Gen 2 - Chapter 7: The One Thing I Know

Rhett wasn't surprised by my sexuality announcement.

"I thought you might be." Was all he said, before getting up and going over to the martial arts dummy. What? What?! He thought I was a lesbian? Why didn't he tell me, it would have been so much faster that way and I could have had a girlfriend by now. Guess we're a little more alike than I thought..

Then I heard a knock, and my heart leapt into my throat. In a whisper, I asked Rhett, "Can you get it..?"

He just looked over at me with a look, that I took as 'you're tough, you can do it yourself', and then he continued with his practice. So it was all on me, then. Steeling myself, I turned and walked over to the backdoor where I heard the knock, and opened the door to let Elvira in. "Hi." I greeted, and suddenly almost felt shy. I'd never felt like this with any of my previous flirts, so I knew that I actually, really loved her rather than just had a crush on her.

"Hi, yourself. So, you said you wanted to tell me something?" she stepped inside, and I took a deep breath. This wasn't gonna work, she surely didn't like girls.. she seemed fully into guys...

"Yeah. Um. Do you like girls?" Well that was smooth.

".. depends on the girl, I suppose."

"So you're bi?"

"You could say that."

I nearly cheered, but kept myself together, and asked her about her sign - our signs weren't compatible or incompatible, but I didn't put too much faith in that - and whether she was single. She had a son with Vladimir Schlick, but she was single. YES. I came close to cheering again.

 

Then, without waiting any longer, I went in for the kill. Or kiss, however you wanna spell it. 

It was as wonderful as I had imagined it, especially since she didn't react badly. At all. In fact, when I pulled back, she looked almost disappointed. But then she raised an eyebrow at me. "What was that for?"

"I think I love you." I blurted out, unable to really keep myself from it. It was better than prolonging everything and avoiding the subject, it got it out of the way. 

"Hm. I thought it was just me." Whoa. I really hadn't expected that, and stared at her. She rolled her eyes. "Yes, that means I've been thinking about you that way for quite a while."

I was frozen. I couldn't speak. Then I knew what I wanted to do, and grabbed her by the wrist, dragging her towards the main apartment building. She made a surprised noise. "What-.. where are you taking me now?"

When we got inside, and I pressed the open button for the elevator, I tossed a seductive look over to Elvira, before dragging her in when the doors opened. She seemed confused. "I thought we were already in your apartment. Where ARE you taking me?"

"Oh, I already took you where I wanted to go," I purred, an actual seductive purr this time, and moved over, hand on her shoulder. "There was something I wanted to do with you, that we can't do in my apartment because I don't have a double bed and Rhett is in there.."

She seemed to get the gist of what I was saying, and we then proceeded to have a very fun private time in the elevator together. If anyone would have told me years ago my first woohoo would be in an elevator with a girl, I would have laughed in their face. Funny how life works!

After our fun in the elevator, we flirted a little bit in the hall, then she had to get home. I was disappointed, but at least we'd see each other at work and maybe find some random closets for rendezvouses. We kissed goodbye, and I watched her go.

 

The days after that, Elvira and I spent a lot of time together at work, but when we weren't at work, we did our own things. I don't know exactly what she did outside of work, but I wrote and painted mostly. Dad visited pretty often, and one time he decided he wanted to learn martial arts. His visits like that one had become so.. regular for me and Rhett that I had to wonder what people would think if they knew about our little family.

Speaking of our little family! Dee finally got around to sending us a picture of her little Jamal (even though he was nearly a child by that time). He looked just like his Mommy, but with platinum hair! He even got the Parodi eyes - I seriously thought that those must be dominant genes, since all four of us biological Parodi kids had them. I don't even know what our biological Dad's eye color was..

I wrote a lot after finding out I was in love with Elvira. It was like she was my muse. Rhett would often just stand around and watch me as if it was fascinating. I'd finished 'There's a Ghost in my Easel', and then had started a new one called 'What Can a Girl Do?' Yes, it was a little based on my own life, even though I knew exactly where I wanted my life to go. I hadn't really thought about it too much, but I knew I was going to marry Elvira and we were going to have a wonderful rest of our lives. The children thing was going to be a little difficult, though. Would we have to adopt? Knowing Estiu, she wouldn't allow the actual Parodi genes to die, so somehow we'd probably be able to just.. have babies. Together. It was odd to think about..

Not too long later, Dee sent us an updated picture of Jamal, who was now a child. He was going to definitely be a handsome man when he grew up! Hopefully he didn't take after his Casanova father, though. Speaking of Ayuru, though, he and Dee were still dating. Amaze me!

Then.. horrifying news came. It was a shock to everyone, no one expected it. Only a few days after Naomi and Dee's birthday to elder, Naomi died of a heart attack.

It devastated Dee the most, naturally, they were twins, but it made me and Rhett both realize just how short life really was, and we could go at any moment. I wasn't going to waste any more time dilly-dallying, I was going to propose to the love of my life and if she said no, well, then, I'd just find a new love of my life! Rhett had a similar outlook as me, and he wouldn't tell me what he was planning, but he had an odd glimmer in his eye. I hoped his plan was to propose to Katina.

Like with Dad, I didn't want Naomi to just be some townie buried at the cemetery, and brought her remains home. I cried almost harder at her death - Dad's had been expected. Naomi's.. hadn't.

 

The day I decided to do it, I had been swimming for a while to maybe get some weight off - most of the time I adore my chubby look, but sometimes I get worried that Elvira might not be attracted to that, since she's so skinny herself.. - and then when I got back inside, I gave her a call. Harhar, not a ring yet. She agreed to come over, and I decided to fix the sink while I waited. 

