"What today?" Jennifer asked thursday morning after they had showered and breakfast was over.

Today, they had eaten breakfast in the kitchen. Jennifer was nude except for her six inch black high heels, while Richard wore only a pair of slippers.

"I haven't decided yet," he said.

"Richard," said Jennifer, "Why the indecision?" There was no answer from Richard except for a grunt. "Don't you believe me when I said that I wanted to marry you? That hasn't changed, even though the last couple of weeks have been rather wild. Are you going to try to concoct something so outrageous that you think I'm going to leave?"

Richard looked at her, started to say something, then stopped.

"I know. You want to be *sure*. Maybe I should just *tell* you what would make me run away. Then you could decide if you want me to stay."

Richard started to say something, but stopped yet again. "If you ever hit me or strike me, I will leave," she said. "I could not stay with an abusive man like that." A conversation with Vicki came to mind. "You could probably spank me if I was a very bad, and I would stay."

"If I ever saw you in bed with another woman, I would leave you," she said. "And if anything you did to me sent me to the hospital, I would seriously think about leaving you."

"That's it," she concluded. "If you do those things to me, I'll leave. If you don't, I'm sure that I'll stay. Now," she said. "Do you still want to try to think up something diabolical for me? Are you going to test me yet again? Go ahead, because unless you do one of those things to me, I'm going to stay."

Richard's mouth was slightly agape. "I... darling, I don't know what to say," he said. "My love, I'm sorry that I doubted you... I just couldn't believe that someone so wonderful had come into my life. How could it be real?"

"I'm here!" she said. "I'm real. You've had your ways with me, and I'm still here. Is there something even worse buried inside you, that you want to show me?"

Richard was quiet again. "I... well, there's nothing much 'worse' than you've experienced from me. Perhaps I would like to take a few things a bit further, in the future, but I have everything I imagined in a woman in you. Everything I have dreamed of! You... I love you with all my heart, beloved. I would never ever hurt you or cheat on you. How could I? You are everything that I want, everything that I could want!"

Richard reached out with a hand, and Jennifer grasped it with both of hers. "I'm here and I'm not going away," she said. "I'm not leaving you. You see who I am, and I'm not going to change overnight into something else."

"You are an absolutely wonderful woman," he said.

Jennifer stood up and walked over to him. She put her arm around him and sat down across his lap. "This is one woman that's not scared away, and isn't going to walk out on you," she said. She kissed him gently on the forehead. "Is that so hard for you to believe?"

The silence and the downcast eyes told her that the answer was yes. She sat there, in his lap, and just stayed there for several minutes.

"Do you know," he said slowly, breaking the silence. "Do you know how hard it is to be alone? Not only that, but to believe that you're going to be that way for the rest of your life? That's a terrible, terrible feeling. It's too terrible to live with. That's why I... push it away, down. I have to have control of myself, always. Or else... there is always that part that wants to scream, jump off the cliff, end it all. My... my dark secret, buried within me, is a legacy of despair. I live surrounded by opulence, living a life dreams are made of... and I live it alone. Once, I thought I had found happiness... and that illusion crumbled in front of me, and left me in pieces.

"Can... can you still feel happiness?" she asked. "Could you be happy with me?"

"I hope so," he said. "I want it so badly. I want to pain to *end*. I want someone I can share everything with, and can share everything with me. I want to dance the dance of life with you, in all its convolutions and missteps. I want to hold you, and know that you welcome my touch. I want to love you."

"I'm here," she said, quietly. "And I love you."