18. Zee
“At least he’s cute.”
“You changed your mind,” I grumble. “You nearly bit my head off when I said he didn’t look like Freddy Krueger.”
“Yes, and being the optimistic person that I am, I realize how lucky you are to be trapped into marriage with a man who looks like Colton and not Freddy.” Her stare is both pointed and chiding. “It’s called ‘glass half full,’ Zee. You should try it sometime.”
Wryly, I nod. “If you say so, Tee.”
Tee sniffs, but Parker asks, “How cute?” before she can gripe at me.
“You didn’t google him?”
Watching us pack, Parker shrugs. “Wanted to see for myself.”
Humming as she folds up the last of my clothes, Tee declares, “He’s a nine.”
Parker whistles. “A nine?!”
“I’m knocking a point off because he’s forcing my best friend to marry him.”
“It isn’t forced if she signed a contract,” is Parker’s input. “Plus, she’s packing of her own free will. I don’t see a gun pointing at her head.”
“We’re Canadian. We don’t do guns.”
I cough. “Ranchers do guns.”
“Shotguns. Not handguns and pistols. We’re polite,” Tee insists.
Parker props her chin on her fist. “If you love Canada so much, why don’t you freakin’ live there?”
“It’s better to pine. You appreciate it more.”
“I don’t. I like it here plenty.” I plunk another box by the door. “This officially sucks. Even if my honeymoon isn’t on Elm Street.”
“According to Tee, the perk is you get a cute husband so no complaining,” Parker says helpfully.
“I don’t want a cute husband.”
“She gets a baby out of it too,” Tee tacks on.
Parker grimaces.
I point a finger at her expression. “That’s exactly how I feel about this.”
“She asked him if he’d agree to IVF.” Tee folds one of my sweaters. “Honestly, Zee, the one perk is literally that he’s fuckable and you don’t want to fuck him.”
“I don’t know him!”
“You didn’t know that guy from Russu three weeks ago.”
“I didn’t have sex with him either. We went for a Reuben,” I admit sheepishly.
“You told me you screwed him. Three orgasms, you said.”
“That wasn’t a lie.” I wiggle my hand at her. “You know I did a better job than he would have.”
“She has a point. They’re so drunk, they make two-pump chumps look like they have stamina when they get out of a club.”
“How would you know, Parker?” Tee derides. “You haven’t been to a club in decades.”
“I haven’t been an adult for decades!”
“The last time you went to a club was when you were in utero.”
Parker mutters, “Screw you.”
“Screw you back!” Tee pouts. “I’m going to come and move in with you. It’ll stop me from being lonely.”
“When I’m in Jersey, I live with Rachel and her motley crew. It’s already a full house.”
“I’m little. I’ll fit into a shoebox.”
“If only that were true.” Parker’s smirk slowly fades. “You’re going to have to find another roommate, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” Tee rubs her hand over her forehead. “No ‘glass half full’ optimism takes away how much that blows.”
“Why don’t you go with Zee? It’s not like your music career is thriving.”
“That was mean, Parker!”
“Mean but true,” she counters unapologetically. “She’s cutting herself up about losing you when the simple answer is to go with you. She loves Canada. If I hear her tell me about how Timmies is better over the border one more time or how Walmart isn’t for insane people up there, I’m going to scream. As far as I can tell, the winters are the only thing she hates.”
Tee points a finger at her. “You need to get laid. You’re crabby.”
She sniffs. “Sweet Lips had to go home. I wanted to stick around to help Rachel with the transition of Zee moving away. I miss him.”
“It’s always about sex with you, Tee,” I complain. “Sex doesn’t heal all the world’s ailments.”
“If Mother Earth got it on more, I’m sure that global warming would be a thing of the past. It’s the friction between her thighs. Nothing more.”
Pausing in her work—ordering Rachel’s groceries for the week—Parker snickers. “When’s Colt coming?”
Tee elbows me in the side. “In an hour. It’s their wedding night tomorrow.”
“Oooooo-oooooh,” Parker teases. “If there’s a wedding party then I expect to be invited over Zoom!”
My cheeks turn pink. “You two are horrible.”
Tee cackles. “You love us.”
“I shouldn’t, but I do.” If I sound grumpy, so be it.
Tee tugs on my arm and links ours together. “At least there’s one perk to Parker’s weird lifestyle choices?—”
“Hey!”
“What’s that?”
“We’re used to Zoom parties! We can still hang out. Long distance.”
I curl an arm around her shoulder. “You’re the best.”
