whisper as I sink into the leather couch next to Apollo.

“Are they sleeping?” he whispers.

“Like babies,” I grin.

You would think I’d have gotten pregnant that first time Apollo and I had sex. We had so much sex that night
and
I was ovulating. We also had sex every day and night thereafter. You would also think I would’ve gotten pregnant the fiftieth time or the hundredth time. But I didn’t. It took nine more wonderful months of trying. We must have had sex almost 1,000 times before his seed finally took hold.

But it did.

I think it happened either that time in the shower at Body Fitness or at the Hotel Del after he proposed. We’ll never know for sure.

But his seed took root in my womb.

Twice.

We have twins.

Roman and Rema.

Yes, they’re sort of named after the twin brothers Romulus and Remus who founded Rome. It was Apollo’s idea. Since Rema is a girl, I insisted we change the names up a bit. He agreed.

Soon we’ll have to move into a bigger place. The twins have almost outgrown their bassinets. I don’t think we can fit two cribs in our lone bedroom unless we remove our bed. We’ll probably end up putting the cribs in the living room until we move.

I was a little worried about how Stanley Stink Foot would respond to the arrival of Roman and Rema. But the moment we came home from the hospital, he was sniffing around the babies like a proud new daddy cat. He loves the kids like they’re his own kittens. Every night he sleeps at the foot of their bassinets, standing guard.

I adjust the waistband of my yoga pants. “I can’t believe how much weight I gained during the pregnancy. I’m still fat.”

“You look great,” he smiles.

“You are such a liar.” I don’t care. I love that he always knows what to say to make me feel better. “It’s going to take forever to lose it.”

“What are you talking about? You weigh less now than when I met you.”

I gasp, “You’re right!” I will never be thin by mainstream standards, but I will be strong and healthy for the rest of my life.

“See? You’re already ahead of the game.”

I smirk, “I don’t know if I’d go that far. These yoga pants feel like a sausage casing and I’m the sausage.”

“You’re my sausage.” He grins his sunshine grin, pulling me into his arms. “Don’t worry. We’ll fuck the baby weight right off you.”

I smile, “Can we start fucking now?”

“After the movie.”

“Okay,” I groan.

“Can I start it?”

“Go for it.”

He leans forward and hits the spacebar on his laptop. “I still can’t believe you’ve never seen this.”

I roll my eyes. “What do you expect? My life has been a whirlwind for the past year. Anyway, what is it about again?”

“It’s about Rocky Balboa. The bossest badass ever to enter the ring.”

“It’s not violent, is it?” I ask.

“I’ll tell you when to close your eyes. The part when Rocky cuts a guy’s head off with a chainsaw is pretty gruesome.”

“Chainsaws!!! I thought you said this was a boxing movie!”

“I’m kidding. No chainsaws.”

“And let me guess, no love story either. Right?”

He smiles, “Actually, it has a great love story. In fact, it’s almost as good as ours.” He winks. “Almost. But not quite.”

I swoon. “I love you, Apollo.”

He winks, “But you’ll hate Apollo Creed.”

When the movie finishes, I am jumping out of my seat. “Why didn’t you show me this movie a year ago?! This is the best movie I’ve ever seen!!”

Apollo frowns, “Are you kidding? There was blood everywhere by the fifteenth round! Both fighters nearly died in the ring! I thought you said you didn’t like violence!”

“I still don’t! But Rocky and Adrian ended up together! And now I’m all inspired to exercise! Where’s a staircase? I want to run through the streets of Philadelphia before running up a hundred flights of stairs followed by a thousand cheering kids screaming my name! Daph-ne! Daph-ne! Daph-ne! I’ll jog my baby weight off in no time!!”

He grins his rugged sunshine grin, “You know what they say: fitness is a lifestyle.”

I jump up from the couch. “I want the Rocky theme to be my lifestyle theme song! I feel like I can do anything right now!” I start singing the theme song in a low voice so I don’t wake the babies. “Getting strong now!!”

Apollo chuckles, “Rocky is a great movie, isn’t it?”

“Yeah it is!” I dance around the living room, whispering the theme song over and over. When I run out of breath, I plop back down next to him on the couch.

He pulls me into his arms and kisses me on the cheek. “I told you you would love every minute of it.”

I get all weepy and look him in the eyes. “And I’ll love every minute of the rest of our lives together.”

“Damn right you will. I will too. Because I’ve got the hottest wife on the planet.”

“Do not,” I giggle.

He jams his fingers between my legs. “Do too.”

I squeeze my thighs together, trapping his hand. “You know, the doctor said we could have sex six weeks ago.”