Flowers in the Park Ch. 12

With the prospect of the "new normal" approaching, Wes and Alex began their work week. They finalized their plans to have Wesley for the first time on the following Wednesday. Alex would pick him up at his daycare and drive him to Wes' apartment in his car, so he'd be there when his dad came home.

They decided to have activities for him in the apartment that first night. Wes still had some of the fun foods Wesley enjoyed, so their meal of chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese was a hit for all. They had promised Wesley's mom that they would have him home by 8:30 p.m. Wes walked his son up to her door, and after Wesley had gone inside, Janelle turned and gave Wes a big hug, and this one was returned.

Alex and Wes enjoyed staying home in the evenings and cooking for each other, but they also enjoyed trying out new places to eat. They decided on a date night on Friday, where they would try out a new pizza place that some of Wes' work colleagues had raved about. They arrived at about 7:00 and found a thirty-minute wait to get seated. Once inside, they were led to a cozy table for two. The ambiance was exceptional, with single lights dropped from the ceiling to illuminate each table.

They were looking at their menus when Alex looked up, and suddenly her face looked as if she had seen a ghost. Wes noticed her discomfort immediately. "Alex, what's wrong?"

"It's him...."

She dropped her menu, and Wes reached out for her hand.

"Anthony?"

She nodded.

Wes refused to turn around to look, choosing to focus on Alex instead.

"Are you going to be okay? What do you want to do?"

Alex hesitated, still looking behind Wes, and answered, "I don't know. I haven't spoken to him since I told him the wedding was off. He tried to contact me several times after, but I refused to discuss it with him. I guess I was hoping I'd never have to talk to him again, but that was probably just wishful thinking."

Wes squeezed her hand and said, "Do you want to leave? If we stay, you won't have to face him alone. I'm not going to let him hurt you again."

For the first time since she'd seen Anthony, she managed to smile. "I know you will take care of me. Let's just hope that he doesn't see us, and we can ignore him."

The server came to take their order. As they waited for their pizza to be delivered, Alex looked up and frowned again. "He's coming this way, Wes."

Before Wes could say anything, Anthony spotted Alex and came to their table. "Alex, it's good to see you. How have you been?"

Wes looked at Anthony for the first time. Anthony was shorter than Wes was, and perhaps a little stockier. He also appeared to be older than Alex by a few years. He seemed very confident in the way he carried himself.

Alex replied, "Hello, Anthony. I've been good. I have found someone that has helped me through the depression you caused."

Anthony smiled and turned to Wes. Speaking to Alex, he replied, "I see that. I'm happy for you. I hope he makes you happy, since I seemed to have messed that up."

He held his hand out to Wes and said, "Hello, I'm Anthony."

Wes chose not to shake his hand. "I've heard a lot about you, Anthony. Unfortunately, it's not been very good."

Anthony drew his hand back. "Yes, I agree, I did not treat Alex like she should have been treated. But there were lots of good times, I don't suppose she ever mentions those, does she?"

Alex started to reply, but Wes squeezed her hand and said, "You know, it's amazing how you can forget the good times with someone when they hurt you so badly. Actually, we choose not to talk about you at all, because as I have told her several times already, I'm not interested in the past. I'd rather look forward, knowing she's never going to feel that pain again."

Anthony looked down at his feet for a few seconds, and then turned back to face Alex. "I never got a chance to tell you that I was sorry. You didn't deserve what I did to you. And I really am happy that you have found someone else. You're a great person, Alex. You deserve to be treated better than I treated you."

Alex didn't say anything in return, so Wes spoke up. "I suppose I should thank you, Anthony. Because of what you did, I'm the lucky man with her now, the one who gets to spend the rest of his life making sure she gets a chance to completely heal from what you did to her."

Anthony smirked and replied, "Yes, you are a lucky man. Take care of her, please. I won't bother you two anymore."

He turned and walked away. Wes followed him with his eyes until he was out of sight, and then turned back to Alex. He noticed a tear was running down her cheek.

"Are you okay? I really didn't let you speak."

She smiled. "I'm more than okay. There was nothing I wanted to say to him, and you sensed that and handled it for me. And then what you said to him...Wes, you protected me when I needed it the most. I'm so embarrassed that I loved him for a long time and couldn't see what he was really like. But like you said, that's over, and after this, I hope we don't have to see him again."

