Round Six:

As we stood, hand in hand, at that last table and looked at those beautiful fountains, each pouring down its own distinctive kind of liquid chocolate, Mr. Harkins walked over. This time it was hard to read his expression. It was almost like he was upset, perplexed, and relieved all at once.

"Ah Mr. Roberto, Ms. Ivanna . . . is everything alright?"

"Never better, Mr. Harkins," I replied looking over at Vonni whose smile was so large and genuine, now. "Never better!"

"I . . . am so relieved, then," the small man stated, and it looked like the weight of the whole world had been lifted off his shoulders, like he was a modern-day Atlas and Hercules had just taken the world from his back.

"I thought, maybe I had really messed everything up when I saw, the two of you . . . well I am so sorry I almost caused a breakup. Please forgive me."

Before I could reply, Ivanna broke contact, and walked up to the general manager of The Marquis. She reached out and almost grabbed the impeccably dressed manager. Almost, but not quite, as she stopped and looked down at her muck-covered dress and grinned. So, instead, she leaned forward and without touching him, gave our friend a light, friendly kiss on his cheek, leaving just a slight smear of chocolate behind.

"No, it is we, or maybe I should say it is I, that owe you a debt of gratitude which I will never be able to repay." She stopped talking, and as I walked up to them, I saw tears streaming down Vonni's face. Finally, as she regained control of her emotions, the woman that I loved more than life itself, turned to look at me, but continued speaking to Mr. Harkins. "It is I that owe you, Mr. Harkins."

And then my love, my sweetheart, my betrothed, continued speaking, but I knew these words were for me.

"You see, Bobby. I still had my doubts." Vonni stopped for just a few seconds. "Even after you put that ring on my finger, even after I said, 'yes' I still didn't know if it would work." Now she stepped away from me, just a few feet, but as she stepped over to that last table, Ivanna stopped once again, and looked at me. "I wanted it to work so desperately, Bobby. And yet, I was so afraid it couldn't. I've never had one relationship that did not end badly, and if I am being honest with myself, it has always been my fault."

Tears were streaming down her chocolate-soaked cheeks again. Now there was a quiver in her voice, as I stepped over to her, to the love of my life, and took hold of her.

"Bobby, I love you so much, and I am so sorry for what I did to you."

I guess the tears were coming down my cheeks too, as I held my Vonni in my arms while she cried her heart out.

"I love you, too, Vonni. More than life itself. And I now know, beyond any doubt, that everything will work out for us." I said this as I gently lifted her face and kissed her. As I wiped the tears away, I kissed my Vonni even more. And then she responded in the only way two people in love could.

And the crowd, once again, went wild. Stamping their feet in unison as they shouted with joy.

"Mr. Harkins," I said, turning to the little man, once again, "how is that really big one going to work. I don't know if I can handle the weight."

"Oh, we thought of that, Mr. Roberto," the little manager said coming around to our side of the table. "Do you see those cables running from each of the four corners. They are attached to pulleys going up into the ceiling. All you have to do is pull down on this cord," he said, while pointing to the first of four woven cords of about an inch in thickness. "It will tilt the fountain as far as you need for the chocolate to start pouring."

"The same apparatus has been added to that fountain," Mr. Harkins stated while pointing toward the middle fountain, "we didn't figure you needed any help with the smaller one."

Now, that everything was back to normal, Mr. Harkins, our new friend, was carrying the smile of smiles.

"Is there anything else that we can do for you," he said as he looked at Ivanna and myself.

I looked over at Ivanna and flashed a quick smile her way. "No, Mr. Harkins, I think we've got it."

Turning back to him, I said, "Thank you for everything, Sir!"



And then, it was just the two of us, "Vonni," I said, as we stood at the front of that last table. Mr. Harkins and all of his staff had pulled back as had those in the audience who had crowded in for a better look.

"Yes baby, it's just the two of us now," my beloved said as her cheeks shined from the glow of the flood lights rippling over that chocolate mess that covered them. "Why, what evah shall we do, Mr. Robert?"

"Have fun, baby, have fun."

And then as I leaned in for one last kiss. "I think we should save the big one for last . . . and I think we should take it together."

Vonni's eyes went wide at that statement. "You mean . . ."

"Baby, I don't want any more 'I win, you lose' or 'you win, I lose.' From now on, I want it to be 'we win!' It's like the Elvis Presley song, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You. You are my everything. I . . . Love . . . You." As I looked into her beautiful eyes, and saw them start to tear up again, I added, "now let's get messy, really messy!"

"YES!" my betrothed said, as we walked to the first fountain.

