by Lucia Jordan
"Wait. What?" My head was spinning. "Did you agree to do something for her if she dropped the charges?" All I could think of was that Chelsea had blackmailed Tim into promising some sort of sexual favors in exchange for dropping the charges against me. I would rather sit in that cell than have that agreement struck.
"No. I agreed not to press sexual harassment charges against her if she dropped the assault charges against you. She forgot that I have pictures to prove my claims against her and more than enough money to run her dry in the courts. She very quickly agreed to the mutual resolution."
"Oh, wow," I said with a huge smile. "That was actually pretty brilliant."
"Thanks," he grinned.
"But the bail money isn't mine; if she's going to pay for it, then she should be giving it to you."
"Nope, I don't need it. I'll just give it to Kate for you then."
"Thank you," I said gratefully. I really owed him a lot.
"As far as the job situation, I fixed that, too."
"How?"
"I let your manager know that you were acting in self-defense and that Chelsea had dropped all of the charges against you. I also told him that if he didn't give you your job back that I would see him in court for failing to uphold a safe work environment for his employees. Did you know that he hasn't installed the required security cameras in that shop for years, even after being cited for it several times?"
I laughed. "Yeah, actually, I did know that. Wow, you really took care of everything, didn't you? Thank you."
"No problem. Although you know that your job at Cubed is still there if you want it, too. And Max and I would really like you to come back for good this time. Maybe even for a marketing director position instead of an assistant?"
That was an amazing job offer.
"Can I think about it?" I asked.
"Yes, of course."
He walked over to me with his cotton joggers on and his bare chest and kissed me. It felt like heaven, the kind of heaven that I wanted to live in every day of my life.
"Can I ask you something?" I said after our kiss.
"Yes, always."
"What is it that you want to have happened between us?" I asked.
"That's a big question," he said. He was right; it was.
"You don't have to answer it if you don't want to," I said, feeling like I was trying to force something that he wasn't ready to discuss.
"No, I want to answer it. It's just that—"
His phone rang, and I was expecting him to silence it since we were in the middle of a deep conversation. But when he looked at it, his face lit up, and he said he had to step out and take the call.
I don't know why I was always second-guessing him, and myself, instead of just realizing that it was probably an important work call that needed to be addressed. But then I remembered that it was a Saturday, so it shouldn't have been work calling at all.
I went over to the side door and pressed my ear up against the wood to try to hear what he was saying. I was hoping that the call was on speakerphone so that it would be obvious who was on the other end, but it wasn't.
"No, she has no idea," Tim said. "Are you sure it's all done?"
I pressed my ear tighter to the wood and squeezed my eyelids shut as if that would somehow help me hear what was being said better.
"Okay, but not a word about it to anyone. Yeah, I realize that's going to totally blow up in my face, but I’ll deal with it afterward. This is the most important thing right now. Well, I'm not really sure about that. She wants to leave, I think, but I'm going to try to keep her here. How many more hours do you need?"
I definitely knew that he was talking about me. There was no one else here besides the two of us. Now I really was starting to feel a bit like a prisoner.
I heard footsteps coming closer to the door, so I quickly backed away and hopped onto the couch to pretend that I'd been sitting there, waiting the whole time.
"Okay, sorry about that," he said as he came back in.
"No problem, who was it?"
"Just Max, but he had an important work question."
"On a Saturday?"
Max never worked on the weekends. I knew Tim was lying.
"Oh yeah, he's really into this Spokane project, so he's going above and beyond. What was it that you and I were talking about before the phone call?"
I knew he was lying, and now he was just trying to change the subject.
"It wasn't important," I said.
"Yes it—"
"I'd like to go get my car now, please," I interrupted.
"I thought maybe you could stay a little while longer, and we could have breakfast together."
"No, thank you. I really need to get back and take care of some things. Besides, Kate is probably worried about me."
"She's not. I already texted her to let her know that you were here with me."
Whatever reason he had for wanting to keep me here, it must have been a big one because he was really covering all the bases. It was starting to make me really uncomfortable.
"How about some coffee, at least?" he said.
I actually could use some caffeine. "Sure."
We both stood by the coffee pot as it brewed. Tim reached out to touch my hand and lift it to his chest. Then he pulled me in closer to him so that I could rest my head against his shoulder as he held me.
"I remember what we were talking about now," he said, and I could hear his voice vibrate against my ear that was pressed just over his heart. "You wanted to know how I wanted things to work out between us."
"You don't need to answer that," I said. At this point, I wasn't sure what to think about any of it.
"I want to," he said.
"I would like you to come back to Cubed and take on the new role of marketing director. When we got back to Spokane to present the final completed project, I would like you to come with Max and me, and I would like you to move out of Kate's crappy little apartment, no offense, I love Kate, and move in with me instead."
"What?" I whispered.
But he wasn't finished. "I would like for us to stay out of jail and stay away from crazy seductresses."
I laughed at that part because it sounded too ludicrously funny to be true, even though it was.
"And I would like us to make love under the stars again, in the snow."
