Chapter 11 - The Consequences

        The reality of what they had done didn’t really hit Leslie till later that evening when she was at work and she realized she would have to go ‘home’ and face the Hollands, she was not in the mood for any questions and was feeling quite miserable physically.  That was something that had taken her completely unawares, the pain that came along with making love for the first time. It had felt wonderful up to a certain point and once she had pushed passed the pain it had been ecstasy but that brief moment had been very painful, and not only that, even now hours later she was still sore and achy, and she was spotting too, which  she thought was very odd.  Jamie had been great about it, holding her and kissing the tears away until she had fallen asleep and serving her breakfast in bed when she woke up again. He had told her how much he loved her and that he was sorry he had not been a gentleman and waited for the right time. Leslie had smiled “What’s done is done and it can’t be changed.” she had said with a shrug.  She had gotten up and showered and gotten ready for work just like it was any other day. Jamie hadn’t said anything more about what had happened, but had stripped the sheets off the bed and put them in the washer for her, and treated her with extra tenderness for the rest of the day.

       Now it hit her that she wouldn’t be going home until Jamie got off work which would mean spending one more night in the apartment, she didn’t know what she should do.  She didn’t know how people handled things like this, was there some sort of protocol that she should be following?  Would Jamie be expecting her to behave a certain way?  If so how? One thing she knew, she would not be sleeping in that bed tonight.  By the time the store closed and Leslie walked the six blocks home she had worked herself up into quite a state. And when Jamie came home six hours later he found her on the couch, having cried herself to sleep.  He brushed her hair out of her face and gently kissed her tearstained face. “Oh baby,” he thought “what did I do to you?” aloud he said “Leslie, honey, it’s time to wake up.” He gently shook her shoulder and kissed her forehead. Leslie stirred and stretched and her eyes fluttered open and she smiled up at him. “Hi, sweetheart, How are you feeling ?” Jamie asked as Leslie sat up groggily.

        “I’m ok” Leslie said slowly, pulling away from him as she remembered what had happened the day before.
        Jamie let her have her have her space standing up and running his hands through his hair, “Look, we need to talk about this. I know what we did was wrong and I’m sorry. But please don’t allow this to affect our relationship, I love you and I want to marry you. Yes, we made a mistake, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about you and I hope it doesn’t change how you feel about me.”

        Leslie nodded as he sat down next to her “I’m sorry too. I’m just scared. I’ve never had a boyfriend before, I don’t know what to expect and I’m worried that you will hate me or break up with me and then no one will ever want to marry me, and my dad will disown me and I’ll be all alone.”  She drooped her head and allowed her tears to spill down over her cheeks. 

        Jamie reached around her and pulled her into his arms and let her cry.“Sweet heart, I’m not going to leave you and I don’t hate you. Like I said, I love you very much and I want to marry you. Do you hear me? I’m going to marry you, if you’ll have me, and you will never have to worry about being alone.” Jamie brushed her hair back out of her face as she slowly looked up at him.

        “Really, Jamie ?  is that an official proposal?” she asked a smile slowly creeping back  on her face.
       
         “Let’s say we have an agreement” Jamie said kissing her tenderly “I want to get you a nice ring and do this right. But I promise I will do it just give me a little time ok?”

          Leslie smiled and nodded “Ok I’ll be patient. I love you too. I think you are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me” she snuggled up against Jamie’s chest feeling safe and secure in his love. 

        They stayed that way for a few moments and then Jamie sleepily said “You probably ought to go get your shower so I can get you home before I fall asleep.” Leslie nodded trying to untangle herself from his arms the more she struggled the tighter Jamie held her. Leslie giggled and a slight wrestling match ensued, ending with Jamie kissing Leslie squarely on the mouth. “I’m going to have to get that ring soon so I can keep you here all the time. I miss you when you are gone!"

