Chapter 21
Ace
As I spritz on my favorite Dior cologne, a text vibrates my phone on my bathroom counter.
Boden: Some of us don’t have the summer off, dude. I’ve been breaking my back at doubles every day. What the fuck have YOU been doing?
His text is in response to the text I sent him three fucking hours ago, asking him where in the hell he’s been and berating him for completely ignoring Finn and me when we tried to reach him last night and this morning.
Me: Mostly fucking off. Getting my shit twisted over Julia. You know the deal. Anyway are you free right now? I’ve got a whole fucking thing happening in Central Park in tminus 25 minutes and I need as many hands on deck as possible.
Boden: Sorry, I’m busy. As appealing as “a whole fucking thing” is. Truly reassuring, actually. Have you gotten any takers with that sales pitch?
Me: Finn’s helping me
Boden: That tracks. You made him a hostage last year. Probably got Stockholm syndrome by now.
Me: Hey jockstrap he gives his friendship freely and willingly. I can’t help it if he’s unconscious when he agrees to things sometimes. He should sleep harder so he doesn’t answer me
Boden: LMAO. Good luck, dude. With whatever it is.
Me: Yeah wahtever. Fuck you too
I slide my phone in the back pocket of my jeans, take one final look at my appearance in the mirror—I look fucking good—and head out my door and across the hall.
I knock three times, fast and hard, on Julia’s door, calling through the wood to emphasize our need to hurry.
We’re already running ten minutes late, and I know for a fact that old Finnley Hayes isn’t going to be happy about wrestling a goldendoodle puppy in the middle of Central Park for any longer than contractually agreed upon. “Come on, Jules! You ready?”
“Coming!” she calls back from somewhere inside. “Just a second.”
I bounce on my toes and glance down at my watch again, willing my heartbeat to stop counting the seconds. I can feel it in my lungs, my wrists, my jugular. I am a walking pulse.
She’s been talking about getting a puppy since the day we moved in to our apartments, and the idea of getting to see her face as she realizes it’s happening is…overwhelming.
I never knew it could be like this—that it could feel like this.
I’ve always loved Julia, but I’ve undoubtedly spent the majority of my life focused on myself.
My reactions, my happiness, my wants and needs.
Spending the time focusing myself on her has been enlightening in a million ways I didn’t expect.
I’m learning new smiles, seeing new depths of her dimple—realizing she finds joy in the simplest of things, even when I get frustrated or upset.
She’s sunshine in a bottle, and I’ve taken that for granted for a hell of a lot of years.
Today, though, I get to see a dream of hers come true.
And if I were a betting man—which I totally fucking am—I’d put a couple hundred grand on the fact that being the one to be there when this puppy dream comes true is going to bring us even closer together than we are.
Which is good, because I need to be reallyyy close to her—our bodies practically smashed together, really—to fit between her and Fuckface McGee most days.
“What took you so long?” I ask as soon as the door opens, making her roll her eyes and laugh at me as she pulls it closed and uses her key to lock it.
“Would you keep your panties on?” She huffs. “I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry in the first place.”
“Because, Juliaaa,” I sing. “The sunset is in twenty minutes, and if we miss it, a baby loses its wings.”
“Babies aren’t supposed to have wings.”
“They are, actually, but since so many people miss the sunset, they never get to keep them.”
She snorts. “You’re bizarre.”
“What else is new?”
“I’ll be honest, you’ve been surprisingly calm lately. It’s like Ace, but not, you know? Zen Ace. Zace, if you will.”
“I’m just maturing, Lia. I mean, we’re about to be sophomores in college. We live on our own in apartments in the city. I can’t be out here just acting like a kid anymore. You’d kick me to the curb.”
It’s a little test, of course, to see how I’ve been doing for the last ten days in my plan to persuade her to love me.
It’s a check in on the flowers I’ve gotten for her vase when the ones her dad gave her died, and a query about the takeout I brought her the two nights we were at home for dinner, and a thermometer to read if I need to turn up the heat and get even more serious, but she doesn’t give me much to work with other than simple reassurance.
“It’d take a lot to kick you to the curb, Acer. Especially since I have to get over anything you do that makes me angry in fifteen minutes or less.”
“Believe it or not,” I hedge with a laugh, “I’m really working on trying not to make you angry with me at all.”
She smiles and pinches my cheek. “You have been very sweet lately.”
I push the button to call the elevator and, when it dings, hold the door for her to step inside. She digs in her purse to pull out her lip gloss—something she always does on the ride down to the lobby—and I swallow hard.
Her lips, her hair, her eyes, her smile.
I can’t help but stare at every bit of it and wonder if I should just man the fuck up and tell her how I feel.
I mean, maybe all this bullshit is dumb.
Maybe Gunnar—as wild as this is to say—was right.
Maybe I’m overcomplicating the hell out of a situation that doesn’t need complication at all.
I love her. I should just tell her.
“Julia?”
“Yeah?” she asks, her head still down as she replaces her lip gloss and digs through her purse until she comes out with her phone.
“Can you look at me for a sec?”
Her eyes jerk to mine at the seriousness of my tone, and I take her free hand—the one not holding her phone—in mine.
You can do this, Ace. You can do this.
“I… Well, see…I…”
“Yeah?”
“I just… I wanted to—”
Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” plays obnoxiously in the space with a sudden jolt of violence, and the screen of Julia’s phone lights up so hard it pierces the tenderness right out of my eyes.
She glances down at the screen, winces, and then apologizes while ripping her hand from mine to hold up a finger. “Sorry. It’s Drew. Just one second.”
Every vestige of the urge to confess my undying love takes a knife to the chest. The love may still be there, but the courage to confess it is currently receiving last rites on life support.