"Which one do you want, baby," Ivanna asked? Looking at the first two of those wonderful fountains.

"Well, you know I like chocolate," I said with just a little smirk.

"Ha, Ha, Ha," Vonni broke out laughing. "Oh, that's rich, sweetheart."

Now I got serious. "You'll have the pullies to help with the middle one, so why don't I take it, and you can take this one."

"Okay, so it's the white chocolate for you and the milk chocolate for me," Vonni asked?

"No, what I meant is that you can use the pullies to help with the milk chocolate so I should have that poured on me. And we know I can handle the five-foot one, from our time last year, so I can pour the white chocolate on you. If that's okay with you."

Her smile was all the answer I needed. But she confirmed it with a simple, "yes."

"And then," I added, "we'll do the tall one together."

"Let's do it, baby," the love of my life replied. And so, we did.


"Ready," I said the single word. "Ready," Vonni replied, "or is it like the pilots say, 'contact.'"

And then I started the pour. Not having to hold onto a fighting wildcat, like I did one year ago, made all the difference. Ivanna stood there like a statue of one of those old-time Greek goddesses, perhaps Aphrodite, or maybe Athena. She stood so gracefully, so poised, and then at the last my sweetheart, the love of my life, spread her arms and opened her hands, as if welcoming the onrushing chocolate. I guess since I had a little practice from last year, my aim had improved, for that stream of liquid white chocolate, hit her squarely in the face, almost driving her back.

"Shit," Vonni screamed, "I forgot, how cold . . . NO don't stop, I'm ready now." She quickly yelled out, as I had backed off thinking I hurt her. "Keep it coming, Bobby. Keep it coming."

"Well okay, then!" I opened it up, tilting that fountain even more than I had before. A big stream of white chocolate cascade down onto my love, and with every passing second, Ivanna became saturated more and more. This time, she took it, she relished it, turning to take the flow over every inch of her body. It was as if Vonni could not get enough of the slimy liquid chocolate. Finally, the chocolate started to run out. I tilted the fountain further, putting both hands in the white mess to maintain a firm hold on the mechanical mess maker. Vonni stepped up and tilted her head back so she could get every last drop on her face.

But as I've said before, all good things do come to an end, and so did this.

After righting the fountain, I stepped back to look at Ivanna.

And would you believe that wonderful woman took a bow, of all things, to me, and then to Mr. Harkins and finally to the crowd of onlookers. And they loved it. As my future wife walked over to join me, gingerly I might add, because of all the slippery mess on the floor, we grinned at each other like two idiots. And the crowd roared their approval as dozens of flashes popped from a hundred-plus phones.

"Oh baby, that was wonderful!" Vonni stated as she swept into my arms and allowed me to lick that delectable treat from her eyes, her nose, and finally her lips. "My turn," I said simply and to the point.

"Oh baby," Ivanna said, "what if I drop it, I could hurt you really bad . . . or worse." I sensed a real fear behind those suddenly watery eyes.

"You won't baby. I trust you. I have faith." As I held my completely 'white' gunged statue of a fiancé, I kissed her lightly on her lips, stroked the side of her face, and then stepped up to that fountain full of the light brown muck known as milk chocolate. "NOW, baby!" And I closed my eyes as I awaited the pour.

As I stood there, carrying a very liberal amount of that white chocolate that had rubbed off of Ivanna, I awaited my turn. And waited and waited. Finally, I heard a splashing sound in front of me. Looking down I saw that the chocolate was falling well short of its intended target. "Baby," I laughed, you really need to tilt it a little more." With another laugh, I added, "your aim is a little off."

"I know, shit . . . I'm just . . . I'm scared I'll hurt you, baby."

"It's okay, baby, you won't hurt me." But I could see real fear in her eyes. And then, out of nowhere, Mr. Harkins was standing beside my Vonni. And now he was holding onto that cord, too, and talking softly in Ivanna's ear. Suddenly, she smiled, and with the two of them pulling on that cord the stream started rising, first to land on my already damaged crotch area.

"Hey Vonni, are you trying to tell me something?" I said with a wink.

"Oh shit," Ivanna laughed, but then with Mr. Harkins help, she got the stream to rise until it hit my chest, first, then my chin, which almost got me in the mouth.

That might not be such a good . . .

But the stream moved on, until it reached my forehead, and then steadied out. All that glorious chocolate started streaming down my face. And I loved it. I hadn't taken any the year before. This was my first time, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of all that muck rolling down my face.

Wow . . . this must be what a fire feels as that stream of water from the firemen reaches it.

