Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Seth
Me: You almost ready?
Delivered
5/16 9:49 a.m.
Ripley: Define “almost.”
Delivered
5/16 9:49 a.m.
Me: Ripley.
Delivered
5/16 9:50 a.m.
Ripley: Sorry! I thought about last night too much in the shower and ended up with a half-chub hahaha.
Delivered
5/16 9:50 a.m.
Me: Wait. The shower has been off for 15 minutes. Are you fucking masturbating right now?
Delivered
5/16 9:51 a.m.
Ripley: …
Delivered
5/16 9:51 a.m.
Me: Wow. So I’m downstairs waiting on you, and you’re fucking your hand? Tired of me already?
Delivered
5/16 9:51 a.m.
Ripley: Okay loving the weird jealousy, not loving the whininess. Is this how you feel when I do it?
Delivered
5/16 9:51 a.m.
Me: Yes.
Delivered
5/16 9:52 a.m.
Ripley: Moving on. Technically, I am, yes. I figured you’d judge me, and I’d have to leave the house with a sad dick. But now that you know, if you want to join me… *winky-face emoji*
Delivered
5/16 9:53 a.m.
Me: Send me a pic.
Delivered
5/16 9:53 a.m.
Ripley: Oooo feeling nostalgic for a throwback?
Delivered
5/16 9:53 a.m.
Me: Maybe.
Delivered
5/16 9:54 a.m.
Ripley: Come upstairs.
Delivered
5/16 9:54 a.m.
Me: This is a bad idea…
Delivered
A reminder about the meeting I have in five minutes pops up on my phone screen. Fuck.
5/16 9:55 a.m.
Me: Abort. We have to go.
Delivered
5/16 9:55 a.m.
Ripley: Guess I’m finishing without you then…
Delivered
It’s now 10 a.m., and he’s still not down here.
“Ripley!” I yell up the stairs. “We have to go.”
“I’m coming!” Oh, I bet he is.
“Is this how it’s going to be?” I ask as I lean my head back in frustration.
He shuffles down the stairs, looking annoyingly hot with his glasses perched on his nose, dressed in a RED T-shirt, and khaki pants. “What do you mean?” he asks as he kisses my cheek, a smug smile on his face as if he knows exactly what kind of control he has over me.
“Don’t play coy. I am not a late person. I will leave you behind next time.”
He sticks out his lip in a pout. “You’d leave me? Your boyfriend?” He’s been throwing the label around every chance he gets since I introduced him as my boyfriend to my mom a couple of days ago. It’s cute, but I can’t let him know I think so. He can never know.
“Yes,” I deadpan. “Without hesitation. This is your last warning.”
His mouth drops open as if he’s surprised, as if he doesn’t know how I am.
It isn’t like I’d actually be leaving him.
He lives five-hundred feet from RED, but somehow he’s still late for his shifts.
I cannot—will not—be late to meetings with Cary and Thea.
We still have a lot to get done before we break ground on the expansion.
“Pick your jaw off the floor and find your shoes please, we have to go,” I tell him again, hoping it’ll kick him into gear.
We haven’t left the house in two days, so there’s no telling where they’ve ended up.
If I hadn’t been so distracted by the mental image of him jerking off upstairs, I would have found them ahead of time.
“Okay, okay,” he says, throwing his arms up in defeat. “‘Find your shoes,’” he mocks me as he walks to the other side of the couch, pushing his voice up an octave.
“I don’t sound like that,” I snipe, stooping to his level.
“Sure,” he says as he pulls one of his shoes from under the couch then walks across the room for the other one. I’ll never understand what he has against the shoe rack I ordered and put together at the door.
Shaking my head, I open the door, holding it for him to walk out in front of me. While I lock up, Ripley’s already walking ahead.
I jog to catch up and wrap his hand in mine. “Don’t be a baby.”
He takes a long, deep breath—no doubt for theatrics. “Fine, I forgive you.”
My gaze catches on his neck where I marked him as mine, a splotching of red and purple resembling a storm cloud in an otherwise perfectly blue sky.
He didn’t try to hide it, and I’m beaming with pride seeing it out in the open.
I want the entire world to know who he belongs to, the man who’s stolen my heart.
Leaning into him, our hands still clasped, I press a kiss into the bruised skin, and he shivers with the contact.
He may drive me insane, but I love him in spite of it, maybe even because of it. Since finding him in the airport, I’ve never been happier. Well, aside from the moment I found my car still sitting at the curb with only a ticket on the windshield.
I showed Ripley my favorite parts of Seattle the next day before our flight out and let Iris know what was going on. I emailed the investors my trip is running longer than expected, and Iris will be telling the employees today.
In a few days, I plan to notify the investors at Carina Cove that I’ll be stepping down from my position and becoming a silent partner like Cary. They won’t be happy, but I’ve made the decision to put my own happiness before others for once.
