On the way back home to the city, I’m not saying much. I’m lost in my thoughts. I’m thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be so cautious anymore with Linden. Maybe I need to seriously look at where this is all going. Is this really a stage of the pact? Are we doing this because we want to marry each other? Suddenly the idea of marrying him because of a promise we made years ago seems wrong.
I want Linden because I’m in love with him. That’s the only reason there should be.
Always observant, Linden turns down the classic rock station we’re listening to on the radio and the car hums with silence for a beat. The he says, “So I guess I’m your boyfriend.”
I give him a half-smile. “Sorry. I didn’t know what to say back there.”
He frowns, his expression turning serious. “Don’t be sorry. I would love to be that to you.”
“Really?”
“Aye,” he says, “even though it sounds a bit juvenile now, doesn’t it?”
“Well, I guess we could refer to each other as lovers. I mean, that’s what we are, right?”
“And at dinner parties be like, ‘oh Jeeves, would you like to meet my lover, Stephanie’?”
I giggle. “Maybe not quite like that. We’re not old or, I don’t know, French enough for that.”
“Then I guess boyfriend works.”
“I guess.”
“And you’re my girlfriend.” He reaches across and picks my hand off the stick shift. He kisses my knuckles gently. “But really, you’re my everything. And there’s nothing that will change that.”
I really hope he’s right.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LINDEN
“What the hell are you wearing?”
I’m at Stephanie’s front door and she’s staring at me like I’m an alien from another planet.
If I was, I would be from the Planet of the Sharks.
As in the San Jose Sharks.
I decided it would be fun to take her out on a surprise date and since she says she’s never been to a Sharks game and I almost always go with James, I thought that this would be quite the surprise indeed.
But at the moment, she’s probably just confused as to why I’m dressed all in blue and have a plush shark mascot head over my own.
“Hockey!” I announce and hand her the tickets. “We’re going to a Sharks game, baby blue.”
She raises a brow, still looking me over. “That is what I was praying you’d say.”
“Come on,” I say, throwing my arms out to the side, “get excited. You’ve always wanted to go.”
She just stares at me. I sigh and remove the mask from my head. “Okay, does this help?”
She grins at me and comes out into the hall to kiss me. Her lips feel especially soft today, her tongue especially frisky. She smells and tastes like mint and sugar.
I’m hard in a second. “You know, this shark head could be a little fun if you’re up for some roleplaying.”
She bites my lower lip, tugging on it slightly, inhaling my breath. “The only thing you’ll be playing is tied up to my bed,” she purrs.
Yes. Yes please.
Suddenly hockey seems like a stupid idea. “You know what? The Sharks can wait. We can see them another day.”
She grins and puts her hand on my chest, feeling my hard muscle for one appreciative moment before she shoves me back. “No way, San Jose,” she says, her eyes gleaming. She turns around and heads back into the apartment, grabbing her purse off the kitchen counter before locking the door behind her. “Let’s go.”
I groan in disappointment but it doesn’t matter. We’ll be coming back to her place later and I’m going to hold her to it. The shark mask might even make an appearance.
I drive us down the freeway to San Jose, which normally doesn’t take that long unless you’re stuck in traffic like we are. Sometimes it feels like the whole city migrates on game days, especially as we get into the hockey season. The holiday season doesn’t help either. It’s like the moment Thanksgiving is over (which I spent with Stephanie and her parents), everyone decides they must be driving to a mall somewhere to buy presents twenty-four hours a day. Christmas is at least three weeks away.
A lot has changed in the last month and a bit. I finally learned to let go of the guilt I felt over Nadine, so that helped me enjoy my happiness with Stephanie a lot more. Actually Nadine made it easier on me. She did end up staying in the flat I got for her the full month but she also quit her job as receptionist. I’m not sure where she’s living or working now but my boss said it was a good move for her and I just have to take his word on that.
It was such a messy ordeal, what happened, but in the end I don’t regret it for a second. Being with Stephanie in this way, the way I always wanted, is better than I could have ever expected.