He squeezed her hand again and replied, "I hope so also, but then again, maybe it's good for him to see you truly happy, and knowing he had a chance but screwed it up."

Their pizza was delivered to their table, and in between bites, Alex said, "It's getting closer to Thanksgiving. Do you think you could go with me and meet my family? I feel like they already know you a little, since we've been sending them pictures of us."

He replied, "Of course, that sounds like fun. We probably should go meet my family also. In fact, I probably should tell my family about you. I haven't done that yet."

Alex put her pizza down. "What? You haven't told them about me? Are you afraid to tell them?"

He laughed and replied, "No, of course not! They will be thrilled to know I have someone. It's just that I'm not that good about keeping them up on everything in my life because there's usually not too much to report. I'm probably not the greatest son sometimes."

"We'll, we're going to change that. You have just settled our plans for the rest of the evening. Do they know how to do video chat?"

He nodded. "Since I can't get Wesley up there to visit them very often, that's the best way they get to see him and watch him grow. I usually video with them on the weekends when I have him, but this past weekend while you were with us, it never really crossed my mind."

"Will they be willing to talk to us when we get home, or do they usually have plans on Friday evening?"

He laughed. "Their plans will involve trying to stay awake while watching the ten o'clock news. I'm sure they would love to hear from us. In fact, I'll message them now to see if they'd like a visit. If I tell them I have a surprise for them, they will be excited to find out what it is."

Wes sent the message, and then they finished their pizza and brought some home in a to-go box. Just as they were getting ready to leave, Wes' mother answered his message, saying she and his dad were home and they would enjoy catching up, since 'it had been so long.' Wes' mother wasn't afraid to let her feelings be known!

As they drove back to the apartment, Wes shared some of his family history. His parents were Randall and Katherine Watson, but they were known as Randy and Katie. He had an older sister Renee, who was married to Braden, and they had two daughters; Nicole was four, and Maya was two. They lived an hour away from their parents' house, but managed to visit much more often than Wes did. Randy was the manager of the local grain elevator, and Katie had worked her way up from a starting position as a bank teller right out of college to the title of Vice President of the local bank. Like most small-town people, they lived quiet, simple lives.

Alex said, "It's amazing, isn't it? Our lives as children were so similar. Your parents could have easily lived in my hometown. I'm really excited to meet them!"

Wes laughed again. "I guarantee that when they see your face on this video call, they are going to be excited as well. And honestly, it will take some pressure off from me. I bet in the last couple of years, I haven't had a conversation with mom that didn't include a query about my social life, especially whether I have a girlfriend yet. It will be nice to talk about something else for a change!"

She replied, "Oh, there will still be pressure. Now that they will see you have a girlfriend, they'll start asking if I have a ring yet, and when and where will the wedding be. Those small-town values with which we grew up are strong on both sides of our family, so you know a proper engagement and wedding is very important."

Wes nodded. "That certainly was the case with my sister's wedding. It was the event of the year in my hometown. Since everybody in a small town knows everybody else, it was important to make a big spectacle of it, one that people would remember for a long time. I remember thinking this was a lot of hoopla just for two people to say, 'I do,' to each other."

Alex turned to Wes and said, "Wait, do you still feel that way now?"

He grinned and answered, "Well, since it's my own wedding, I might be coming around to that kind of spectacle again. But only if it's what you want."

"Good answer, Wes. Keep earning those points!"

They drove in silence for a few more blocks, and the Wes asked, "How close were you to your wedding date when you called it off? If you don't want to talk about it, I understand."

She sighed and replied, "No, I'll talk about it with you. We were three weeks away from our wedding date. My dad ended up covering a lot of cancelation fees for caterers and the venue, plus helping with the costs of the bridal gowns and my gown and decorations. I hated that he had to do that. With our wedding, I'm not letting him take on so much of the expense."

Wes reached for her hand. "Our wedding, and I will do my part. I know it may not be traditional, but you will let me help you with this. We're going to have the wedding you want, regardless of the cost."

She pulled his hand up to her face to give it a kiss. "That's silly. It's the bride's responsibility for all of this."

