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ELIZABETH
The time was going so fast. I worked as hard as I could and I still wasn’t sure I’d make the deadline.
I didn’t want to tell him. Every night I had nightmares that I was walking the streets of San Francisco, homeless and alone.
Saturday after the market I planned on being honest with him. I wanted to work. I had a way planned to tell him the truth, like I had been doing it as a surprise for him the entire time, instead of being something I’d hidden from him.
We walked together to the market place, with multiple booths set up according to what their artist or vendor offered. We passed booths with fresh vegetables, one with raw local honey, another had wood products, and another had bird houses made from gourds.
Tyler reached out awkwardly and took my hand in his. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good at this. I don’t usually do relationships. I’m the weekend dater and I never see the women again.”
I tugged him closer to me, bumping him with my shoulder and leaning my head on his arm. “I think you’re perfectly awesome at this. I’ve never been a relationship girl either. I think you’re doing amazing.”
About ten booths down, Ronald’s Berry Booth stocked with jars of jams and jellies and bags filled with dried fruit.
Labels reading Ronald’s Berries had been plastered on jars with multicolored ribbons wrapped around their necks.
Ronald wore a green and red plaid apron and smiled as we approached him. “It’s the Mannings. So nice to see you guys here. Thanks for coming down.”
I warmly reached out and hugged my friend. Stepping back, I motioned between the two men. “Tyler, you know Ronald. He’s been your neighbor forever.”
“Yes, it’s nice to meet you again. This is a beautiful display that you’re offering here.” He wasn’t shy and as he spoke to Ronald I couldn’t help focusing on how delicious he looked in his long sleeve button-up shirt over black slacks.
Ronald snagged my attention. “You must be so proud of Lizzie here, she’s a hard worker.” He shook Tyler’s hand and smiled at us both.
My smile hardened on my face and I shot a warning glance at Ronald. He didn’t know Tyler didn’t know what was going on, and why would he think I wouldn’t tell my husband? But I hadn’t.
Oh, snow flurries, the truth was catching up to me faster than I wanted it to. I needed Tyler to find out from me, the way I wanted to tell him, not the way the world was just determined to expose my truths to him.
“Of course, any reason in particular?” Tyler shot a quizzical glance between me and Ronald and released his neighbor’s hand to stand closer to me.
“No, none. I haven’t done anything spectacular.” I shot a few more warning glances at Ronald who obviously didn’t get the messages as he furrowed his brow at me. I shook my head and tugged on Tyler’s sleeve. “Let’s go look at the baskets.”
We went to the next booth filled with hand woven baskets and hand-dyed ribbons.
Tyler looked at me quizzically. “We forgot to buy some stuff from Ronald. Come on, let’s go back and finish what we started.” Tyler went back to Ronald’s booth and I’d somehow been pulled into a strange game of tug-of-war.
Ronald was handing out a card to a man and a woman he was speaking with. We came up and caught the tail end of his conversation. “The House Doctor is the best repair person I’ve ever met. She seems to stick to a really good schedule and she employs local laborers. She also offers a really fair deal. Go ahead and call her. She’ll see if she can fit you in.” The couple walked away, taking the card that Ronald offered them.
“You know the House Doctor, too? She’s working on my house, right now. Amazing woman.” Tyler glanced at me with a pointed look and then glanced back at Ronald.
“Yeah, she’s my neighbor.” Ronald laughed, facing us.
I was horrified and had no way to get myself out of the hole I had dug for me. “I, um, well, yeah, she’s been working at the house...” I didn’t know what to do as a flush covered my body and I broke out in a slight sweat. Any minute he was going to know and then he’d hate me.
How long could I hold onto his affection?
“Can I see one of those cards? I never got one when she was working for me.” He reached out. As if in slow motion he pulled the card into his fingers and turned it so he could read it.
I could jump him, tackle him and take the card or I could run around screaming and try to divert his attention by throwing my shoes.
Instead, I bit my lip and watched as he read the entire card – including my name at the bottom.
He didn’t flinch or look at me. He had to be mad at me. I was mad at me.
Tapping at the logo in the corner of the cloud, he said to me while looking at Ronald as if they were the best of friends, “I’m glad you went with the blue logo. The black was a little austere for me.”
