One Journey ends…as another begins

~ Lucy

It’s the morning of the first of March. Again I’m awake before Richie and I’m having coffee and going over the day before. The wedding was just as beautiful as I had expected it to be. Sam looked absolutely gorgeous. You can say all you want about big weddings, but in my opinion, the small intimate reception that they had is the way to go. I really don’t know how I’m going to go back to my normal everyday life after all this. Even after I move to LA, Richie will still be on tour, I have a few friends in California, but still it won’t compare to the time I’ve spent with the Harem.

This group of people have become very important to me. They are not only my friends, but my family. We do have some plans to meet up again along the way. I’m going to fly to London in June, and of course there’s Queenie’s wedding, not sure when that will happen but you can bet I’ll be there. And of course there’s no way I can NOT make a visit to the little ones that are on the way once they‘re here , I may not be able to be there when they’re first born, but I know I’d never hear the end of it from Sam and Hath if I didn’t make a trip out to see my little nieces or nephews soon after, Richie has gotten me used to calling them that, and like I said before, these people have become more then friends to me, they are family.

I let Richie sleep as late as I can, but he, Ang and I have an early flight out and a busy day ahead of us. Once we get back to Chicago, we’ll have a short time to spend at my house, which will probably be spent getting the rest of Ang’s stuff before we have to head back to O’Hare to see off not only Ang, but Richie as well.

I don’t know why he’s was so insistent on flying back with Ang and I. I mean the rest of the guys are flying out later on today, it just seems like he’s making more confusion for himself then its worth, but he just kept insisting that he wanted to see Ang off and that he wasn’t ready to say good bye to me yet…go ahead I know you wanna say it…awwwww.

Amazingly I have no trouble waking him up. As soon as I told him it was time to get up he literally jumped out of bed that never happens, it usually takes at least three times of me shaking him before he finally gets out of bed, grumbling the whole time. Richie gets in the shower first, so I call Ang to make sure she’s running on time. I should have known she was up at the crack of dawn. Where she gets the energy I have no idea.

So we are all showered, dressed and waiting in the lobby for the car to take us to the airport. Richie’s been strangely quiet this morning, I keep asking him what’s wrong, but he just keeps telling me nothing…that’s he’s just tired from all the rushing around and traveling over the last week or so.

Richie booked us all in first class, its nice, but its not Jovi air. We actually arrive into O’Hare early. As we’re making our way to leave, Richie says he needs to stop off at the member’s club, he wants to make us a lunch reservation for later when we have time to kill before his flight takes off. As he leaves I look at Ang. “You know…that’s where we first met, we had lunch in the members club.”

Ang says something about all the romance in the air is going to make her hurl. But I can see she thinks its sweet, she just likes to act like she’s tough.

As we ride home Ang and I talk the whole way about the past week. Talking about all of this and knowing that in a few hours, I’ll be all alone again, I can’t help it the tears start coming down.

Ok…so we’ve made it back to my house, gotten Ang’s stuff together, shed some more tears, poor Richie…his shirt is going to be drenched by the time this is all over with. Its time for us to head back to the airport, I have to watch Ang close because I’m sure if she thought she could get away with it she’d smuggle my prissy little Gypsy in her bags.

Richie says he’ll drive so Ang and I can sit and talk some more. Once we are at the airport amazingly we find a spot almost immediately. We get Ang and Richie checked in and get my visitors boarding pass so I can go through security with them and see them off at their gates, we make it to Ang’s gate in just enough time to have another emotional good bye. I make her promise to call me as soon as she gets settled. Then Richie and I are off to make our reservation at the members club.

As we walk through the airport, Richie has completely stopped talking, and is sweating like he’s sitting in a sauna, well maybe not that bad but there is some definite perspiration there.

“Richie baby…are you sure you’re ok?”

“I’m fine Lucia darlin’ I’m just hungry”

I drop the subject, but I don’t really believe him, I don’t understand why he won’t tell me what’s wrong.

When we get to the members club the hostess leads us to the back of the club, back to the table where we first had lunch together. As we take our seats, I ask Richie if he remembers that this is the table we sat at when we met for lunch the first time.

“Of course I remember darlin’…I requested this table when I made the reservation.”

“ Awww Richie…see that’s what I love about you, you remember the little things”

“Well…I wanna do whatever I can to make you happy Lucia darlin’”

“You make me happy all the time Richie…you know that.”

“Yeah I do…but not as happy as you make me…you know darlin’ the last couple of years have been a bit rough”

“I know baby, and I am really proud of you how you’ve managed to turn that all around”

“You’re the reason its been so easy darlin’…I don’t know if it would have been as easy if I didn’t have your love and support over the last 5 months.”

I can’t believe what he’s saying to me, I start to say something but he stops me.

“Let me finish darlin’…I requested this table for a reason Lucia…I figured the place where we started our relationship…would be the perfect spot to start the next phase of our relationship.”

I look at him confused, I’m not really sure where he’s going with this.

“What are you trying to say Richie?”

“What I’m trying to say Lucia…is that…I love you…I love you more then I ever thought I could love anyone…and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together.”

He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a small velvet box. Opening it up he takes out the most beautiful diamond ring I have ever seen in my life. It was a huge emerald cut diamond, it had to be at least two carets, and it had three baguettes on either side of it.

“Lucia darlin’ nothing would make me happier, then having you as my wife.”

I sit there stunned for a moment. Is this really happening? Did he just ask me to be his wife? If you think I had the waterworks going earlier…you haven’t seen nothing…Niagara falls ain’t got shit on me at this point

Richie moves closer to me and takes my left hand in his.

“So…Lucia darlin’ are you going to answer or just leave me hanging” He says with a smile.

But I can’t talk, I’m so overwhelmed at this point all I can do is shake my head yes. Then he slips the ring on my finger. I’m close to hyperventilating at this point, and really glad that we still have an hour and a half till his plane takes off because theres no chance in hell I’d be able to make it out of the airport, much less drive myself home in this state.

After a few minutes I’ve composed myself enough that I can actually speak. Richie flags the waiter and orders a bottle of champagne for us, then asks for some more napkins because I’ve drenched the ones we had.

As we sit there I can’t take my eyes off my ring, it really is the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.

“When did you do this?”

“When you and the girls were running around getting ready for the wedding. After you left in the morning, I started thinking about Jon and Sam getting married, and all the others, and I realized I was jealous…I wanted what they had, then I realized the only thing keeping me from having what they had, was a ring, so I did a little shopping of my own. Did I do good?”

“You did better then good…in fact if we weren’t in public right now…I’d show you just how good you did” I laugh.

“Well how bout you meet me in Pittsburgh in a few days and you can show me then?”

“What…I can’t meet you in Pittsburgh, I’ve already had to much time off work, I can’t come back and say…oh by the way, I’m leaving for Pittsburgh in a couple days.”

“Ok…so then go back and give them your notice…we’ve got the house listed with the realtor, you’d be giving them notice in a month or so anyway…so just give it to them now and meet me in Pittsburgh…the road can be a lonely place Lucia…and I want my fiancé with me.”

I tell myself I can’t possibly just pick up like that and leave. What would I do with Gypsy, I can’t pawn her off on my brother and sister in law for that long, plus I’d miss her to much.

“How can I do that…what would I do with Gypsy?”

“Bring her with…come on Lucia…there’s nothing stopping you.”

He’s right there really isn’t anything stopping me…and there’s nothing more I want in this world then to be with the man I love.