The Bloomer Legacy: 5.14 Happily Never After

Newton’s love life improved significantly in my absence. Perhaps his bad luck had finally lifted, as he was able to take his relationship with Mara to the next level.

Sure, he may have developed a nasty rash right after they woohooed for the first time, but surely that was unrelated; he wouldn’t have caught it from her, right?

In any case, Newton was ecstatic about how things were going, and as an eternal romantic, he was starting to get ideas. But first, he wanted to introduce Mara to his parents. And as it happened, he got the perfect opportunity for it; his mother’s birthday party.

Of course, everybody wanted to congratulate Chell, so getting her attention was tricky.

“Mom, this is Mara,” Newton said loudly, attempting to distract Chell from her conversation with Skylar and Audrey Agustin. “She is quite special to me.”

“Lovely to meet you, Mara,” Chell smiled encouragingly.

“Happy birthday, mom,” Newton hugged his mother. He lowered his voice as she got closer. “I’ve got to tell you something,” he whispered.

Having heard her son’s news, Chell happily blew out the candles. She didn’t fear being an elder; it seemed right. For all she knew, she might become a grandmother soon.

Knox approached his wife as soon as she aged up: “So, how are you finding being old and achey, darling?”

“Not all too different from being slightly younger and achey,” Chell laughed. “Listen, you should go find Newton. He has some exciting news…”

Liv overheard the conversation and almost choked on her cake. Surely Newton couldn’t be thinking…

She decided to drag Mara to the bathroom for a girl talk: “Hey Mara, how are things with you and Newton?”

“Oh, it’s all great, he’s a sweetheart,” Mara giggled. “But of course, your boyfriend Malakai is great too!”

“Oh no, Mal and I aren’t a couple,” Liv laughed.

“Really? I assumed, since you had a son,” Mara looked at Liv curiously.

“Nope,” Liv confirmed. “Never have been, never will be. It’s a long story…”

As Chell said goodbye to her guests, a part of her couldn’t wait to be on her own with her husband.

“Bye Mara, so wonderful to meet you,” she waved to her son’s girlfriend, barely able to contain herself.

“Has Newton told you about his plans?”

“Yes, he has! I can’t believe it!”

“Our little boy is all grown up…”

***

It was a beautiful ceremony.  The bride opted for a non-traditional dress colour, perhaps appropriate for the wife of a future rock star.

Chell and Knox couldn’t care less about the colour of her dress. They were simply overjoyed that their son found love, a life partner; and they were thrilled to get to know their new daughter-in-law better.

Chell was just gushing about it all to yen when the groom joined them.

“Congratulations, honey,” Chell beamed.

“Lovely wedding, Newton,” Yenn said politely.

“Thanks, mom,” Newton grinned at Chell. “I’m the luckiest man in the world!”

Liv wasn’t too sure how she felt about her cousin jumping the gun so quickly, but the least she could do was volunteering to be the bartender for the event. It was a great way of keeping an eye on everything whilst packing some mixology experience under her belt. Two birds, one stone.

Keiko brought Charles, the man she had recently met at the Oasis Springs lounge, as her date. She didn’t know much about him, nor did she care to find out, but he was willing to colour-coordinate outfits, so she was satisfied.

Especially in comparison with what Booker’s date, Ellie, was wearing.

“Why on earth did you thing this would be appropriate to wear? This is my nephew’s wedding, what’s everyone going to think?!” booker scolded Ellie angrily.

“I’m sorry,” Ellie pouted. “Did you want me to wear my fishing hat?”

“I’m going to get a drink,” Booker sighed.

“Your girlfriend seems nice,” Ethan told Booker encouragingly.

“Eh, I don’t know,” Booker shrugged. “She’s all over the place. Keiko would never be seen in that outfit!”

“I thought what you liked about Ellie is that she’s not Keiko,” Ethan reminded him gently.

“I did at first,” Booker replied. “But Ellie is such a loon! I just don’t see it going anywhere… oh well, I guess it was never serious to begin with.”

Poor Ellie overheard the entire conversation.

She dragged herself out of the place, ditching the party. And ditching Booker.

On a happier note, Monty and Malakai were partying it up, together with Keiko’s date.

Meaning that Keiko was left on her own, unsupervised…

“Bleh,” Keiko jumped at Yenn, mimicking her: “I’m Yennefer, I’m so perfect in every way…”

Yenn shot her an icy stare: “Are you serious Keiko? For plum’s sake, is there ever going to be a party when you don’t overdo it with the juice?”

“I told Liv to cut Keiko off,” Ethan came to the rescue. “No more juice for her! Hope she didn’t ruin your day, Yenny.”

“Please,” Yenn waved it off. “I’ll not waste time on the likes of her! Anyway, I think we’ve paid our party dues, are we allowed to go home and be antisocial now?”

Ethan approved. They said their goodbyes to the groom, wishing him all the best… but he seemed distracted.

“Hey Malakai, you’re looking pretty sexy dressed all smart,” the bride called out.

“You think?” Malakai blushed. “You’re look beautiful too, Mara! After all, it is your day…”

Mara walked across to Malakai, giggling: “Perhaps we should go somewhere a bit more… private.”

Malakai just stared at her: “Wait, what are you talking about?”

Newton was not impressed.

“What the plum, man?”

“Newton, I didn’t…” Malakai didn’t even know what to say. What just happened?

“I mean, I get it, you like corny pickup lines,” Newton said angrily. “But hitting on my wife? On our wedding day? What’s wrong with you?”

“Hey, she started it! I gave her a compliment, I wasn’t hitting on her,” Malakai defended himself. Of course he wouldn’t try to flirt with his friend’s bride… or has his constant flirting gotten to a point where he couldn’t even recognise it anymore?

Needless to say, all of the guests cleared out rather swiftly, and all that was left was the “happy” couple.

“Newton, baby, please forgive me! I didn’t mean any of it,” Mara tried to kiss him.

“Don’t touch me,” he pushed her away.

“Is marriage a complete joke to you, Mara?” he yelled. “Why the plum did you even say yes?”

“I got carried away,” she replied.

Newton glared at her: “You mean, you got carried away when you said yes to me, or when you propositioned Malakai?”

“Both times, I guess,” she looked down.

“This is ridiculous,” Newton whispered to himself incredulously. “This is over, Mara. We’re over. If we were ever even real.”

A few hours ago, Newton was exploding with joy. And then he got betrayed by everyone he trusted within a matter of minutes. He went from being in love to being completely consumed by rage. A rage he knew wouldn’t go away for a long time.

Author’s note: I swear I didn’t plan, orchestrate or influence any of this. I just wanted to get Newton settled down with a nice girl to get him out of the way… Clearly that went well.