Chapter 27
Sapphire
Of everything I expected to happen at my parents’ house—honestly, I didn’t know what I’d expected. I think if I’d tried to work out what might have happened, I’d have talked myself out of going. But if I had a million guesses, I wouldn’t have hit on walking in on Madeleine and Britt already confronting them about the same thing at the same time. Let alone walking past all the others on the way in. I guess we were all on the same page more than I’d realized.
I was riding the adrenaline so high that I didn’t even realize my little castle of confidence was built on sand until I got back out of the house, and my legs were suddenly wobbly, the air rushing out of me and leaving my hands quivering. Madeleine was the first to notice—of course she was—and she came to my side, a hand on my shoulder.
“Sapphire—are you okay?” she said, her voice soft, and I turned and found my breath catch when I met her eyes, glimmering in that beautiful hazel color in the daylight. I swallowed hard, and I nodded.
“You came here too,” I said, which was really sharp of me, really clever. Madeleine softened into the sweetest smile, and Britt cut in before she could.
“Of course we did—it’s a good thing you walked in when you did, or you would have gotten back to us taking her from the top rope.”
Madeleine closed her eyes with a small, tired smile. “Britt. Save your wrestling maneuvers for another time.”
I laughed, a thick sound in my throat, as I fell forward against Madeleine, throwing myself onto her and wrapping my arms around her waist. Her hands fell to my hips, and I heard the others rushing towards us from the car, and the next thing I knew there was a whole crowd of people squeezing in around us, everyone lining up to give me crushing hugs.
Haley’s voice cut through it all with, “Did it work—did you give her a piece of your mind?” before Britt responded.
“You should have seen her in there—girl went absolutely feral—”
“You’re crushing her,” Madeleine said, and I laughed breathlessly as I met Ellen for a hug too, a whirl of activity all around me that had my head spinning.
“I’m tired, is how it went,” I said. “But I think… maybe it’ll be okay. I think I made my point. And I think I’m staying. If you all are willing to have me and all the trouble I’m going to bring—”
Britt scoffed. “ Trouble? Ma’am, step back. Trouble is my territory. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never cause half the trouble I do. Literally do not even start thinking about worrying.”
Ellen smiled softly at me. “You’ve always been welcome, Sapph. We’re all really glad you’re staying.”
I swallowed, a thick lump in my throat, as Madeleine pulled me back into another embrace. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered softly in my ear, and I got a prickle down my spine.
“I’ll maybe be proud of myself too once this is done… for now I feel like I’m going to fall over.”
“Touché. Er… Mister Vaughn,” she said, looking up at Andrew, the awkward tension around her so palpable I felt like I couldn’t breathe through it, like a cushion in the face. “Sapphire’s apartment… do you think it’s safe?”
Andrew, ever the professional, answered in a calm, collected tone, “I would avoid it for another few days, maybe a week. I’ll keep an eye on the surroundings and make sure nobody tries anything. But I’m taking it as my first priority to make sure it ends up safe for Sapphire.”
I shook my head, stepping away from Madeleine to look up at Andrew with my stomach twisted up in knots. “I’m so sorry, Andrew… after everything you did to help me, getting me a job and a home and everything—”
Andrew put a hand up. “It’s your life, Sapphire. Your decision is what should be final. I’m happy to stand by that, whatever that looks like.”
I was going to cry for, like, thirty different reasons. I pursed my lips, nodding while trying to stay normal—I wasn’t sure how well I pulled that off—and Britt was the one who spoke.
“Maybe you’re not too bad, creepy butler man.”
I sighed, shoulders slumping. “Britt. Please don’t embarrass everyone here.”
Britt put her hands up. “What? It’s what I do!”
Andrew just smiled politely at her. “I’ve officially terminated my employment, so I’m delighted to inform you I’m no longer creepy butler man. At worst, I’m only creepy man. ”
“Baby steps,” Britt said. “I’ll take it. C’mon, everybody. Let’s get Sapphire somewhere she can collapse. She’ll stay at my and Mads’s place until the creepy man has verified Sapphire’s place is safe.”
