Page 74 of As Long As You'll Have Me
“I found this wonderful cure for grumpiness though, wanna hear what it is?” He leans over his knees, waves me closer, and whispers as if God himself will hear us. “Really good sex.”
“I hate you,” I tease, throwing my pen at him and sitting back in my chair. “Now tell me about the dream you mentioned last week. I want to hear about that.”
When he groans, I know we’ve moved on from talking about me which I’m grateful for. The more people bring it up, the more I start to think about it. And the more I think about it, the more I wish I was seeing Miles later tonight.
28
MILES
Hey, I’m outside. Let’s go.
I hit send on the message to Carter and glance out the window. My truck idles against the curb after pulling into the parking lot of his building, here to pick him up to go to Sunday morning breakfast with the family.
I’ll be down in a couple minutes. On the phone.
On the phone with who? You can take the call from my truck you know.
I’ll be down in a couple minutes.
If you don’t want to wait you can just head out without me and I’ll see you there.
His reply has me scowling at my phone. We always drive out to Ivy’s together—mostly by his request. ‘Brotherly bonding time’ he calls it. As if we don’t get enough of that seeing as how wework together.
I’ll wait. Take your time.
I’m not sure what kind of call he’s on that he wouldn’t be able to have the conversation in the car with me but everyone deserves their privacy. Pushing the off button to my truck, I look out the window and take in the day. Christmas is next week already and you can see that in the decorations and holiday cheer that’s thrown up all over the city. Many of the doors have wreaths on them and a few units in his building have menorahs visible in the window, ready to be lit for the first night at sundown tonight. We have a firehouse menorah we light every year that we keep in the kitchen window. Some of the people who work at the firehouse who celebrate Hanukkah bring in traditional fried foods and teach us games to celebrate. We also have a Christmas tree we put up and decorate as a company. Right now the entertainment room is full of toy donations for the drive we host every year for Fresh Start. It’s something that I started a few years back and organize each and every year. I plan on staying late tomorrow to organize all the toys and get them wrapped for the kids. Thinking about it, a thought comes to mind and I pull out my phone again.
Hiya doc. How’s my pretty gray eyed girl doing today?
I stare at my message after hitting send, waiting for her to reply. Between her work schedule and mine, we haven’t been able to see one another since I stayed at her place on Monday. I’m dying to see her again. Sleeping next to her without doing anything more almost killed me. When my phone buzzes in my hand I nearly drop it.
I’m sorry, but did I miss it when I became “yours”?
I guess we didn’t make it official.
But I’ve been yours ever since you drunkenly serenaded me at the bar and stole my hat. You just weren’t ready to admit you wanted to be mine yet.
Ahh I see. So what, you’re waiting for me to say I want to be yours?
I *would* like to hear you say it, yeah.
Maybe one day fireman.
Can I help you with anything else or is that the only reason you texted me?
I actually had an offer for you.
How do you feel about wrapping presents?
Uhhh, I’m only the best present wrapper in my family.
Why am I not surprised by this?
How would you feel about coming over and helping me wrap a few presents tomorrow night? I’ll make you dinner and everything, you can come over after work if you want.
I’d actually like that a lot. 5:30 okay?
5:30 is perfect. I’ll have all the supplies. Just bring yourself and those pretty freckles of yours.