        The next two weeks followed their normal routine; Leslie helped Mrs. Holland with the kids’ school work and house work and worked at Burger King in the evenings. Jamie would stop in and see Leslie around suppertime and Leslie even made two trips home to see her family on the weekends. Nothing more was said about proposals and Mrs. Holland was very conscientious to be on time to pick Leslie up from work since the Stuttgart fiasco, as Leslie had made it clear that though she hadn’t told her father about the incident, if he knew about it he would be very displeased. For the most part that one little mistake seemed to be forgotten, until one day about two weeks after the fact, when Leslie got up and went downstairs to make breakfast her stomach began to churn. At first she brushed it off as having eaten too much cookie dough the night before, then after three days of nausea she began to wonder if she wasn’t catching the flu. And said as much to Jamie that night when he came in to Burger King for their usual supper together, he leaned in to kiss her and Leslie gently pushed him away “I’m sorry, honey,” she said softly “but I don’t think you want to do that, I haven’t been feeling well the last couple of days and today after I got to work I actually threw up. I’m not running a fever or anything but I just don’t feel real good. And I don’t want you to get sick too.”

      Jamie frowned “How long have you been feeling sick?” he questioned somewhat sternly.

      “Only since Monday,” she answered puzzled at his tone “Why do you think I might have already infected you?  I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner but I though it was just the cookie dough I ate Sunday night affecting me at first.”
 
     “Leslie, I know we haven’t really talked about this stuff before but are you by chance ‘late’?”

       Leslie frowned , now she was getting really confused “No, I still have 30 minutes before I have to go back to work.”  She said glancing at her cell phone just to be sure.

      Jamie rolled his eyes “No, silly!” he said shaking his head, he then cleared his throat a little nervously and said “I mean your monthly … you know …Is it late?”

     “My monthly?” Leslie thought for a minute still not quite sure where Jamie was heading with this line of questioning “you mean, my period? I don’t think so at least not for another couple of days I don’t think I’ll check my calendar at home though. Why do you want to know?”  then it dawned on her “Oh no, you don’t think…?”

      Jamie nodded his head slowly, “If you’re not late then there is no need to worry…yet, but if you are I say we need to get a pregnancy test done ASAP.”

      “Ugh, just what I needed to hear” Leslie said “one more thing I’ve got to worry about.”

      “Look , I’m sorry I said anything, I just thought, you know, with you normally not being sick and all”  Jamie shrugged, “you know your body better than I do, I’m probably just being paranoid, Sorry I said anything.”

       Leslie smiled and they started talking about other things like planning on going to see her family for Christmas.  Before they knew it the 30 minutes had passed and it was time for Leslie to clock back in and Jamie, who had suddenly decided he had an errand to run before he headed to work gave Leslie a quick kiss good- bye and headed out himself.
 
      The rest of the evening while Leslie worked she couldn’t get that thought out of her head, “Am I late?” she wondered, could this nausea really be because she was …No she wasn’t going to say the word. There was no way she could be … her dad would kill her! She tried to go bravely about her work but the thoughts wouldn’t go away. Well if she was it… oh she couldn’t think of it. Tears poured down her face almost nonstop for the next hour, as she cleaned the lobby and the bathrooms and did up the dishes, in preparation for closing. Oh, what was she going to do?

       Somehow she made it through her shift and even made it home without Victoria or her mom asking any questions. The first thing she did when she got to her room was grab her calendar off the wall and look for the fateful little red dot that she made to remind herself when ‘it’ was due. She sank to her bed with a sigh of relief, “Whew! Two more days!” she exclaimed, she had gained a bit of a reprieve. At that moment her phone went off, it was a text from Jamie. “Can you  meet me for dinner Friday?”  Leslie smiled “Sure, what time? And Where?” she thought about texting him the good news but that seemed a little too personal to share in a text and she didn’t want to call him because she didn’t want  Victoria to overhear should she be snooping around as she often did.  Her phone buzzed again “6:30 , meet me at Burger King, and dress nice!” Leslie quickly texted back “ok” and then changing into her pjs collapsed on the bed and fell asleep, it had been an exhausting day.

      Over the next few days Leslie was very conscious of the fact that her monthly visitor still hadn’t arrived, but she kept telling herself it was just late. It sometimes was a day or two late, it will still show up, she thought to herself as she fought back the nausea and the tears. The only thing that helped was thinking about going out to dinner with Jamie that weekend. Getting to Burger King wasn’t a problem since she hadn’t told Sandy that she had been given the night off. However getting her nice clothes there was another story, one she was struggling to figure out, when Jamie saved the day when he called her to tell her he had found this pretty dress he thought would look good on her, would she wear it if he bought it for her? When Leslie said yes she would, Jamie told her he would leave the truck parked at Burger King with the dress in it she could change at Burger King and he would come get her when she was ready.