It was something like a fever dream, drifting hazily around, squeezed into the car with everybody else—Andrew took his car off to my apartment so I could head back with the others, packing into Meg’s car and all but sitting in Madeleine’s lap with how tight it was in the back, not that I needed an excuse to want to sit in her lap. I wasn’t quite sure at any given point where I was or what I was doing, but one way or another, through the laughter and exhilarated chatter of the group, the celebratory atmosphere thick around us, I eventually ended up back at Madeleine’s and Britt’s apartment, where I tried to insist I was fine and had to be directed to crash on the couch, Madeleine sitting next to me while Britt sat on the coffee table facing me.
“So, out of curiosity,” Britt said, “did you know Mads was going there? Was this something you two coordinated in secret?”
I hugged myself. “No… I had no idea. I just knew I wanted to try one more time, try something, before I gave up and left it all behind. And… and as the time to leave got closer, I couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I was going to miss everybody… so Andrew and I went there. I never thought I’d find any of you there. I…” I looked down at my lap. “I don’t know what to say, honestly. You didn’t need to show up there, to put yourselves in harm’s way, just to stand up for me. But you did.”
“You’re a part of us,” Madeleine said, slipping a hand across my back—tentative, cautious, like she wasn’t sure what she was allowed to do right now. I sank into her side, my silent way of confirming it—that I wanted this, that I wanted everything with her. “Already told you, Britt and I made a pact. Ride or die.”
I laughed thickly. “You did mention a pact… ominous chanting and all.”
Britt grinned. “You should have seen Mads going all track them down, find them, bring them to justice on the situation. It’s awfully cute that you both go to battle for each other.”
“Britt,” I pleaded, and she cackled.
“I’m just saying! She was fully ready to kill a man for you!”
“Britt,” Madeleine sighed this time, pinching the bridge of her nose. The little flush in the corners of her cheeks was cute enough I couldn’t help myself, and I rested my head on her shoulder.
“I’m glad you didn’t kill anybody for me after all, but… it’s very, very sweet of you that you did that for me.”
“Ah…” Madeleine scratched the back of her head, not looking at me. “It was kind of just the right thing to do.”
Britt stood up, stretching her arms over her head. “This calls for a celebratory dinner or something,” she said. “I’m popping out to track down Ellen and Zach and buy a cake together. We’re going to have the absolute best party for this.”
“You don’t have to,” I said, half-standing, but Madeleine guided me back to the couch.
“Thanks, Britt,” she said, and it took me until Britt grabbed her bag and headed out the door to realize that the whole thing was just a thin veneer over let me give you some space. And with the two of us suddenly left alone in the apartment, the world quiet around us, I found my heart beating faster as Madeleine looked at me with the softest, sweetest smile, a hand on my knee. “So… staying in Chicago,” she said. “Guess I won you over showing you how good the architecture here is. Baltimore’s not bad, but… just doesn’t have the same legacy Chicago does.”
“Hm.” I puffed out my cheek. “Yes, because that’s what it is. I’m staying in Chicago because I like the buildings.”
“I mean, I hear you built this apartment complex all by yourself.”
I laughed. “You wouldn’t think it looking at me, but I’m quite the builder.”
“You, um…” She flicked her gaze down, a nervous flush over her expression. “You were really good. Back at your parents’ house… I can’t imagine how much strength that took. How scary that must have been for you.”
I folded my hands in my lap, looking down at my interlaced fingers, and I shrugged. “It was… well. It wasn’t my favorite thing to do. But honestly, I was running on so much adrenaline, I couldn’t think about anything else… I didn’t really have time to second-guess it.”
“Still. Point remains. You’re a hell of a lot stronger than you think you are.”
