The Brightness Duet: Complete Series Boxset

by Bri Stone

  “What?” I ask her.

  “Your beard tickles sometimes.” She smiles, scratching me with her short nails.

  “You don’t like it?” I grin.

  She shakes her head, “I do. It’s just different.” She moves her hand and looks at her ring. “This is different.”

  “Good different?” The apprehension grips my voice. Honestly since I had gotten there, the words have been lingering on my lips. I want to tell her. I want her to know. But still, I don’t think she deserves it.

  “Yes. Surreal, too. When do you want to get married?”

  I chuckle, “I don’t know, honestly. When the time is right. Whenever you want to.”

  She rolls her eyes, because we both know how good she is at making decisions.

  “Okay. Maybe...I don’t know. When the time is right.”

  Her brow furrows slightly and I know she is thinking about something, but I don’t want to pry and ask what.

  We lay down together and just hold each other for a little bit. Just having her against me is enough to keep me sane, calm. Even if it wasn’t her birthday, I would be just as on the fence about telling her.

  “Thom...”

  “Hmm?” I press my lips to her forehead.

  “Nothing.” She shakes her head, “I’m just so happy you’re here.” She trails her fingers aimlessly across my chest.

  “Me too...I made dinner reservations for us.”

  “Really?” She looks up at me.

  “Yeah, why is that hard to believe?” I laugh once.

  “It’s not, just you know, you don’t know the area.”

  I laugh again. “It’s like going on vacation.”

  She nods. “True. Where are they?”

  “Ma Maison.” I feign my best French accent.

  I picked it because it’s one of her favorite type of foods and had good ratings on Yelp.

  “Ooh, I’m excited.” She gives me a quick peck. “You’re so sweet to me.”

  I watch her bite her lip in an adorable manner.

  “Well, it is your birthday.” I arch my brow.

  She sits up, effectively distracting me with her bare breasts and mussed up hair falling over her shoulders. “Oh, so only on special occasions you’ll be sweet?” She jokes.

  I laugh and pull her down on top of me, covering her face with kisses until she laughs uncontrollably. By the time I get to her lips, the kiss is so short because we’re both out of energy.

  “Whew, okay. I need to shower and put clothes on, so I can call my dad.” She glances at the clock, “oh, we’ve been in bed for like three hours. Get up.” She smacks my thigh as she gets up and goes to her bathroom.

  I sigh but follow her in anyway. She uses the bathroom then gets in the shower pretty fast and after I piss I follow her in.

  “I’ve never showered with a ring on before.” Her voice is muffled as she washes her face.

  I laugh and step under the hot water.

  “Is it different?” I ask her.

  I am glad she is so excited about the official ring. It just has become a thorn in my side, in an odd way.

  “Yes.” She giggles.

  We alternate under the water until we’re both done.

  “Did you decorate?” I stand on one of her blue bathroom mats.

  Between the blue mats, blue towels, and baby’s breath flowers on the sink, it looks just like her bathroom at her family home.

  “Sort of.” She dries off and hangs her towel. I forgot how distracting it really was for me and my dick to be living with her.

  Her bathroom is a good size and I step to one side to dry off. She moisturizes at the other end of the bathroom.

  “You want to lather me up?” I tease her.

  She gives me a subtly sexy look through the mirror and shakes her head but leaves me in there alone. I step back in the bedroom and put my boxers on. Her closet is separate, and I hear her in there.

  “We can watch a movie until we go, the reservations aren’t until eight.” I shout to her.

  “Okay.”

  She emerges in a tiny pair of white shorts and pink tee shirt. Her hair is tossed up into a bun and she just looks gorgeous as ever. Seeing her just makes me smile, and she gives me a funny look.

  “You still look at me like that.” She goes to her dresser and applies chap stick.

  “Like what?”

  “Like...you’ve never seen me before. But like you know every part of me and still accept me, like I’m the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen.” Perrie actually scoffs.

  I stand, “because you are. And I do.” I hug her from behind. She leans against me, closing her arms over mine as I squeeze her.