“Don’t I know it. Underappreciated too.”
Parker blows a raspberry so Tee flips her the bird.
Packing more of my stuff away, I stiffen when the doorbell rings.
The whole room falls silent. Until…
“Is that him?” Parker whispers.
“If it is, he’s early.”
Tee quickly checks her phone and the doorbell camera she installed last month when there were some BEs in our building.
“It is,” she whisper-shouts. “THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
I gulp.
Straighten.
I can’t help but feel as if I’m about to face a firing squad.
“What am I supposed to say to him?”
“Hello. Then bring him over here and introduce us. I’ll be the judge on whether he’s a nine or not.”
“Parker, I’m telling you he is,” Tee argues.
“Shut up, you two. He’ll hear!”
“I heard,” he calls through the door. “I appreciate the assessment.”
Damn him for sounding amused.
Tee cackles again, and Parker lets out a chuckle.
My cheeks feel like they’re on fire as I walk over to the door. Prisoners on their way to the hangman are probably more enthusiastic than I am.
Everything has already changed but this is it.
I can’t walk back from this.
My life’s about to shift on its axis and there’s no return.
Swallowing, I unlock the gazillion locks on the door and finally open it.
He’s there.
And Tee’s right—though I never like to tell her when she is—he’s definitely a nine with a point knocked off for marriage contracts.
“Hello,” I greet uncertainly, stepping aside so that he can join us in our shoebox apartment.
“Hey.” He glances around the place, absorbing the details in a nanosecond before beaming a smile at Tee and Parker.
That smile…
The rare one that’s never captured on camera.
It’s bad that it makes my heart hurt, isn’t it?
Heading for the computer, he looms over the screen. “I’m Colt. I hear you want to vet me.”
“I’m Parker. I know a lawyer and a lot of bad people who’ll gladly murder someone if I ask them to?—”
“Parker!”
Tee hoots.
Colt’s smile deepens. “I’m glad that Zee has someone looking out for her.”
“She does,” Parker warns. “But Tee was right. You’re a nine. She also tells me you’re going to have a baby with our girl?”
“You told them everything?”
“They’re my best friends,” I mutter awkwardly, spying a pair of panties that, of course, are in his line of sight. Snagging them, flustered, I shove them in my pocket. “I’d go nuts if I didn’t loop them in.”
“Plus, babies are kind of hard to hide.” Leaning against the kitchen counter, Tee eyes him. “So, Mr. Korhonen, you’ve come to whisk my sister away.”
“I have,” he intones, not glumly like he’s getting a raw deal but as if he knows how important the words are to her. “And it’s Colton. Or Colt.”
Tee sniffs. “When will the movers show up?”
He checks his phone. “On their last update, they said they were a half-hour’s drive away. So, they’re due any time. Are you mostly done packing?”
“These are the last ones.” I point to two boxes. “I need to seal them.”
“Is this everything?” he asks.
The collection of items I’ve gathered during my years in New York City is meager.
“It’s not like I’m rich or have an abundant amount of space on my hands,” I bite off, aware I sound defensive.
“Take a chill pill, Zee,” Parker advises.
Tee slings her arm around my shoulder. “What you don’t know, Parker, is this is a rags to riches kinda story. The Korhonen house is fancy as fuck. Think Downton Abbey but on the prairie.”
Colt laughs. “That’s one way of describing it. Badly.” But he winks at Parker and, of course, totally charms her.
She even blushes.
My girl who splits her time being a VP’s Old Lady in Coshocton and living with an MC Prez and his First Lady in West Orange… She. Blushes.
When the buzzer sounds, Colt warns, “That’s probably the movers.”
“Crap,” I mumble as I scurry around, collecting stray trinkets and dumping them into the two open boxes.
Colt deals with the moving company and leaves me with the task of making sure I haven’t forgotten anything too big for the suitcases I’ll be traveling with.
Ninety minutes later, my room is empty and the apartment is bare of my belongings.
Sinking onto the sofa, tears prick my eyes at the bareness of the space.
Until Tee hurls herself at my side and starts sobbing.
Her exuberance calms me. It’s as if she gives me permission not to be a McAllister and to feel things like a normal person.
I hug her, holding her tight, both of us rocking as the reality hits—tonight, I won’t be sleeping here.
Tonight, I’ll be in a hotel in Saskatoon.
Tonight, this will stop being my home.
I can’t deny I thought he’d hurry us along. But he doesn’t.
Of course not.
He’s still as kind as he used to be… before it all went wrong.
