Chapter Nineteen
I sat stunned. Did I hear right or was I wishing so hard I imagined it? I was catapulted back to reality when everyone with me yelled, “You won!” Keith grabbed me for a quick kiss, whispering something like love conquers all. My mother took about a hundred pictures and I was sure I was permanently blinded. I didn’t even care what I won first prize.
“This warrants a celebration,” my father announced when the ceremony was over. “We have two award winning artists. We should find somewhere serving fine champagne.”
Keith recommended a near by wine bar and we celebrated past midnight. We walked our parents to their hotel and Keith promised to see Aimee and me home. He walked Aimee home, but I went home with Keith. I was in total bliss. By the next morning I would be an adult and I just won second prize for my masterpiece.
The alarm brutally woke us at ten. “Bloody hell,’ Keith muttered. “I have to be at practice in an hour.”
“You didn’t tell me you had practice today,” I protested. “I thought you’d spend the day with me showing my parents London.”
“Spending the day with your parents isn’t bloody high on my list. Come on, I’ll fix you a crab stuffed omelet. I got champagne for mimosas. We’ll celebrate your birthday alone this morning then shag something fierce tonight.” He shot me a wicked grin. “This will be a birthday you won’t forget.”
I laughed in spite of myself.
“I need to ring my parents. I told Aimee to say I was sleeping in if they called.”
I rang their room, said I’d be at their hotel in an hour, I was having my birthday breakfast with Keith, then hung up before my mother could protest.
I bounced into the kitchen and was astounded and touched by what I saw. Keith had nicked some early crocus from the garden. But it was what else sat on the table that surprised me more –- a small box with a bow. “What’s this?” I asked, sitting in front of it.
“Well, open it and see,” Keith said as he flipped an omelet onto a plate.
I opened the box a bit, peeked inside, then screamed out loud, nearly dropping it.
Keith laughed. “I guess you like it. I should do this proper.” He took the box, removing the diamond ring flanked by two small amethyst stones. Grinning like a little boy, he knelt, placing the ring on my finger. “Brigitte Colette Antoine, will you marry me?”
I laughed. “Of course I will.” I leaped up and kissed him.
“I’ll leave it to you to choose a date and make all the arrangements,” Keith said.
I sat down, staring at my beautiful ring, and secretly hoped Keith didn’t spend too much of his trust fund. “Let’s just elope,” I said suddenly. “Aimee and Ryan can be our witnesses. They’re the only ones who ever supported us anyway.
”Keith gave a wicked grin. “Fuck, let’s go now. I’ll ring Ryan to delay practice.”
“Not now, you twit. I think we need a license first.”
He looked disappointed. “Oh, right. So when?”
I thought a moment. “Thirtieth May! It’s a bank holiday weekend and if I sell enough postcards we can take a one-night honeymoon. Paris would be so romantic.
We gobbled down breakfast and Keith finally dropped me off. We parted with a long kiss and I rushed up to our room. “Aimee, I have the most incredible news!”
Aimee waited a moment before responding. “Well, don’t make me wait for my pension to kick in. What’s your news?”
“Keith and me made it official!” I showed her the ring. “We’re thinking thirtieth May.”
Aimee sat, stunned for a moment. “How can you plan in that short a time?”
“We’re eloping.”
She stared at me a moment. “Elope? You can’t. What will your parents say?”
Her reaction surprised me. “I’m eighteen now. I don’t need their permission.”
“I know, but they’ll be disappointed if they aren’t there.”
“They’re so against us they’d probably sabotage it.”
Aimee leaned forward and gave me a hard look. “I’m not sure you’re making the right decision.”
“Don’t say that. I’m getting enough grief from my parents and Keith’s. I don’t want a fancy wedding anyway. Please say you’re happy for me.”
Aimee got up hugged me. “Of course I’m happy. I think you and Keith are right for each other. As long as you’re sure about this, I’m with you. You should store that ring in a safe place, then. Your mother will surely notice.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I took off the ring and placed it in Aimee’s capable hands.