"Traditionally, yes. But why would we want to start our marriage with you having to spend all your money to get the wedding you want? That doesn't make sense for several reasons. If you're going to have the wedding of your dreams, I want to help you, because it's my dream also."

She looked into her lap and then said, "I already had the wedding of my dreams planned once."

"So why can't this also be the wedding of your dreams? Do you still have your wedding dress and all of the decorations? I suppose we'll have to get new invitations, because it would be nice if my name was on them."

She reached over and lightly punched him in the arm. "Silly, of course! Besides, the invitations had already gone out, so there aren't any of those left. I do still have my dress and other things. But it wouldn't be fair to you if I got married in a dress I purchased for a wedding to another man."

They pulled into a parking spot in front of Alex's apartment. Wes turned off the car and looked at her. "Do you not want to wear that dress? What's fair is that I will get to see you walking down the aisle in it, and that asshole won't. If you want that exact same wedding, I'm fine with it, as long as I get to be a part of it."

"Are you sure? It's the wedding I dreamed of all my life - well, there were a couple of things I would have changed if I could. Anthony wanted to get married in the city so all his friends could be there, and I wanted to get married at home. He also didn't want to get married in a church, so we had an expensive venue all picked out."

They looked at each other for a few seconds. Wes said, "I expected we'd be married in your hometown, and having it in your church is fine with me, as long as your church doesn't have anything like rattlesnakes as part of the ceremony!"

She laughed at the snake part, and then exclaimed, "Are you sure? Do you know how happy you're going to make my family when they find out? Are your parents going to mind being so far away?"

"Are you kidding? They'll just be happy I found someone that could tolerate me! I'm sure they will understand, and if they don't, I'll remind them that they got to have Renee's wedding there, and I'm not sure the town could survive another event like that one."

Alex got up on her knees on her car seat and lunged over to Wes, wrapping him up with a big hug filled with kisses. "I don't need any more reasons to love you, but somehow you keep throwing them out there and I keep grabbing them to hold close to my heart."

They kissed again, this time chasing each other's tongues. When they stopped, Alex looked straight into his eyes. "Are we talking about this too soon? It's not quite been a month yet."

He smiled. "Do you think we shouldn't be talking about it? I have a theory that I'd share with you if you think you need encouragement that we're not rushing things.

She nodded. "Yes, maybe you should share that with me."

Wes stroked her cheek with his hand. "When I found out that Janelle was pregnant after our ill-advised one-night stand, I had a long conversation with my parents. I told them that I thought she was a great girl and we both understood we had made a mistake. We talked about those same small-town values that we mentioned earlier, where in the past, the responsible thing for the man to do would be to marry the mother of his child so she could at least escape the shame of having to raise a kid by herself.

"But then I told them that I didn't think that was the best solution. She's a great person and a fantastic mother and I'm so glad she's found someone to marry that is accepting of our child. But I never felt a connection that I thought we should have, and she agreed. So, I asked my parents how they knew they were the one for each other. Their answer? They simply said, 'You'll know when that happens, and you won't doubt it one bit.'

"They were right. I know that it's happening now, and I'm not doubting it one bit. You are the one for me, Alex. I never got close at all to having any of these kinds of feelings for Janelle, so it was best not to try to be together, even after Wesley was born. With you, I know. If you wanted to, I'd get married to you tomorrow, and never doubt whether I was doing the right thing."

Tears started running down Alex's cheeks. She pressed herself into his chest, choosing to be silent for a few seconds. "Wes, I feel the same way. I always thought I loved Anthony, even though as I looked at it after I caught him cheating, I could see where there were red flags all along that should have caught my attention. I feel ashamed about that now, but it's taught me to be a little jaded. However, you have come in and there have been no worries about you like what I experienced before. It's almost been like a fairy tale to me, Wes, and I don't want it to ever end."

They kissed again, and then Wes said, "We'd better walk to my apartment so I can call my parents on my tablet. I think I'll be on the camera first, and then have you slide in so you can see their surprised look when they figure out what's going on."

They got out of the car, and holding hands, walked over to his building, climbing the two sets of steps to his top floor apartment. Once inside, Wes got his tablet and set it up on his breakfast bar. Soon his parents appeared, smiling at his call.

