Arty’s Proposal

Another Invidia tale by AMI MEITSU

A/N: Part one in a four part tale about Arty and Invidia’s wedding, so it’s 2203, oh and it’s the middle of June

It was the middle of the evening, Invidia sat on her couch reading. It was one of the few free evenings she had these days. She and Arty had been spending a lot more time together these days, and usually spent time with each other in the evenings, they didn’t always go out but they were together and Invidia sometimes missed him when she was alone…this was one of those nights…

“Arty…” She sighed as she fiddled with the charm on the end of her necklace. A week or so ago Arty had given her a gold necklace with a charm shaped like a comet on the end of it, it was even pained with the blue and white swirl! Arty had worked for about three months to find someone who’d make it for her and spent a lot of money on it. She put it down and began reading, but she couldn’t, her mind kept wandering to Arty. She stayed space out for about a half hour, until the phone rang, startling her.

“Hello?” She asked when she answered it, hoping that it might be Arty.

“Guess who.” The voice on the other end said.

“Arty!”

“Yup, and I have a surprise for you, Princess.”

“Yeah?” Invidia asked.

“Just get dressed up and I’ll meet you in an hour or so, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. Bye, I love you.”

“I love you too…” Invidia said before she hung up. ‘I wonder what he wants…’ She thought as she headed into her bathroom, wishing that he had given her more time as she ran herself a bath. She liked to take time to get ready, but with the time she had she could only be in the bath for about twenty minutes, and she liked having about a half hour to an hour for a bath, it gave her a little time to settle down before she went out.

Afterwards she looked through the stuff in her closet, trying to figure out what dress she was going to wear. After about five minutes she held two dresses in front of her, a black one and a black and white one Arty had never seen. She debated with herself for a few minutes before deciding on the plain black one, she thought she’d save the white one for a special occasion. She put it on and fiddled with her makeup and hair until she was perfect, then she grabbed one of her purses and waited.

Luckily she didn’t have to wait long; Arty showed up right on time; he stood at the door in a black suit.

“Arty…you look… amazing!” Invidia complimented.

“So do you…Princess…” He said as he took her hand and kissed it.

Invidia blushed. “Thank you…” she said softly.

“Well then, let’s go.”Arty took her hand and they headed outside to his car.

“So where are we going?” Invidia asked.

“You’ll see.”Arty said as he drove, after that it was quiet. Invidia didn’t speak again until they arrived and Arty helped her out of the car.

“Arty…” She breathed. “You didn’t have to bring me here…” She looked up, Arty had brought her out to the fanciest and most expensive restaurant in town; it took two or three weeks just to get a reservation!

“I wanted to.” He said. “I’ve been planning this for about two weeks and I wanted to surprise you.”

“You don’t surprise me, you spoil me.” Invidia corrected him.

“Oh shush, you never said you didn’t like it.” Arty said as he took her hand again and they headed inside.

Inside a hostess stood at a desk. “Name?” She said.

“Jefferson.” Arty told her.

She looked at the computer. “Here it is, this way please.” The hostess led them to a nice little table, they sat and she left saying that their waitress would be with them in a minute.

“You really didn’t have to do this.” Invidia said when the hostess had left.

“I told you I wanted to.” Arty said as he scanned the menu. “And since I’m paying for it you can get whatever you want.”

“Depends on what’s in it...” Invidia said.

“Oh, stop being so picky!” Arty said.

“No. Don’t tell me what to do!” Invidia said.

“I’ll do what I want.” Arty teased.

“No you won’t.”Invidia said as she read some more.

Arty said nothing more after that and didn’t speak again until dinner was almost over.

“Invidia,” he said.

“Hm?”

He placed his hand over hers. “Look we’ve been going out for a long time and…”

“Are you breaking up with me?” Invidia asked.

“No, not at all…”

“Then what do you mean by ‘we’ve been going out for a long time…’?”

“Look, what I mean is that, I’ve known you for a while and…”

“Hm?”

“I’ll just get to the point.” Arty said, as he leaned down and knelt in front of her. He took her hand... “Invidia, I love you and I want you to be with me forever.” He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box and opened it, revealing a golden ring with a diamond in the middle of it. “That’s why I, Arty Jefferson formally ask you, Princess Invidia if you would consider…marrying me…?”

“I…I…” Invidia couldn’t speak as she looked at him and tears formed in her eyes. “Yes, of course I will…”

Arty slipped the ring on her finger and she slipped out of her chair and on her knees in front of him. “I love you…” She said. Then she kissed him, in front of everyone…

After she did he just held her for a minute as everyone watched. But Arty didn’t care; he just kept taking it all in. He would remember this moment forever. The light glow of the table’s candles, Invidia’s black, spaghetti strap dress with the black rose on one strap, and even the small details such as the flowers and the way the table was set…

Later, after dinner they went back to her place. They sat on the couch and just talked, mostly about later wedding plans.

“So, when do you want the wedding?” Arty asked.

“When it’s not too hot, or too cold, maybe in the spring? Then we can have an outside wedding.”

“Then what about March? We could get married in the middle of the month when it starts to get warm, and that gives us plenty of time to plan.”

“Okay.” Invidia nodded. “We can decide on a date later, I have other things to do now.”

“Such as telling your father?”

“Yes, I have to move up my visit date now, thanks a lot.”

“Hey, you’re the one who said yes…” Arty whispered, then he kissed her.