      Friday, finally arrived, and a morning never dragged by so slow, Leslie was super impatient to see Jamie and the dress he had bought her. When the time finally came and Mrs. Holland dropped her off at work, it took every ounce of will power for her to walk into the building just as if she was going to work instead of making a beeline for Jamie’s truck. But she could do nothing to raise suspicions. It was bad enough that she had lied to Mrs. Holland when she had suggested getting Whoppers for supper, luckily for her the kids had not been in favor of the idea either and had whined and fussed until Mrs. Holland had given in and agreed to take them to the other side of town for Domino’s Pizza. Leslie breathed a sigh of relief when she finally saw the van pull away.  She waited a few more minutes just to be sure and then headed back out to Jamie’s truck, using the key that Jamie had given her she unlocked the door and climbed up on the passenger’s side, and reached into the back seat and grabbed the plastic covered hanger, and headed back into the restaurant. When she got into the bathroom she locked herself in a stall and took the plastic off of the hanger. She gasped out loud at the sight of the dress. Never in all her days had she imagined a dress so perfect. It was what every girl needs, a little black dress, smart, sophisticated and elegant, and in a plastic bag tied on to the hanger there was a pair of elegant black dress shoes and a small box of jewelry. Leslie opened the jewelry box and was once again amazed for there sparkling back at her was the most beautiful diamond earring and pendent set, she quickly stuffed it back into the bag, and hurried to change out of her work clothes and into the fabulous clothes Jamie had bought for her. They fit perfectly, Leslie stared at herself in the mirror for a few minutes wondering if she really was the same girl that had walked in the door a few moments ago. The dress was amazing, from the scalloped neckline to form fitting knee-length skirt, this was a dress that drew attention to the wearer, not in a bad way, it was still very modest and in some ways unassuming, but it did make you take notice. Leslie tried a couple of hairstyles while standing in front of the mirror admiring her new dress, and finally decided on a simple twisted up-do, leaving a few curls to frame her face. Then she put on her earrings and necklace, grabbed her stuff and hurried out to Jamie’s truck. Jamie was already there waiting for her looking very, very handsome in his dress uniform.

       As Leslie approached the truck Jamie turned and whistled, “Wow, you definitely make that dress look good!!” he exclaimed as he opened the door and helped her up into the truck. 

    “Thank you, it’s a very pretty dress.” Leslie said smiling coyly at Jamie  “You look really nice too. Where are we going?”

     Jamie just smiled and said “You’ll see.” Put the truck in gear and pulled out of the parking space and on to the road. Leslie was a little surprised when he head out on the highway but decided to let him have his surprise if he wanted to. After about 20 minutes they arrived at a quaint little restaurant called Le Coq or The Rooster in English. Jamie parked the truck and helped Leslie down they walked into the dimly lit restaurant. The waiter nodded at Jamie and showed them to a quiet corner table. After they ordered their food and Jamie prayed for the meal he leaned over and kissed Leslie on the cheek “Happy Birthday, sweetheart.”  He whispered taking her hand in his.

   “How did you know it was my birthday?” Leslie asked astonished that he knew.

     Jamie smiled “I have my ways.” He said winking at her “do you like the dress?”

   “Like it?”  Leslie asked “I love it! It’s absolutely beautiful!!! But how did you know what size to get?”

     Jamie grinned “Did you forget?  You left your blue dress at the apartment so you’d have something nice to wear when we go out. I just wrote down the size before I went shopping. You do make it look good. I was hoping you would like it.”

      “It’s absolutely amazing!” Leslie said “I’ve never had anything as pretty as this!”

      “Of course you have,” Jamie said “you have lots of pretty dresses.”

       “Not like this one, this one makes me feel like a princess!” Leslie sighed

       “Well, that’s because you are a princess.” Jamie said “and I want to be your prince and spoil you for the rest of your life” Jamie reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. He slipped to his knee and held the ring out to her “Leslie Ann Kingston, will you marry me?”

