It was no accident that Brad got to that coffee shop before I did. I wanted her to experience meeting him without me with her. She’s adored him and his band for so long and she needed to have that fangirl moment and get it out of her system, so she can focus on her interview with him when it’s time. I didn’t expect to walk in to find her paralyzed in the moment but that only made it better. She was a mess, and so adorable.
Today I teach her how to use her site. I’ve never done so much prep work for a client meeting as I did today. Everything had to be perfect, just like she is.
Ben and I are now sitting at the bar up the road from my office. I couldn’t relax waiting for her, so I suggested a beer to calm my nerves and didn’t have to ask Ben twice.
‘She’s gonna break up with Noah,’ I say to Ben.
‘Well, you knew she would eventually. She’s never been the best at keeping things from people.’
‘Am I pushing all this too fast?’
‘Are you kidding me? You’ve got Claire up my ass now, expecting me to start this over-the-top shit up again and I’m not as young and full of ideas as I used to be.’ He laughs. ‘You’re making my life difficult.’
I roll my eyes. ‘This is coming from the same guy who used to convince me to let go and take a chance. Now you’re saying you don’t still do crazy shit like force your best friend into a hot-air balloon while you ride the Ferris wheel with your lady, so you can propose in the most over-the-top way possible?’ I laugh thinking about all the ridiculous things he’s done.
‘That was a good day,’ Ben says with a nod. ‘You’ll never top that proposal.’
‘I’m not really in any kind of proposal place yet,’ I say, sipping my beer. ‘Let’s get through this week.’ Ambri was always the one to watch from the sidelines as Ben and I did over-the-top crazy romantic things for our girlfriends. I don’t want her to be on the sidelines of my life anymore. I want her to have these experiences from me.
‘Did you just say yet? You’re not in the proposal place yet?’
I laugh to myself. ‘I guess I did.’ I nod. I’ve never hinted at anything like a proposal with anyone. I guess all the changing I’ve done this week has changed more than I thought it did to even put a hint of that idea somewhere in my head. Or maybe it’s my heart working overtime here?
‘Today is training day, huh? Why are you so nervous?’
‘Because every time I see her the feelings I have for her get even stronger. I’ve never felt this way about my best friend since high school.’
‘I’m not gonna lie…’ Ben pretends to wipe away tears. ‘That hurts.’
‘You’re funny.’ I roll my eyes.
‘Henry?’ I turn towards the voice in time to get a fist to the eye knocking me into Ben, who keeps me standing. I regain my footing, trying to figure out what just happened, only then realizing that it’s Noah. He fucking sucker-punched me?
‘I think she may have told him,’ Ben says with a laugh, jumping in between us.
‘What the fuck was that, Noah? You had to come at me with my back turned?’ I yell, taking a step towards him, as he takes a few steps away from me. I’m bigger than he is, not by much, but if he wants to do this…
‘Are you in love with her?’ he says, pacing the room before stopping in front of me. ‘Admit it. You’re trying to win her over.’
I look over at Ben with a shake of my head, hoping he will keep his mouth shut in this whole thing. I don’t need it worse than it is right now. The whole bar is now watching the two of us, all backed away as if we’re actually going to do the whole ‘physically fighting for her’ thing.
‘Can we talk like grown men?’ I ask, holding my hands up towards him. ‘It doesn’t need to go down like this.’
‘Just answer my question!’
I sigh, dropping my head towards the ground before finally looking back up at him. ‘Fine. Yes. I’m in love with her.’
Noah massages the hand he hit me with, his face scrunched in pain, Ben standing in front of him, his hands on his shoulders. I’m absolutely positive I’m the first guy he’s ever hit. Thanks to Ben’s mouth, this is not the first time I’ve been punched, though it’s been a while.
‘You left her! You missed your chance. Is this what you came back for? To get her back?’
‘No. I didn’t plan this.’
He takes a step towards me, as if he’s gonna hit me again, Ben pulling him back. ‘Come on, Noah. This isn’t how you want to do this.’
‘You don’t deserve her,’ he says, finally starting to calm down.
‘You have no idea how many times I’ve told myself exactly that,’ I say, being completely honest with him.
Noah stares me down, finally tearing himself away from Ben’s hands and heading towards the front door.
‘Noah!’ I yell, making my way towards him. He stops but doesn’t turn towards me. ‘Please don’t hurt her. It’s not her fault. She didn’t even know I was coming back. She hasn’t done anything wrong.’ He shakes his head before he slams the door open, disappearing down the sidewalk.
‘You need some ice?’ the bartender asks when I walk back over to where we were before Noah walked in.
‘Yeah.’ I reach up, touching my eyebrow, squinting at the pain.
