The remainder of the flight is uneventful and quiet, but less uncomfortable now that everyone seems to know their place. It's been made clear that I come first now, and I get the feeling that whatever is asked of Kirk from now on, he will do without hesitation.
The jet lands and we remove our seat belts as the hatch opens, but Prince's hand on mine indicates for me to stay seated. Kirk crosses the area and goes down the steps in a determined manner, returning quickly with Marcus, whose face lights up when he sees me.
"I hear a congratulations is in order," Marcus grins down at me, as Prince steers me towards him.
"Yes, thank you, Marcus," I look up at him before glancing at Kirk who's waiting stone faced at the hatch for the pleasantries to be finished.
"This way, Ma'am," Marcus says as he starts down the steps in front of me at a quick pace, leading me to the open limo door. Prince is behind me, Kirk behind him, we all climb into the back of the waiting limo. I didn't have time to take notice if there were press or paparazzi, I also hadn't noticed that Marcus was carrying my two flower pots that are now sitting between his large feet. Prince takes my hand as he settles back into the plushness of the seat, and when I rest my head onto his shoulder, his thumb begins to stroke along my hand. Marcus smiles at us before he politely averts his gaze, Kirk just looks away. We hear the trunk slam shut, and soon after, the limo is put into motion.
Prince asks, "Marcus, how's the situation at our house?"
"All is quiet, Sir, the police are keeping watch by patrolling through randomly." I feel Prince nod. Marcus looks at me, "I watered your garden, Ma'am." I thank him.
Paisley Park comes into view and Prince cranes to do a scan of the area before the limo exits the expressway. "All is well, Sir," Marcus assures him.
Knowing we're getting close, I lift my head off his shoulder, Prince looks at me to see how I'm doing, I squeeze his hand once. He winks at me and whispers, "That's my girl."
The limo pulls in front of the main vestibule off the atrium, Kirk exits first, looking in all directions before standing next to the open door. Marcus follows repeating the same process, except he's holding my two flower pots. Kirk nods to Prince and he steps out pulling me behind him. Entering the vestibule, Kirk leads, Prince next, then me, Marcus follows behind, setting the flowerpots down just inside the door.
Once inside the atrium, the calm feeling surrounds us, Kirk and Marcus both visibly relax, but Prince stops in his tracks. I noticed he was automatically leading us around his symbol on the floor before he halted. His head snaps in the direction of the table that Monica has been known to put his flower on, it's there, and it's looking mighty healthy. Prince strides over, retrieves the flower and places it in the center of the symbol's circle before he continues leading me past the reception desk. Prince and Monica exchange glances as we pass, but they both remain silent, I'm certain there will be a discussion about the flowers placement later. We're almost to the salon area when Prince stops again, turning to Kirk, who has stayed behind us, "Go water the flowers out front." I do my best to keep a straight face and not snicker at the menial task that inadvertently is because of me and my love of flowers.
Kirk's eyes show disbelief as his mouth pops open, but then quickly snaps closed. "Yes, Sir," he nods and turns to go back the way we came.
We step into the salon area where Kim is setting up, she turns and her smile is radiant. "Congratulations, you two!" she hugs Prince, then me, planting a kiss on my cheek. When I'm released, she grabs my hand to inspect the ring, nodding in approval, "Stunning, of course!" She looks at Prince and nods.
With the ring appraisal complete, she leads me to a chair and begins lifting and dropping my hair. "You need another trim, and I'm going to do some color on the both of you, no grays for the camera," she winks. I'm glad she said that because I knew I was overdue for a color, I had also noticed a few grays on Prince as well. Kim points to him, "You need a haircut, too."He purses his lips and shakes his head. Kim stares, but he doesn't make eye contact.
"P?" she pushes.
"I said no," he stares into the mirror and pats at his hair.
"Let me just clean it up a bit, you know it makes it look fuller," Kim continues trying to persuade him as she sections out my hair.
I look over at him, "Prince, please let Kim cut your hair."
His face softens when he looks at me and sighs, "Why can't I say 'no' to you, Sugar?" He looks at Kim, "Okay, just a little bit."
Kim and I exchange glances over our small victory as she starts brushing the color mixture into my hair. While we wait for my rinse, she starts on Prince. She manages to go back and forth between us without missing a beat. My hair gets finished first, and I'm blown away by how long it's taking to cut Prince's. Since he gave in, she decides to do a precision cut, so there is a lot of sectioning and snipping involved. She doesn't take off much and I'm amazed at just how long his hair is when she pulls it straight. She makes sure to show him just how bad his ends are before she cuts them.
Both of us freshly colored and cut, she removes my earrings and necklace and places them into a cleaner while she does my makeup. Prince stays with me in the salon while he shaves, then starts applying his own makeup. I'm happy to see that he's keeping it moderate as he applies.
After my earrings are back in, Kim stands back to study me, "You two look like a million bucks, I can't wait to see what you're going to wear."
With that comment, I look at Prince, "What are we going to wear?"
He's still primping in the mirror, "You know I have that covered," he pauses only to grin at me.
Kim looks at him, then asks me as she's perfecting my hair, "How's your garden coming along?"
"Oh, Kim, you've got to see it! It's looking amazing!" I gush, fully animated, because this is my thing.
Prince turns in slow motion to look at me, "Sugar, that's perfect!"
"What's perfect?" I frown at him.
"Our garden! That's where we'll have our photos taken. I'll be right back!"
Prince rushes out of the salon to set this new plan in action.
When Prince returns to the salon, he invites Kim to come join us to the photo shoot, which will now be at our home. "It will take them about two hours to get everything set up," he tells the both of us, before he jots down our address on a piece of paper for her. Kim looks at me knowingly after she looks at the street number, I smile, suppressing a laugh because I already know the numbers add up to seven.
Prince pulls me from the salon and back towards the atrium. We get into the elevator, I know we are headed to wardrobe and I can't wait to see what he's had designed for me this time. Just as the door dings open on the second floor, my stomach lets loose a loud rumble. Prince doesn't say a word as I drop my head and laugh, that half smile claims his face as he chuckles and punches the down button.