Aimee and I met our parents at Salatinos spot on time that evening and were shown our table. I was disappointed Keith hadn’t arrived. It didn’t slip past my father. Is Keith not coming to celebrate your entrance into adulthood?” he asked.
He’s probably delayed at band practice,” I explained. “He’ll be here.”
As we sat talking of life in London, I took in the aroma of garlic and pasta and gazed at the wreathes of fake garlic on the walls. I then realized how hungry I was, but there was still no Keith. After fifteen minutes my father suggested we order. I insisted we wait. “How long must we wait for him?” my father asked.
I responded defensively. “He’ll be here.”
“It’s her birthday,” Aimee piped up. “If she wants to wait, that’s her choice.”
No one said anything more. We were brought a basket of bread and a bottle of merlot and continued making small talk. Why is Keith late? Did his car break down? Surely he wasn’t in an accident. He does drive recklessly sometimes. Finally, nearly an hour late, Keith staggered in. He wore the same tattered Levis and Sex Pistols shirt with the sleeves ripped off and the picture of Queen Elizabeth with a safety pin through her nose. He’d worn this t-shirt so often, it was pulling apart at the seams and he’d used a couple safety pins to hold it. He hadn’t combed his hair and he reeked of beer. I wouldn’t make a big deal in front of everyone, but noticed my parents raising eyebrows.
“What took you so long?” I asked. “I was worried.”
“We lost track of time revamping our live show.” He poured himself a glass of wine and took a big swig. I wondered how much he’d already had to drink.
My father ordered another bottle of Merlot when our dinners arrived.
Keith poured me a glass, then another for himself.
“It hardly seems you’re a young woman now,” my father commented. “Why I remember you and Aimee scouring the beaches for mermaids.”
Keith seemed intrigued. “Really? Mermaids?“
My father continued. “Then there was the time we took you to Paris for your 13th birthday. You looked so beautiful you tantalized every lad we encountered.”
“You’re making that up,” I accused.
After we’d eaten, my father dug into Keith. “Is your band making money yet?”
What business of his was it?
“Some,” Keith answered. “But it mostly goes for expenses like making new t-shirts and tapes. We’ll make good money when Ryan finishes at uni in a year. We’re already getting attention outside of London and Ryan says we’ve gotten good press overall.” He downed his wine and poured another, emptying the bottle.
“What possessed you to give up a life time of classical training to be in a rock band?”
“Punk fits my personality — angry and rebellious.” He poured himself another glass and began pouring me another before I put my hand over my glass. “I’ve had plenty.” I tried finding a delicate way to tell him to lay off the wine, but my father beat me to it.
“Do you think you’ve had enough alcohol tonight, lad?”
Please don’t let there be a blow up on this day, I secretly prayed. Why did my father keep picking on Keith? And why did Keith behave in a way that would bring disapproval from my parents?
“Nah, I have a high tolerance. I only drink wine and beer, never the hard stuff at all.” He took defiant gulp.
Thankfully we were interrupted by three waiters bringing a huge chocolate cake covered with blazing candles. They sang Happy Birthday in Italian. Although I was delighted, I also wanted to sink under the table as all eyes suddenly were on me. Keith wouldn’t let me hide. He pulled me back into my chair, announcing very loudly, “This is the birthday girl, ladies and gents. She’s eighteen!”
Everyone applauded. I wanted to sink into the woodwork.
“Make a wish,” Keith insisted. “If those candles aren’t blown out in one breath your wish won’t come true.”
I didn’t know what to wish for because at that moment I had everything. I closed my eyes and wished for me and Keith to be happy forever, then blew out the candles in one breath. Everyone applauded. I felt so special.
Keith pulled a wad of cash from the pocket of his tattered Levis. “A bottle of your finest champagne,” he told some waiter passing our table. “My fiancé is a woman today.”
The waiter took the money and disappeared.
“Did I hear correctly?” my father said. “Did you say fiancé?”
I cringed. I hoped Keith wouldn’t mention anything.
“Please say you two aren’t engaged,” my mother added.
