EPILOGUE Jake
Jake
Six months later
“Millie, are you home?”
I hear a thump, followed by a grunt, and then see a flash of pink hair and a bright smile hurtling towards me.
“You’re here!”
I catch Amelia in my arms and she wraps her legs around my waist, kissing me like it’s been weeks instead of the mere hours that have passed since I last saw her. Not that I’m complaining. After wanting her in secret for so long, I relish every minute of the affection she so freely gives me.
“We’re getting better at this!” I laugh, planting one more kiss on her mouth before letting her slide to the ground.
“Our best run and jump yet,” she agrees. Having watched all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls during our first few months of dating, Amelia has moved us onto watching The Bachelor and now has us practising ‘the run and jump.’ It’s what the contestants do on this show every time they see the lead: hop, skip, and jump into his arms, where he’s waiting to catch them. It’s ridiculous, but it also means that whenever I see her, she’s launching herself at me, so I’m not complaining.
“How was your day?” She moves away from me, pulling her hair into a messy bun on top of her head. This week her hair is a light pink colour, reminding me of an Easter egg. Who knows what colour she’ll opt for next week?
“Boring,” I tell her while I loosen my tie. My hours in the office have taken a drastic hit since I started dating Amelia, something my bosses have been grumbling about. But what I don’t get done in the ten full hours they demand that I stay in the sterile, fluorescent-lit office building, I finish up after hours, cuddled up on Amelia’s couch. It’s a win-win in my book.
“I’m glad you’re here.” I follow her into her small kitchen, watching as she lovingly waters her cactus plant. The one she calls Callie.
She’s so adorable.
“Why is that?”
“Because we’re not eating here tonight,” she says, garnering a groan from me. Although we’ve been together for just over half a year, she still hasn’t dragged me out of my introverted ways.
“What have you committed us to tonight?”
She gives me her very best puppy dog eyes. Oh, I will not like this.
“We’re meeting Robby and his new girlfriend for dinner at that new Thai restaurant down the road.”
So, that’s why she’s got her pleading face on. She’s agreed to go out with my brother and whichever girl he’s tricked into dating him this month!
“Do we have to?” I pull her into my arms and nuzzle my nose into her neck, using my own ways of persuading her to stay in. “Wouldn’t you rather have a night on the couch?”
I feel her resolve weakening before she rallies. “He’s trying, Jake. We need to meet him in the middle.”
I sigh. She’s right. In the weeks after we first got together, Robby’s behaviour had been as expected. Tantrums, silent treatment, blow-ups. But once he realised that me and Amelia were here to stay and he was the expendable one in my life, he came around. Somewhat. Amelia has been amazing through it all, playing peacemaker, trying to get us both to be reasonable, and I know it’s because of her that my brother and I are on decent terms, even if I had to end our roommate agreement. It was too difficult having Amelia and him thrown into the same space constantly. Robby had to go.
“Fine, let’s meet them early so we can get home early.”
She laughs, wagging her finger at me. “I can see right through you. You’re pretending it’s because you want to get away from your brother, but really you want to get home in time to watch The Bachelor.”
Busted.I don’t trust us to not get spoiled if we don’t watch it live. A fact that amuses Amelia endlessly.
“Well, it’s your fault for getting me hooked,” I grumble. “I need to know who Zac picks.”
She throws her head back with laughter and I marvel again that she’s mine. This shiny, glorious woman in front of me, who lives her life in multi-colour, actually wants to spend her life with me.
“Fine, let’s have a quick bite to eat and then get you home in time for your reality TV fix.”
Decision made, I make my way to her bedroom, where most of my clothes are hanging in her small closet. Everything about Amelia’s place is small, meant for just one petite woman, and I’m more than ready for the day we can move into a place that we own together. So far, we’ve been happy having our separate places to retreat to, and when I say we, I mean Amelia, because I’d move in with her in a heartbeat. In fact, that’s something I need to talk to her about. I just need to make sure I sweeten the deal a bit.
“Are you busy tomorrow?” I yell the question down the hallway while I change into a casual pair of blue jeans and a green cashmere jumper that is suitable for the cooler autumn climate. Amelia loves it when I wear green, something about my eyes looking like emeralds when I do.
“Nothing much,” she replies. “I’m working in the afternoon. Why?”
I don’t answer her, hoping to keep my plans for the morning a secret. Over the last six months, Amelia has grown so much emotionally. She’s now closer with her dad and his family, has worked through a lot of her issues with her mum and has started therapy. I’ve gone to a few sessions with her, knowing it’s important for our relationship for me to be a part of her journey to healing. Her ability to open up and trust in herself, her feelings and emotions, and most of all her trust in me, have only gotten stronger with time. So much so that I think she’s ready for the next step. The next two steps, in fact.
“I’ve also been busy making secret plans.”
