Chapter 31: Chapter 31

"Ok slow down, one foot in front of the other." Charlie says keeping his hands out ready incase I fall.

"We've made it out of the hospital, to the car, to the building, got out of the elevator, and into the apartment. I think I can walk 10 feet to the couch and be fine." I smart mouth him. He backs up and puts his hands up. Mark and my dad laugh.

I sit down on the couch and sigh. "How do you feel?" My dad asks, taking a seat in a chair next to the couch.

"Ok, not the best but not as bad as yesterday."

"Well the doctor did say that you would gradually feel better in the next few days. I think tomorrow or Thursday you'll feel the best." Mark says, crossing his arms. He's the only one standing and the most tense.

"Alright. Well I better get to work." My dad says getting up and moving to the door.

"I should go too. Abby keeps asking me to go shopping for the baby with her." Charlie says getting up from his spot on the couch next to me.

"Bye, love you both." I say giving them hugs before they walk out.

When they're gone Mark comes over in front of me. "Want to watch these?" He asks, holding all the Twilight movies in front of me.

"Yes I do, put the third one in." I say grabbing a blanket and getting comfortable.

"Want some popcorn?" Mark asks, walking into the kitchen.

"Sure, do we have any sour gummy worms?" I ask. He looks at me weird. "What? The chemo messed with my taste buds." He laughs and goes into the again to make the popcorn and to look for the gummy worms. "Spicy foods are good too!" I yell from the couch.

"I'll remember that!" He yells back.

We finish the third and part of the fourth when I fall asleep. I hear the movie pause and I'm being lifted off the couch. The door to our room is being opened and I'm gently being placed on the bed.

"Thank you." I whisper without opening my eyes. Mark probably thinks that I'm just sleep talking so I open my eyes and grab his hand. "Thank you." I say again.

"You're welcome." He says kissing my forehead. He smiles and leaves the room. I fell asleep very quickly thanks to that kiss. Even if it was just in my head.

Mark and I spend Wednesday together watching movies. We ordered Chinese food. He remembered the spicy food and got me gummy worms that will last me a few weeks. I just about laughed my head off when he dumped the paper bag filled with them. He got every single flavor that was sour.

On Thursday we were running out of movies so we started watching Hawaii Five-O and next we're going to watch NCIS. They're both crime shows and I've already seen every episode of both so I'm hoping that Mark likes them.

We were just starting episode six when there was a knock on the door. Mark went to work yesterday and has the day off today so he should be ok in terms of Jackson coming to convince him to come into work.

"Why the hell aren't you at work?" The jackass John yells at Mark. "Because I'm off today." Mark reasons for keeping his voice level.

I pause the show and get up. I walk over to Mark adjusting my hat. The sad thing is that I've lost over half of my hair in less than three days. I'm debating on shaving it all off tonight after I shower for the first time in the last three days.

"That may be, but I told you about a charity gala a week ago that I want you and Alyanna at." John says, not exactly in a level voice but not yelling either.

"I'll go tonight, but Alyanna will go to Abby's or Maya's." Mark says pointing back to me.

"No, I want to go." I say, Mark snaps his head around to look at me and almost protests. "I'll go. It'll be our first formal date." I say smiling. "Good, I'll see you there." John says, happy that he's won.

Mark turns to me. "What about your hair?" He asks starting to pace the room.

"I'll wear a headscarf. Maya will have a dress for me to wear, she always does and has a scarf too. I'll be fine." I say walking over to him and grabbing his hands to stop him.

"I don't have a tux." He reasons trying to get out of going.

"Wear the one from our wedding with a different tie, I know your dad made you keep it." I say. He's not getting out of this. I was looking for an excuse to get out of the apartment. It might not be the ideal excuse, but it's still an excuse.

"Fine. You call Maya and I'll go find a tie." Mark says reluctantly.

I call Maya and I cut right to the chase. "I need a dress and a scarf to match."

"When?" She asks.

"Today, more specifically in an hour." I say into the phone.

"Be there at 15." She says then hangs up.

"Think this will do?" Mark asks to come in with one tie when I know he's got more.

"Yeah, it's fine." I don't feel like doing this for very long and knowing Mark he will come out with one tie at a time to stall. "Maya is on her way." I tell him as I get up and follow him into our room to find his tux out of the closet and on the bed.