‘Oh…’ Ben looks at it. ‘It’s not too bad. But dayumn.’ He laughs. ‘Can you believe that? I didn’t think he had it in him.’
‘Whose side are you on?’ I take the ice, holding it on my eye.
‘Oh, come on, you know I’ve always got your back, but you have been trying to steal his girlfriend. He was bound to be pissed when he finally figured it out.’
‘I don’t want him to hurt her.’ My phone buzzes in my pocket.
Be there in ten.
I breathe a sigh of relief. Ambri. If she’s texting me, she’s OK.
‘I gotta go.’
‘You better watch your back!’ Ben yells through a laugh and me giving him the finger on my way out the door.
I get to the office in record time.
‘Mr Decker. What happened?’ Mel rushes to me, inspecting my eye.
‘I’m fine, Mel. Is she here?’
She nods. ‘In your office. Do you need me to bring you anything?’
I shake my head. ‘If a guy named Noah comes in here, can you not let him in?’ I ask, in case he isn’t finished. The last thing I want to do is fight with him in front of Ambri.
‘Absolutely.’
I make my way down the hall, pulling my phone out of my pocket and using the reverse camera to see exactly how bad my eye looks. Not too terrible, but noticeable. I don’t know how I’ll explain this to her.
‘Hey.’ I walk in, startling her from looking through the photos on the wall.
‘Oh, my God, Henry! What happened?’ She makes her way across the room towards me.
‘It’s nothing. Just got in the middle of something.’ Noah had every right to hit me. I don’t think he’d ever hurt Ambri and I’m not sure if he figured it out on his own or if she told him. Either way, she doesn’t need to know what happened.
‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ She reaches up, running her thumb across my eyebrow and over the knot.
‘I’ll be OK.’ I touch her hand still on my face, my heart racing through my chest. ‘Come on, sit.’ I wave her over to my desk chair, pulling one of the chairs in front of my desk around beside her. ‘OK.’ I sit next to her, her scent settling into every part of my head that is finally clear of cobwebs; she now fills all of them. Every corner. And I don’t even mind.
‘I hope you’re right. I hope this is easy.’
‘It is. Plus, you’re smart. You’ll do great. The admin entry page is already up on the screen and here’s your log in.’ I point to a sticky note attached to the bottom of my monitor. I had to rewrite her username and password at least five times this morning. I couldn’t seem to concentrate enough to not keep messing it up.
I watch her type in her info, the main menu of the backside of her site appearing on the screen in front of us.
‘Whew!’ She runs a hand across her forehead animatedly. ‘Step one successful.’
I laugh. ‘See, you’re already a natural.’
She is. It took a couple tries to work out the kinks but, in the end, she didn’t even need my help once. I spent most of that last hour warding off a headache and convincing myself that she wasn’t intentionally making sure I was close enough to help just in case she needed it.
I couldn’t stop staring at her. I hope she didn’t notice. I can’t get over how gorgeous she is, inside and out. I don’t know how I ever walked away from her before.
‘I don’t know how to thank you.’ She turns to me when she’s done creating the drafts of her content.
‘No need. Actually, and don’t kill me, but I got you something.’ I pull the box from a desk drawer, handing it to her. This bit wasn’t part of my list of plans. I thought of it when I was at the Rose Garden with her the other day when she mentioned wondering if her sister was with her.
She lets out a small laugh. ‘You’re being way too nice to me.’
I shrug. ‘You deserve it. You’ve done a lot for me over the years.’
She looks down at the box, finally pulling the lid off. She stares into the box, scrunching her face into an emotional frown, biting her lip to keep me from seeing her cry.
I pull the bracelet from the box, clasping it around her left wrist. ‘Yours and Rory’s birthstones. The Morse code is the word “sisters”. Now she’s with you, anywhere you go in life.’
Tears finally slide down her face as she stares at it. When she turns my direction and wraps her arms around my neck I stop breathing. I’ve never needed her to do anything more. I wrap my arms around her, pulling her as close to me as I can.
‘It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever given me. Thank you.’ She can hardly get the words out as she says them.
I breathe her in, never wanting to let her go but knowing I have to. For a few moments I hold her, something I’ve dreamed of doing since I did it the last time.
‘I should probably go,’ she says, finally pulling away from me but reaching down and squeezing my hand, allowing her fingers to pull from my own slowly. She grabs her bag from the desk, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket as she heads for the door.
‘Thank you, again. I really love it. I’ll see you at the show.’
‘I’ll be there.’
And just like that she walks away, leaving me without a single doubt that I’ve read her wrong. She feels exactly the same way I do. This concert can’t get here soon enough.