  “Yeah. I know.”

  WE FIND OURSELVES ON the couch snacking on pears and surfing Netflix for a movie. Perrie has her lap top set up, waiting for her dad’s call. Apparently, he is crossing time zones and should be in the US soon.

  Just as we decide on reruns of Supernatural because we know we will probably fall asleep, her Skype goes off.

  “Happy birthday!” Scott exclaims.

  I can’t tell where he is or what he has on because the lighting is bad, but his face looks the same as it has the last time I saw him. “Oh, Thom, I didn’t know you would be there.” He greets me with a smile.

  “Yeah, I wanted to spend the weekend with Perrier.” I smile at him.

  “Oh, how nice. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

  I feel Perrie blushing, and I turn to laugh at her. Though she looks just as mortified as I thought she would.

  “Dad, stop...” she hides her face in her hands.

  “Well, do you have any plans?” He cracks his neck.

  “I made dinner reservations. But other than that, not much.” I tell him.

  “Well, alright then...Perrie, baby girl, you have something to tell me?” Scott notices Perrie’s ring.

  She clears her throat and hides her hand under her right, while I mentally kick myself. Scott knew because I had asked him, but not when I would ask her.

  “Oh, um...so we’re engaged. Well, he proposed a few months ago, but he gave me the ring today for my birthday.” Perrie explains in her sordid voice.

  She isn’t afraid of her father or anything like that, but I know she doesn’t like to blind side people. Or be personal with people, even her dad.

  “Oh shit. I’m happy for you,” his eyes fleet to mine, “for both of you. Does Clem know?”

  I look to Perrie. She answers, “yeah, I told her and Melinda. I didn’t really know where you were, and I didn’t want to bother you...” she trails off.

  “Uh huh. Old man got left behind again.” He scratches his scruffy red beard.

  “Sorry, I should have told you too.” I tell him.

  He shakes his head, shrugs his shoulders, “no worries. This is good, I’m happy for you both. But you’re not pregnant, are you?” He looks to Perrie.

  “No, dad. We haven’t seen each other in months.” She manages a laugh.

  “Just checking you weren’t trapping him or anything.”

  We both laugh.

  “Well,” he sighs, “happy birthday, baby girl. I love you.”

  “I love you too, daddy. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Yep. Bye Thom, I don’t love you yet.”

  I laugh as he hangs up. Perrie hugs me closer as we fall back onto the couch.

  “You miss your dad?” I notice after she is silent for a whole episode.

  “Yeah. More so than normal. I didn’t see him last Christmas. Or Thanksgiving. I should call him more, it’s just...”

  I nod in understanding. “I know it’s hard. But he’s proud of you, and he knows you miss him.”

  “Yeah.” She sighs.

  We settle in for another episode and sure enough, we both end up dozing off.

  Chapter Sixteen: Perrie

  What does one wear to their birthday and engagement dinner?

  It might be easier to decide if I stop thinking of it t
hat way. I shuffle through my small collection of dresses and settle on a nice red number. It gives me sultry vibes, but it is my favorite dress. Also, it might be the only one to fit at this point.

  Thom has already finished getting dressed and is sitting in the living room. I tried not to notice how off things were with him since he got here. He is mostly here, but something is gnawing at him and I just don’t know what it is. I am so paranoid about the news I have for him, that I think he must have found out somehow.

  Either way, I am afraid to ask him.

  I lay my dress and black heels out and put on one of my robes to fix my hair and makeup. Makeup went fine, but my hair is...ugh. I decided to slick it back into a nice ponytail and go with that, and painted my lips red, watching my ring shine under the light as I did so. The band is just so simple yet elegant, and the love knot style diamond is unique and thoughtful. It matches my necklace perfectly. I imagine wearing it on my necklace while I do a tops or am working.

  I slip my dress and heels on, then meet Thom in the living room for help with the buttons. They’re old fashioned drop buttons.

  “Can you help?”

  He looks up at me, eyes wide like he has never seen me before. He truly does look at me like I am a rare gem. He makes me feel like one.

