As she paced around her living room, her phone sitting on the arm of the big chair, Lauren shook her head. This shouldn't be this hard. All she had to do was call her parents, tell them the good news, and hang up before they could berate her decision. This shouldn't be difficult, why was she starting to cry? God, she just wanted to put her head in her hands, roll into a ball, and die. Her stupid parents and their stupid beliefs - this was supposed to be the best time of her life. He'd put a ring on her finger, and she felt like everything had finally come together. She was truly happy for one of the first times in her life, unmarred by societal opinions or the anxieties that seemed to constantly overwhelm her. Now look at her, sobbing over a meaningless phone call. What was she going to do?
Suddenly, the door to their bedroom opened, and out he stepped: Matt, her fiancรฉ. At least he seemed to have a handle on things. He'd reassured her as she posted her ring selfie to Instagram, and the support from her friends had been more motivating than anything else in a long while. When he saw her striding across the living room, he sighed. She was spiraling again, they both knew. He said, in that same calm, nice voice he always had, "What's the matter, honey?"
Honey. She was his honey. His sunshine, his lovebug, his sweetheart. Those names always melted her heart, and he was clearly aware. She huffed, tears welling up in her eyes. "I can't call my parents."
He frowned, exhaling. "Tricia and Russ giving you strife again?"
She could only nod.
"Babe, we've talked about this. If they don't want to support someone as beautiful as you, that's their fault, not yours. You can't do anything about that." He walked over, bringing her into an embrace. She graciously accepted, even as she softly cried. "It's okay. You can let it out," he murmured into her ear. She gladly did.
"I just..." She blubbered. "Why does it have to be so hard? Why does everything have to be so hard? Why can't I just be happy?"
He moved away from the hug, reaching for her hands and holding them tightly. He looked in her eyes, her messy brunette hair lying over her face. "Lauren." He spoke firmly, trying to snap her out of her mental low. "You are..." He sighed. "...the most wonderful person I've ever met. I want you to be happy more than anything else in the world. If things are hard for you, I'll be here. I'll help you. There's nothing I'd rather do." He swept the hair out of her face, her pleading eyes looking into his. She sniffled. He always knew the right thing to say, the right thing to make her feel better. "I love you, Lauren. I really do."
She smiled weakly. "I love you too."
"I'm glad." He grinned supportively. "Now. You can calm down for a bit, and then let's go and make that phone call. I'll do something nice for you after, I promise." She considered for a moment, before finally nodding. "Good."
They moved over to the couch, and she rested her head against Matt's chest as he rubbed her back before he finally pressured her enough to pick up her phone, make her way to her Contacts, and hit 'Mom'. It rang twice, and she stewed in agony before she heard her mother's voice on the other side.
Matt rubbed his fiancรฉe's back as she carefully made small talk with her parents. They always seemed to be on edge, avoiding giving any long answers or editorializing, but Lauren finally broached the subject soon enough. "Yeah, um...things with Matt are going really well, actually. He proposed to me, and I said yes." Her abrupt delivery gave her parents pause, and he could see the conflicting emotions painting her face, part relief, part discomfort, part self-loathing. Finally, though, her parents gave their muted congratulations. That was enough for Lauren, and she gave her excuses to leave. They heard disgruntled sighs on the other end, before the rewarding beep of the tone. He turned to look toward her as she closed her eyes, exhaling deeply. He smiled. "You did it. That's over with. You don't have to think about them any more."
She frowned, opening her eyes. "Yeah, except I totally do. I have to think about inviting them to the wedding, how we're going to pay for it without them, the engagement part-"
He interrupted her with a loud harrumph. "Babe, come on. You just did something great! You should reward yourself. Let go from worrying about every single little thing for a second. And I said I was going to do something nice for you..."
She finally looked up. "Hmm? What did you have in mind?" A curious grin arose on her features.
He smirked. "Oh...just something like..." Suddenly, he reached over her shoulder, grabbing handfuls of her breasts. She gave sharp, excited breaths, moans threatening to come out as he found and tweaked her nipples. Her lounging-around-the-house lace shirt was dangerously thin, and she wasn't wearing a bra.
She hummed nicely. He could tell she was clearly getting more turned on by the second. "Oh, you want us to show our love?" she said, backing up against his chest. She eventually moved onto his lap as he groped her, reaching a hand down to her cunt. He brought one of his hands down and moved hers away.
"That I do....but you shouldn't have to play with yourself, sweetie. Let me take care of that for you." He quickly unbuttoned her jean shorts, dropping them below her shapely ass and soft pink pussy. Her cute blue panties had ribbons going down by her waist, and he quickly pushed her out of those as well. "Let me treat the woman I love so much."
"Mmm, you spoil me..." She tried to speak more, but moans came in the place of her words as he circled her clit, before reaching a finger inside of her. She sharply groaned.
"Hm? What was that, honey?" He ribbed and prodded as he fingered her. She could only attempt to roll her eyes. Keeping one hand on her, he unbuttoned his jeans, dropping them along with his boxers below his knees. She blushed when she looked down, when he reached down to whisper in her ear. "I'm gonna fuck you so hard..."
She cried out desperately, trying to jut forward against him. He lifted her up, making sure she knew he was going to be the one to take her, before looking her in the eyes, holding her there for a moment. She groaned. "Please..."
He laughed, saying "How could I say no to that," before thrusting as far inside her as he could go. Her deep, primal moans were music to his ears.
The coffee table was cool against Lauren's cheek. Swiveling her gaze to look at her phone once more, she scrolled through her calendar app and sighed. There was so much she had to do, and all the mental deadlines were coming up quickly. Matt had...helped her, earlier, but she needed something more consistent. She closed her eyes, thinking, before finally tilting up off the table. She texted her friend nothing important and waited for a response. She needed something real to get her mind off things. While it was tempting to just ask Matt to fuck her until she didn't care about anything else, she know that wasn't going to work. So, she figured the best plan of action was to ask.
"Hey Matt?" she yelled.
After a pause, he got back to her, from the other side of the house. "Yeah?"
"Could you come over here?"
She heard the sound of a laundry basket being placed on the floor before he said "Sure," making his way across the house until he was in front of the TV, blocking her view. "What do you need?"
She took a deep breath. "Oh, just, um...thanks for doing...what you did...earlier."
He suddenly chuckled, grinning wide. "Oh, no problem, honey." He looked down, eying her chest. "You need any more?"
She bashfully shook her head, smiling. Her hair waved in front of her face. "Thanks, but, uh...do you know anything, I guess, less temporary? I don't even care what it is, I just need something to focus on besides this wedding for a little while."
As she looked up to him, he knowingly nodded, processing what exactly she wanted from him, and how exactly he could deliver it to her. "Well, I do know of something..."
She excitedly nodded.
"But it's a little...uh...experimental, shall we say. I don't know if it will work."
She frowned a little, but kept on. This had to work, it was her only real option. "Just...what is it?"
"Guided meditation. Hypnosis, essentially." He didn't miss a beat. "It's supposed to be really good for stress."
Somewhat taken aback, she tried to play it off. "Um, alright. I can...I can do that." She wasn't doing an excellent job.
He seemed discouraged, muttering his explanations of "That's okay, I didn't-" before she cut him off.
"No. Please. Please do that." Firm this time.
At her directness, he looked around and shrugged his shoulders. "I have a book on it," he remarked absentmindedly. "Do you mind if I do it now?"
She gulped, and nodded.