"She wants to celebrate, Jasper!" I exclaimed, pacing yet another line along the floor in front of the sofa Jasper was sitting on. At this point, he was leaning back, head resting on the back of the couch, eyes closed, hands clasped, nodding to my words. I had only said the same thing about a hundred times already. "Why does she want to celebrate? What happened to my mom? She wouldn't want me to go away like this, especially since my accident and already losing her son. This isn't like her!"
Jasper sighed deeply, he was finally ready to talk it seemed. "Sades, your mom knows you're capable of taking care of yourself. And she knows I'll take care of you. As much as she wants to keep you close, there's nothing wrong with her wanting you to chase your dreams. She knows you've worked hard for your career, knows how badly you want this. It's only right that she gives you her blessing on this."
Maybe he had a point. A good point. It still didn't feel real to me though. She'd always been protective, even more so when Blaine passed, and again when I moved into my own apartment. I had noticed she'd relaxed slightly when Jasper came back and moved in with me. I had someone to watch over me, keep me safe when she wasn't able to. She'd always worry, just, now, she'd only worry a little less. I could live with that.
Jasper reached for my hand, stroking my knuckles when he held it within his. I sank onto the couch next to him, giving the floor a rest from my relentless pacing for no reason.
Today had been quite a day. I'd already had to endure a lot. News of a potential job offer, relocating, transferring to online classes, talking to my fiancé and parents about said job offer and relocation. All that in one day takes a toll on a person, I was ready for the day to be done and I still had dinner with my parents to look forward to. I wondered if Carly would be there.
My head rested on Jasper's shoulder. "It's just a dinner with your parents, Sades, it's not a big deal."
"That's not what I'm moping about." Now.
"The job offer then?"
I only nodded in response. No matter how hard I tried there would be no words I could come up with at the moment to describe what I was currently feeling. There was just too much going on. I was thankful Jasper wasn't pressing me to talk about it, he just understood that I was still processing it.
"I'm going to accept it."
He laughed as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. "I knew you would. Let's have dinner, then tomorrow I'm sure you'll get more details about the relocation and whatnot, and then we'll start packing."
"What a to-do list." I giggled.
"I'm sure we can pull it off."
I had no choice but to agree with him on that. Together, we'd get through anything. We'd already proven that more than once. We were ready for our lives ahead.
...
"Stop acting so surprised, Sadie." My mother tells me that night. She'd cooked the meal herself even, another shock to me from her. Normally it was my dad that did all the cooking. "You've worked so hard for this; you continue to work hard for this. Am I happy you'll be living in another state far from me?" she shook her head once. "No, I'm not. But it's not my life, it's yours. I've had to come to grips with myself on that front. You have to make your own choices, Sadie, and this is one I know you'll be taking; you have to. Your father, Carly and myself will be supporting you every step of the way with whatever decision you end up making."
"I'm sorry." I say, putting my hands up in mock defense. "I'm just not used to it. You sending me away essentially. Thought you'd lock me up to stay here."
My dad laughed. "I thought the same thing."
I waved my hand in his direction at my mother, thankful that someone else was having the same thought process I was.
Jasper laughed. "I tried telling her Nora. I really did, she wouldn't listen to me."
"Hmm." My mother sighed. "She's too much like her father in that aspect. Her and Blaine both got that from him."
"You make that sound like a bad thing."My dad said.
Once again, we were in agreement. Maybe I took more than one thing from him, more than I thought. Hopefully I'd take his strength and courage to get through this next part of my life.
"Is not." My mother was quick to defend herself. "It's a good thing. It means you care, Sadie, it's a good thing. I raised two very caring children who took after their father." Her eyes drifted to Jasper at my side. "I also got to see a wonderful young man who will soon be my son, love and care for others as well. He was raised well."
Jasper blushed. "Thank you." His thanks was so quiet my mother made him repeat it. He cleared his throat. "Thank you, Nora. I appreciate it. I really do."
After the meal, Jasper and my father went off to do god only knows while my mom and I did the dishes. It may have been a congratulatory dinner but that didn't change the fact I was still in my parents house and I was expected to help clean up. I didn't mind, my one on one times with my mom would become rare pretty soon, I'd have to take advantage of these moments before they were gone.