  “Yeah...baby, you look amazing.” He saunters over to me in his khakis and blue oxford shirt.

  His masculine scent, the deep cinnamon and sweet pine surrounds me, and as he kisses me I still get that trace of mint from his lips. I shiver as his fingers brush against my bare back, and he kisses my shoulder once he does the buttons up.

  “Thanks. You look good too, stud.”

  He grins at my nickname for him.

  “Let’s go.”

  THE AMBIANCE OF THE restaurant is as romantic and cozy as I imagined. We have a nice round table in a corner of the restaurant, where the dim lights might as well be night lights, but it’s perfect. It reminds me a lot of our first date, but so much has happened since then.

  We start with iced tea, and a starter plate of oysters. I was never much for them, but Thom guides me through it.

  “A lot of Stan’s charity events were upscale and boring, but they had good food.” Thom says, when I ask him how he knows how to eat oysters.

  The texture is weird, and I don’t like how it slides down my throat, but I eat them just to not make a fuss.

  “You don’t like it.” Thom nudges my knee with his own. I giggle and shake my head.

  When the waiter returns, Thom orders us a lobster bisque to share and we take our time deciding what to get. I stare at Thom, mostly still processing him being here, but also appreciating his presence. Something I always did since I first met him; all those nights studying together, being friends, and then being together.

  He takes my hand in his and traces small circles on my inner wrist. “You’ve been wanting to tell me something.” The deep ridge of his brow arches. It’s the only place I can tell he is getting older. His brows have formed a deep ridge, and he has semi-permanent frown lines on his forehead, and wrinkles around his eyes when he smiles. Besides that, he still looks the same.

  “Yes. But I want to wait until after dinner.” I swallow.

  I want to tell him, and I know I need to. But I am just so afraid of how it will affect us, and what he might say. I know he always supports me, no matter what. Sometimes those lines get blurred though, between what ‘no matter what’ can excuse.

  “Okay.” He smiles, but I see the strain.

  I clear my throat and change the subject. “Tell me more about your friends. And work. I want to know everything.” I brush against his knee. Whenever we talk, he kind of glazes over them. I am also not very good at remembering names or people.

  His smirk is light hearted and just before he starts, the waiter returns, and we order the same thing, grilled sword fish with lobster.

  “You met Staci, she chose neuro for her specialty.”

  I nod. I wasn’t going to lie and say I wasn’t suspicious that night I saw her with Thom when I surprised him, but I knew he was never capable of anything like that, not to me. But I had only heard of them in passing and never much in detail.

  “She also does a bit of research with the lab, so that keeps her busy. We’re friends; I’m good friends with all of them.”

  I sip my drink.

  “And she even comes to me for advice with her guy problems.” He laughs.

  “Really? That’s sweet.” I smile, knowing he is pretty good at giving advice to anyone.

  “Maybe. I don’t want to say the wrong thing, but she is really nice though. Our first year, she was everyone’s favorite.”

  “I bet that made everyone mad.” I giggle.

  He sighs and grins at me, “yeah, especially Maci. She’s in cardio as well. Maci mostly did surgeries with the chief. Honestly, she’s a spit fire, but it suits her. We agreed nothing was personal when we were gunning for the same surgeries, she left a few weeks ago, but I think she is coming back.”

  I laugh. “There’s three guys, right?” I remember that at least. It’s their names that escape me.

  “Yeah, David, Steve, and Brock. We were all shocked when Brock went with pediatrics, but it kind of suits him, because he can be really childish, but it just makes him better at relating to them. David does neonatal surgery, so I don’t see much of him anymore, since he is with a different department most of the time. Steve chose general surgery.” Thom explains.

  “I think you told me about that...so there are no juicy details? No one is sleeping together?” I giggle, and Thom gives me a funny look, but laughs.

  “It isn’t Grey’s Anatomy, Sparks.” He jokes.

  “Oh, come on.” I make a poker face.