She babbles and chats to Dr. Weasel, and my brain fogs like it’s being fumigated. When she hangs up and looks back up at me, I startle.
“Sorry about that. What were you saying? It seemed like it might be important.”
I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Are you sure? I’m sorry I even answered, but he’s about to get on a flight to Aruba. Family vacation.”
Suddenly perkier, I ask, “He’s going on vacation?”
“Yeah. For a week, I think. They do it every year before school starts, and he says his parents say it’s nonnegotiable that he keeps going until he’s married.”
I don’t give a shit about any of that—other than the fact that I’m about to have Julia to myself for the next week.
Operation Lost Puppy is just the beginning.
If this doesn’t work, my next move is to fake a coma, request her as my emergency contact, and hire a George-Clooney-looking actor to play my doctor and tell Julia the only way to bring me back to consciousness is to kiss me and tell me she loves me.
But it will work.
I don’t know what phase of the plan this is, but it’s a big one. Maybe a slightly emotionally manipulative pièce de résistance, but I have no doubt it will prove I’m responsible and kind and trustworthy and reliable and will one day make a killer anecdote in our wedding vows.
I casually guide Julia toward the exact place I mapped out yesterday in Central Park. It’s the perfect little spot, near the west-facing path, that has the best view of the skyline because the trees part like the gates of heaven.
Golden hour is about to hit, and Finn is in the bushes with a goldendoodle puppy I bought off a woman named Felicia on Long Island. Thankfully, Julia and I are only a few minutes away.
My phone buzzes violently in my pocket, and then it pretty much keeps buzzing so much that I pull it out and discreetly look at the screen while I continue to guide Julia where I need her to be.
Finn: Where the fuck are you?
Finn: It’s hot. I’m sweating. And this dog is staring at me like he knows I have no plan.
Finn: This is insane, Ace. Like really fucking insane. You know that, right? I already have enough to deal with, preparing to have all three of my brothers at Dickson this year, and yet, here I am, with a fucking dog, waiting for you in the middle of Central fucking Park
Finn: I don’t know how the fuck I let you get me into these situations.
Finn: I swear, if you don’t show up in 2 minutes, I’m naming him Todd and giving him to Scottie.
I text back one-handed while pretending to point something out on the skyline for Julia.
Me: YOU CAN’T KEEP HIM. OR NAME HIM TODD.
Me: Just chill for like a few more minutes and release the dog when I text “sunset”
Finn: A few more minutes? I’ve already been standing here trying to keep this puppy hidden behind a fucking bush for like thirty minutes. This plan is UNHINGED.
Me: This plan is perfect. You’ll see. Just wait.
Next to me, Julia stretches her arms overhead and takes a deep breath. “This was a good idea,” she says, sighing like peace incarnate. “I always forget how much I love Central Park.”
“Same,” I say. “It’s even better when you’re not dodging tourists or rogue saxophone players or those nice ladies who are always trying to sell mangoes.”
She smiles, and the light hits her just right, and I swear to God I almost abort the mission just to blurt out, “I love you! Here’s a puppy and my soul!”
Instead, I keep my shit together and text Finn one word.
Me: sunset
Nothing happens.
I text again.
Me: SUNSET
Me: GO
Me: UNLEASH THE BEAST
Finn: Hang on, he’s tangled in the leash.
Oh my fucking God. Get it together, man!
Finn: Okay. Okay. RELEASED.
And then, like a miracle, he appears. The cute, adorable goldendoodle puppy bounds across the grass like a teddy bear on a sugar rush, ears flopping, tail wagging like he’s never known sadness.
“Oh my God!” Julia gasps when she spots him running toward us. “Look at that puppy, Ace!”
And since he’s the best dog in the whole damn world, he literally runs straight to Julia’s feet. We don’t share DNA, but he’s clearly my son.
She crouches down and picks him up, snuggling him into the crook of her neck.
“He doesn’t have a collar,” I say, eyes wide like I didn’t orchestrate this entire thing. “I wonder if he’s lost, Jules…”
“Aw.” She cuddles him closer. “Are you lost? Did you lose your mommy or daddy?”
Technically, he just found his mommy and daddy, and I’ve been training him for this moment by having my mom put articles of clothing I’ve been stealing from Julia’s closet with him every night since I got him from Felicia and stashed him at my parents’ place.
The puppy immediately launches himself at her and starts licking her face with joyful abandon. She laughs so hard she falls onto the grass, and he climbs on top of her like he’s found his soul mate.
I kneel beside them and point out his tag-less neck again. “He doesn’t have a collar or tag.” I make a show of standing to my feet and looking around the park. “And I don’t see anyone looking for him.”
“Aw, poor baby,” Julia says, rubbing his fluffy head. “We can’t just leave him, Ace.”
“No,” I agree solemnly. “We definitely can’t leave him.”
“Someone must be missing him.”
“Or…” I say, voice low, heart racing, “maybe he was meant to find us.”
She looks up at me slowly. “Are you saying this is fate?”
Yes. Yes, Julia Brooks. I am.
“I mean, if we had to take him, we’d have to co-parent. Like…full joint custody.”
“I think I could handle that,” she says, smiling. “He’s literally perfect, but surely this is someone’s dog, Ace. I mean, what are the odds that a puppy just finds its way into Central Park without an owner?”
“I’ll check shelters tomorrow, just in case he’s lost or someone’s looking for him.”
“Good idea.” Julia nods, still cuddling our furbaby son to her chest. “And what if we don’t find anyone?”
Internally, I’m screaming in excitement. Externally, I say, “Well…then I guess we need to give him a name.”
Her answering smile is blinding. I casually pretend I’m chill, while internally, I’m thinking, this is it.
This is one of the moments Julia will remember when she tells our future children how she fell in love with me.