I Owe It To You

"I'm so excited for you! This dress will be beautiful!" Julie spoke excitedly as I showed her the sketch I dug out of my dream dress.

"I know." I smiled as I showed off my work. "And I have the resources to actually make it happen."

I was beyond excited. After thinking it over more I agreed to the wedding. I had always wanted one and Damon was right, there was no reason to not have it. Our love is one of a kind and it deserves to be celebrated. We deserved this, it was like closing the chapter of all the bad and starting a new exciting one.

Julie closed the folder abruptly. I was confused for a moment until I noticed she was looking up. Damon had entered the store. Damon gave her a curious but amused look as he noticed it as well.

"What's in the folder?" He asked as he approached.

"The dress." I answered with a sly smile.

"And you're not supposed to see it!" Julie added as she grabbed the folder and held it to her chest. "It's bad luck. And lord knows you guys have had enough of that. It's my maid of honor duty to make sure this all goes right for you both!"

"Understood." Damon chuckled and then looked at me. "Are you ready to go? We have to be there soon."

"Yes." I nodded as I grabbed my purse. "Go put that in my desk drawer please Julie."

"Okay!" Julie rushed off to the back room.

I walked with Damon out of the store and we got into his black BMW. We had another appointment with Dr. Gordon today. There were only two appointments including this one before we evaluated if we needed further therapy for the issues between us. Damon still had a few appointments to go on his own but his progress was just as promising.

He held my hand in one of his as the other remained on the wheel. We sat comfortably in silence as he drove through town. About ten minutes later he pulled into the parking lot and we exited the car. My hand was in his as he led the way to Dr. Gordon's office. We checked in and we were able to go in immediately.

"Mr. and Mrs. Tipton, it's good to see you two back. You both are looking well and happy." Dr. Gordon observed as we all took a seat.

"I would say we are." I smiled as I looked at Damon and then back to Dr. Gordon.

"So what's new with the two of you?" Dr. Gordon looked between us both.

"We have decided to go ahead and have a wedding ceremony since we didn't get the chance to actually have one." Damon answered.

"That's good to hear. I think that's a great idea for the both of you actually." Dr. Gordon responded.

"Why do you think that?" I was curious to see what his opinion was. Especially after I had been a little on the fence about the whole thing.

"It's like a fresh start for your relationship. A way to help move on from the past that was holding you two back." Dr. Gordon explained himself.

"That's how I feel about it now that I've thought it over." I spoke. "I was a little nervous about doing it at first."

Dr. Gordon then focused his attention on me. "Why were you nervous about having a ceremony for yourselves?"

"Damon and I both already had a lot on our plates. I didn't want to add on too much stress." I answered.

"It took more convincing than I expected honestly." Damon chimed in.

"Stress?" Dr. Gordon studied me with his eyes. "You're worried the stress will set you both back."

"Yes." I shifted slightly in my seat. "A wedding ceremony is supposed to be a happy occasion, I don't want it to be anything but that. We've fought so hard and I'm scared that the stress could set us back, especially Damon."

Damon gripped my hand tightly. "It won't Love."

"You don't know that." My tone was a little quieter. "You can't promise it."

"I understand where you're coming from." Dr. Gordon spoke again. "I can tell you this, with the one on one treatments with Mr. Tipton's progress is still just as promising. He's been able to help manage things better. I think he's capable of handling the wedding stress without falling back into old habits. However in the end it's all up to him."

It was reassuring to hear Dr. Gordon's words. It made me more confident in the decision to go ahead with the planning. "Good." I responded.

"Now Mr. Tipton," He looked at Damon. "You said you had to do some convincing. Why's this so important to you?"

"I want to show her off. She deserves it after all of this." Damon answered.

Dr. Gordon studied him for a moment. "There's more reason isn't there? I can tell by your boy language there is more."

Damon let out a defeated sigh. "There is."

I looked in his direction. "What is it then?"

He thought for a moment. I could tell he was looking for the best way to put his thoughts into words. "Because I feel like I owe it to you."

I couldn't help the puzzled expression that took over my face. "But why?"

"Because I still feel shame for the way our relationship started, I can't move past it." He explained. "A sexual agreement. What kind of egotistical shit is that? Then we got engaged to keep a ring away from Justin. What the hell was I thinking?"

"It's definitely not a common way of doing things." Dr. Gordon observed. "But by looking at your relationship in depth and really diving into the way you think, what it seems like is you saw Mrs. Tipton and you wanted to get close to her. You have even said before that you got used to women being drawn to your money and powerful presence, I think you felt you needed to maintain the persona that draws others in to draw in Mrs. Tipton's attention."

Damon nodded. "I guess that sounds about right."

"I think you quickly realized that was not necessarily the case with her. Now you have that shame because you realize you could've had your relationship all along without using any leverage. All you needed to do was let your guard down and let her in." Dr. Gordon further explained his observation.

"Yeah." Damon looked over at me. "I guess part of my point for the wedding is that nothing we've done has been the normal way of doing things. I just want to give her the one day that I feel we missed out on."