"That was an interesting day." Mark says.

"Yeah it was, but it was good." I say playing with my sweatshirt tassel.

"Really?" Mark asks.

"Yeah, I got all dressed up, we got presents, good food, and I liked hearing the speeches, and dancing with everyone. I'm glad my mom and dad are civil. Overall it was just fun." I explained as I sit down and play with my necklace.

"What's that?" Mark asks, referring to my necklace.

"My dad got it for me when I first started chemo. It just felt right to wear it again." I say. Mark walks over to examine it. We're so close, when he looks back up to meet my eyes after looking at the necklace we stare for a while. I feel as we get closer together but my phone buzzes before anything happens. I look down at it. "It's Maya, she's stuck in traffic, I better shower before she gets here." I say backing out of the room going to the bathroom.

Before I shower I cut the rest of my hair off and shave it down so I'm smooth on top. I get into the shower and do a quick body washing then I wash my face. When I get out of the shower I put my face lotion on then my body lotion. I don't know what to use for my head so I use my face kindly. When I walk out of the bathroom I put my hat back on and leave my robe on.

"Maya's here!" Mark yells, opening the door for her and letting her in. "She's in the bedroom." I hear Mark say a little muffled.

"Are you decent?" Maya asks, knocking on the door.

"Yep." I answer.

"Ok, so I broot a red dress with a semi matching scarf, a green emerald with a navy headscarf and vice versa. Lastly, a purple dress with a forest green scarf." She says as she lays them all out in the bed.

"I think I like this one the best." I say picking up the purple dress.

"Go try it on." She urges. I do and come out a little later to look in the mirror. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you." I say hugging her.

"Any time." She says hugging me back. "I'm sorry to rush out but I have to go, but do me a favor and get rid of those under eye bags." She says handing me a small tube of concealer.

"I will." I say taking the tube.

"Have a good time." She says turning back to me before walking out the door.

I go back into the bathroom to do as I'm told and try my best to get rid of my eye bags. For the most part I think I succeed. I decided to put my contacts in and put on a little mascara and eyeliner to make my eyes pop a little more and to maybe dialout the fact that I have no hair.

"Hey Alyanna, it's almost time to go." Mark says through the door.

"Be right there." I say doing my final touches. I quickly cut back into the bedroom to grab my phone off the charger and a small black clutch Maya gave to me. I walk back out to find Mark waiting at the door looking good in the tux we got married in.

"You look beautiful." He says grabbing my hand. I look down at it. I think this is the first time I've actually looked straight at his ring. It's exactly like I said he should get it. Silver with rose gold trim. The only thing different is along the edge there are tiny diamonds with the rose gold. I know that we're married but this just makes it feel so real. I mean some men are married but don't wear rings, and Mark does.

"Really? You don't notice the scarf too much?" I ask.

"Oh you notice it still." He says. "But you still look beautiful." He fixes it.

"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself." I say. Mark loops his arm and I take it. We walk down to the car and he opens the door for me.

The car ride is quiet except for the radio. It's not awkward, it's comfortable. I have no idea where we're going but Mark seems to have no trouble getting here without a GPS or anything.

"Have you been here before?" I ask Mark as he opens the door for me.

"Every year since oh I don't know, I was ten." He says looping his arm again and walking with me to the door. "Just so you know, I know over half the people in that room and they are all going to grill you on everything. Just tell the truth and what we have established and you'll be fine."

"Got it." I say it even though I don't mean it. Mark kisses my head to reassure me before we walk in.

"Mark is that you?" I hear from a little bit ahead of us. I see a plump, short woman grab Mark's face and kiss his cheeks. "My goodness you're getting old." She says pinching his cheek. "How are you?" She asks.

"I'm doing great, thank you. How are you?" Mark answers.

"And who may I ask is this?" She asks, ignoring Mark's question and putting her left hand over her chest showing off her very large ring.

"Beth this is Alyanna. My wife." He smiles and looks at me when he says wife.

"Oh aren't you just beautiful. And I love your scarf." She says pointing to my head.

"Oh, thank you." I say touching my scarf self-consciously.