My mother washed while I dried and put away. It wasn't long before she got to the part I knew she'd been trying to get at all night.
"Now that you guys are moving, what gonna happen with the wedding plans?"
Yup, figured she'd bring up the wedding planning. She always manages to slip it into conversation.
I shrugged, putting a plate into the cupboard. "Don't know. All I know is we're still gonna get married, we just don't know when or where."
"What else do you know?" She sounded flabbergasted at my lack of caring for the planning portion of the wedding, especially since I forbade her from planning it. It was mine and Jasper's day, not hers. "You have to have at least one thing planned!"
I thought about it for a moment and realized I only had one suitable answer. She wasn't going to be happy with it, but it was all I had.
"I know I'm going to be the bride and Jasper will be the groom. That's about it."
"Sadie!" She scolded. I nearly thought I'd dropped a plate to get that tone from her. It'd been years since she'd used it on me. "That's it? You guys have been engaged for seven months! How is that all you've got planned? It only took me three weeks to plan my wedding to your father!"
That was another fact she constantly threw in my face when we had this discussion. She was quick to plan, I wasn't. Planning was Jasper's field of expertise, not mine. It seemed a lot of things weren't my thing lately, that was going to be something I'd have to work on.
"That was your life mom. And yeah I know we've been engaged for a while but we've both been busy. We know we're forever, know we'll be together." I had to get this through to her. "We're not in a rush. We'll get married when we get married. For now, we have each other, that's all we need."
My mother huffed. That clearly wasn't the answer she was expecting. Ever since we told her of the engagement, my father had managed to keep it from her until I told her which surprised me and got my mother angry with him for an hour. She'd been wanting to help with the planning and go shopping for dresses and cake samples and all of that and me? Well, I wanted to keep focused on my work and school.
Jasper was okay with me putting school and work ahead of planning the wedding, he told me to take my time. We could get married at any time, there was no timeline on it. At least we agreed to the no timeline thing, my mother was insistent on us being married by a certain date. It was getting hectic.
As much as I wanted to treasure these last few one on one times with her, it'd be nice to get away from the constant need to talk about the wedding. At least if she called, I'd be able to hang up on her, though she'd kill me for it later on.
"I'm sorry." I told her putting the towel on the counter, turning from her. "I have other priorities. I'll always love Jasper, I'll still marry him at some point. The love I have for him won't change, mom. We'll get married when it works for us."
Her eyes followed me as I walked from the room. "I trust you, Sadie. Sorry for trying to intervene and force you to make decisions you're not ready for. I don't ever want you to think that I don't believe in you."
My hand stalled on the wall just before the living room where my father and Jasper were sitting, working on some kind of design for some project. They'd been bonding a lot lately, it was weird yet a joy to behold. I smiled at my mother once meow before leaving. "I know mom, I still love you."
...
Jasper and I headed back home not long after that. My mother tried to stall and keep us there longer but once I told her we had to get to bed early tonight because I had a lot of meetings and phone calls to do tomorrow, she relinquished us. Not before she held us in vice-like hugs though, and a pat on the back from her father.
I was silent on the car ride back. It wasn't long before Jasper began to pry about it.
"It's not the nerves about tomorrow that's keeping you quiet is it?"
I shook my head.
He sighed. "What's your mom say to you about the wedding?"
"That we're not planning it fast enough."
A chuckle escaped him. He'd been hounded by his mother for the same reasons.
"Of course she did. She knows that we don't have a deadline to be married by, right?"
"That's what I told her. She wasn't happy about it. What about your mom? Did you tell her the same thing?"
"I did."
"And?"
"And, same response your mom gave. Asked why we weren't making the wedding top priority."
We really weren't having a fun time with this wedding planning with our mothers involved. They're anted us to rush into the wedding while we wanted to take our time. They saw a deadline we didn't see.
After tonight my mother might have a better understanding of the wait, she might know that it'll happen when we're ready for it, it didn't change the fact she wanted it to happen now. Any parent would be thrilled to have their child married, my mother seemed more happy about it than my dad but still. At least my dad didn't hound me every conversation about when it was or what new details I'd come up with for it. I was grateful that he was understanding, I needed one parent to be patient with me.
The wedding would happen, but school came first right now. We'd get it through to them somehow.
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