“Maybe we could donate it or something,” she murmured. “I have no idea, I’ve never had to get rid of a bunch of stuff before. I think you’re right, though. Some of it’s really nice, we shouldn’t just throw it away.”

A few phone calls later, we found out that the great majority of our old furniture could either be used by our friends or by people our friends knew. The rest we decided to donate to the Salvation Army, and I put a note on the fridge to call them in the morning.

When that was done, we finally stood still in our house and realized that we were home. We stood in the kitchen in an embrace for a little bit, just taking it all in. There were still some tiny things we needed to do at Alice’s old place, but for the most part, we were moved in. In the space of a day we’d managed to get everything in and pretty much arranged. Of course, it would have been a hell of a lot harder if we hadn’t had movers and delivery people helping us, but it still felt like a huge accomplishment.

I figured she’d want to call everybody over, but she didn’t. Instead, she just said she was really tired and that we could have them over sometime in the next few days. Then she smiled and said, “Come on, let’s open our wedding presents!”

To be perfectly honest, I’d forgotten all about them. The honeymoon cruise and the house were all the gift I needed, and while I was cognizant of the pile of presents in their pretty paper over in the corner of our new living room, I didn’t really care much about them.

That is, until I saw Alice’s face light up at the mere prospect of opening them. She was like a little kid on Christmas morning, and it was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.

We got some nice kitchen items, utensils and new dishes, some decorative stuff for the house (I was still amazed that my parents and my friends had kept the house a secret for so long). Helena had gotten us a really nice water foot massage thingy, and Howie had gotten us The Whole Lesbian Sex Book (wrapped secretly within a package of gardening tools and flower seeds for the back garden), which made us laugh. We also got a really nice electronic security system from Bette and Tina and some really nice gift certificates to several different restaurants.

The best present was from Shane, though. I knew Alice had recorded all my television appearances for years now, but she went one better and had made me a really nice display case for my Mercedes Challenge trophy. She’d somehow lined the back of the case with laminated pictures from my matches over the years. She must have gone back into newspaper and magazine archives for years, but either way, it was incredible. It was by far the biggest gift we’d gotten, and there was a note from her promising to build me a custom display case that would house this one and the rest of my trophies inside.

I’d have sat there in shock for hours if Alice hadn’t pulled me to my feet and helped me into our new, huge, ridiculously comfortable bed. We were both exhausted, and really happy, so we had no trouble whatsoever in falling asleep.

**********

I realized Alice was asleep a few seconds after I stopped talking. Just as well, really, since the nurse was back with my breakfast tray. I kissed Alice’s cheek and whispered “I love you,” before following the nurse into my room, letting Alice get some sleep.