"In the snow?"
"Yep. With blankets and maybe some bourbon to help warm the insides. But beneath the falling snow so that the cold, tiny kisses of snowflakes will burst against the burning heat of our bodies."
"That all sounds amazing," I said.
"Does that mean you'll move in with me?" he asked.
"It means I want to," I answered honestly.
"Then what's stopping you?"
I kind of felt like I was in grade school again and was waiting for the boy to send back the note that said he loved me.
"Have you ever asked anyone else to move in with you?" I asked.
"No."
"Not another single person in your whole life?"
"No," he answered. "Not even, Max."
I laughed.
"What's so funny about that?" he asked. "Max would make an awesome roommate. I just preferred to be alone. Until I found you, anyways."
His phone rang again, and he took the call and left again.
Okay, it was getting a little weird now. I needed to get back to my car and get back to Kate's apartment, and then I would think about all of the things that he had said. I grabbed my phone and wallet and keys, which was all that I had with me here, and stood by the front door to wait for him to get off of his phone call so that we could leave.
He was only outside for a minute or two this time before he came back in again. He looked at me, standing near the door.
"I'd like to go now, please," I said.
"I thought we were going to have coffee first."
"Yeah, I changed my mind. I really do need to get back and take care of some things, so I'd like to go now."
"Yeah sure, of course," he said. "Let me just take a quick shower, and you can hang out for a bit, and then we'll go."
He was stalling. Why was he stalling?
"Tim, I'd like to go now."
"I don't want you to leave yet," he said as he walked toward me, and I started to get creeped out. "Just stay for a little while longer. It won't take long, just give me a few minutes, please."
"What won't take long?" I asked.
Tim looked as though he'd caught himself saying something that he shouldn't have. "Nothing. Just stay for a few more minutes, please."
"No," I said as I reached for the front door.
Tim shocked me by lunging in front of me and putting his back against the door so that I couldn't open it.
"What are you doing?" I asked. Worry started to coat my voice. "Why are you blocking the door. You’re freaking me out, Tim."
"It's a surprise," he said. "It just needs a few more minutes.
"No, I don't care about whatever surprise you have. Let me out!" I could see a look of slight panic in his eyes. I didn’t think he meant to scare me, and he realized that he was.
"Brooke, there's nothing wrong, I swear it. There's nothing for you to worry about; it's just that I've been working on a surprise for you, and It's not quite ready for you to see yet."
"Enough with this surprise, bullshit!" I screamed. "Let me out!"
Tim looked hurt and defeated. I immediately felt bad for screaming at him, but in my defense, he was acting all sorts of weird. He moved away from the door slowly and stood to the side of it. He was still bare-chested in his gray cotton joggers, and he handed me his keys so that if I really wanted to get in his car and drive away, I could. He had others.
"Thank you," I said as I took the keys. "I'm sorry that I yelled."
"It's okay," he said. "I understand why you would feel confused and upset. I haven't been able to tell you what I've been working on, but it really has all been for you. You'll see."
"Okay," I said.
Tim still sounded a little crazy to me, though, so I just wanted to get out of here and go home.
"I'm going to think about what we talked about, and I'll call you later tonight, okay?"
"Sure," he said. He kept eyeing the door as if something were going to be standing outside of it when I opened it, and that made me a bit nervous. But when I opened the door, there was nothing unusual, just a picturesque view of the mountains. Tim followed closely behind me as I stepped outside into the cool air. I pulled my shirt around me and looked back at him to see that he didn't seem to mind being bare-chested and barefoot. Tim had a nervous and excited look on his face, and I was just ready to stop being confused about what secretive things were going on with him. I looked around to try and see where he had parked the car since it had been dark outside when we had gotten here last night. When I looked to the left of the house, I saw something there, but it wasn't the car.
"Is that another house?" I asked him as I walked farther out to get a good look at it.
Max was standing on the front steps to the container home. "Hi, Brooke," he smiled.
23
Chapter Seventeen (Tim)
It wasn't exactly the way that I had wanted Brooke to find out about her surprise. I was hoping to have some big, grandiose moment that led up to the huge reveal. At the very least, I would have liked to have time to put on a shirt so that I didn't freeze out here. But it had to happen now, or she was going to leave, and I didn't know if I'd be able to get her to come back.
She stopped for a minute and looked confused. She turned her head back and forth between Max and me, and then between the container home and the car. It looked like she was trying to make several decisions at once. I walked over toward her and closer to Max; he had a thick flannel on over the top of his shirt, which he tossed to me.
"Thanks, man," I said.
He nodded at me and smiled. I thought he was really excited about this, too.
"Whose house is this?" Brooke asked. "It wasn't here the last time I was here. Max, is this your house?"
"Nope," he grinned. "I live in my van, remember? I like to be able to move around."
She turned to look back toward me. "Are you adding on another addition to your house?" she asked me.
"Possibly in the future," I said. "But, this container home isn't for me."
"Then who is it for?"