Raising the stream just an inch more saw it hitting the top of my head, and I started pirouetting in place so all that chocolate could hit my entire body. It was the most wonderful sensation I had ever felt. And I loved it.

But as before, all good things come to an end. Completely drenched in chocolate, I turned toward my future wife, who had a shocked look on her face.

"Oh my Gaw . . .,"

"What's wrong, Vonni?" I asked not really understanding why she was looking that way.

"I . . . never really . . . I didn't know what I looked like last year. Wow, you look amazing!"

I started laughing at that. "Well, you look pretty amazing, too, darling," I said as I reach out for Ivanna's hand. And then, pulling her to me we began kissing like never before, all the while, the adoring crowd of onlookers were going crazy. And the cameras were back out as hundreds of flashes, it seemed, were going off every second.

And as we pulled apart to look at each other, Ivanna and I both burst out laughing. Pretty soon, Mr. Harkins was too, as was everyone else. During our semi-intimate moment, Vonni and I had more or less turned ourselves into brown and white streaked statues, and it was pretty funny.

Now after a minute, once our hearts stopped racing so hard, we stood there hand-in-hand, looking at that monster chocolate fountain.

"Wow, it looks more impressive now that we are actually here, don't 'cha think Vonni?"

"Yeah, now that we're here, I mean really here, it's . . . uh . . .,"

"You're not chickening out, Vonni, are you?"

"No, of course not. Still . . .,"

She shook her head, perhaps in wonder, perhaps in something more.

"Vonni, we don't have to do it, if you . . .,"

"NO," But I could still see the hesitation in Vonni's eyes. Mr. Harkins came to our rescue, once again.

Mr. Roberto, Ms. Ivanna, four of my strongest employees will be here to assist, one on each guy wire. If you lose control over your cable, they will have your back. I guarantee it.

"Thank you," I mouthed the words to our benefactor, as I turn back to Ivanna. "Feel a little better, honey?"

"Yes, yes I do," she said with a sigh. "I guess I was just being silly." And then after a pause, Vonni gave a slight chuckle. Another sigh, and then she said, "let's do it."

So finally, our big moment with destiny arrived. We were already drenched with chocolate and muck of all kinds. There was not one single inch of our bodies that had not been engulfed in slime and gunge of all kinds, from dozens of pies to a half dozen cakes, some quite large. Gallon upon gallon of various pudding had been dumped upon upturned heads, and in one case down my trousers, twelve liters of custard had been poured over various parts of my body. Twenty-four liters of chocolate sauce had been turned out, on top of Ivanna's head. We had each taken our turn under the chocolate fountain, and now for the grand finale, the piece de resistance, was at hand. As we stood there under the shadow of the largest fountain of mess I had ever seen, I stood there shivering under all that coating of brown goo. Looking over at Ivanna, I could see she was too.

"Well, let's get it done, baby, so we can get in a hot shower."

"Yes," she grinned at me. "This seemed like such a great idea at the beginning, but I forgot how cold I was last year."

"I love you, baby," I said as I grasped that cord.

"And I love you, too, honey," my future wife said, as she placed her hands on top of mine.

The pour started as we finally gave enough pull on the cord. Splattering at our feet, at first, the stream quickly overtook our upturned heads."

Mr. Harkin had shown me a quick release switch that was on the cord, kind of like what we used when we repelled down from a Blackhawk helicopter. So, I knew what to do when we got that perfect, not to light and not too heavy stream of dark chocolate that was coming down on our heads. I locked the quick release allowing Vonni and myself to go hands-free. Now with everything on automatic, Ivanna and I took turns taking that deluge of sweet-tasting chocolate mess that descended down upon our heads, our faces, and then our bodies. Locked arm-in-arm, we turned like a pair of pirouetting dancers on some grand ballroom floor. As that liquid mess descended upon our heads, once again, I felt my manhood stiffen. And yet again, I felt Vonni's nipples rise to the occasion. We kissed like only two people truly in love could. I opened my eyes, just a bare squint, due to the chocolatey muck flowing down my face, to look at my love, only to find Vonni's eyes locked on mine, despite the dark river of mayhem that flowed over them.

"I love you, baby!" I said through a mucky grin. And she responded with a wink, "Me, too. With all my heart, darling!"

It took almost two complete minutes for that deluge to run its course. When it did, we looked like something out of a confectioner's shop. Only there were two human beings under all that mass of chocolate. Two people, one named Bobby, the other Vonni. Every seat in the house was empty. Because every person in that room was standing and giving us the most rousing ovation, anyone could ever imagine.