~*~ Chapter 7 ~*~
REDDING, CA – Sunday – Dec. 19th, 2001
Tom and Kirstin were going back to the Addams’ house. Tom had drug Kirstin to Redding because he was going to propose to her, but he wanted to meet her family and ask for her father’s permission to marry her. He had proposed to Kirstin on their last day in New York City, before going to Redding. It was actually pretty nice. Tom had talked to the manager of Club Inferno. He had worked there for a long time, he was friends with the manager, so he asked him a favor, to use the club for a while, during lunch time. So Tom called Kirstin asking her to go immediately to Club Inferno. He didn’t give to much information, mostly because he wasn’t too good at excuses. So he just asked her to be there as soon as possible.
*Flashback*
“Tom, what’s going on?” Kirstin asked when she got to Club Inferno.
“Just come in.” Tom took her hand and drug her inside.
“Tom? Talk to me. What’s wrong?” she asked, but stopped when she was already inside the club. She was puzzled “What’s this? Why are we here?”
There was no one else but the two of them there. There was only a single table in the middle of the dance floor. There were some romantic lights on, and some soft music playing. He led her to the table.
“Tom. Hello? Can you talk to me? What’s going on?”
“Nothing, Kirstin. I just thought we could do something different for our lunch today.”
“Oh… ok.” she smiled. She knew Tom was up to something, but she couldn’t tell what it was.
He pulled the chair out for her and she sat on. Tom sat in front of her.
“Wow. This looks good. Who cooked it?”
“I did.”
“Oh, yeah! I forgot. I’m not used to date guys who can cook. Wow! There’s champagne!”
“Yes. I wanted this to be special. Tomorrow, we’re gonna be in Redding.”
“Yeah. Still can’t believe you talked me into that.”
“You’ll like it. You’ll see.”
“Yeah, let’s hope so.”
They had their lunch and then Tom waved at the DJ. Kirstin turned to see what was going on.
“So there is someone here beside us.”
The soft songs that were playing were replaced by a remix version of ‘Can’t take my eyes off of you’.
“Can you tell me what’s going on, Tom?”
He got up and reached out his hand for her.
“First, get up. We’re dancing.”
“What?” Kirstin asked when she took Tom’s hand.
“Let’s dance.” he held her on his embrace and slow danced to the song.
“Hm, Tom, not to be rude or anything, but this is not a slow song.”
“Just pretend it is.”
Kirstin pulled back a little and looked deeply into Tom’s eyes. She didn’t say anything, but Tom did.
“Just trust me, ok?”
She smiled and got closer to him, resting her head on his chest. Then he started talking on her ear.
“Kirstin, I’m pretty sure you don’t remember this, but the first time I saw you here at Inferno, this song was playing. And I know this will sound so cheesy, but the song totally fit to the occasion. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. And from that day until today, I still can’t. I don’t know what made you choose me among all the guys you had in your life, and I don’t wanna know why you chose me. I just wanted to say that the day you showed up at my door saying the pretty boy was gone, that you had chosen me, I was the happiest guy on Earth. I still am.” he suddenly stopped dancing and pulled back to look into Kirstin’s eyes “And I wanna continue to be the happiest man on Earth, and make you the happiest girl on Earth, so…” he took a small box out of his pocket and got to his knee. Kirstin’s eyes were all watery and she had her hand over her mouth. Tom opened the box “Kirstin Addams, will you make me be the happiest man on Earth forever? Will you marry me?” by that time, Kirstin’s face was covered in tears. She pulled Tom up by his arms.
“Yes. Yes. I’ll marry you, Thomas Walsh.”
*End of Flashback*
After that, they got to Redding and Mr. Addams and Mrs. Addams couldn’t believe their daughter was actually engaged. Of course, Mr. Addams talked to Tom in particular first and asked him a lot of questions. That was the first time he was meeting the guy that would marry her daughter, but he had a good feeling about Tom. Her parents were so happy about the wedding, her mother was already talking about buying the wedding dress.