I held out my hand for her to take, which after a moment of pause, she did. I walked her up onto the steps that Max had built at the literal last minute, and he stepped out of the way for her as he pushed open the door and motioned for her to go inside. Even I hadn't seen the very final finishing touches that Max had added within the last twenty-four hours after I had emergency texted him about needing it to be ready now.
When Brooke stepped inside, there was no mistaking the fact that it was quite literally her own, personal, utopian sanctuary. She stood at the entrance and put her hand over her mouth in astonishment. Her eyes darted from each detail in each corner of the space as I walked in right behind her and started to tell her about all of the times that I listened to her every word and how we tried to put it all together in this beautiful space of her own.
"Remember when you told me about how you would have the bedding be violet and moss green? I asked. "Well, it turns out moss green is an actual color, who knew? So that's what the color scheme is, and it matches all the bedding just like you wanted."
Max came in behind us and sat down on the sofa to listen and watch Brooke's reaction.
"You told me all about the stars and the constellations that you loved, so Max installed this curved glass skylight," I said as I pointed above us. "It also magnifies the stars at night just like mine does so that you can feel like you're sleeping among the constellations."
She took a few steps in and looked around as her eyes started to water, and her mouth still hung open in amazement.
"The stained-glass door was a pain in the ass to make," I said. I heard Max chuckle from the couch as he nodded in agreement. "But it turned out great, and it has bumblebees because of that one time that you mentioned bumblebees were your favorite animal and that guy from sales in word tried to argue with you about it not being an animal since bumblebees were insects and you just laughed at him. He was right, you know, but it didn't matter because you already knew that. You were cute, and he didn't get it."
"You remembered that?" she asked. "But that was months ago before we were even dating."
"Yep," I nodded. "I know."
"We put in all pale-colored wood so that it would seem open and filled with natural light and not claustrophobic," Max added. "Because you said you didn't want to feel closed-in when we had that meeting."
She nodded and remembered that meeting that the three of us were in. Brooke walked toward the little kitchen area and looked out the window above the sink. There was something special sitting there on the windowsill for her.
"Is this my violet?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Yep," I said, smiling. I was super pleased with all of the details that I had remembered to include.
"How did you get it?" she asked. "It was in my room at the apartment."
"Kate gave it to me to bring here," I said.
"This is amazing," she said. "It's beyond amazing. I can't believe that you heard and remembered all of those small things that I said. I can't believe that you found a way to bring them all to live here for me. But why did you do this? Is this what you've been busy working on this whole time instead of the Spokane project?"
"Yes," I answered.
"Why did you do this for me?"
Max looked at me as Brooke waited for me to answer her. This was it. This was the moment that I had been waiting for, the moment that I needed to give to her.
"Brooke, listen to me," I said carefully and clearly. "What you didn't see at that photo shoot with Chelsea, is that as soon as it happened, I shut the whole thing down. And what you didn't know is that the reason I sh
ut it down was the same reason that you punched Chelsea in the face."
"You punched that woman in the face?" Max interrupted as he laughed boisterously. "Damn, that's so great! Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
Brooke and I both took a second to chuckle at his reaction.
"I don't understand," she said. "What do you mean it was the same reason?"
"You wanted to punch her in the face because you couldn't bear the thought of anyone touching me because you felt like I belonged to you. Am I right?"
She hesitated.
"Please, tell me," I urged.
"Yeah," she said timidly. "You're right."
"That's the same reason that I shut the photo shoot down, and it's the same reason that I risked stepping away from the Spokane project so that I could devote time to work on this home with Max to give to you. It's because I feel like I belong to you too. I feel like we belong to each other, and I swear to you that I have never felt that way about anyone else, and I never will. You and I are meant to be together. I need to be able to show you that, not just in words but in an effort, and time, and in the details of this home that show you how much I have paid attention to and cherished every moment we've had together."
I got down on my knee and felt as though my heart was going to pound through my ribcage as I pulled the little velvet box out from the pocket of my joggers. I watched as Brooke's eyes flooded with tears, and she clasped her hand over her mouth in response to the tiny gasping sound that she made.
"Brooke Clarke, I love you more than I had ever thought it possible to love someone, and I want to spend every day and night showing you how very much I love and cherish you. Please, consider being my wife."
I opened the tiny box and held up the beautiful diamond that sparkled like a thousand of the brightest stars. Then, before Brooke had a chance to say anything in response to me, I stood up and took the ring out of the box and reached for her hand. Instead of putting it on her finger, I turned her hand over and rested the ring against her palm. She looked at me in confusion.
"This perfect little home and this ring made out of stars and everything that I am and have to offer, I give to you as a token and commitment of my love for you. Take this night to be here in your cozy utopia and think about it. I want you to be a thousand percent sure that this is what you want or don't want before you give me an answer. I don't want to push or pressure you. I want you to know it in your heart when you come to me with an answer. If you decide it's what you want, then I'll put the ring on your finger. Until you make a decision, then it is yours to hold in your hand. I love you, Brooke, and I want you to know that regardless of anything else."