“How the fuck do you deal with it?”
“Trust. Sometimes vodka, but that’s a personal preference.”
We both laughed, but Christine sobered up quickly. “Seriously, though. Do what she told you. Follow your heart... and then bring that girl over so I can meet her.”
“What makes you think I’m—”
“Because I know you. And it sounds to me like she does as well.”
Damn it, she was right. They both were. Mallory knew it, too, if the smile on her face as she threw me out was any indication.
“Thanks, Christine,” I said seriously, then added, “And I’m sorry about Jeremy, but I’m not hiring him ever again.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
I thanked her one more time and promised to call her soon before hanging up and sliding the phone back into my pocket. The cab was rapidly approaching my block, so I dug my wallet out and prepared myself at the door.
The driver had heeded my warning and said nothing at all, so I slipped a hundred-dollar bill through the middle and said, “Keep the change.”
But when I turned to exit the car, he pressed the button to lock all the doors.
“What the fu—”
“You tip well, so I give you this advice,” he said in a thick accent I couldn’t identify. He flipped down the visor and pointed to a picture clipped there. “This is my beloved, you see? She and I, we have been married for thirteen years.”
His eyebrows were raised expectantly so I said, “Congratulations?”
“Thank you. She’s younger than me, yes? Too young, her father said. But she didn’t care because I tell her and I show her how I feel all the time and she gives to me in return. That is why she married me and why I do not fear her leaving. You must show her you love her.”
“Show her,” I repeated slowly, an idea beginning to form in my mind. “And you seriously don’t worry about losing her?”
His hand clasped into a fist and went over his heart. “Never. Even in death, our spirits will find each other.”
It was a weirdly intense conversation to have with a cab driver, but it did spawn a thought in my head that I couldn’t shake. I opened my wallet and pulled out two more crisp hundreds, shoving them both through the divider.
“Change of plans. I need to go to Fifth Avenue and then back to where you picked me up.”
“That’s my man! Yes!” he cheered. He let out a loud whoop as he pulled away from the curb and I wondered if I’d be able to gather the nerve to go through with this.
Somewhere along the way, my great idea started feeling like the wrong move.
No. That was wrong. I could identify the exact moment when it started to go south. It was when the driver pulled up to the jewelry store and spent ten minutes arguing that he should come inside with me because he had a sixth sense about women and jewelry.
Yeah, that was definitely when it started to feel like a bad fucking idea.
Yet something still dragged me into that damn store and while a number of employees tried to swindle me to different sections, my eyes locked on the perfect item almost as soon as I entered. In a daze, I made the extravagant purchase and watched them bag it up while they tried and failed to pester me about the lucky girl who’d be receiving it.
Now the box was burning a hole in my coat pocket. That was the force that was driving me back up the stairs to her apartment while my stomach churned.
I knocked on her door, wondering if I had been wrong. Could this really be love when I felt so sick?
The door opened and she smiled widely as she whispered, “You’re back.”
That’s when it hit me. The startling realization that it wasn’t the gift or doubt or her that was making me feel sick.
It was the possibility of rejection.
Shit. It’d been a long while since I felt such paralyzing fear. I had completely forgotten what it was like.
“Yeah. I’m back.”
She stepped back to let me in and the way she bit her lip in excitement had me feeling a hell of a lot better. The box shifted in my inner pocket as I moved, reminding me of why I was here.
“Do you want something to—”
“I love you.”
The hand that was pointed at the refrigerator—presumably to offer me a drink—dropped and so did her jaw. The dumbstruck look only lasted a moment before an ecstatic smile lit up her face, but it turned into a frown when I held up my hand when she moved in for a hug.
“I’m not done,” I said, clearing my throat and trying not to laugh when she looked at me like I had gone insane. “I love you, Mallory. It goes against all logic and reason but I do. I fell in love for the first time so fucking fast that it terrifies the shit out of me.”