I laughed, heat prickling in my face, and I looked over at her. “I… did hear you saying so. Which was sweet of you.”
“Ah.” She scratched her head again, bouncing one knee awkwardly. “I didn’t think about the fact that you might have heard me…”
“I don’t know what to say, honestly…” I slipped a hand to her knee, holding her softly, sweet little touches that meant the world. Ones I wanted to treasure forever, no matter the situations they put us in. “I don’t know how to thank you. For being there for me. In all the ways you have.”
She smiled sweetly at me. “The only thanks I want is for you to be happy, Sapphire.”
I batted my eyelashes. “That’s it? I was going to offer you a kiss.”
“Oh. Uh. Well.” It worked exactly like I’d hoped—flushed suddenly bright pink, looking everywhere but at me. “I mean, I’m not… opposed. That’s certainly a, uh… well, if that’s how you want to say thank you… I mean, not that you’re obligated to thank me—or do anything—”
“Stay with me,” I laughed, slipping a hand to her cheek, feeling like my chest could explode. “Let’s not spiral off anywhere, darling.”
“So—you, um—”
“Yes,” I said, my voice a gentle whisper falling off my lips, and I fluttered my eyes closed, leaning in and pressing my lips softly to hers—a brush like butterflies’ wings, but she met me warmly, cupping a hand on the back of my head and pulling me into her, deepening the kiss until she broke off with her breathing deep, eyes still closed, resting her forehead against mine.
“So we can…” she started, her voice shaky, and I smiled wider, my heart beating wildly but feeling so perfectly at peace all at the same time.
“Madeleine, I didn’t actually stay for the architecture. You do know that, right?”
“Ah. Well. I wouldn’t blame you if you did. Did you know that Willis Tower was—”
“The tallest building in the world until 1998, yes, dear, you did mention.”
“Ah. Yes.”
I laughed. “I stayed because of all my friends here. Because this place means something—because this is my home, the place I was really born into this world. But most of all, I’m staying because I want to be with you. Anyone else I’d ever find would just be living in your shadow… I mean, how else would anyone ever compare with all the things you’ve done for me, all the things you’ve been for me?”
“I… I feel the same way, you know,” she said, her voice soft but still with the same nervous quiver underneath it. “Nobody’s ever made me feel the way you do. And I’d never get over you—this—everything that’s happened—if we had to…”
I pulled away, an anxious knot tightening in my stomach. “Madeleine… you know it’s not going to be that easy, though, right? Even with everything I said—with everything I’m probably going to keep saying to them for the next however long—they’re going to keep harassing all of us.”
“I’ve told you a thousand times, I don’t care. I told your mother that, too. They can do what they like. I’d rather face whatever they might do than give up and carry on knowing I’d left it when I could have kept going.”
“I don’t even have a job right now. And I don’t even have a home right now. You really want to put it all on the line for an unemployed vagrant with no marketable skills?”
She laughed, giving me a lopsided smile. “That’s how we’re describing you, then?”
I pouted. “It’s technically true.”
“You got one job, you can get another. And you’ll have your home back. It sounds like we can trust Andrew after all.”
I nodded. “This whole thing has been so messy and he… well, for how much I was scared of him, for how much he tracked me down everywhere, in the end, he put everything on the line for me. He gave up his employer of almost twenty years to take my side. I know we’ve fought, and we probably always will, but he’s… well, he’s my father, I guess.” I paused. “And for the record, he, uh, he really likes you. So… I guess… you’ve made a good impression on the parents, in a way.”
She laughed, smiling impossibly at me. “I told him off for his job title and called him creepy at every turn, and he likes me?”
“He appreciates someone who fights to protect me. Even if they’re fighting him. I didn’t tell him you offered to literally fight him.”
“Well,” she said, slipping a hand to the small of my back, “then it sounds like we have even more people on our side. You and your real family, your friends, and…”
She trailed off with a flush of nervousness I could feel like it was my own, and I laughed, finishing the thought for her. “And my girlfriend.”