During the few times we weren’t fucking since we got back, I talked to my mom on the phone.
Every time I call, she tells me how happy she is to hear from me.
I never thought coming out would bring us closer, but I’m grateful for it.
She’s kind of obsessed with Ripley, but she refuses to listen when I tell her she can’t let him know because it’ll only make him more infuriating.
I took the coward’s way out with my father, but I’m not ashamed of it. Once we’d been back for a couple of days, I texted him, “I’m gay,” no explanation, no apology, and no room for follow up because I blocked him before he could answer.
Both my sisters texted me later that day and told me they love me and can’t wait to see my boyfriend again.
Apparently, they knew after the dinner and fully support us.
Amelia even told me she plans to apply to college in South Carolina so she can visit us all the time.
She has no idea I plan on moving them both to the east coast anyway.
“What is this meeting for anyway?” Ripley whines.
He’s told me about seventeen times in the last forty-eight hours he thinks we deserve a week of alone time for the pain and suffering I put us through.
And while he’s not wrong, I’m pretty sure Thea will cut off all contact with us if we go on a honeymoon before she does.
She was kind enough to give us a couple of days of solitude, but now it’s time to get back to work.
Ripley is—understandably—nervous. He keeps running his hand through his hair and adjusting his glasses.
Last night, we talked about what today might look like.
He’s spent so long avoiding the conversation and hiding in plain sight, he feels like the judgment for that alone will be harsh.
I know how much these people mean to him, and I know their reaction to our relationship will have a huge impact on him, even if he tries to brush it off with humor.
Instead of commenting on his fidgeting, I indulge the question he already knows the answer to. “You know your best friend is building a B&B, right? You didn’t somehow forget the entire reason I came to Indigo Hill in the first place?” I ask as we turn to walk up the stairs to RED.
We haven’t seen anyone yet, so I’m also a bit nervous, considering how I left things. I have yet another apology tour to make.
“Ugh, I know. But now you’re staying for me. I was hoping we’d have more time together and fewer responsibilities.”
“You realize I thrive on responsibility, right?”
“I was hoping I could change you,” he says with a smirk as I push through the door. “Get you to loosen that tie.” He flicks the tie in question, and I’m reminded what we did with this exact tie just a couple nights ago.
“No such luck, baby.”
We walk into RED hand in hand, and no one pays us any mind aside from the usual passing greetings as they scurry around serving customers.
No one looks in our direction with disgust, no one whispers as we walk past, no one does anything because no one cares.
It’s a hefty realization, but one I’m happy I can make in this town.
Seattle as a city is very welcoming, but the Seattle I knew—my life there—was not.
Ripley’s whole body relaxes with each step we take toward the bar. His shoulders drop, and the tension he was carrying in his jaw eases.
Thea notices us first, and the second she sees our fingers interlocked, she instantly gushes. “Oh my God! You twooooo!” She says the “o” in the word as if it’s neverending. “I might cry.”
“Please don’t,” Ripley and I say at the same time, and she laughs. I give his hand a calming squeeze. I won’t let the deep-seated fear from his past cloud the potential of this going well.
Cary walks out from the kitchen before Thea can say any more, and thankfully, before the tears start. “I thought I heard your voice, Seth. But you are,” he looks at his watch, “nine minutes late for our meeting. This may be a first.”
Scowling, I turn to look at Ripley and grit out, “Never. Again.”
“I see you uncomplicated your complicated situation,” Cary says, waving his finger between us.
“Only after making it ten times more complicated than it needed to be, yeah,” I say with a sigh. Thea leads Ripley away to the hostess area, our fingers pulling apart little by little, but my eyes follow him.
When I finally bring my attention back to Cary, a smile takes over his face.
“Fucking good for you,” he says as he pats the side of my arm. “You deserve this, you know. To be happy. And it’s really great to see.”
I nod in response, knowing if I think about it too much, it’ll be like the call with my mom all over again.
Out of nowhere, Brooks saunters up. “Am I hearing right? The secret is finally out?” he asks, looking back and forth between me and Cary.
“Damn, I really was the last one to find out,” Cary says. “Even Tiffany found out before me.”
My eyes shoot up to him. “Too soon, man.”
“Shit, right. Sorry.”
“So can we expect Ripley to pull the stick out of your ass finally? Or is he adding more to it?” The second he finishes, he holds up a finger. “Nope, you know what? Don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”
Cary laughs and pushes him toward the kitchen. “Get back to work, Brooks.” Then he turns back to me and says, “You ready to get started?”
“Yeah, for sure.” I look over my shoulder before I follow Cary into the distillery, and I catch Ripley doing the same.
“I love you,” I mouth to him, and he beams a smile in response. He’s the light in my once dark world, but with him by my side, the darkness can’t hurt me anymore.