The call came an hour later that they were at a local cidery and we should join them. We hopped in the car and drove to a place about 30 minutes away. Even without Kitten and I drinking, there were still a lot of laughs. Between the sex and the company, my mood was pretty good. Around 11 pm I drove the drunks home in Meg’s car while Kitten followed behind in mine. She had her licence but never used it much. She was nervous, but we all made it home safe and sound.
Even on Sunday morning, when I was dealing with the walking dead, I was in a pretty good mood. I was probably enjoying some of their suffering, but I would never let them know that. You would also have to be a significant sadist to enjoy watching Soo suffer through a hangover.
The result was a pretty quiet Sunday, with everyone content to quietly lay around the house. Eventually, Kitten persuaded Soo and Gillian to go up to the pool for a swim. I knew better than to talk to Meg when she was recovering and left her alone. I briefly had the suicidal thought of pointing out that she bounced back from hangovers much quicker when she was younger, but buried that notion quickly. Not even Kitten could save me if I said that to Meg.
Most of them had recovered by mid-afternoon, and after another fantastic supper by Soo, I opted to fire up the jacuzzi. I sat on one side with Kitten under my arm, with the other girls facing us.
“You don’t look comfortable. Is it weird for you to wear a swimsuit here?” Meg said. I must have been squirming or something.
“Well, I figured those two don’t want to see me naked, and you’ve probably seen me naked enough as it is,” I said.
“What!?” yelled Soo, Gillian and Kitten all at the same time. I sighed.
“Not recently,” I said. “Like almost 30 years ago. A group of us went skinny dipping.”
“Ohhhh,” Kitten said. “Did you strip off dinosaur togas like they wore in that super old Flintstones movie?”
Meg and I looked at each other, speechless.
“That is the single most horrible sentence I have ever heard,” Meg finally managed to get out, causing Kitten to laugh even harder. “You must be punished for that.”
And that’s when Meg moved across the jacuzzi before Kit could react and dunked her head underwater. She only held her under for a moment. Not long enough to be scary, but long enough to get the point across.
When she popped back above the water, and after she finished sputtering and wiping the water away from he eyes, she looked murder at Meg for a moment, then she turned her big, puppy dog eyes on me.
“Daddee,” she whined.
“Nope,” I said, holding up my hand. “I love your brattiness, but you have been a bitch to Meg a lot this weekend. You had that coming. So you will apologize to her.”
She looked like she’d prefer to drink the water in the jacuzzi, but she did turn and look at Meg.
“Sorry for being a bitch, Meg,” she said.
“Apology accepted,” Meg said. “Although one more crack about my age, Kit, and you’re camping out on Yonge Street when we get back.”
Kitten’s eyes got wide. Meg was probably joking, but Kitten opted not to push her luck.
“And the next time we have some privacy we’re going to be having a…. lengthy discussion about your behaviour, young lady,” I whispered in her ear. Despite the heat from the jacuzzi, I could feel her shiver next to me.
“Yes, Daddy,” she murmured.
When I looked back up, I could see the other three women were dying to know what I said, but could probably guess based on Kitten’s reaction. There were times when it was weird being open about our relationship in front of Meg, Soo, and Gillian. I never intended for them to know. But they were all smart women and we were not the best at hiding the nature of our relationship.
But the great thing was they didn’t care. Gillian would typically be appalled by the age and power difference, but she liked me well enough, so she let it slide. Although I had no doubt my balls were in jeopardy if Kitten ever arrived on her doorstep crying over something I did.
Soo found it terribly interesting and asked both of us questions about how things worked between us. But mostly she just loved how affectionate and romantic it was.
Meg was just glad I wasn’t suicidal anymore. Despite her recent attempt at drowning her, she liked Kitten, so that was a bonus. The nature of our relationship was just something to roll her eyes at from time to time.
“Sooooo, um, when are you two getting married anyway,” Soo asked, awkwardly trying to break some of the weirdness in the jacuzzi. The collective groans let her know that she had managed to make it worse. “Well, I’m sorry, but they’re engaged and Kit has said nothing about when they’re getting married, where or any details. And I’m dying to know!”
“There are still a few things up in the air before we announce anything,” I said, trying to sound diplomatic. Kitten gave me a pouty look.
The few things were: when it would happen, where it would happen, and how many people we would invite. Minor details.
We were very nearly married last Christmas. When Kitten saw how quickly mom was deteriorating she wanted to do a quick civil ceremony just to give my mom something. She almost convinced me when dad stepped in and pleaded with us not to.