Invidia returned his kiss, and after that one broke she kissed him again, and again…Until Arty pushed her off.

“Hey! No more until our wedding night, okay?”

“I don’t want anything like that.”

“Then stop it!” Arty said. “You know very well that kissing me like that is going to lead to a lot more than that.”

“Oh...well…then…”

“But I still love you, okay? Bye Princess…” He kissed her one more time and left.

Invidia just watched him go. Then she started thinking. ‘Did all this really happen? Or am I dreaming? Am I really getting married?’ She looked at her hand again and realized that it had to be true…it just had to be.

A couple days later Invidia set off to see her Father, who, was still in jail on Iscandar. This was usually a weeklong trip of continuous space warps and then another week of her staying; she wasn’t going to spend all that money for a one-day trip. This time it had cost a lot more than usual with her moving up her trip, but she had to tell him… Days later she sat with him at one of the tables in the visiting room they had.

“So, you’re here early, aren’t you?” Zordar asked.

Invidia nodded. “I am, I moved up my trip…”

“Why?”

“Well…I…Uh…I have something to tell you.”

“What did you and Arty do now?”

“Father! We haven’t done a thing since the first time; he promised that we wouldn’t do it again until I’m ready!”

“Then what?”

Invidia hesitated for a minute, before holding out her hand in front of him. “I’m engaged…”

“That’s great!” Zordar said. “But how much will it cost?”

“I don’t know yet! We haven’t even set a date! But you know that you have more than enough money to cover it.”

“Right…” Zordar muttered.

“Why can’t you just be happy for me?” Invidia whined. “I’m getting married and I’m happy! Is money the only thing that matters? What about me?”

“No, Invidia, don’t cry,” Zordar hugged her, he knew what she looked like when she was about to cry. “I do care about your happiness, I was just worried.”

“Right…” Invidia said. “Anyway, I wish you could see the wedding…”

“I do too, but you know I probably won’t…”

“I’ll send you the tape then…but I have to go…bye…”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, wait, are you staying?”

“Of course, I’m not coming all this way for a one-day visit!”

“Good, bring some food with you, maybe a cake or something…”

“All right, I’ll give in to your desert fetish!” Invidia said as she left.

That night, she sat in her hotel suite looking over wedding stuff online, but not stuff that everyone else would think off, all of her stuff was black, blue, white and red…

“I know it’s early…but I want to start planning now…” Invidia muttered to herself. She sat on the bed, in her nightgown with her laptop; Arty had paid for half of it as sort of a present. “I want to come up with some plan…Arty can fix it later…” She said, then she looked out the window, but she didn’t see much.

She sighed. ‘This stuff is so expensive…and that’s coming from a woman who still has about a hundred million dollars in her hands!’ Invidia thought, she then sighed and got up and walked over to the window. “Weddings are stressful…and I haven’t even started yet!” she said.

The next day she went to see Zordar again, this time with a couple papers showing estimates for decorations she wanted.

“This is nuts…” Zordar said. “Fifty dollars for flowers?”

“It’s only something I’m thinking about! And the black ones are painted, it cost extra money, Father,” Invidia told him.

“Well you might want to think about something cheaper.” he said.

“Oh, stop being stingy!” She said, then she changed her voice to a whisper. “We have about a hundred million dollars.” She whispered so that only Zordar heard, she did not want to take chance revealing that with other prisoners around.

“I know, but isn’t it a little early to start planning?”

“The earlier the better, now I’ve gotta go.” Invidia picked up her stuff and started to leave, but Zordar grabbed her.

“You promised food.”

Invidia sighed and pulled a small container out of her purse. “Here are your stupid brownies, now will you leave me alone?”

“Sure, bye Princess.”

Invidia nodded at him. “I’ll see you soon.” She said as she hugged him, then, she left.

About two weeks later, a week after she had gotten back, she sat with Nova and Trelania at the Wildstars’ house; they had agreed to help her plan some of the wedding. Invidia had also considering asking Wendy, but she was busy with her own things and Invidia really didn’t know her that well, neither of then tried to get to know each other.

“Why do you want to do it in black?” Nova asked.

“It’s my wedding.” Invidia said. “And I want it to be done in my colors, blue, black and maybe a bit of white for contrast.”

“But then it’s just so dark.” Trelania said as she slightly bounced Misako, who was only about four months old.

Misako, Invidia had discovered was a very strange little baby, she would glow at random times and sometimes move things, making her think that Misako was starting to develop the same powers as Trelania.

“It’s supposed to be dark.” Invidia said. “And I hope Arty likes it too, he likes different.”

“That’s why he’s marring you.” Trelania said.

“Hey!” Invidia glared at her.“Isn’t that why Mark married you? Obviously he has something for anti-matter freaks!”

“Hey!”

“You asked for that one!” Invidia said.

“Okay, you know what?”

“You two stop!” Nova said. “We’re supposed to be planning! Not fighting!”

And that’s what they did for the next couple weeks, Arty seemed to follow along for the next two months of planning. He just went along with most of what Invidia said, changing things when necessary.

Then came the last week of the second month…

After work Arty trudged upstairs to Invidia’s apartment, sulking as he did so. He used the key she had given him to get in, and entered silently.

“Invidia?” he called.

Invidia came down the hallway. “Yeah?”

“I need to talk to you…” He said in a low, sorrowful tone.

“Huh…?” Invidia just looked at him…

TO BE CONTINUED….