An hour later, the sink was fixed, and just as I was about to walk out into the main room, Elvira walked into the bathroom, looking upset. "Elvira, are you okay?" I asked, frowning in concern.

"Am I okay? Am I okay?! No! My son never listens to me anymore just because he's a young adult, you weren't calling me for a while and even though I'm evil - EVIL! - I feel guilty because I cheated on you!"

"What?!" I stared at her, reeling back slightly as she ground her teeth. It was pretty scary having a vampire make that face at you. Then she slumped, and looked at the filthy bathroom floor.

"I cheated on you with Eve Tatum. I love seeing other people suffer, but it doesn't feel nearly the same when I hurt you. I don't like it."

Odd, I'd never realized that she was evil. Why was she working in the hospital if she was evil? Did I even really know her at all? Yes, yes I did. I knew more about her than I did even about Rhett, or any of my family members, really.

"So.. does that mean you might love me, too?"

"Yes! I think. I don't know. I've never been in love - Vladimir was mostly a fling, simply because we lived together for a while."

"Okay," I said, and took her hands, leading her out of the grungy bathroom. "That's all I need to know."

When we got out of the bathroom, we both felt better, and even if Rhett came in and saw us, I wouldn't care. I immediately pulled her into a passionate kiss, which she returned in full. It was uh-maze-ing! We stayed there for several moments, before I pulled back, first slipping my hands into her's, squeezing them, before moving my arms around her and pulling her closer. "I love you, and I forgive you as long as you give me the right answer to my question."

She tilted her head slightly in confusion. "What question?"

"The one I'm about to ask you."

I stepped back, and held my index fingers up. "Just a sec." Then I carefully got down on one knee, grabbing a little black box out of my back pocket. Before I even turned around I heard her gasp, and I grinned, before turning and opening the little box up to her. "Will you marry me?"

She stood there, with the most shocked look on her face, and didn't move for several minutes. I thought she was gonna say no at first, but then she.. started hopping up and down and kind of squealed. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

I didn't expect her to be so excited, but it sure made me happy. I beamed brightly, and slipped the ring onto her finger, before standing up. She threw her arms around me immediately, and I hugged her tightly, beaming brightly myself. I don't know if I'd ever been so happy in my entire life!

We decided to get married right there and then, with Rhett as a witness, since he's just walked in, having gotten home from work. "Whoa." I heard him as we had our 'kiss the bride' moment, and I nearly giggled into the kiss, but I was too focused on the fact that I was now married.

Married. Married, married, married. As Elvira headed to use the bathroom before we got busy, eheheh, I admired my ring. Then heard a deep sigh. "What is it, Rhett?"

"I'm gonna go sleep on the lawn furniture."

"Why?"

"How can I sleep while you and your new wife have 'fun' in your new double bed?"

"Good point. At least you'll know how your future fiance felt when you didn't even notice that she was homeless and staying here!"

"Shut up." Needless to say, after we both realized how stupid we were being, we both had a huge talk, and I told him about Katina staying on the lawn furniture for a long time.

When Elvira got out of the bathroom, we broke the new bed in. I must say, I prefer beds to elevators. But, our fun didn't last very long.

We were both exhausted after our fun, so she took her hair down and put it in a braid, while I just went to sleep. When she went back to the bed, Naomi was standing next to her tin box, grinning like the cat who caught the mouse. "So, congrats, Mrs. Parodi." she said to Elvira, who just hissed and pointed at her.

"You stay away from me!" Elvira hissed, and then crawled under the covers and cuddled up to me. She's not a big fan of ghosts, which is kinda funny since she's a vampire, but oh well. 

Almost as soon as my wife cuddled up to me - my wife! I love the ring of that - I got a call to come in to work, there as an emergency. I groaned, and rolled over to kiss Elvira's forehead, before climbing out of bed and running to work. While I was there, El quit her job and got one as a criminal, like she'd always dreamed. Why hadn't she before? I don't think I'd ever understand that, but I certainly appreciate that she was working at the hospital - it was like we were meant to be.

Not long later, after work one day, Rhett invited Katina over, and I knew exactly what he had planned. I squealed slightly to myself, and then told Elvira was was gonna happen. She isn't nearly as much of a romantic as I am, but she was happy for him.

When Katina got there, Rhett dragged her outside to the most scenic spot of the back yard. I didn't hear it, but I did spy out the window the entire time, even though my stomach was kind of doing unpleasant flip-flops and trying to tell me to run to the bathroom to throw up. I refused vehemently, and just continued to watch, until they were fully married. Neither of us couples had big, fancy weddings, but we didn't need them. When they started heading towards the door, though, I quickly moved to the fridge to grab out some leftovers. My nausea had changed into hunger. They came inside, and I glanced over with a knowing smirk. "Have a fun time out there?"

"Yeah, now we're gonna use you and Elvira's bed for an even funner time. Can you please go outside or something?" 

"Oh now that's just disgusting!" I faux-gagged, before taking my dinner outside to eat it there. 

Later that day, I decided to check and see if my suspicions were correct. Strangely enough.. I was right. Estiu was not going to let me get away with not continuing the Parodi genes. I was pregnant. Now, how was I going to break the news to Elvira?

(A/N: Two in a day! I'm proud of myself. And I did that while doing other things, too. Maybe it's because I was determined to show everyone who she chose (well, if you wanna get technical, who I chose since it took a free day for both Lyric and Rhett in order to get them married off) today! I was really shocked when the pop-up telling me that Naomi died showed up. Because.. she was only barely an elder. But it really made for a nice reason why both Lyric and Rhett suddenly got married. Oh, the title of the chapter just wasn't coming to me, so I used the title of a song I was listening to while I wrote the chapter. XD It's a love song, so it works.)