Veronica gathered her purse, phone and keys to one of the rented Mazdas and left with a smile wondering what Mary Claire meant by "whatever" and "I'm yours."
##
Grace called the Four Seasons Hotel and booked a Premiere Suite for Wednesday and Thursday nights. They had only one available and she asked for the Romance Package. The Gala was at the Westin St. Francis and the hotel provided local car service and would also pick them up at the airport. She then called Aero Charter at Spirit Airport and scheduled a eleven to noon departure window for Wednesday and a ten to eleven AM departure window from San Francisco on Friday. Flight time was about four hours, so they 'd arrive back in St Louis at about four on Friday.
After booking and putting charges on the company AMEX card, she called Veronica to give her the schedule and to explain that in checking her schedule she saw a volunteer commitment on Saturday morning to help Irene, a long time friend, tutor eleven high school students ahead of taking the SATs. These students were from low income families so Grace really wanted to keep her commitment. When Mary Claire answered, Grace was surprised. Neither Veronica nor I had told her about Mary Claire. She gave Mary Claire the flight information and asked that Veronica call her back in the afternoon when she returned.
##
Arriving at the church, Veronica found the sign pointing to the office and saw a woman standing in the office doorway talking to a custodian and correctly assumed that it was Evie. Veronica appraised her as she waited for the conversation to end. She visually took in that the female minister was a tall blonde with glasses perched on the end of her nose above her full lips and wide mouth. As the conversation ended she smiled as the visitor awaited her with a wide and warm grin. Evie turned and took a few steps toward Veronica. With a beaming face Evie greeted her with an outstretched hand. "Hi, are you Veronica? I'm Evie Graham."
"Yes, I'm Veronica Bryce, and I'm please to meet you Reverend Graham."
"Please, just call me Evie. Is your fiancé arriving shortly?"
"My fiancé couldn't be here today, or tomorrow either. I have to leave town Wednesday through Friday, perhaps next week?"
"That'll work, your wedding is the sixteenth of November as I recall," commented Evie.
As Veronica followed her into the office she noticed that Evie had pleasantly full hips and long shapely hose covered legs under her knee length brown skirt. When they had shaken hands, they looked each other in the eye, so Evie was probably the same height as Veronica and both were wearing three inch heels.
Just before they entered the office Veronica raised her eyes from looking over the minister's swaying hips to a long but thin decorative mirror to the left of the pastor's study. Her eyes noticed the minister's were looking at hers in the mirror.
Ohh my, if she noticed me admiring her, this could be interesting."
"Please sit," said Evie indicating a chair on front of the desk. She then sat in the other guest chair crossed her legs, and said "Tell me about you and Scott."
"Well," Veronica began after a pause while realizing that either the minister didn't see her or did see her looking but it didn't bother Evie. "We're both divorced and each have a daughter the same age. Scott and I are also the same age. I'm nearly six months older. We met on September 27
th
at a softball game our daughters were playing against each other. He asked me to drinks and dinner, I fell in love with him that night and he with me. We haven't looked back."
"Are your ex-spouses still around or in the picture?" asked Evie.
"My ex was killed on a construction site a couple of years after our divorce and Scott's ex, Marty, just reentered our life in the last week. I like her. I'm not threatened if that's your concern. I'm looking forward to Marty taking more of an interest in Katrina's life." Veronica replied.
"I usually talk about four topics with couples in pre-marital counseling. Money, expectations, sex and communication. What can you tell me about those?" asked Evie.
"Money," Veronica began. "I've been modestly successful in my real estate profession, and Scott and his partner have been very successful in their investment banking firm. In fact, he's not available to meet with you this week because they'll respond positively by the end of the week to an offer to be bought out if they can agree on acceptable terms on a few minor issues. If they sell, Scott will be independently wealthy. He plans on retiring and pursuing his hobby of portrait and artistic photography and loving me."