She lights up with pleasure and she sashays over to me, a determined look on her face. Uh oh, she’s going to get the information out of me. I’m a sucker for this woman.
“Tell me.” She purrs at me, her face inches away from mine.
I shake my head, rolling my lips into a tight line.
She brushes her lips over the pulse point on my neck. Oh, she’s playing dirty.
“Please?”
I pick her up and move her away from me, seconds away from cracking and telling her all my plans.
“Come on, Jake. You know I hate secrets!” She pouts at me and I can’t hold back my smile. It’s a known fact that she hates secrets, surprises or anything where she can’t have an input. It’s one of the many things I love about her.
“Fine.” I make a big show of giving in, when in reality I knew that I was going to tell her everything the minute she asked me. “Ruin the surprise, why don’t you?”
She pulls me to the couch and turns her body to face me, an empty packet of Tiny Teddies on the coffee table next to us.
“Go!”
I take her small hand in mine, marvelling at how something so delicate holds my whole life in its palm. “I’ve been thinking…about our future.”
Her expression grows serious, and she scoots closer to me until our knees are touching.
“What about it?”
“We’ve been together for how long now?”
“Six amazing months,” she answers instantly.
“And it’s been the best six months of my life.”
She plants a soft kiss on my lips. “Mine too.”
“So, I’ve been thinking about us taking the next step.”
I stop and she looks bemused and a little scared. What does she think I’m about to say?
“The next step?” she stutters.
“Yes, I think we should…”
Her hands are trembling in mine and I forge ahead, putting her out of her misery. “We should get a cat together!”
Her pretty mouth falls open. “A cat?”
I grin at her, pleased that I’ve caught her off guard. “Yes, a cat.”
“Together?”
“Yes.”
She shakes her head slightly, trying to get her bearings. “But I can’t have a cat. I kill all things I look after.”
And this is the reason we need to do this. Even after all the therapy and every piece of evidence to the contrary, Amelia still thinks she is incapable of giving enough love to another person. Or animal.
“That’s complete rubbish, and you know it.”
She shakes her head, more firmly this time. “I can’t have pets in this apartment, Jake.”
I put my arm around her, tucking her into my side. “That’s where the ‘we’ comes into it. I said we should get a cat. As in you and me…”
“We’d share custody?”
OK, this is getting annoying.
“Yes, we’d share custody because we’d be living together.”
She squeals, and a laugh is torn from me. That’s the reaction I’d been hoping for.
“You want to live together? With me?”
I want to do more than just live together, if the diamond ring I’ve been hiding in my bedside drawer is anything to go by. But with Amelia, I know we need to take baby steps. Adopting a cat and living together seems the most natural next step.
“I do.”
She thinks about it for so long, a trickle of sweat runs down my back. Is there a chance I misread this, and she’s going to say no?
“Yes!”
My heart sings in response to this one word.
“Yes?”
“Yes, Jake, I want to live with you and get a cat. Maybe we can get two…?” Her brain is off and running, filled with thoughts of running a feline hotel if what she’s saying is anything to go by.
“Let’s start with the one and go from there.”
She nods and snuggles back into me. “So, should I move into your place…?” She sounds uncertain again.
“How about we get a place that’s just our own? A fresh start, somewhere we can make new memories together?”
She bites her lip; a sign of relief and I know we’re doing the right thing. My place, while having so many wonderful memories of our time together, is also shrouded by memories of her time with him. With Robby.
“I’ve been looking online for a while.” About five and a half months. “And I found a place close to your salon, and Love, Lilly, and it has a cute enclosed yard out the back for the one cat we’re getting.” I emphasise the word one, pulling out my phone to show her the real estate ad for a place that I’ve already fallen in love with. I can just picture the two of us living there together, making a life and raising a family. It’s a crystal-clear image in my mind.
“Oh, Jake. I love it!” she exclaims as she scrolls through the photos. “It’s perfect. Look at those bay windows and that little front porch. It’s exactly the sort of place we should get.”
With my nerves gone, I reach into my back pocket. “I’m glad that you think so, because it’s ours.”
I hand her the keys to this place, which I’d bought with our future in mind, my heart racing as her eyes fill with tears.
“It’s ours?” her voice is trembling with emotion.
I nod, too choked up to speak. It may not be the ring I’m so desperate to give her, but giving her this key is like giving her my heart all over again. And I know, as she’s done every day since we first said I love you, that she’ll take care of it.
“You bought us a place?”
“We need somewhere that’s just ours. Just for you and me.”
She throws her arms around my neck and holds on tight. “I love it, Jake. And I love you.”
My eyes close and I hug her back, whispering back how much I love her too.
We sit like this, in our own bubble, and I think not for the first time how grateful I am that we found our way to each other and that we now have a future that is wide open with possibilities.
A future for the two of us.
A future that is actually ours.
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