After the ceremony, and after the ceremonial upturning of the ground by Alex and the other dignitaries in attendance, all in hardhats and with ceremonial shovels, Alex momentarily broke away to walk Kari and her friends to their cars.  Kari had driven her own car.  Faye and Lucinda had come in Benny’s.  But as they approached Kari’s Toyota, Lucinda was shaking her head.

“I don’t know why you won’t kiss that Tercel goodbye and get yourself a new car,” said Lucinda.

“I have a perfectly fine car,” Kari replied.  “It gets me from point A to point B without me having to pay one dime of a car note.  Why would I waste my hard-earned money on another car when I have a perfectly fine one already?”

“I’m sure Alex would spring for a new car for you if you’d only ask him,” said Faye, and she and Lucinda high-fived and grinned.

Alex was smiling too.  Mainly because he’d already gone around the block with Kari about that car of hers on numerous occasions.  He understood her now.  “She has a car,” he said to her friends.  “And I appreciate that she wants to keep it.  She worked hard.  Paid it off.  I respect that.”

“Thank you!” Kari said with a grin of her own.

“You’re saying that now,” said Lucinda to Alex, “but I’ll bet you any amount of money that when you guys get married---”

Kari was alarmed.  “Married?” she quickly asked.  “Who said anything about marriage?”

But Faye agreed with Lucinda.  “When you put a ring on it,” she said to Alex, “I guarantee she won’t be styling around town in no old-behind car then!”

Alex smiled.  “Damn right she won’t,” he said, and everybody laughed.

Kari smiled and shook her head.  “Very funny,” she said.

“Enjoy your freedom while you can, Kare,” Benny said jokingly as he, Faye, and Lucinda broke away from the Tercel and began heading toward his BMW. “He’s telling you what you can expect in your future!”

Kari laughed at Benny’s joke, but she knew it was hardly a laughing matter.  “Where are you guys headed?” she asked them.

“We’re giving Lucinda a lift to Pensacola to pick up her brand-new car,” Benny said.  “That’s why they’re harping on cars so much.  Lou’s getting one.”

“Didn’t you just buy one last year?” Kari asked Lucinda.

“Yeah, so?” Lucinda asked Kari.

“She leases those cars every year, Kari,” said Faye.

“And how is that her business?” Lucinda asked Faye.  “Don’t hate.”

Kari laughed and shook her head.  “Enjoy your car payments,” she said to Lucinda.

“Oh, I shall,” Lucinda replied with a laugh as she, Faye, and Benny got into Benny’s car.

After they drove away, Alex was pleased to finally have a private moment with Kari, although the groundbreaking festivities were still in full force.  They stood at her opened car door.  Alex was standing so close to her that his aroused penis was pressing against her thigh.  Kari could feel how hard he was, as they stared into each other’s eyes.

“Do we get to keep you for a few days?” she asked.  “Or will you have to go back to New York today?”

“I need to get back,” Alex said, “but I’m not going back.”

Kari smiled.  “You aren’t?”

“Not today, no.”

Kari was elated.  Having Alex around was what excited her!

Alex was excited too.  He was seeing Kari again.  And despite where they were, and who might or might not be watching them, he leaned toward her and kissed her.

It was a chaste kiss, given where they were, but it was enough of a tease to get Alex throbbing. “I hate that I have to hang around and hobnob with these fools,” he said.

Kari laughed.

“I’d rather be with you,” he added.

Kari would rather too.  “It’s needful,” he said.  “You’re the best show in town right now.  They want a piece of your glitter.  Besides, you have to do what you have to do,” she added.

“They purposely placed you in the back of that crowd,” he said.  “You know that, right?”

Kari nodded.  Nothing she wasn’t well accustomed to!  “I know.”

“Small-minded motherfuckers,” Alex said.  “If this town wasn’t a means to an end for me, I would have you and Jordan out of this shithole so fast it would leave them reeling.”

“Hold your horses, pal,” Kari said.  “This shithole is our home.  It’s a town that has its share of fools like everywhere else, yes, it does, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s a very nice place to live.  And most of the people are very nice.”

“You like it here?”

“That’s why I’m still here.  Yes, Alex, I like it here.  Very much.”

Alex knew that would change if he insisted.  But now was not the time.

“Anyway, I see the governor giving me the side eye,” Kari said as she got into her car.  “I’d better let you get back to them.  Although I see the mayor’s left already.”

“He says he has some meetings he had to attend.  But he didn’t get away before I gave him a piece of my mind about that little stunt he pulled on you.”

Kari smiled.  She saw the tongue-lashing from afar.

Alex closed her car door, Kari cranked up and pressed down the window, and Alex rested his arms on the window frame.  “You’re coming over later?” he asked her.

“You know it.  But first you’re coming to dinner.  Jordan wants to see you, too, you know, and I have this new recipe I want to try out.  A Greek dish.”

Alex smiled.  “I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said.  And they stared at each other again, looking forward to being together tonight.  “Need anything?” he asked her.  “Other than me, of course.”

Kari smiled.  “No, I’m good.”

“You still haven’t used that credit card I gave to you, Karena.”

“I’m good.”

Alex understood.  Kari wasn’t giving up her stubbornness without a knockdown drag-out.  He was going to win that fight, he knew, when she became his wife, but there was a time and a place for everything.

He kissed her on the lips again, backed up, and she drove away.