Lola and the Rolling Stone

Chapter 36

Naomi slipped into the car at 8:16 in the morning after expending an encourmous amount of tears while seeing her 5 year old son wander into his kindergarten class without any fanfare. "How did he just go off to school?" she asked Bruno feeling his hand run along her thigh.

"He's going to be fine." he told her turning to kiss her cheek before he backed the car out of the parking lot.

"I need to be at work in like an hour ago...." she responded. "What are you doing today?"

"Umm...." he paused not sure what to say to her.

"Umm?" she asked. "You always know what you're doing...."

"You're going to get mad when I say what we're doing..." he told her.

"I have to go to work!" she laughed playfully pushing him away from her as he turned the opposite way from their home.

"Well that's not right...." she paused. "What are we doing? Brunnnooo...."

"Just something I know you've wanted to do....." he told her raising his eyebrows.

"Oh god...." Naomi laughed glancing at her phone.

"The kids are fine. Everyone at Church knows you'll be late..." he reassured her.

"Where are we going?" she wondered not hearing anything from Bruno. "God, you're the worst!" she tried to not get nervous about where they were going. "We're not like running off and getting married, are we? Because that's like not what I want at all..." she glanced over at him still seeing him focused on the street in front of him. "Bruno...no...we can't dp that...not at all...this is going to include everyone...it has to be perfect....like I want it to be better than my first wedding and that was like the best day of my life...next to the day Hannah and Gave were born...." she cringed a it realizing that she might have not said the first part of her statement. "I just...." she tried to back peddle. "Not that when we get married that it's going to be like top 3 days of my life..."

"I'm not worried." he finally said. "I'm confident that our wedding day will be better than anyone's wedding day ever..."

"Oh?!" she asked seeing him turn down a swanky street in downtown Dallas. "No, we aren't moving..." she told him.

"No. We're not moving. I know you're not leaving that house...that's like the best house..." he told her. "We're meeting Regina..." he explained.

"Regina Mirando? The wedding planner?! How did you get her? When I called they said there was like a three year waiting list for her to help...."

"I'm Bruno Mars, baby...." he winked at her as they parked on the side walk of the quiet street.

"And at her house? Like ho did you pull that off?" she asked genuinely shocked.

"You'll just have to ask..." he told her as he rang the doorbell. He reached for her hand feeling that she needed to be touched.

"Wait...." she took a step back feeling her past flooding back to her. I knew this was going to take more than just a surprise...he thought to himself walking over to her seeing her heading to the car. "i just remember when we met with Elisa and she just made everything happen so perfectly and I know....it's just...."

He let her stand by the car realizing that she wasn't giving up. If she was giving up she would have already been in the car. He had learned how to tell when she was stressed and when she retreating...this was retreating. "Nay....I love you..." he said wrapping his arms around her waist from behind kissing her shoulder.

"Okay...I think I'm okay..." she said. He could feel her smile through speaking to him. "But I really have no idea what I want for our wedding...."

"That's why I'm here..." Regina said standing at the end of the walkway leading to her home. She stood long and lanky with long black hair and thick rimmed black glasses wearing a short denim dress with a leather jacket and sandals. "Let's go inside and talk.... "she said leading them toward the house.

They sat down at an expansive table and Regina took out a notebook. "So...." she started. "You have no idea what you want..."

"I just want everyone to be part of it. This isn't just me and Bruno now...it's the two of us, it's my kids, it's his kids, it's his ex, it's my...it's Joseph's family...I just want everyone to have a part of this...if that's what he wants..." she looked over at him a bi concerned, again, about Joseph's family being involved.

"We can talk about that later, Mims..." he said looking at the papers that Regina had out.

"So, like kind of big but intimate...." Regina said.

"And not like super dressy...what if it's just like cotton dress and he wears like just a little...like...he knows what I'm thinking...." Naomi started.

"I think I know exactly what she's thinking...." Bruno grabbed a pen and starting drawing on the piece of notebook paper. He had worked with enough designers since his fame that he was ale to pretty accurately convey what they were both thinking.

"But Bruno...." she started to think....like...I'm just thinking...and this might not be a Regina thing....this is us...this shouldn't be me in the past or you in the past...it's brand new, it's something so different.....now I don't know..." she started to second guess herself. "Maybe we need to talk more about what we want before Regina helps us..."

"What do you want, Mimi?" he asked.

"I'm just confused....like I know that Bedy and Joe are part of us.but like do we include that in our future when this is about us?"

"I don't know if I need Bedy there, Mimis...": he said. "This girls of course...but like...do you really want Sarah there like watching all of this? Seeing her daughter-in-law get remarried?"

"I don't know..." Naomi told him confused still.

"Is this an easy answer? I just don't know...." Bruno told her.

"Bedy is your choice..." she told him. "If you don't want her there then she doesn't have to be there....but I was thinking of the lake...like getting married there..but that's so me and him...that's not you and me...and then like...do we need to move? Do we need to be somewhere for us? I just don't know..."

"One step at a time, Nay...." he smiled reaching for her knee under the table. "Let's just decide what type of wedding you want..."

"Casual..." she told him nodding her head turning to Regina. "Like a backyard party kind of thing...like one of your big things you have with your family...but Texas style....like Christmas lights and Ikea solar lights and canvas chairs and IPAs and sangria and music playing in the background....and the kids just running around in fancy dresses without shoes on...I can just smell it all...and at sunset...it has to be late spring or early summer...I mean I guess fall too...just not like July..."

"I think I have an idea...." Regina said describing a place that sounded perfect for their wedding.

"When can we get married?" Naomi visually excited about the place Regina was describing.

"We can talk about that next week." Regina said with a smile. "I think everything will be exactly as you have described it, though."

They said their good byes to their wedding planner and got in the car. "Are you feeling better?" Bruno asked.

"I should probably be asking you that question...." she responded. "You just let me run with all of that...I want to know what you're thinking...."

"I really just want to spend the rest of my life with you, Naomi. And I want everyone else to know that too. If it's a super fancy wedding that's on E! or something so small that there's only one witness....I just want to with you..."

"I just want t e with you too, Brunz." she said touching his arm as they drove back home and back to their somewhat normal lives.