She ducked her head. “If you’ll… still have me? Now it’s a pretty serious thing, knowing you’ll be sticking around and that it’s not just—”
“I want to be your girlfriend,” I laughed, running my fingers through her hair. “Trust me, far beyond anything with my parents or with getting by on my own out in the world, getting to date you has been the biggest accomplishment I’ve managed.”
“You really oversell me.”
“I mean, I’m living perpetually in the state of thinking you’re overselling me, so I guess we’re even. We really are on the same page with everything.”
She laughed, eyes sparkling. “I guess so,” she said. “I guess… we write the rules after all. So if this is how we want to do things, let’s do it. Together.”
I raised my eyebrows. “If you’re inviting me to do it with you, I’m not saying no, but I should take a shower first.”
“Oh my god—no! Not like—I wasn’t—”
I batted my eyelashes. “You don’t want to do it with me?”
“No, that’s not—I wasn’t saying that—” She was red down to her neck now, and I cocked my head.
“You can tell me if you don’t.”
“No, I do—”
I beamed. “You do want to do it with me?”
“Well—” She put her hands over her face. “Sapphire. Oh my god.”
“You can tell me if you do, too.”
She mumbled into her hands. “Honestly, I was thinking it was really hot seeing you stand your ground…”
“Oh. Do you want me to try being a little bossy? I can do that.”
She put her hands up, pointedly not looking at me, her face beet-red. “You know? Sure. Why not? Try something a little new and different. Why not.”
Oh, she was really into it, with that kind of feigned indifference. She was cute like that. I could think of a few things I wanted to tell her firmly to do. “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “But really… I should take a shower first. I’m all sweaty.”
“You can… take your time,” she mumbled, still not looking at me. I laughed.
“Hey, Madeleine?”
“Yeah?” She glanced at me, and I smiled warmly.
“Thank you.”
“For…?”
I shrugged. “For everything. And for the record, I, uh… I love you too.”
“You—” She blinked, wide-eyed, the color coming back into her cheeks. “Oh, god. You heard that too?”
I covered up a laugh. “What do you think gave me the kind of boldness I needed to charge in there and give my mother a piece of my mind? My absolute dream woman telling her off and declaring that she loved me is about the only thing.”
“Ah…” She put a hand over her face. “I didn’t really even consciously process that I’d said it in the first place—I was just having a lot of feelings—”
I batted my eyelashes. “Oh—so you don’t?”
“No—oh my god.” She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Sapphire! You’re going to be the death of me.”
I laughed. “You don’t have to make any declarations you don’t want to—”
She turned and caught me by the wrists, looking me in the eye, and with the sudden reversal of it, it caught me by surprise and took my breath away when she said, “I love you, Sapphire. I love you, and I don’t want to know what it looks like when you’re not here. You’re the best part of everything I do, and I want you to keep being a part of it… of all of it. I love you.”
This really was worth staying for… whatever might have happened, whatever my parents decided to do next, none of it mattered. I wanted all of my dreams—a thriving career as an artist, a rich community, and the woman of my dreams, holding me and telling me she loved me.
“You too,” I whispered, slipping my hands into hers. “I’ll be a part of everything… as long as you’ll have me. I love you, Madeleine.”
She smiled sweetly, closing her eyes, and she leaned in for a kiss, brushing her lips to mine, softly, sweetly, taking her time. Not in any rush. None of it had to be a rush.
Well, we probably had to rush before Britt exploded back into the room, especially if she wanted me to test out being bossy with her. Although Britt had mentioned with a very, very unsubtle wink that she wouldn’t mind if Madeleine and I were noisy.
Well, probably for the best. Just because she was all the soft, sweet things didn’t mean I didn’t want to be loud with her too. And if we had another week or so before I had my apartment back, we’d have to figure that out…
We’d work it out one way or another. After all, we wrote our own rules for life.
I liked life this way.