“You didn’t tell them?” Keith asked me.
“No she didn’t!” my father bellowed. People looked our way and I got embarrassed. “You are not marrying my daughter!”
“You can’t stop us,” Keith replied. “She’s eighteen.”
“We will see about that! Come,” he told my mother. “We are returning to the hotel!”
Aimee’s parents decided to leave also. “I’m sorry your birthday ended this way,” Aimee said to me. “I think your father is being unreasonable. Will you be all right?”
“I think so,” I sighed. “Go ahead. I’ll be in touch later.”
The champagne arrived. “Shall I pop the cork, Señor?” the waiter asked.
“No,” Keith answered. “We’ll take it home.”
I could bear it no longer and ran from the restaurant in tears.
Keith came after me. “I’m sorry, luv, that your father acted so horrible tonight.”
“Well you weren’t much better!” I screamed. “Would it have been so hard to show up on time AND sober?” My words were so loud I noticed passersby glance in our direction.
“Hey, I tried being civil tonight, but your father kept attacking me. All that talk about flirting with chaps in Paris, is my band making money? He wanted me to get so pissed off I’d walk out. Then he could say I abandoned you on your special day.
“Well like it or not, they’re as much part of my life as you and you’ll have to get along. The whole time they visited, you were absent, then we waited an hour at dinner until you jolly well felt like coming. You didn’t even have a good excuse for being late.”
“They’ll never like me so what’s the point?”
“Sometimes you’re like Jekyll and Hyde. You can be so tender and loving and sometimes you’re so selfish.”
Keith embraced me. “Come on, luv. Don’t be cross. It’s your eighteenth birthday and I want to shag all night to celebrate. Forget your parents. It’s us against the world now.”
I pulled away. “You and my father spoiled everything. Why can’t everyone get along? Why do you drink so much?”
“It was a celebration.”
“It seems you did plenty of celebrating before you arrived. How many beers did you have during practice?”
“I don’t fucking know. I don’t keep count.”
“Well maybe you should.”
“I don’t fucking have a drinking problem. Come on, you’re spoiling things now.”
“I’m spoiling things? I had two glasses of wine. You had twice that after drinking with your mates all day.”
“I’m sorry.” He wrapped me in his arms again. “Please don’t be cross with me.”
I pulled away again.
“Look, I’m sorry. I lost track of time and had to drive around to find some place to park. I’ll make it up to you.”
“You can’t. I’m going home. I have classes in the morning anyway.”
“The last Tube has gone for the night.”
“I have money for a taxi. It’s hard enough singing your praises to my parents. Then you’re an hour late reeking of beer and looking like you fell off a dust cart. You behaved as horribly as my father did.
“Don’t stay cross with me.” He took my hands. “Wait a minute. You’re not wearing your ring.”
“Don’t worry. Aimee’s keeping it safe. She said I shouldn’t wear it in front of my parents. But you blurted it out anyway.
“You shouldn’t be afraid of what your parents will do. You’re eighteen now.”
“They can’t make me come home, but they can cut off their support. I just need to get through the rest of the term. I’ll deal with next year when it comes. You, meanwhile should think hard about how much you’re drinking and how other people perceive you.” I pulled away from him and headed down the street.
He chased after me. “Let me at least give you a lift.”
“I don’t want a lift from you. You shouldn’t drive in your condition anyway.”
I ran down the block to a call box and stayed there until my taxi came. Keith disappeared in the enveloping London fog.
By the time I staggered into the bed sit, Aimee was asleep. I shed my clothes, but didn’t sleep. I kept thinking how the day began so beautifully and ended so sour.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning was Monday. Aimee and I didn’t have class until ten so we met our parents for breakfast. I wouldn’t talk to my father about his behavior. It would do no good.
As we sat down, however, my father brought it up. “Do you condone Keith’s behavior last night? He seems to drink quite a bit.”
“Tu as ete pas Charmant Prince non plus,” I shot back. “I wasn’t going to mention it, but you brought it up. You started in on him right away. He drinks when he’s upset so you fueled that fire by making him uncomfortable.”