         Leslie’s hand flew to her throat as she gasped with tears in her eyes “Yes”

       After they had finished their dinner, Leslie and Jamie took a walk across the bridge that spanned the Neckar river, hand in hand they watched the sun set over the town, as they talked and made plans for their future together.

      “I don’t understand why we can’t tell your parent’s now” Jamie said slightly frustrated at Leslie’s insistence to wait until Christmas to tell her family.

     “Because.” Leslie insisted, “you can’t come home with me now and if I try to tell them by myself, I’ll say it all wrong and they’ll make me stay there and I’ll never get to see you again. Besides I like having a little secret of my own, and I promised the Hollands that I would work for them till Christmas and if they find out I broke the rules and have a boyfriend then they won’t let me stay here ...”

      “…and you’ll never see me again!” Jamie finished for her, “ok , ok , I get your point. We’ll do it your way, though I want to go on record as saying that I don’t like it, I really wish I could have gotten your father’s permission first.”

      As they headed back to the truck, Jamie noticed a little Italian ice cream shop right next to where they had eaten dinner, and suggested that they stop and eat some for desert. Leslie agreed and as they ate their ice cream she sighed “Jamie, this has been the ‘bestest’ birthday ever! You are so wonderful!”

      Jamie smiled and glanced at his cell phone “yikes, I’m wonderful all right, so wonderful I’m going to get you in trouble, if we don’t get going.” He grabbed her hand and they ran laughing to the pickup. 

     The drive home was quiet, both of them were lost in their own thoughts, Jamie stopped by the apartment to allow Leslie to change back into her work clothes. “Back to the real world, Cinderella.” She sighed letting her fingers slide down the velvet of the dress as she hung it in the closet. The question remained what to do with her ring she didn’t want to leave it behind, but taking it with her meant running the risk that someone would see it and ask questions.

    “Jamie,” Leslie asked as she reentered the living room “would you be disappointed if I left the ring here with you? It’s not that I don’t want to take it with me, I’m just scared someone will notice and start asking questions.”

     Jamie shrugged his frustration starting to show “Look, I don’t care what you do with it, wear it or don’t. It’s yours to do with as you please, just like my heart!”

       “It’s not like that, Jamie, and you know it!” Leslie couldn’t understand why Jamie didn’t understand she wasn’t trying to push him away she just didn’t want anyone to find out that she had a boyfriend, she had come too far with her lies to start telling the truth now. “Look fine! If it bothers you so much I’ll wear it, and if people ask questions they ask questions and we’ll deal with it then. Just promise me one thing, if they try to keep me from you, that you’ll fight for me and come and get me.”

      Jamie smiled and pulled her into his arms “Of course I’ll fight for you, I wouldn’t dream of letting you get away from me now. By the way, when did you tell Sandy you were getting off work ?”

     “Ugh, we need to leave, I hope she’s not early tonight!” Leslie disentangled herself from Jamie’s arms and stood to go. Laughing Jamie followed her to the truck.

     As they pulled up to Burger King Leslie noticed the familiar van parked in front, “Of course,” she muttered “she’s on time for once in her life!”

    Jamie just smiled “I’ll just drive around to the guard post and let you out there. You can head back and say you tried to meet her since you got off a little early.”
  

    Leslie gave him a quick kiss and hurriedly walked back toward  Burger King. When Leslie rounded the corner and was in view of the van she started sprinting arriving at the van breathless. “Where’ve you guys been?” she asked as she opened the door and hopped in “I got off early so I walked to the end of the block to watch for you. I must have missed you.” 

                “Leslie,” Sandy said “I have been waiting for you for 20 minutes, you really need to learn to be where you say you’re going to be!” 

                “Uh, sure,” Leslie replied out loud, to herself she muttered “like you! Oh, the irony!” 

All night Leslie was careful not to let the ring on her left hand catch the light, while trying to remain nonchalant. After doing some light cleaning she excused herself to her room to go to bed. As she fell asleep she thought about how wonderful it would be to be married to Jamie and not be separated all the time. She missed his smell on her pillow, his arm around her as she slept. “Only a few more months,” she whispered to herself in the dark.