Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
S kye
I stand outside the Macy's and wait for Juniper to show up. I look at my watch and frown. She's already five minutes late. My phone vibrates and I look down and see that Juniper is calling me.
"Hey, is everything okay?" I ask her as I answer.
"Yes. Don't be mad at me."
"What are you talking about? You're not going to be super, duper late, are you? I can go and grab a bite or something if?—"
"No, I'm not going to make it."
"What do you mean you're not going to make it? Juniper, you've been wanting this, right?"
"I do want it, but I just don't think it's the right time. I?—"
"Juniper. It's going to be okay. I promise. I know it seems like it's going to be a big change, but?—"
"No, it's not that. It's not going to be the right time for me today because…" She sighs. "I'm sorry. I know I should have probably asked first, but he begged me not to."
"What are you talking about? Who begged you not to?"
"It was…" She sighs again. "Oh my gosh. I hope I didn't mess up. I'm really sorry, but..."
"What's going on? You're confusing me."
"Kingston called me last night and..."
"What?"
"He asked me if I could tell him where I was meeting you today because he really wanted to see you and he really wanted to tell you something. And he begged me to let him see you today instead of me and said he'll set it up with you so we can rearrange the makeover for next week. I'm so sorry. I?—"
"I cannot believe he did that. What the..."
I pause as I realize that I feel a presence next to me. I look up and see Kingston's blue eyes staring down at me. He has a solemn look on his face.
"Hey, Juniper, I'm not mad at you. Kingston just arrived. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Okay. Good luck."
"Thanks, girl," I say, and hang up.
"How dare you?" I immediately say, pushing my finger into Kingston's chest. "How dare you cancel my plans because..."
"Because what?" he says, giving me a kiss on the cheek.
"What are you doing?"
"Saying hello. You look pretty," he says, looking me up and down. "Really beautiful."
"Um, okay. That doesn't excuse the fact that you went and changed my plans when I didn't say it was okay. You asked me yesterday if I would see you and change my plans and I said no, and you went behind my back and?—"
"Because I've been a fool, Skye."
"Sorry. What?"
"I've been a fool," he says slowly.
"Okay, and this is new to you?"
He chuckles slightly. "Are you saying you consider me a fool?"
"I'm saying that you might not be as smart as you think."
"Really?"
"Yes, really." I glare at him.
"You may be right. I want to take you somewhere."
"Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere special."
"Um, I don't really know what that means and I don't really think that I want to go anywhere with you right now. If I'm not going to be giving Juniper a makeover, I think I'm just going to go home and watch TV and?—"
"And nothing," he says. "Please, just give me five minutes."
"I don't want to give you anything," I say, my heart pounding.
It's hard for me to look at him without feeling love and excitement and joy. I just want to kiss him, to touch him, but I know I need to stop. I know I cannot allow these feelings to grow anymore.
"Please, Skye, just five minutes."
"Why should I give you five minutes?"
"Because I love you," he says. "And I am hoping you love me too. I'm hoping you're going to forgive me for being an idiot. I'm hoping that you're going to forgive me for saying I think it's okay for you to go on that dating show because hell no I'm not okay with it."
"What?" My heart stops.
"I love you, Skye," he says loudly, and a woman to the right looks at us.
"He said he loves you. You need a hearing aid or something?"
"No. Thank you." I look over at him. "Are you for real? Is this because you're jealous now that I'm going to meet someone new or..."
"Skye, we spent the last two months dating and sleeping together and being together and working together and I've loved every moment of it. I love spending time with you. I love being with you. I love touching you. I love you sleeping over. I love your little snores."
"I don't snore. I mean, loudly."
He grins. "And I love your little jokes about the engagement ring. So much so that I want to get you a ring.”
My jaw drops.
"What?"
"Not an engagement ring," he says quickly. "A promise ring. A promise that I am ready to be committed. A promise that I want you to be my girlfriend. A promise that I want this to be official. I want everyone in the office to know. I want everyone in the world to know that I love you. I want to make this something real. I want to make this something special. I want you to know that I was a fool when I said to you we were never going to end up like Max and Lila. I was a fool when I told you not to get your hopes up. And you know what?"
"What?" I say.