“I can’t believe you are making excuses for him,” my father continued.
“I hope you are not in his car with him when he has been drinking,” my mother said. She shot me a stern look, but I wouldn’t feel guilty. “I also hope you wise up and do not marry him. He spoiled the whole evening.”
“I will be dead before you marry that lad,” my father added.
“Mon dieu,” I yelled. “I’m staying with Keith.”
“It’s our last morning together,” Aimee said. “Can we drop the subject of Keith?”
I was glad Aimee was there. I was feeling a bit ganged up on. Nothing more was mentioned, but now I was in a bad mood and had no appetite.
“You hardly ate,” my mother said when we had to leave.
“I wasn’t very hungry,” I said. “I’ll get something later.”
We saw our parents to the tube station and walked to the academy.
“Your parents are giving you such hell about Keith,” Aimee mentioned. “Ils ne sont pas justes du tout.”
“You’re right about them not being fair,” I responded. “I don’t think they’ll ever accept him.”
The following week, I stayed busy at school. Keith stayed busy with his band, but rang me at all hours. I refused to take his calls all week. I didn’t call my parents either and when my mother called, Aimee said I wasn’t home.
After five days, I finally showed up at Keith’s door.
“Well look who finally popped by,” he said, letting me in.
“I figured I’d let you suffer enough,” I claimed.
“I’ve been ringing you every bloody day. You know, it took a lot for me to show up on your birthday. That’s part of the reason I was late. I knew your parents would scrutinize everything I did in hopes of turning you against me. Turns out I was bang on. I think I acted civilized all things considered.”
“I gave them an earful too.” I flopped onto his sofa.
“Bloody good that did, I’m sure. I tried for your sake, but I never want to see them again.” He flopped next to me.
“Maybe when we’re married they’ll come around.”
“Don’t fucking count on it. Now, do you want to go eat somewhere before the show? I assume you’re coming tonight?”
“Yes, of course.”
The following weeks all my energy went into my schoolwork. School wasn’t as demanding as before my presentation, but still required much of my time and energy. The stress from the presentations and constant pressure from my parents about Keith sent my blood pressure soaring and I was taken off birth control pills. We were back to using condoms.
I was so glad when May came and I could wrap up all my projects and concentrate on our wedding. I chose the Marylebone Registry Office partly because it was the only place available and because Paul and Linda McCartney married there. There was something so harmonious between Keith and me that intensified as our wedding day approached. I wanted to scream to everyone I was getting married, but dared not, lest my parents find out and try to stop us. Aimee was my sole source of support.
“You’ve been stashing away extra money from selling postcards. Why not use it to buy yourself a new frock for your wedding?”
She was right. We went together, flitting from shop to shop before I fell in love with a simple white, lace frock with spaghetti straps and a vee cut front. The sales lady, learning I was getting married, was eager to help me find accessories.
“I don’t have a lot of money,” I explained. “I’m an impoverished art student.”
“Don’t worry,” she assured me. “I’m sure we’ll stay within your budget.”
She found me a matching shawl while Aimee found a comb encrusted with silk Baby’s Breath for my hair. “We’ll add real baby’s breath on the big day,” she said.
We left the shop without going completely broke. My wedding was the next day at two o’clock. I didn’t know why I was so apprehensive. I knew I made the right decision. Perhaps because I had to tell my parents after.
After finishing a few projects at the academy, I finished my second year.
It was now the eve of my wedding and I insisted on spending it at the bedsit, much to Keith’s disappointment. I said it was bad luck to spend our wedding eve together. He thought I was being silly. Again, if I didn’t have Aimee, I doubt I would have attended my own wedding. She remembered to get Baby’s Breath to weave in my hair and got me a small bouquet. I did my makeup, then slipped into my new frock. I added white ballet flats and was finished. Aimee took a couple pictures of me before we set off to Marylebone. We splurged on a taxi, which dropped us in front of the ostentatious columned building, rushed up the stairs and ventured inside.
