Chapter 193) Dreams of New

The true voyage of discovery is not a journey to a new place;

it is learning to see with new eyes.

Marcel Proust

San Myshuno
New Year's Morning

Blinking her eyes open, it took Vivien a moment to get her bearings about her, the scent in the air was different, the feel of the sheets, the way the morning light hit the ceiling, … all pleasant, yet surreal in a way.

Was it a dream? Was she still dreaming? Worry crept up inside of her, she pinched herself, which hurt. Quickly she rubbed her pinkie and middle finger of her left hand over the ring finger, then quickly pulled the hand out from the blanket and held it up over her face.

There it was!

The ring!

It was real, no dream! Oh thank god!

The worried look changed into a smile. It was all real. She was engaged to Liam again. Raising the roof on most romantic proposals ever, he surprised her with the question right around the turn of the year at a beautiful park he had found where the city had decorated with a million different lights for all the lovers out there to enjoy a crisp walk. (AN: the full proposal can be found on Facebook (click here))

Oh Liam.

Where was Liam? Not next to her, but the disturbed and folded back blanket on the other side of the bed, HIS side, told her the rest of the night hadn’t been a dream either.

Moaning at the memory she wiggled away a sudden intense feeling of utter, unapologetic happiness, enjoying the memory of having been his, and he hers again, physically. Gawd, how she had missed his touch.

With a defeated sigh she got up to use the restroom, looking up to wash her hands afterwards, she noticed a note on the mirror, which made her heart skip a beat as she giggled while reading it.

Smiling, she went downstairs to get said coffee, enjoying every single step of the way. Home. She was home.

Liam’s ‘reading material’ turned out to be a brochure about Sulani. Confused at first, she leafed through it, then put it aside, right as the door was unlocked.

“Good morning!” Liam lit up with a big smile the moment he saw her, his face and upper body shined from the sweat he had worked up running, dressed in only a tank top and joggers on the first of January with snow on the ground, meaning he had some energy to burn off.

“Morning handsome …” Vivien purred, meeting him at the door, leaning against him for a kiss.

“Careful, I am sweaty and filthy …”

“And I haven’t showered yet …”

Liam smirked, picked her up and headed to the stairs with her.

“What is your stance on water conservation by combining two showers into one?” he chuckled.

“Very much in favor!” Vivien giggled, before kissing his face, neck and shoulders.

The shower turned into another very physical event. When Liam tried to leave to get the usual condom, since they had always doubled up on protection, her on birth control, him using condoms ever since their very first time together, she held him back, shaking her head.

“What we are doing will suffice. If not, it was meant to be.” she smiled, as he raised his eyebrows.

“I am sorry, I think I took the wrong girl home. Shit, I hate it when that happens. Vivien is going to be so mad!” he snickered.

“No, you got the right girl. I am still taking the pill – religiously – so we’ll be fine, nothing is gonna happen, I am not saying let’s stop all birth control, just saying no need to be totally OCD about it anymore. Besides, you are looking at Vivien 2.0, new and improved. Oh shit! I totally forgot your grandma and baking. Eeks.”

“No worries, your amazing – and also egoistic – fiancé already told her why you will be a no-show today. You will be all mine all day long. Your grandma was over there too, after they were done joyfully squealing me into total hearing loss those two interrogated me worse than any FBI super-agents could have, meaning EVERYONE in the family and beyond knows by now that we’re engaged again and probably into the tiniest detail how, when and where, as if they all had been there. Our grandmothers turned into extreme motormouths in their old days.”

“Hmm, surprised nobody’s blown up my phone yet.”

“That may be because your amazing fiancé turned his and your phone OFF. We are not reachable until tomorrow. Now enough unsexy banter, back to some hot action.” Liam pushed her into the wall and began to get them both back into the mood with great passion.

Once worn out from the love making and showered, they were sitting down with breakfast.

“Did you by any chance look at the catalog?”

“Sulani? Yeah, but I don’t get it. We’ve both been there a million times before. Finn, Kai, Benny, Bella and Dylan live there, so why do we need a brochure?”

“Just as I thought, you didn’t REALLY look at it or you would have noticed that it is for WEDDING venues only. Like full packages for the ceremony, catering, honeymoon, the whole shebang.”

“Wedding?! Oh shit, Liam! Aren’t we a bit quick on the draw? What happened to slow? And how did you even get that? Don’t tell me you subscribed to “Modern Bride” magazine and such too.” Vivien giggled.

“Well, if I do something, I do it properly. I got you a ring, I found the perfect spot to propose and I thought a little further. After all, as of this morning we are apparently cutting back to just normal people’s ways of birth control, considering we both have Cameron blood – which may mean the “Cameron Curse” to the power of two, some may say we might as well not use anything at all, so we better get that wedding in while we can. Knowing you, no way you’d rock a baby bump under your wedding dress, so we’d end up with a quickie wedding or a baby born out of wedlock, both of which your grandmother would come over on her broom to beat me senseless with it for, so we are gonna do the mature thing and plan. I mean, we’re engaged, for the second time, might as well suck it up and go all the way. We saw we’re both miserable without one another, I really do not see much of a point in waiting.”

“Well, if you put it that way, with all that ultra-romantic logic and soberness, how could I say no? Pardon the sarcasm, but I will say you make a good point. I never want to be without you ever again. So, let’s talk wedding. You want to get married in Sulani?”

“Don’t you? Figured that was a good place to get that conversation started, dangling that steak in front of you, considering we had some amazing times there together.”

“I … honestly, I never even thought about a wedding at all. Liam, but I just realized something crazy. I don’t care when or where, but I do wanna marry you. I don’t care if we have a big wedding, a small one or no real wedding at all, I’d elope with you if you’d go for that. I don’t want anything too huge, because if press gets wind of it, no matter what we’d do, they’d stalk us, by helicopter if need be. I have seen it before, which is why mom and dad did it at the Mansion. All I know is that I want to become Mrs. Cameron.” Vivien had to dwell on her own revelation.

“Well, eloping is out of the question, your father and grandmother would butcher me. As for getting Cameron-ed, you can have that without getting hitched to me. I can get a legal name change started for you, courts aren’t too busy between the holidays, we can get that knocked out in less than a month, if not sooner.” Liam grinned.

“Hilarious, you … fine, I will be more specific – or shall I say sappy? I want to become YOUR Mrs. Cameron. Not ‘A’ Mrs. Cameron. Your wife, doofus, Mrs. Liam Cameron. Was that clear enough now?”

“You wanna be Mrs. Liam Cameron, huh? Do you now? I am so tempted to put your money where your mouth is for you.”

“I am up for ANY challenge.”

“What about your parents?”

“What about them?”

“Don’t you want to do the whole wedding planning discussion with them? Hash through all your dreams and match them up with your mom, possibly mine and the grandmothers and all?”

“You do realize that I am 27 years old, not 7, yes? If I wanted to get married now, right here at this very breakfast table, that would be MY business. And if we did it wearing nothing but bright red clowns noses.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I am not really the clown nose type. Let’s get serious then. Let’s plan a wedding …”

“Liam? Why did you get me a new ring? Don’t get me wrong, it’s the most stunning ring I have ever seen, just so unexpected.”

“I considered what you said, but it didn’t feel right. We agreed to start over fresh, can’t do that with the same old ring. Truth be told, I was over that ring after having it tossed in my face. So it had to go and give way to bigger and better. And that one has a matching pendant, which I may or may not have bought you as a wedding present to wear with the gown – spoiler alert.”

Sulani
End of January