"I think I was saying it because I wanted a reaction. I think I was saying it because I wanted to see what you would do or think or feel. I wanted to know if you felt that spark that I felt from the very beginning."
"You felt a spark from the very beginning?"
"From the first time I laid eyes on you." He grins. "Why do you think I hired you?"
"Because of my brilliant resumé."
He bursts out laughing then. "Your resumé was not all that."
"But you said that Max made a huge mistake by hiring Lila and you wouldn't do such a thing."
"I say a lot of things." He grins. "Doesn't mean they're always true."
"So you love me?"
"I do," he says. "And what about you?"
"What about me?" I ask him, teasingly.
"How do you feel about me?"
"I love you, you goof. Of course I love you." I wrap my arms around his neck. "I have loved you for ages now and I just love being with you and touching you and kissing you and I felt like a fool for falling for the man that told me to never fall for him."
"I guess we were both fools, but I'm glad you're a fool too." He grins. "Makes me feel better about myself."
"It should make you feel better about yourself. So, were you serious about the ring or was that a joke?"
He bursts out laughing. "I'm serious, and guess what?"
"What?"
"I make $50,000 a month."
"Whoa. You make a lot of money."
"So I figure if the engagement ring I get you is $150,000…"
"Yeah?"
"Then the promise ring I get you could be up to $75,000."
"You are not going to buy me a ring for $75,000. Hell no. You're out of your mind."
"I might be a little bit out of my mind, but I remember the very first thing you said to me was you needed to know my salary so you knew how much you could spend on a ring. You don't have to spend seventy-five grand on a ring, but if you want to…" He grins. "I'd be more than happy to spend that. In fact, I have some appointments at some jewelry stores."
"No way."
"Yep. I was hoping that you would say yes to coming to look at some with me."
"I mean, I won't say no." I grin. "But you're not spending that much money."
"And I have one other surprise."
"What is it?"
"We're going on a trip tomorrow."
"Excuse me?"
"I wanted to make it a super surprise, but I know you. You're going to want to pack. So we're going to do some shopping today."
"We're going to do shopping because we're going where?"
"See if you can guess."
"New Jersey?"
"Really? You think I'm so romantic that I'm going to take you to New Jersey?"
I giggle girlishly. "Okay. Texas?"
"Do you want to go to Texas?"
"No," I say, laughing. "Where are you taking me?"
"We're going to go to Paris," he says. "And we're going to get chocolate croissants."
"Oh my gosh. You're joking."
"Nope. I've hired a private plane."
"I'm going on a private plane? That must have cost loads of money."
"You know what, Skye? I've spent my entire working career trying to make as much money as possible. Taking cases, doing things that I don't necessarily personally agree with for the money, and I don't even spend it. I want to spend it now. I want to spoil you. I want it to have been worth it."
"Um, I don't know what to say to that, but I'm going to say no to a trip to Paris. What is it? An overnight trip?"
"No," he says, shaking his head. "We're going to spend three days in Paris and then go to London, then Amsterdam, then come back. It will be about ten days total. It would've been longer, but I have a case coming up that I have to prepare for."
"But ten days? I?—"
"You don't want to go," he says. "I mean, that's fine. I shouldn't have overstepped. I shouldn't have?—"
"No, I want to go, but Juniper's makeover. If I don't do it today, I was going to do it next weekend."
"Then can you do it the weekend after that?" he asks hopefully. "I mean, if you'd rather just get back, we can cut out Amsterdam and go another time."
"But I really want to go to Amsterdam. I want to see Anne Frank's house."
"Okay. I'll speak to Juniper and see if she's okay with waiting the two weeks."
"I cannot believe this. Who knew you were so romantic and so sweet?"
"Not me," he says as he picks me up and spins me around. "But I guess you just bring it out in me, Skye Redding."
"I'm glad I do, Kingston Chase."
I press my lips to his and his tongue slips into my mouth as he holds me close to him.
"I love you so much, Skye. I can't believe I almost lost you."
"I know, because you were being so goofy."
"Um, so you're going to email or call the producers of that show and tell them that you're not taking the position?"
"Sorry, what?" I blink. "What are you talking about?"
"Um, one of the producers of the show said that you are going to be selected and asked if you would get the time off."