I stopped breathing for a second. “How did you know I couldn’t decide between logo colors? What is going on? Why aren’t you mad? I’ve been hiding this from you...”
We faced each other. Ronald and the rest of the market faded away around us.
He spoke fervently in a low voice meant only for me. “You came to me and I didn’t treat you right. You had every right to protect yourself. You had no obligation to tell me about anything you’re doing. I was a little irritated at first when I figured it out, but... I don’t blame you. I was actually having a little bit of fun trying to see what would trip you up and what you would do to try to cover your tracks.” He reached up and brushed the hair off my cheek.
“I’m proud of you. I do hope you’ll decide to stay with me. I hope from now on you’ll feel comfortable and safe enough to tell me everything that you’re doing.” He studied me and lifted his fingers up to cradle my face in his hands. “I trust you. The only reason you lied to me was to protect yourself. I’ve been there, and I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to worry about having to protect myself from you or losing myself to you. I’m already lost.”
He pulled out a small box from his pocket and I gasped. He slowly lifted it and pried open the black lid. “I’ve been carrying this thing around and I can’t think of a better time to tell you. I love you. Clicking ‘I do’ may have been the answer to a bet but it was the best thing I ever did.”
The weight from the couple months lifted from my shoulders and made me blink back tears. “I didn’t know you knew. I’m not a good liar, I never have been. This has been hard. I didn’t want to lie to you. I don’t even have any excuses. I’m so sorry.” But he knew why I did it. He accepted it. I had to accept it for myself. “I’m so relieved. I don’t want to hide things from you.” I glanced up, and bit my lip.
“Oh, thank heaven, I thought I had ruined everything.” Ronald cut into our romantic moment. “Here, take a jam and some bread and go do something. Go be lovey-dovey somewhere, you two are making me wish I was married.” The smile on his face encouraged us.
“Do you want to go work on us?” Tyler looked into my eyes, captivating me yet again.
“I can’t think of anything better to fix.” My heart beat for him and I’d probably never be normal again.
~~~
FOUR MONTHS LATER
Tyler leaned in and kissed my lips. He took my tool belt and walked with me up the steps to the house. “Babe, you’ve got a meeting in the living room with your next client. I have tea set up in there for you. Long day?”
“Yes. Don’t get me wrong, putting in that skylight has been extremely awesome. I just finished it. Can you make sure and contact Mr. Tymm and send an invoice for the remainder of the payment please? He promised to pay us by the end of the week but I just wanted him to have a reminder.” Working with my husband actually made it enjoyable.
We were almost done with our six months and it felt like we’d been together forever. I loved my part of the job and he was really good at what he did, putting his managing and marketing experience to work and combining it with my skills.
Slowly, we were going to take over the entire West Coast. Alright, that was being optimistically crazy, but we were definitely going to make an impact.
I rubbed my neck when I walked through the door. He placed a kiss to the crook of my neck. I turned, catching his lips with mine. “Thanks, maybe we could do spaghetti tonight? I could cook?” I shot him a coy smile and he responded with a soft swat to my rear end.
Giggling, I grabbed the clipboard from the table before going into the living room. I studied the clipboard and I couldn’t read the writing while I walked.
I stopped at the end of the couch and looked up. And almost choked. “Alex.”
My best-friend stood awkwardly from the plush couch and had a hand to the roundness of her stomach. “Alright, I need you to build something that will hold this stomach for me.” She winked, holding out her arms.
I couldn’t contain my tears and I wept, throwing myself in her familiar arms.
She sniffed. “You don’t cry. What’s wrong with you?”
“I do when I’m so happy I can’t keep it in.” I kissed her cheek and pulled back. “Look at you! I missed you so much.”
She glanced over my shoulder and I turned. A man I recognized as Jeremy Akers, the one that I had chosen for her to match with, stood in the doorway next to my husband. I glanced back at Alex. “Who knew ClickandWed could make us so happy?”
“Are you happy?” She winked at me, rubbing the roundness of her stomach.
“Blissfully.” And that was the full truth and nothing but the truth. Great, now I needed to come up with my own vows.