“Well, look who popped in.” Keith and Ryan were inside. “I was thinking you stood me up, then remembered how long it takes you to get ready for anything.”
“I see you took no extra effort,” I responded. He wore faded Levis, but at least wore his button shirt with the musical notes on it and not a t-shirt sporting one of his favorite punk bands.
There wasn’t time to say more before our names were called.
“Our time has come, my luv,” Keith said with an impish grin. “You timed that to the minute.” He held his arm out for me.
I graciously accepted because now my legs felt like rubber bands and I wasn’t sure I could walk on my own. My stomach was in knots, yet I’d barely eaten.
We entered a small, elegant yellow room with a light blue carpet. At the front was a large white fireplace with a carved wood mantel and bouquet gracing the center.
I felt a pang of sorrow my parents weren’t there to enjoy the most important day of my life, as I listened to the registrar’s opening words of, “we are gathered to witness the marriage of Keith Winston Morrison and Brigitte Colette Antoine.”
We wrote our own vows, although I felt a bit upstaged by Keith’s poetry.
When the registrar asked if there were rings, I nodded. I pulled the small twisted gold band from my white-laced clutch. “I traded two of my paintings with someone at the academy who makes jewelry,” I explained.
“I’m honored,” Keith said, “But not as honored as what I’m about to do.” He pulled out a beautiful band encrusted with tiny diamonds. I gasped as he placed it on my finger and hoped he hadn’t blown half his trust fund. We were pronounced married and engaged in a long kiss while Aimee and Ryan threw confetti. Well, Aimee tossed –- Ryan hurled. “There’s champagne at my place,” Keith announced. “Let’s celebrate the happiest day in my life.”
Aimee insisted we pose for pictures. She stood us in front of the fireplace with the mantle bouquet between us. She had borrowed a nice camera from the academy and being an artist, knew how to arrange us. She asked the registrar to pose with us, then had him take a couple of her and Ryan with us before he finally ushered us out.
We raced down the block where Keith’s little red car waited. I squeezed in the back with Aimee. Keith started the engine and zipped into traffic for the few blocks travel to his posh flat. Now that I’d survived the ordeal, I was starving. I announced as such when we all stumbled into Keith’s –- now our flat.
“What do you fancy?” Keith asked. “I could order pizza.”
“Not pizza on our wedding day. How about Chinese take-away? I could murder some sweet and sour shrimp.”
Aimee and Ryan took off to bring back Chinese food, leaving Keith and me alone.
Keith poured me a glass of champagne and one for himself. He clinked his glass to mine. “To us. May no one pry us apart.”
I took a sip and kissed him. “I can’t wait to have you to myself.”
Keith downed his champagne in one gulp and ran his hands over me. “Hold that thought. Aimee and Ryan will be gone soon.”
I kissed him again. “You better believe I’m holding that thought. I flopped back on the sofa. I dread telling my parents.”
Keith refilled my glass even though I’d only taken one sip. “Worry about it tomorrow. Nothing interferes with our happiness today.”
We were getting more and more amorous when Ryan and Aimee returned. I straightened myself out and went to let them in.
“Sorry it took so long,” Aimee said. “I got a wedding cake. It’s really a two-layer chocolate cake and I had them write congratulations Keith & Brigitte.”
“Oh, you are the best,” I responded. This obviously wasn’t the time to say we wanted to be alone. For the next two hours we ate Chinese food, drank champagne and ate cake.
Finally Ryan and Aimee left and Keith and I were alone. I already consumed four glasses of champagne but that didn’t stop Keith from filling my glass again. Somehow we made it to the bedroom, barely shedding our clothes before falling onto the bed in fits of giggles and lots of kissing. Within seconds we were making love with wild abandon. It rivaled our first time –- even better. I almost couldn’t breathe. Heaven couldn’t be better than this. I cried out in ecstasy and hoped the neighbors didn’t hear.
I was finally drifting into a blissful sleep when I suddenly sat bolt upright and screamed out loud.
Keith turned on the light. “What’s wrong?”
“We forgot to use condoms!”
[To be continued… Click here to view all chapters.]