"Huh?" I stare at him. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. They wanted to confirm that I was okay with you taking a couple of months off so you could go to Croatia."
"What? What are you talking about Croatia? They were going to be filming in North Carolina from what I know."
"North Carolina?" He furrows his brow. "But I got a call yesterday and..." He frowns. "Huh. Hold on a second."
He grabs his phone and it rings. "Hello? This is Gabe."
"Gabe?"
"Uh, yeah."
"This is Kingston."
"Hey, what's up?"
"Why did you call me from this number yesterday saying that you were a producer on a dating show?"
He groans. "Oh. It wasn't me. It was Marie and Lila." He chuckles. "I can't believe you fell for that shit. I didn't think I had that good of a voice."
"What do you mean that good of a voice?"
"I thought for sure you would've been able to tell it was me. I thought that's why you hung up."
"No, I had no clue it was you. What is going on?"
"Uh, I guess you got to speak to your girl about that. Lila and Marie just said they wanted me to make this call and pretend I was the producer. I didn't really ask questions."
"Fine." Kingston starts laughing and hangs up. "Do you know anything about this?" he asks.
"I mean, I did tell Lila that I was really upset that you told me to go on to the show and that you seemed to have no issue with it and that you were going to give me the time off. And she was like, 'He sounds like an idiot. He has no idea what he's saying.' And that was it. She didn't tell me that she was going to have someone call and pretend to be a producer. I am so mad. I can't believe she did that."
"I'm not." He grins. "I think I know why she did it."
"Oh?" I ask.
"They did it because I was being a fool. They did it because it didn't even cross my mind what it actually meant for you to be on a show like that. They did it because it spurred me into action, knowing that I didn't want to lose you. I've known that I love you for a while and I was okay with the status quo. I was okay with what we had because I didn't feel threatened. But what we had wasn't enough. What we had was surface level and I want to step it up a notch. I want you to know that I claim you, that I want you, that I need you. You are my everything."
"I love you," I say softly as I kiss him on the lips.
"Not as much as I love you. Though I do have a question." He grins.
"What?"
"Are you going to submit an application to the newspaper that I am the best boss of the year now, or…?"
I burst out laughing and shake my head. "You may be the best boyfriend, but you're definitely still not the best boss." I giggle. "Yeah, that's not going to happen."
“I think you have that wrong that I'm not the best boss, don’t you?”
“I promise, you’d definitely win the not the boss of the year award."
"Okay," he says. "But what about the boss of your heart?"
"Oh, you'll definitely win the boss of my heart award because I love you more than anything and I'm so glad that we're on this journey together, figuring out our lives and love and just where we want to go from here. You know I wouldn't want to do life with anyone else other than you, right? And you know I want you to move in with me."
"But Elisabetta," I say, frowning.
"You barely see her. Isn't she having a full-blown love affair with that old guy?"
"Yeah." I nod. "But I don't know that it's going well. I mean, she does seem happy enough."
"See?" he says. "She's not going to miss you and I miss you every night that you're not by my side."
"You really want me to move in with you?"
"More than anything. I want you to live with me forever because I will love you forever, and when it's time, we'll become engaged and then married and have kids and?—"
"Whoa, what? Have kids? You want to have kids?"
"With you Skye, I want to do everything. I want to travel the world and explore and I want to be the subject of your book. Shit, you can even call it My Lover Kingston Chase if you want."
"I am not going to call my book My Lover Kingston Chase ."
"Fine. You can just call it Kingston ."
I giggle. "You're a goof, you know that?"
"I know, but only when I'm with you. I love you."
"I love you more. I love you to the moon and back. I love you to the bedroom and back," I say, grinning.
"Then let's go, honey."
"After we go shopping," I say.
"Fine." He groans. "But let's do it quickly because there's nothing I want more than to have you by my side forever."
"Um, what's that got to do with your bedroom?"
"Nothing, but I just thought it sounded sweet."
"You are sweet," I say, kissing him.
He grabs my hand and squeezes it. "I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with you."
"It’s a good thing you don't have to wait then, because we will be exploring and traveling forever," I say. "And nothing means more to me than going on this journey with you.”
Thank you for reading Not The Boss of The Year. I hope you enjoyed the book.