REDDING, CA – The Addams’ House – Sunday
Tom and Kirstin walked into the house. The Addams’ house was typical, nothing that fancy. But it was a big house. Very pretty, too. The Addams had moved to that house 6 months ago. Mrs. Addams had quit her job and she wanted a bigger house so she’d have something to do. In their last house, when Kirstin was practically neighbors with Ashley, they didn’t have a backyard and Mrs. Addams wanted one, she loved doing gardening. So that’s one of the main reasons they’ve moved to that new house. It had an upstairs floor, a downstairs floor, and an attic. Outside, there was a pool, a barbecue grill and a beautiful back yard. Inside the house, downstairs, there were a large kitchen, a large living room and a dinner room that were connected. In the living room there was a fireplace. Upstairs, there were 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. There were 2 master rooms, one for Mrs. and Mr. Addams and the other one was for fancy guests. The other 2 rooms were smaller, one for Kirstin and the other for Kelly. They were small because the girls spent only the holidays there. Kirstin was in New York and Kelly, Kirstin’s sister, was in LA, studying at UCLA. So the girls would just visit during the holidays. Kirstin wouldn’t even visit then. This year was an exception. Tom had drug her there. But because Tom was there, he and Kirstin had gotten the fancy guest master room.
“Mom, we’re here!” Kirstin yelled after shutting the door behind her.
“Good, good.” Mrs. Addams came to the door. Dawn Addams was a beautiful middle-aged woman. She was on the middle of her forties. She had a short hair dyed red. Her eyes were nothing like Kirstin’s brown one. Mrs. Addams had a beautiful pair of bright hazel, almost yellow, eyes. It was pretty unique the color of her eyes. Unlike Kirstin, she was kind of short “Now, where’s my turkey?”
“Here, Mrs. Addams. Nineteen pounds. The biggest one we could find.”
“That’s good, Tom. That’s great. Could you help me and put it on the sink?”
“Yes, of course.”
On their way to the kitchen, Mrs. Addams questioned:
“But, what took you so long?” Kirstin and Tom looked at each other “What?” Mrs. Addams was confused.
“Nothing.” Tom replied.
“It’s nothing really, mom. We just bumped into some people at K-Mart.”
“Oh, really? Who?”
“Mrs. Carter and…” Kirstin lowed her voice and went into Tom’s direction “Ashley.” she had to tell her mother. She never lied to her.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. Mrs. Carter and who else?”
“Ashley.”
“Ashley Angel?”
“Yes.” Tom rested his arm on Kirstin’s shoulder with a not so happy look on his face.
“Oh, I miss Ashley. Such a good boy. How is he?”
Tom just sighed ‘What’s with this family? Does everybody in here love Ashley?’ he thought.
“He’s fine. He has a new girlfriend now. Oh! You might remember her. Hailey Christensen.”
“From the cheerleading squad?” Mrs. Addams had a pretty good memory.
“Yes. That’s the one.”
“Wow, that’s… weird. I mean, how do they know each other?”
“I don’t know, mom. Never asked.” Kirstin had a frown on. ‘How did they meet?’ she wondered “Probably at some party. She’s a model now.”
“Oh, ok. And how’s his band?”
“I don’t know, mom. Why don’t you call him or something?” Kirstin tried to get ride of those questions.
“Maybe I will.”
“Mom, I was just speaking hypothetically.”
“But it was a good idea. I miss talking to his mother, too. Good idea you gave me, Kirstin.” Kirstin shook her head slightly.
“Ok, mom. We’re going to our room. If you need anything, there’s where we’ll be.”
“Ok, honey.”
Kirstin trailed to the stairs.
“Oh! When is Kelly coming?” Kirstin turned back to ask her mother.
“She called a while ago saying she’d be here tonight. She doesn’t know the time yet, though.”
“Oh, ok. Bye.”
Tom and Kirstin decided to take a nap. It was 3 p.m. and they were pretty tired of their turkey hunting. They couldn’t find a good turkey anywhere. After K-Mart, they had been in 4 different supermarkets and only on the 5th, they got lucky and find a good turkey.
After a couple of hours, Kirstin got up and went downstairs. Tom was still sleeping. She trailed to the kitchen to get something to drink.
“Hey, Kirstin.”
“Oh, hey, mom.”
“I called the Angels an hour ago.”
“Mom, you know I don’t feel comfortable around Ashley anymore. I talked to you about that already.” Kirstin had told everything about her and Ashley’s relationship in New York, but she never mentioned that Tom knew about Ashley. She wasn’t lying. She was just omitting something from her mother.
“I know. But I like them.”
“Oh, mom. Ok. I guess it doesn’t do any harm, you talking to them. ” Kirstin put her glass of water down in the sink.
“Well… actually…”
“What? What did you do?” she got worried.
“They are all coming for Christmas.”
* Thanx Stacie and Taryn for reviewing and correcting the grammar errors *
~*~ Chapter 6 ~*~
~*~ Chapter 8 ~*~
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