"Expectations. I guess we'll talk those through together with you. I can say that neither of us have an overly romantic view of marriage. Scott accepts me with all my flaws. He's not trying to make me into someone different. I'm accepting of him in the same way. I know, and I believe Scott does too, that we'll need to work at our marriage and allow each other to have their own personality. Having been in failed marriages I believe we're both more grounded in the realities of marriage than if we were eighteen or twenty-one marrying for the first time."
Evie nodded several times as Veronica spoke. Though Veronica would stop talking for seven or so seconds the minister didn't say anything, letting Veronica fill the void.
Veronica smiled, "As for sex, I don't know where to begin or what you expect me to say. Scott is a gentle, considerate lover, and we rarely have our hands off each other. We make love daily, at least once, usually more often. When we met he confessed a simple hose and high heel fetish that I have worked to fulfill for him.
Communication. Well there isn't anything I won't discuss with Scott, nor he with me. We have had no serious disagreements. Where we have disagreements it's been on minor issues and we accept that there'll be differences."
"Thank you Veronica for the quick insight into yourself. We all have disagreements with our spouses, family members and others who are close to us. By the very nature of them being close to us, differences and frustrations can escalate and magnify arguments. Honest and open communication is critical, and we'll return to that topic when I meet with both of you, but I'll say this now and when we return to this topic, it's important that a husband and wife agree that there will be disagreements regularly and that when disagreements arise they will disagree agreeably."
"Agree to disagree agreeably….hmmm, I like that," Veronica smiled. She was feeling increasingly comfortable with this person. She noticed no negative facial expression or body language from Evie when she admitted to having frequent sex with Scott prior to marriage.
"I noticed your ring. That's your engagement ring? Can I see it?" Veronica held out her hand, and Evie leaned over to look at it. "It's beautiful and stunning. He must love you a lot to give you something that special," remarked Evie.
"I'm special, so is he, so are Ashley and Katrina, our daughters." As the minister nodded her head Veronica continued enthusiastically, "I'll give you an example. The day after we met and had dinner, Scott told his partner that he was through working 14 to 16 hour days, seven days a week. He had met me and was going to spend as much time as I would give him to romance me. Since that day he's attended all the girls' softball games, we have eaten lunch together almost every day and he's been home for dinner every night since he moved in after his house was destroyed. And he stays home."
"Tell me something about your daughters. Carol and you both mentioned that they wanted a commitment ceremony in the sense of a marriage. A 'civil union' if you will. You know that Missouri doesn't recognize same sex marriage, don't you?" asked Evie.
"Yes, I know that. Scott and I know from their behavior and comments that they want to be bound together by a formal ceremony of some sort. They have no idea what to do to initiate it or where to turn. So Scott and I would like to surprise them on our wedding day with this option." Veronica replied.
"I would expect to do some premarital counseling with them too. Though some of it could be done after the ceremony, I still would want to talk to them to be satisfied of the depth of their love and commitment. I will do ceremonies, whether it is a marriage or civil union, only when I'm confident that both parties are serious about their relationship and the commitment they are making to each other and before God. Hmmm a surprise…I like surprises like you're suggesting. Depending on how the conversations would go with them, the essence of premarital counseling could be done through general visits and conversations. I'm confident that I could satisfy myself on the depth of their commitment from two or three visits. Did they know each other prior to your meeting Scott and was it through them that you meet your fiancé?" asked Evie.
"First, neither Scott nor I would expect you to change your standards. No. The girls didn't know each other before Scott and I met, but they are now truly in love and inseparable. They share a bedroom and a bed. They have unspoken communications with each other that screams that they are in love. Ashley, my daughter, and Scott love each other and Katrina, Scott's daughter, and I love each other, we have become a melded, loving family. Ashley has asked if I would be upset if she changed her name to Appleton, as will I on our wedding day. I hope that we'll be able to keep the ceremony a surprise event that I hope you'll agree to officiate. They're receiving celebratory rings at our ceremony and at their ceremony they will bestow gold wedding bands on each other which they don't know we've bought. I plan on asking Katrina's mother to give her away along with her father." Veronica explained.