“Your mom and I always took our marriage vows seriously. I know you will too, but I don’t want you to rush into anything and deprive yourself of what should be one of the happiest days of your life for something your mom might not understand and won’t remember,” he said.
Kitten protested, but he was firm. Wait and do things the way we wanted them done.
Except, of course, we couldn’t decide how we wanted them done.
Reluctantly, Kitten agreed to wait until after she completed school. But in her mind, that meant that we should get married the day after she finished her last exam. I thought it best to wait another few months until we knew what she was doing next.
We managed to agree that we would probably travel somewhere and get married, but we couldn’t decide where. Kitten also informed me that her last birth control shot would wear off around next June by her calculations. She had every intention of fucking me silly until I got her pregnant.
We weren’t fighting over it because there was still time. At least we weren’t doing a huge church wedding. But there was low-level frustration with one another. Kitten was more frustrated than I was; compared to the fights Beth and I had over our wedding, this was like walking in a pleasant spring rain.
“Oh, come on, there has to be something you can tell us,” Soo said. Even Meg and Gillian looked curious about the details. Before I could say anything, Kitten jumped in.
“Ok, well, we’re…. disagreeing on a few things. So maybe you can help,” she said.
“Uh oh,” immediately ran through my head.
“We’re not doing a church wedding because we’re not religious. We’re thinking of going somewhere outside Canada to get married. What do you guys think?” Kitten asked.
“Please god tell me you don’t want to get married naked on a beach in the Dominican Republic,” Meg said immediately.
Kitten giggled, and I immediately said no.
“Her family are originally from Scotland, so I thought maybe we would get married there,” I said. That got some approving looks.
“Except I’m not exactly in love with my family. Plus, it will probably rain every day we’re there and I’ll get soaked in my wedding dress,” Kitten fired back. That also got some sympathetic nods and murmurs of agreement.
The banter went back and forth for the next hour, with no clear consensus achieved on location. However, the girls did seem to think that a summer wedding would be best rather than one at the end of April. Kitten reluctantly agreed. So at least we had some extra space.
Meg and I decided to hit the sauna while the girls were content enough to continue chattering in the jacuzzi. After settling into the heat for a few minutes, I heard Meg sigh.
“You haven’t talked with her about it yet, have you?” she said.
“Nope,” I said.
“From a lawyer’s perspective, the great thing about love and marriage is how stupid it makes people,” she said. I could feel a full rant coming from her and there was no stopping it. I just needed to sit in the heat and hang on.
“I mean, you could always be stupid and in love, but for ages, it was only heterosexuals who could do the real damage to themselves by doing stupid things while getting married. But marriage stupidity is a growth market these days. You can be gay and stupid, or transgender and stupid, asexual and stupid…. I am completely pro gender and sexual fluidity because as a divorce lawyer it opens up whole new markets of stupid people to me,” she said.
“Meg,” I started, but she plowed right through me.
“You are significantly more wealthy than she is. She has no clue how wealthy you are. She knows you don’t worry much about money and you take care of her, but it’s in the abstract. She has no idea that between your house, investments, life insurance and the settlement in the lawsuit that you are a multi-millionaire,” she said. “And all of this before your pension kicks in.”
“She knows I’m well off,” I said, knowing it was a feeble argument.
“She’s going to graduate from school with a decent amount of debt. The last time I looked at your books, when you were slightly crazy, your net worth was over $3 million. I bet it’s more now. There is no way she knows you have that much. She will struggle to process it. You are insane to get married without a prenup,” she said.
“How the hell do I sit down and tell a 21-year-old that I love her madly and I want to spend the rest of my life with her and have children with her, but oh yeah, just in case, sign this piece of paper so I get to keep everything and toss your broke ass out on the street,” I fired back.
The heat prevented her from getting close enough to smack me in the head. Instead, she looked at me with resignation.
“Do you know how much pain and suffering I’ve seen come through my office door over the years from people who could have avoided all of it if they had just had a simple, grown-up conversation before they said ‘I do’? I mean, it was great for my billable hours; stupid always is. But I could have done with not as many billable hours and fewer miserable and angry people in the world.
“Despite that bitchy age jab this evening, she is a decent and reasonable person. Sit down with her, explain your wealth, explain why a prenup is best for both of you. I’ll put you both in touch with relatively human lawyers who will walk you through it and set something up that’s fair,” she said.
She was right. Of course she was right. Meg was almost always right except when it came to her personal life, where she was almost always wrong. But yeah, not having something in place was asking for trouble.