Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and, more importantly, Louisa’s thirty-fifth birthday. Lulu and I have spent a lot of time together over the last couple of months, but our time together this week has felt different. Perhaps it’s because it’s been just the two of us for the most part. Despite my best efforts to orchestrate time alone with her—giving her a lift somewhere, stopping by her apartment with something, that sort of thing—we rarely get time alone without the rest of our friends.
Her birthday bucket list has united us and given me the perfect excuse to spend as much time with her as possible and make her see how much I care for her. I had no intention of revealing my feelings for her last night, but I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. I was afraid she’d feel trapped with me or it would make things awkward between us, especially if I’d been reading her wrong all these weeks and she didn’t return my feelings.
She does, though. And that conversation led to her opening up in ways I never expected. Now I just need to be patient. Luckily, that’s one of my strong suits. I remind myself of that fact as I think of how badly I wanted to kiss Louisa last night while we were dancing under a blanket of makeshift stars. Or how it felt to fall asleep next to her and wake up in our side-by-side sleeping bags and see the soft, sleepy smile on her face when our eyes locked. Or the long, tight embrace we shared when I dropped her off this morning.
Today I plan to help Louisa accomplish one more thing from her list. My desire to help her was never really about ticking items off a list, although I’ve enjoyed the light in her eyes with each surprise and each item she crosses off. It’s about so much more than that, though. Louisa thinks her anxiety paired with her lack of relationship experience are impediments, but they’re just small parts of a beautiful whole. She’s capable of so much more than she realizes, and if she needs a bit of help once in a while, well, who doesn’t? There’s no shame in that.
“Two Scots in an Irish pub,” Hugh says, clapping me on the back as we leave the back room of Connelly’s Pub. “I feel like there’s a joke in there somewhere.”
Hugh and I have just spent the last hour setting everything up for Louisa’s final pre-birthday surprise. As with the other items on the list, I’ve had to get creative for this one, and I think Lulu will appreciate it. I might not be able to help her cross off every item before midnight tomorrow, but after tonight, I hope Louisa will truly believe I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help make her dreams come true, now and in the future.
“I don’t know any jokes, but how about you let me buy you lunch as thanks for your help?”
“I’m not one to turn down a free lunch,” Hugh says, which makes me laugh since the man is easily a multi-millionaire.
“How about time with your favorite cousin?”
“Aye, I guess that’s all right too,” he says, chuckling when I jam my elbow into his side.
We sit and order two of the fish and chips lunch special, along with two pints of beer. When our drinks arrive, Hugh clinks his glass against mine.
“To spending time with my favorite cousin,” he says, then takes a long drink. “I’m glad I convinced you to move to Bellevue. I knew you’d be an asset to the MacKinnon Group and that you were wasting your talent at that agency back home.”
When I left Edinburgh and moved back to Callander to take care of my mum, I also left a good job at an advertising agency. I found a part-time office job in Callander that allowed me to spend the bulk of my time at home with my mother while still bringing in an income. I stuck with the job for a few months after my mum died because I didn’t know what else to do, nor did I particularly care. Since moving to Bellevue, I’ve excelled in my job in fundraising and community relations. I get to work with people directly rather than spending my days in a stuffy office, and it feels good to know I’m part of an enterprise that truly cares about and helps people.
“I owe you a debt of gratitude for pulling me out of the muck of my own grief and bringing me over here,” I tell Hugh.
“You owe me nothing, Fergus.” He sits back in his seat and thanks the waitress who drops off our food. When she’s gone, he leans forward and repeats, “Nothing. That’s what we do for the ones we love. I’ve been there, I know that muck well. You’re here now and you seem to be thriving in more ways than one.”
A brief silence falls as we pass the vinegar and ketchup back and forth and then tuck into our food. “We need to do this more often,” Hugh says. “Just the two of us, but the four of us as well. Ivy would love another couple to double date with.”
“Louisa and I aren’t a couple yet,” I point out.
“Yet being the key word, my friend,” Hugh says confidently. “I saw the way she looked at you in the café the other day. Just from those few minutes with her, I could tell she’s special. You wouldn’t be pulling all these rabbits out of your hat if she wasn’t.”
“Louisa certainly is special.” That’s an understatement. When I first met her, I wondered if I was drawn to her because of some misguided savior complex. I couldn’t reach my mum in a lot of ways, couldn’t help her, couldn’t save her. It didn’t take long for me to understand it was different with Louisa. She doesn’t want or need to be fixed or saved. I do my best to be there for her, support her, and bolster her, but she was strong on her own before I even came into the picture, and she’s grown stronger before my eyes over the last couple of months.
So yes, ‘special’ is an understatement. Louisa Henshaw is incredible.
After lunch, Hugh and I walk out to the parking lot of Connelly’s together. “You and Ivy will drop by tonight for a bit, right?” I ask.
“Wouldn’t miss it.” Hugh grips my shoulder and pulls me in for a hug. “Ivy can barely contain her excitement. She said it’s something she needs to see to believe.”
I laugh, holding on an extra beat. Hugh doesn’t seem to mind; he even pats me on the back as if he understands. When I moved to Bellevue, I never imagined I’d walk into a ready-made family of sorts: my cousin and his wife, and, thanks to Hollie, her group of friends, including Louisa. Moving here changed my life for the better. And if I’m lucky, tonight will bring even more change.