  Our food arrives, and he doesn’t answer me until we are halfway through. It’s delicious, and eating it makes me really feel like we’re in France, in this cute little restaurant.

  “Maci and Brock had a thing for a while, but she left in July for a program in Baghdad, it was part of her residency, so it didn’t set her back. And she hasn’t come back yet, I don’t know if she is. But her and Brock have barely spoken. I don’t know what’s going on with them.”

  Thom genuinely looks concerned, and it somehow makes me glad to know he has good friends there. A real circle of people that care about each other. My program is nothing like that, only because there were only two of us. Plus, neither of us are that social. Well, Marcus wants to go out with me and has only recently accepted my unavailability.

  “You don’t want to ask?” I say gingerly.

  I finish my entire plate of food, because it was that good, and lean back so I don’t bust out of my dress.

  Thom laughs and pats my belly. “I don’t know if I want to know. I care, but I’m not prepared for extra drama.” He rakes his fingers over my belly and then rests his hand on my hip.

  “Makes sense.” I drink the rest of my tea. Even that is spectacular.

  “Do you want dessert, birthday girl?” He wiggles his brows.

  “Sure. I have to use the restroom though, order whatever.”

  He kisses the back of my head before I excuse myself. I knew the bathroom would be swank too, and clean. Once I finished and washed my hands, I touched up my lip stick and blotted my oily spots. I admired my ring for a good while before I headed back, after I was interrupted by a woman eyeing me like I was crazy. I suppose I looked it, staring down at a ring.

  The closer I got to the table, the easier it was to see the huge piece of cherry topped cheesecake and three candles inside it. Thom smiled at me and stood as I got closer.

  “Happy birthday, Perrier.” He slid his hands around my hips and kissed me once, before kissing me again, but deeper; though still respectable enough for public.

  “Thank you. You really shouldn’t have.” I beam at him as I sit down.

  “I wanted to.”

  I shake my head, but greedily go for the cheesecake. It’s perfect and creamy and sweet but I know i
t only tastes this good because it was from him, and so thoughtful. We shared it, because it was quite a big piece.

  “Thank you.” I kiss his cheek and wipe away my lip stick residue as he smiles.

  “You’re welcome.” He kisses me, lightly swiping his tongue over mine and I sigh as I taste the sweetness on his tongue.

  I run my thumb over his bearded jaw as I pull away. “I love you.” I whisper, pressing my forehead to his as my eyes remain closed.

  I don’t have to see him to know he smiles, and that he has opened his eyes to look at me as we separate. We create our own bubble, our own safety net that no one can see but us. Only we can feel it, understand it, live in it. No matter where we are, or how far apart we get, it will always be there. For three years now we have been apart, thousands of miles away from each other. I didn’t even think I could make it past the first month, now we are finishing the third year. The safety that we created just by loving each other gives me the strength to tell him what I have been hiding, what I have been so afraid to acknowledge.

  “I’ve been offered a spot in a clinical pathology certification program in Paris to finish out my residency.” I swallow. “And I already accepted it.”

  Chapter Seventeen: Perrie

  Thom just stares at me for a good few moments. The thick heat of the moment is only relieved by the waiter bringing the check, neither of us acknowledge it siting on the table.

  I swallow a heavy lump in my throat, breathing sharply through my nose.

  Thom seems to be doing the same, and I know—god, I know how hard it is for him to swallow everything else down and tell me, “that’s amazing. I’m so proud of you. This is a big deal...you’ll be world class.”

  I let out an uneasy breath, “Yeah, I will be.”

  He nods slowly and moves to get his wallet from his pocket. He puts his card in the black folder and clears his throat. I sit back in my chair, fidgeting with my fingers. I expected much more of a backlash from him. For him to at least be mad and annoyed with me for keeping something from him yet again. I saw the conflict unfolding in his eyes, and I didn’t expect him to fall on the other end of it.

  By the time the check is paid I am a flurry of questions, and I’m sure he is too. We rise from our seats, and he puts my cardigan on for me, then takes my hand as he leads me out the door. We make it a block before I practically lose it.