Stained Glass Eyes and Colorful Tears

7

~ Two months before Texas ~

"Mm, you know you shouldn't wear that. You look too good in it, I'll be distracted all night." Tony says as he comes up behind me, his hands sliding over my body. 

"Hey, don't do that." I say as I swat at his exploring hands. "I can't be feeling that way before people get here."

"Let's do something about it before they get here then." he says as he leans over to kiss my neck. His hands keep sliding all over me, dipping down into places they shouldn't. I close my eyes and let myself enjoy the feeling of him, loving the way his rough hands feel against my soft, smooth skin.

"Do we even have enough time?" I ask him, the rational part of my brain coming alive for a second.

He chuckles in my ear and I can feel the vibration of his laugh through my body. "No, we don't."

I tsk at him then slide out of his grasp. "You're just doing this to torture me then?" I ask with a scolding look on my face. He just grins at me in response.

"We could make time. We'll just make everyone wait outside."

I roll my eyes at him but a tiny smile slips onto my face. 

Tony and I are hosting our anniversary party at our house tonight. We told ourselves when we got married that we would host a party every year on our wedding anniversary, and so far we've managed to uphold that promise to ourselves. We invite only our closest friends, like Tony's bandmates and my family, and this year we're inviting a couple we've become close to over the past year. Tony knows them more, Tyler and his wife both work with Tony, but I've seen them often enough over the past year to feel comfortable enough to invite them here tonight. Tony seems to really like them so honestly I'm doing it more for him than myself, but isn't that what marriage is all about?

"What time should we kick everyone out at?" Tony asks as he flops down onto the bed.

"I don't know, midnight? Or just whenever we get tired of having people in our house?"

"I'm already tired of having people in the house."

I turn and give him a look. "I can leave if you want."

"Not you. Besides, this is our house, not my house." he says. "I mean the people coming over tonight."

"Oh, the ones that are mainly your friends, you mean?"

He grins at me. "Yeah, those people."

I start to scold him but the doorbell rings, cutting off anything I was about to say. Tony, having seen me start to open my mouth to reprimand him, grins at me before getting up and making a beeline for downstairs to open the door. I can distinctly hear him greeting someone who sounds like Vic.

I finish getting ready as quick as I can, finishing my look up with some earrings that Tony got me a couple of days ago for our anniversary. They're gold dangle earrings with my birthstone at the end of them. Tony told me that Tyler's wife, Anna, helped him pick them out. He said before she butted in, he was ready to buy me glittery gold heart earrings, until she told him no woman wants heart earrings. I smile at the earrings in my ears, thanking God that Anna stepped in. 

Everyone has arrived by time I make my way downstairs. Even though they only got here no more than ten minutes ago, everyone has a drink in their hand. Some even have two drinks, like Jaime.

"What're you doing here?" I say jokingly as I grab one of his drinks from him.

"Whatever I want." he says as he snatches his drink back. "Why are you here?"

"I live here." I say matter-of-factly. "Which means I can kick you out if I want."

"If you kick me out I'll tell mom." he says with a smug grin on his face. 

I just roll my eyes at him. "What are you, seven? That's so lame of you."

"Yeah, but it'd work." he points out. "Where's the only good member of this household?"

"I'm literally standing right here in front of you." I say. 

Jaime tsk's at me. "You know I didn't mean you."

"But I am the better household member."

"I'm telling Tony you said that."

"You're such a little tattletale." I say. "Plus, you'd actually have to find him first."

Much to my demise, Tony choses this moment to walk back into the house from the backyard. Jaime turns and grins at me triumphantly, no doubt feeling like he's just won the lottery over this dumb turn of luck. He flips me off then walks to where Tony is in the kitchen. I watch for a second as they talk, a small smile on my face as I think of how lucky I am that everything worked out great in the end between all of us.

"Alia!"

I turn and see Anna and her husband, Tyler coming over to me. Anna wraps me into a hug as she always does. I learned early on that she is a hugger and nothing will stop her from throwing her arms around someone.

"So nice to see you guys!" I say as she detaches herself from me. 

"Thanks for inviting us!" she says. "The house is gorgeous, your hair is gorgeous, and can we talk about this dress?" she gushes as she grabs the hem of my dress and feels the fabric.

"I made some mistakes putting it on." I admit with a laugh. "I'm an over-the-head method girl usually, but this definitely was not an over-the-head dress. I nearly had to ask Tony to come help me out."

"Well, I'm glad it worked out because it is a really nice dress." Anna says, laughing. "Of course, the earrings are far better, but I'm only a little biased."

"Don't even get me started on the earrings. I love them so much and I can't thank you enough for helping Tony pick them out." I gush. 

Anna waves me off. "I hardly did anything, I just pointed him in the right direction. Speaking of directions, we just got here and it was a 30-minute drive so I really need to pee. The bathroom is...?"

"Oh, just down the hallway there and it's the first door on your right." I say, leaning forward into her and Tyler so I can try and show her from a better angle.

Tyler and I watch as Anna gets up and heads to the bathroom, leaving the both of us alone. It occurs to me then that I've never been alone with Tyler. I think this the most time we've ever spent in a conversation at all, actually, so it makes sense that in this moment I have no idea what to say to him. I know precious little about this man, aside from the fact that he has a wife named Anna and that he works with Tony.

Lucky for me, I don't need to think too hard to come up with a good conversation starter with him, he seems to have taken the reigns of this for both of us. 

"This is a really nice house." Tyler says as he looks around.

"Thank you! It's actually Tony's, I moved in a little before we got married, so I guess all the credit is his. The most I've done is added sone furniture and artwork to the walls."

"Nah, credit is yours too." he says, then leans forwards and drops the volume of his voice. "And just so you know, if ever you need help getting out of that dress, you can always ask me." 

I pull back from him quickly, a look of disgust on my face. Tyler smirks back at me, a cocky look on his face, almost as if he thinks he's succeeded at something by saying that to me. My eyes glide past Tyler to Tony, who stands about 20 feet away from us. Almost as if feeling my gaze on him, Tony looks at me and smiles warmly, completely unaware of the situation I'm in.

Right then and there I make the choice to not tell Tony. He really likes Tyler and they work so well together, I can't be the one to take that away from Tony. I tell myself next time Tyler says something to me that I'll put him in his place and that will make the entire situation better. I just hope it does.