Welcome to Gaia! ::

With her cardigan hugging her body, Kaitlyn made her way towards the front entrance of her and Callum’s home. During the day, the sun beat down, but the day turned to evening and the sun had almost set, leaving the air breezier than earlier. Nonetheless, Kaitlyn had a wonderful time visiting with Kiera and her family. Leslie had been growing up and learning quickly, and had even learned to speak another language. The memory prompted the woman to turn her attention over to her hubby boyfriend and ask, “What was it that Leslie kept calling me?” The child kept referring to Kaitlyn as beasty... bestie... something or other, and considering nobody else had called her by anything other than her name – or nicknames (such as Kait or sweetie, honey, etc.) – the blonde was stumped.

Kaitlyn watched Callum as he had tried to recall what Leslie had said. “It started with a ‘B’. Beasty... something?” she said, hoping he’d figure it out from there. When the word rolled off his tongue, Kait shouted, “Yes! Yes, that was it.” Sliding onto the couch next to him, the woman listened to his explanation. Her cheeks had started to turn red and her heart felt warm all of a sudden. Leslie thought of her as her grandmother. Kait leaned back in her seat, a smile forming on her lips. Not being able have children of her own, she never thought she’d ever be able to become somebody’s grandmother. In fact, she had spent the majority of the last fifteen years accepting that this was just not in the cards for her, but now, that wasn’t the case.

“Wow, that’s so sweet,” she muttered, still in awe. When Callum had brought up that Kait could have Leslie call her something else, the woman began to explore the different options. Did she prefer Grandma or Nana? If she called Cal Papa, it probably made more sense for her to be called Nana. Kait’s attention was brought back to Callum once he mentioned that Leslie knew they were married. They weren’t married, but they sort of basically were considering they’ve been together for about thirteen years, acted like a married couple, looked at each other like husband and wife, and well, apparently everyone around them assumed they were married. The only difference between being sort of basically married and being definitely married was having legal documents stating they were bound to each other. “Should we... get married?” Kait asked slowly, unsure of whether it was worth it at this point. Maybe it would be less confusing for everyone in their lives if they did, and although Kaitlyn would have liked to, she had enough faith in their relationship that regardless of what they chose to do, nothing would change.

Kaitlyn stayed quiet for a moment, thinking, after Cal had asked if she dreamed of a wedding. Growing up, Kait hadn’t had much time to daydream about that kind of thing. She had a happy childhood, at best, too young to be aware that her mother had an addiction to drugs. As she got older, however, she was forced to take on responsibility for both herself and for Mandy. With moving out of their father's house immediately after graduating, finding ways to make money, raising her sister, and trying to enjoy life and live in the moment, she hadn’t thought much about a wedding. Perhaps casually dating didn’t help either considering she never pictured herself marrying any of the guys she was sleeping with in her twenties and early thirties. By the time she met Cal, she was way past the point of dreaming about her big day.

Kaitlyn shrugged and shook her head in response to her boyfriend’s question. “Honestly, no. I didn’t.” Looking over at him, she didn’t quite know how to feel. Did neither of them want to marry? Or perhaps, it was useless at this point in their lives. Cal spoke up again, this time about neither of them having experienced marriage. The more he spoke, the larger Kait’s grin grew. Although she never dreamed of it, having a ceremony where all of their friends and family got to celebrate them sounded like a lot of fun. “You know what? Let’s do it,” she said. “I mean why not? Let’s have a night that’s all about us. Everyone else had gotten to do it, so why should we miss out on the experience?” she asked, placing a hand on Cal’s thigh as she moved in closer to him. “After we’re married, we’ll be able to continue doing this,” she said, unzipping the fly on Cal’s trousers, “whenever we want to.”