Surprising Bride is the story of Mitch and Carla. Mitch falls in love with Carla despite her rowdy, sports-oriented family interested in protecting her from suitors. For living with all brothers, Carla is surprisingly naïve and innocent. As for Mitch, he is willing to be patient waiting for the physical side of their relationship. Carla has other ideas and, on their honeymoon, decides to ask for sex, in her own inexperienced way. The story is spicy and short at 5,048 words.
Surprising Bride
by
Kathryn Gerbert
I knew her less than a year when I asked her to marry me. We had not really dated that much but she was the girl I loved. Between her older brothers and the father who was half-benevolent dictator, half buddy, I must admit I was intimidated. I knew I had better propose before they caught me doing something I shouldn’t. If that happened, I was sure of two things, my dental records would never be the same and I would have first hand knowledge that Ensure is more than a tasty diet supplement.
I got down on one knee on her father’s priceless emerald Zoysia, the Cadillac of turf. She was sitting in a webbed lounge chair with the dog on her lap and I was trying to open the jeweler’s box with one hand, take hers with the other, and try to remember my spiel. I thought about slipping my lines into the box, reading my proposal off the lid. The plan worked but the print was so tiny I had to hold the case three inches from my face. It looked ridiculous.
“Oh,” she seemed startled, sat up suddenly and sent the dog off toward the privet hedge. “Oh,” looked at me, then at the box.
“Carla, would you do me the great . . .” So far, my memorization was perfect.
She clasped her hands together, “Oh, Mitch, are we engaged?”
“If you say yes we are,” the pressure was off, the ring did not matter nor did the words. She was looking into my eyes with such wonder; I did not have the heart to try to stumble through the formal question.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes”, she said, laughed, tried to add a few more yeses and dissolved into such laughter, I wondered if she was taking this as seriously as I.
“You know this means you have to leave your family and come live with me?” I was smiling and starting to catch her hilarity. I laughed and she spied the box again.
“Oh, yes, I want to leave my family.” She laughed at that. I joined her. Nobody would blame her there. “I mean, I want to live with you, start our own family.” She continued to look at the box, not me, all attention on the box now.