We walked away from the woman. "You passed your first test. You're doing great. One more with me and I'll let you loose." Pushing me to the next person.

"Why Mark. Is that you?" An older man asks to come towards us.

"That it is sir." Mark says holding out his hand and giving a firm, hardy handshake to the man.

"It's good to see you, son. What have you been up to?" He asks. I just keep looking back and forth between the two of them. Looking at the one who is speaking.

"I work for my father at one of his offices downtown." Mark answers him.

"Ahh." The man says looking around the room a little. His direction comes back to me. "And who might you be?" He asks, holding out his hand.

I look over to Mark who nods his head as if to push me to speak. "I'm Alyanna." I say taking the man's hand and shaking it. "I'm Mark's wife." I clarify.

"Mark, you have a beautiful woman right here. Don't mess it up." The man says, patting Mark on the back.

"I won't sir." Mark says as he walks off. "You did good. Now I'm gonna turn you loose and you're going to do the talking by yourself. If they ask you who you will say to me and that you're my wife. I'd ask about how we met, say the coffee shop thing. Ready. Ok!" He says walking away from me. I don't get a chance to say anything.

My first stop is the bar. "Can I have lemon water, extra lemon?" I asked the bartender. I still need the sourness.

"Coming right up." He says as he makes my drink.

I look around the room. I see Mark talking to a younger couple who can't be older than mid thirties. They all throw their heads back as if something extremely funny just happened.

"Here you are missing." The bartender says handing me my drink.

"Thank you." I say before walking off to try and mingle. All I want to do is just stick by Mark the whole night and stay quiet.

"You look lost, can I help you?" A young man that can't be older than Mark walks over to me.

"No, I'm fine." I say trying to walk away from him.

"Come on, one little dance and I'll show you the world." He says grabbing my arm.

"I said no. Now please let go." Even though his grip isn't that strong still bruises easily from chemo so I know by the end of the night I'll be black and blue.

We're just about to the dance floor when Mark comes over. "Harry, I don't think she wants to dance with you." Mark stands right in front of him.

"What do you know about Hernandez?" Harry asks, trying to find a way around.

"I can tell by the look on her face, and she promised me the first dance." Mark states.

"Why would she do that?" Harry asks, tightening his grip on my arm.

"Because she told me an hour ago." Mark states. Why won't he just tell him, so I can get away.

"There wasn't a gala an hour ago." Harry says getting up in Mark's face.

"I never said that at the gala." Mark says taking a step back. "Woah, Harry, I think you should grab a breath mint."

"Well I think you should get one." Harry snaps back, dropping my arm. I go over to Mark. "Now tell me why a pretty girl like you promised a guy like him a dance."

I roll my eyes and see Mark open his mouth to respond. I get to it before him, not wanting to be here forever. "Because I'm his wife!" say sternly but not necessarily yelling, no one really noticed us.

"You what now?" He asks, shocked.

"We're married." I say again. I grab Mark's arm to pull him to the dance floor as a new slow song comes on. "You're mean. I'm going to have a bruise because you wouldn't just tell him we're married." I say mad as we start to dance. I try to avoid him staring at me but it's hard because out of the corner of my eye he's making funny faces at me. I try my best to keep myself from laughing, I fail.

"I knew you couldn't resist me." Mark says, spinning me around.

"I'm laughing at your stupid face." I say looking up at him.

"I'm sorry for not telling Harry right away." He says, only half sorry. "Who was he?" I ask.

"My cousin who tries to beat me at everything. We're about the same age and we were really competitive when we were younger. We made everything a competition, even getting dates." He explains tilting his head and raising an eyebrow as if to explain everything that has happened to him for the past 21 almost 22 years of his life.

"Why were you at each other's throats then?" I ask, the song ends and we walk over to a table.

"He was offered a job with my dad and turned it down. I got that job and for some reason he hates me for it now." Mark says, taking a drink of what I think is his.

"So he hates you because you took a job that he didn't even want?" I was really confused.

"That's what I think. I can't think of anything else."

"Well I don't hate you, and right now that's all that matters." I say leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

"I guess I tolerate you." He says leaning back in his chair and making a cocky face. I punch his shoulder as hard as I can without hurting my hand too much. "Now I'm the one who's going to bruise.