Excerpt: Extra Baggage

"Uh..." And Dorothy did as she was told.The young woman walked to the elevator and pressed the giant round '4' button that was in a font like Arial or Basic. She looked in the posh elevator, wood paneled dark rich wood in stark contrast to the beige bore outside the elevator. Dorothy looked at her jeans and the faded yet comfortable "Librarians do it with Dewey" shirt that Graham had picked her up the year before for Christmas. She had worn it to work to try to show librarians (or in her case library tech assistant) could be funny and even self-depricating. She had paired that with her comfy pair of brown boots (which seems like an oxymoron but these 1 inch boots screamed slippers). Next to one of the fancy guests that usually came here Dorothy looked under dressed. Well she would've been over dressed if Graham hadn't called to mess up the plans.
Dorothy got out of the elevator, went right, then down to the end of the hallway to see room 435. On a piece of hotel stationary with Graham's chicken scratch handwritting that drove Dorothy nuts (it was impossible to read! Letters weren't letters, it was like hierogylphics or something. It was the physical manifestation of the way he spoke. Even though Dorothy loved how Graham spoke seeing it in pen form...). "Dorth Parker only!" And the thick heavy wood door was ajar. Dorothy walked into the fancy hotel room with hundreds upon hundreds of candles scatters in clumps and groupings in the room. The smell of vanilla overwhelmed the air.
Dorothy, in a pure trance, walked through the room in awe.
"In the bathroom!"Graham yelled through his accent. "Get naked!"
Dorothy kicked off her boots and followed the sound of his voice and the water gurgling. She threw off her top and peeled off her jeans as she made it into the bathroom. There more candles, the room flickered and danced with the candles twitching lights, filled with a warm glow. In the giant bathtub, that obviously fit two, filled with bubbles and surrounded by candles was Graham. His peanut butter colored hair was made lighter by the flickering candles, the blue green eyes made greener.
"I thought you'd never arrive," he smiled warmly as he watched the porcelin skinned woman get into the tub. She effortlessly pulled her long chocolate-y nearly black hair into a loose bun with a rubber band that was the only thing that she was wearing.
"Have you just been sitting here in the tub waiting for me?"
Graham didn't hesitate with a smile and then kissed her, pulling her in close with his rough hands. Graham Cairn was a PhD student 3 years older than Dorothy. He had moved to upstate Washington on a whim, assuming that fates would take him whereever he needed to be. Just pinned a world map on the dartboard at Dragon's Head, a pub in Edinsbourgh (sp?) that he used to frequent after classes, he turned around a few times, closed his eyes, and threw the dart at the dart board (secretly praying he didn't hit Arnold, the giant computer guy who according to gossip had gone to prison for killing a guy with a beer bottle). The dart didn't hit Arnold, instead it hit a small town in Washington, USA. It should probably be noted this idea came around when Graham was totally drunk. The fates had done their job because when Graham arrived in the small town, and the small university that it came with, he met Dorothy. He was the teacher's assistant for her woman's literature class. He mangled her name and she came up to him in a furry, and one thing led to another. Now two years later he found himself sitting, naked in a bubble bath, surrounded by candles...
Graham grabbed something from the edge of the tub with his free hand while continuing to kiss Dorothy. He broke away, and looked at her. Pale alabaster skin, smattering of freckles, full lips that always seemed to be smiling (smirking) at a joke that she never told, rich coffee colored eyes that held her secrets which was underneath this exterior she was highly intelligent, getting into the small college on a full scholarship. Yes Graham Cairn was book person and he could spend a lifetime waxing about this woman.
Graham pulled out the box that he had hidden amongst the candles.
"Dorothy," he used her real name, meaning something was different.
Dorothy raised her eyebrow.
"There have been thousands of books with thousands of pages written about this moment. On some level I cannot do better than those artists. Instead I'm asking you simply and earnestly, will you marry me?"
He opened the little box with an antiqued ring, filled with little subtle nods to the age it held.
A giant smile came over Dorothy's face. She nodded.
"Yes, I mean yeah." She muttered looking at Graham not the ring. She went straight to kiss him as he slipped the ring on her finger as though he had planned this.
After a long bath with where various activities took place, Dorothy slipped on her jeans. She looked at this ring next to her beaten jeans and smiled.