The chief snickered at Jake, Jake grinned at me, and I stared hopefully at the chief.
“Sorry, Emily. He’s been on vacation for a week and he’ll be off for two more soon. The other doctors will accuse me of nepotism if I don’t work your fiancé. I promise you, though, I’ll lighten his schedule after you get married. We’re in the process of hiring another surgeon.”
I sighed, “Ok,” for the first half of his explanation, but mouthed a “thank you,” with a sigh of relief, for the latter part of his explanation. Chief Reid hugged and kissed me as he left to go back to his office.
“I tried,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.
“I know. I’ll try to leave the hospital as early as possible,” Jake promised. “You want to come back at dinnertime?” Jake was the hopeful one this time.
“No. The ladies here aren’t too friendly. I don’t think they want to see me and my massive engagement ring twice in one day. You have quite a fan club here,” I said bitingly.
“You can be so silly at times,” he answered with a guffaw. “See you at home.”
I packed up all my belongings and left the hospital.
When I got back home, nothing had changed. It was if the two ladies hadn’t moved all afternoon. They were sitting in the same position from hours ago. They sat on the couch deciding which floral arrangement would look best on the table with the linen they chose earlier. They looked to me to be the tie breaker and realized that my only desire was to say, “I do,” and be Mrs. Jake Reid. Fortunately, they were more than happy to fill in for my mental absence and continued on without me.
I walked into my / Jake’s room and called my soon-to-be-sister.
“Hello, Sis. What are you up to right now?”
“Emily. Hi. How are you? I’m swamped with work. All the senior partners are dumping their busy work on me. I get in by six in the morning and don’t leave till close to midnight. I eat all three meals at the firm.”
She sounded terribly unhappy.
“Your work schedule sounds like your brother’s. I can’t see him unless I go to the hospital.”
I, too, wasn’t happy with his schedule.
“How are the wedding preparations going? What’s been done?”
“Honestly, I’m not quite sure. Mom and Aunt Barbara are downstairs making all the decisions. I’m happy to just show up on the day of and say, ‘I do.’”
“I talked to Mom briefly today, and she and Aunt Babs were really happy being your wedding planners. They’re living their vicarious wedding dreams through you. Are you OK with all of their decisions?”
“Yeah, they both have exquisite taste. I do hold veto power so if something isn’t to my liking, I’ll let them know. Anyhow, when can you come home? I miss you.”
“I know, I miss you and the whole family. I hear you’ve been quite the Martha Stewart every morning.”
“My eyes open at 4:00 a.m., and I have nothing else to do but cook. So, can you make it home this weekend?”
“I begged my boss so we’ll see. I won’t know till the last minute. I’ll call as soon as I know. Emily, my boss is calling. I have to go. Bye.”
“Bye, take care.”
I missed Jane and was hoping to catch up with her, but her new job kept her extremely busy. I milled around the room contemplating a nap when Sandy called me down.
“Emily, Sarah’s here.”
Excellent. It would give us a chance to catch up.
I gave Sarah a tour of the house and showed her where the wedding and reception would take place. Sandy and Barbara were more than happy to show her all that they accomplished today, and Sarah in turn was more than happy to give opinions of what she liked and didn’t like about their choices. I took Sarah up to my room when the two ladies were done with her.
“This room is almost as big as your engagement ring,” she commented.
After appraising the room, she added, “I think this room is actually bigger than the apartment Charlie and I are living in right now.”
“I know. All the rooms are big in this house. I guess it’s only fitting since the house is so big. So, tell me what’s been going on. We haven’t talked in months.”
“Well, Charlie and I are now transferring next spring so I’ll be around a bit longer.”
“Yay! You have to give me pointers on married life.”
“Are you excited that you’ll finally have sex? Or, maybe I should ask, are you scared?”
“Sarah!”
“Well, it’s a reasonable question.”
I was quite scared about my wedding night, but I tried not to think about it. It’s not like I didn’t know about the birds and the bees. I knew what would happen, but that didn’t discount the butterflies that fluttered in my stomach every time I thought about the topic.
Sarah continued her inquisition.
“Are you prepared?”
“What do you mean prepared?” I asked.
“Do you have lingerie?”
“Yeah, Gram bought me many in London.” I felt my cheeks flush as I thought of all the lingerie that sat in Jake’s closet right now.
“What about birth control?”