Revenge of the Scorned Witch

The next morning, I wake up to knocking on my front door. I stumble out of bed to find a delivery driver holding a bouquet of flowers. "Are you Joy?" She asks.

"Yes, I am," I mumble, still half asleep.

"These are for you, Happy Birthday." She says sweetly then gets back into her van for her other rounds. I stand there with the door still wide open shaking my head. I hadn't realized it was my birthday. I've been so busy I had forgotten I let out a light chuckle.

"Hey, what are you doing with the door wide open?" Bryan asks as he walks in from his room. I jump so high that I nearly drop the flowers on the floor. "Dammit, Bryan, you scared me shitless!" I scream. "Whoa, calm down, I didn't mean to scare you." He says then sees the flowers in my hand. "Who sent you those?"

"I'm not sure, but did you realize it was my birthday already?" I ask as I reach for the card sticking out of the flowers. "Yes, I did. I was going to surprise you by making you breakfast, but hang on, you didn't know what day it was?" He says.

"No, I didn't. I've had other things on my mind, and of course, these are from Ellis. He also remembered, which is unusual for him, considering he never remembered before."

"Well, at least he remembers now, right?"

"Yea, I guess, I've never seen him try so hard, which is quite amusing." I laugh at all the things Ellis has done to keep me happy. "So, help me decide what to wear tonight. He wants to make dinner for me."

"Hmm, nope, we have to go shopping to find you the perfect outfit for tonight, and trust me, I have been through your closet more than once, so I know what's in there. Let's go get dressed, and it will be my present to you." "What about breakfast?" I say, remembering that he wanted to make me a birthday breakfast.

"Hunny, this is more important than breakfast. We will just pick something up on the way, now go get dressed."

With my orders given, I went to throw on some clothes, ran a brush through my hair, then off we went to Texas for some birthday shopping. I tried on a lot of different outfits until we agreed on a red knee-length dress with cold shoulders along with a new pair of boots. We walked around the Grapevine Mall for a couple of more hours, then headed back home.

When we walked through the door, I looked at all the bags we had brought in. I had my two to Bryan's ten bags. I couldn't remember what all he had bought.

"How is it that you have more bags than I do? I don't remember you buying all of that?" I joke.

"These aren't my bags, dear, they are yours," Bryan said matter of factly. "No, they're not. I don't even know what's in them." I said getting a little annoyed.

"Don't get upset, I had found a couple of other items while you weren't looking and bought them for you." He announced sweetly.

"Oh, Bryan, you shouldn't have! Thank you so much for that, but you really shouldn't have." I say, choking back my tears. I jump off the couch and give him a hug.

"Ok, now go get dolled up for your date. Hopefully, your ex doesn't burn the food, or better yet, he ordered out and pretends he cooked." Bryan laughs.

When I finally make it over to Ellis's for my birthday dinner, my daughters were already on their way over to mine.

"Happy birthday, mom." They giggled on their way past me. I just laugh as I watch them walk past me. As I make it up on the porch to knock, Ellis is already standing there with the door opened up for me. "Happy birthday, my dear." He says as he leans in to kiss me. He then takes me by the hand and leads me to a candlelit table. Ellis had made T-bone steaks, baked potatoes, and a salad, which I thought was a sweet gesture because he had actually cooked dinner just for me and had put a lot of effort into making sure everything was just right. After dinner, he led me into the living room, where he had me sit on the couch while he went back into the kitchen.

When he came back, he had a big Hershey kiss with a candle sticking out of it and a ring with a pink string tied around it. Ellis then got down on one knee, hands the chocolate over to me, and asks, "Joy, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I feel like I've known you for years. Would you please make me the happiest man and be my wife?"

I sit there stunned. I had never planned on my relationship with Ellis going this far, but it would make things a little easier for me.

"Yes! Ellis, I would love to be your wife." I answer, trying desperately to sound happy even though all I want to do is puke at the request. Even though he tried to have me stay the night with him, I went to sleep in my own bed, stating that I had to get up early for a meeting in Oklahoma City the next morning. I wasn't really lying, I did need to go to Oklahoma City the next day, but maybe not as early as I let on, and it wasn't a meeting per se. I was going to talk with the FBI with Bryan. When I make it home, Bryan is up while my daughters have taken over my other guest room. I slumped down on the couch beside him, grabbed a pillow, and screamed into it.

"So, it was a bad date, I take it?" Bryan asks, looking over at me.

"No, it wasn't bad at first, then after the meal, it all went to hell," I whine, remembering what had happened just a few hours ago.

"Well, what happened then? Tell me so I can have a reason to kick his ass!" He exclaimed.

"He asked me to marry him! Now go kick his ass." I blurted out.

"Wait, he asked you to marry him again!?" He says surprised. "He does have a thing for you, doesn't he?"

I just give him a "Go to hell" look, then head for a hot shower. Then I slip into my comfy bed.

I was wakened the next morning by Laura and Kaylee as they came into my room with a breakfast tray filled with bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice. "What's all this for?" I ask them, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"Oh, nothing, just wanted to make breakfast for our mom, that's all," Laura says.

"Then, we were hoping we could help you plan the wedding." Kaylee pipes in. "Starting with going to Dallas to look at dresses." She says with a smile.

"I see your dad already told you," I say, taking a big drink of my orange juice.

"Yes, he did!" They scream at the same time, then scramble on my bed with me.

"Ok, you can help, but I can't go today. I have an important meeting in the city, but tomorrow we can go. But also we got to figure out a date, that's the main thing." I tell them. "But you two can come up with some colors for me while I'm gone." I finish up my breakfast with the help of the girls, then I get ready to leave. Luckily, Bryan was already dressed and ready to go as well, since the meeting was mainly for him and I was just tagging along. Bryan didn't mention the wedding to me all the way to Oklahoma City, which I was grateful for. When we arrived at the FBI office, Bryan introduced me as his informant, and we were lead down a long hallway on the second floor to the office of Michael Johnson, the director of the FBI. "Bryan, how are you doing?" Mr. Johnson asked.

"I'm doing fine, sir, this is my friend and informant, Joy Grant."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Grant."

"You too, sir."

"So, Bryan, what have you brought me?"

"I got the fingerprints back, sir, from the lab. They match Mr. Carter's fingerprints." Bryan explains to him.

"But I want more on him to make the charges stick."

"Ok, Miss Grant, do you have a problem helping him with that? The FBI will compensate you for your time?"

"No, sir. I have no problem helping." We gave the director the paperwork and headed back home to Ringling.