“I know this puts both of our jobs in jeopardy, but . . . I just can’t go on like this anymore.”
“But we’ve only known each other for a few weeks.” That wasn’t the biggest issue, but that was what came out of my mouth first.
“It doesn’t matter. I knew I wanted you the first time I saw you. Then I got to know you and I wanted you even more. I go after what I want.”
I knew that. He’d been so persistent in that first interview and then after.
“Lucah . . .” I trailed off, not knowing where to start or what to say.
“You don’t have to agree to anything. I just wanted you to know where I stand.” He grabbed the cake and the forks and started to get up, but I put my hand on his arm to stop him.
“It’s not that I don’t want to, Lucah. I do. I really do. I like spending time with you and being around you. You make me happy and I haven’t had that much fun at work in a very long time. But what happens if we don’t work out? If we go for this . . . and what we feel burns out?”
He listened without comment and then brushed his thumb across my lip.
“Let’s just enjoy the rest of tonight then, Miss Clarke.”
“Okay.” I could push it aside for now, but I was going to have to think about it tomorrow, and we were going to have to talk, and things were going to change. I didn’t want them to change. I didn’t want us to change. Yes, we had moved to Us Territory. We’d moved there a long time ago. Bought property, moved in, put up a fence and a bunch of garden gnomes.
I didn’t want things to change, but they were going to, and I was going to have to choose. He already had.
Twenty
I made him breakfast the next morning wearing an apron and my heels like I promised and brought it to him in bed. I was trying to keep on a happy face, but it wasn’t easy when I knew that he was going to leave in a little while and then I’d be all alone with my thoughts. I didn’t want them for company. I’d much rather spend that time with Lucah in bed, or even just talking, or watching cartoons again.
After we finished breakfast, he made me let him do the dishes and stack them in the dishwasher and then we put on clothes and sat on the couch and he rubbed my feet and we watched whatever was on television.
“Spend the day with me,” he said, pinching one of my toes.
“Lucah—“ I started to protest, but he threw himself on top of me.
“Spend the day with me. I know you want to. I’ll be your sexcretary this time.” I wanted to, so much. So, so much . . . One day couldn’t do any more damage, could it?
“Okay, Mr. Blaine. I will spend the day with you. But we should probably go out, or else Sloane will come home and creepily watch us and I’d rather not be creepily watched if you don’t mind.”
“I would also prefer to not be creepily watched. Since you planned last night, does that mean I get to plan today?”
“Sure, why not? As long as there is no public humiliation involved.”
“I would never publicly humiliate you. Or at least not on purpose.” He smiled and held my feet up so he could get up.
“Come on, Sunshine. Let’s go somewhere.”
~*~*~
A half hour later, we were standing in front of the Boston Museum of Science.
“This is where we’re spending the day?” I looked up at the building with the metal letters on it. I hadn’t been here since I was ten, and even then it was a class trip and we hadn’t stayed long.
“I bring my nieces here all the time. I think sometimes I get more out of it than they do. So,” he said, holding out his hand. “Shall we?” I smiled and took his hand.
“Yes. We shall.”
~*~*~
Who knew how much fun you could have at the science museum? I definitely hadn’t had this much fun when I was a kid, but maybe who you were with that determined the fun level. We’d done nearly everything from taking pretend horrified pictures at the foot of the dinosaur models to ruining our hair with the static electricity machines. I’d allowed him to take pictures of us on my phone. I would put them in a secret folder on my computer when I got home. I also didn’t worry about us being seen together because there wasn’t a less likely place for us to run into anyone from the office.
We even went to the gift shop where he bought me a “Pluto: Revolve in Peace” t-shirt and a stuffed animal that was shaped like the common cold virus. He also picked up two stuffed frogs for his nieces. I insisted on buying him a CD that was all songs designed to boost your positive thinking and a baseball cap, which I promptly shoved on head and made him take a duck-faced selfie with me while he was wearing it.