"Hello, son! How are you doing?"

"I'm good, mom. In fact, I'm very good. I have a surprise for you if you're up for it."

His mom answered, "Is it Wesley? Is he there with you?"

Wes shook his head. "No, it's not Wesley. Mom and Dad, I want you to meet Alex."

She slid over into camera range. As expected, the excitement on the faces of his mom and dad was very evident.

Alex waved and said, "Hello!"

Katie replied, "Hello, Alex! It's so nice to meet you. Tell me, how long has my son been keeping you a secret from me?"

Alex laughed, knowing what Wes had told her about his mom was coming true. "It's not quite been a month, so not a terrible long time. I told him that if he was going to be with me, he needed to work harder to communicate with his parents!"

Katie laughed and replied, "Alex, if you can make that happen, you truly are an angel! How did you two meet each other?"

Wes went through the story of the encounter in the park, including Wesley serving as his wingman, taking beautiful flowers to a beautiful girl. His parents both laughed when they discovered they were living in the same apartment complex and didn't know each other.

During their call so far, Alex made a mental note that Randy hadn't really said anything, preferring to his wife ask questions. She was happy Wes was doing most of the talking. She could hear the pride in his voice as he told his parents about his new girlfriend. She reached over and put her hand on his thigh, softly rubbing it as he talked with his parents.

Katie asked, "So when are we going to get to meet Alex in person?"

Wes looked over at Alex, and then back to his parents. "We've been talking about that. What are your Thanksgiving plans with Renee and her family?"

His mom replied, "They are planning on being here for a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner at about 1:00 p.m. I'd love it if you and Alex could be here also."

"Our plans are to visit both families during the holiday break, and we haven't talked to her parents yet, so I'll let you know. But it might work out best to come and see you on Thursday and then be in her hometown on Saturday and Sunday."

Alex looked over at Wes with a bit of confusion on her face, but Wes didn't elaborate. They continued to talk with his parents for a few minutes, and then got ready to disconnect. Before they could do that, Wes' dad spoke up.

"Wes, you take good care of her and treat her well, or you know what will happen if I found out otherwise."

Wes smiled. "I know, dad - you'll come and whip my ass!"

Katie rolled her eyes as she said her final goodbye, and Wes disconnected the call. Alex looked over at him and laughed. "Is that true? Would he come and whip your ass?"

He laughed. "I don't know, but I don't plan on finding out!"

Alex suddenly remembered something Wes had said during the call. "So, tell me, not that it matters, but why do you think it's best if we go to see my parents on Saturday and Sunday?"

He leaned over and kissed her on the nose. "I thought maybe I should go to church with you on Sunday morning so I could see where my girlfriend's dream wedding will be."

A huge smile broke over on Alex's face. She stood up and grabbed Wes' hand, pulling him off his chair.

"Hey, what are you doing? I thought we were going to call your parents next?"

"They can wait until tomorrow. This is more important now!"

He laughed as she kept on pulling on his arm. "Give me a minute to shut things down. I'll be right there!"

Alex headed off to his bedroom. Wes made sure the front door was locked and the lights were out. He laughed as he saw that Alex had been removing clothing as she was going to the bedroom, leaving pieces along the way. When he reached his bedroom, she was already completely naked, lying on her back on his bed. When she saw him, she held her arms out, beckoning him to join her.

He stripped quickly and climbed on the bed to join her, but he stopped short, lowering his head between her legs. Alex began to protest, but he paid no attention, kissing her on her soft pink pussy lips. She wanted to stop him, but she knew that once he made up his mind, he would see it through. Using his tongue now, he started licking her at the bottom of her pussy and went all the way to the top, repeating several times before stopping to strum on her erect clit. Alex gasped as he alternated between flicking it with his tongue and closing his mouth over it to suck on it. She grasped the sides of his head and held him close as her heart began to race, and the beginnings of her orgasm made itself known. She flexed her hips, lifting her groin up to his mouth as she went over the top, with lightning-flashes of pleasure ripping through her body. Wes kept at it until Alex couldn't take any more, pushing his head away as her legs trembled and her body thrashed on the bed.