Colt stands there, talking quietly with Parker about God knows what, and leaves us alone in our misery.
Eventually, Tee’s all cried out but she’s still sniffling as she wails, “Who’s going to wait up for me when I get in from a gig?”
“You can always call me,” I tell her, gently stroking a hand over her hair. “That won’t stop. You can call me whenever you want.”
Tee’s bottom lip wobbles but she nods. “And who’s going to make sure your blood sugar’s all right?”
My laughter is croaky. “I can manage.”
I haven’t had many major incidents since I was a teenager. Day to day, I’ve gotten good with the balancing act as a type 1. As good as you can get when experiencing an adrenaline high in the afternoon can make your blood sugar bottom out at 2AM.
“And if she can’t, I will,” Colton assures her, stepping toward us and invading the conversation.
I don’t mind though. Not when his smile is kind and his gaze is gentle as he studies Tee and me.
“You’ll check her monitor?” Tee demands.
Colton nods. “Gladly.”
“You’ll get alerts at 5AM,” she cautions.
“I’m awake then,” he soothes. “I got this.”
She sniffles. “It’s my job.”
I kiss her cheek. “Technically, it’s mine.”
“You need a blood-sugar keeper, Susanne McAllister.”
“Ouch. Full name?”
We share a look—one that speaks of the many occasions she’s force-fed me snacks and how she carries sugar gels in her purse for me. Sometimes, she’s who realizes that I’m acting loopy or more confused than usual…
This transition is going to be difficult for both of us.
“Who will make you laugh when you get all sad?” is what she says, though.
“You will. Because I’ll call you and you can cheer me up long distance?” I squeeze her tighter. “And you can do the same with me. I’m moving, not dying. I’ll always be on the other end of a phone.”
“Dying is not allowed.”
“We have to go catch our flight?” I whisper, shooting Colt a look.
“Yeah.” But he doesn’t push or press. “I arranged everything regarding the ceremony. We need to get the paperwork sorted in Saskatoon.” As I kiss Tee’s cheek, he continues, “I’m sorry you couldn’t fly back for the ceremony, Christy. If you’ve changed your mind, I can?—”
She swipes at her cheeks and then grants him a great honor. “You can call me Tee. My asshole boss won’t grant me PTO on such short notice.” Her bottom lip wobbles. “I hate that I can’t be there, Zee.”
He leaves us to our second sobfest as she sputters apologies for not being able to afford time off from work but gives me twenty minutes to get ready for the airport.
Once I’m showered and dressed in a simple pencil skirt and silk shirt that I combine with leather boots and a warm winter coat, I retreat to the living room and find them laughing with one another.
That he got Tee to relax is something I need to be thankful for.
As bitter as we both are about this situation, I can tell she likes him.
I’m not sure if that makes things better or worse.
It physically hurts to hug her goodbye and to wave farewell to Parker. Hurts more to grab my carry-on while Colt sorts out my luggage and to eventually leave the apartment and hear her turn the six locks behind us.
It’s especially rough when she starts crying again.
Wishing I could ease her suffering, I press my hand to the door.
“You’ll see her soon,” Colt rumbles, his voice kind.
How soon? Not tonight. Not tomorrow night either.
Summer?
The holidays?
God.
“Are you okay?”
His question breaks into my thoughts.
The elevator doors open and he waits for me to step inside before joining me.
I’m not sure if this chivalry is going to wear on my last nerve or ultimately charm me.
Either way, it’s a problem for another time.
“It’s the end of an era,” I finally say.
“That always hurts.”
“Yes.” The doors close behind us. “Thank you for being kind to her. I know she’s… dramatic. It’s her creative soul. She feels too much.”
“She’s a musician, isn’t she?”
“Among other things. She’s damn good, though. Just can’t catch a break here.”
“Sometimes, it’s not what you know but who.”
I tip up my chin. “Very true.”
He checks his cell phone. “Tee doesn’t know we used to be friends, does she?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Because you were my secret.
Not a dirty one. A happy one.
I wanted to keep him to myself. I didn’t want to share him. Selfish, but true.
“Does it matter?”
“I suppose not.”
The elevator doors open and, outside, there’s a car idling—ours.
You’re not in Kansas anymore, Doro-zee.
The driver handles my suitcases and Colt deals with him, presenting me with the opportunity of contemplating the man who’ll be my husband.
On the way out the door, Parker sent me a thumbs-up while Colt’s back was turned…
I didn’t need her approval to know that he’s a catch.
But it’s ten years too late for my silly girlish fantasies to come true.
Right?