Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
AUGUST CURRENT DAY (THURSDAY)
T he same man that’s been running trivia as long as we’ve been coming to The Dizzy Acorn is haphazardly getting everything set up. It looks like it’s his first time running this even though he should have it streamlined by now. Whatever works for him, I guess, but it’s not how I work and it gives me anxiety just watching.
Thankfully, Trent gives me the perfect out when he whispers, “Now.”
That’s my cue.
I get out of my chair, giving Warren a kiss on the cheek as he pulls his arm off my shoulders with a knowing smile. I know we’re both thinking the same thing— it’s about damn time.
“I need to talk to you,” I say, leaning down when I get to Ali’s seat. I don’t have to say anymore, she just stands and walks with me off to the back of the room.
The bathrooms are located down a skinny hallway on the side of the bar, far enough from the main room that the sound doesn’t travel here well. This has been our spot whenever we need to talk after a long day so it’s not suspicious of me to ask even though I have ulterior motives this time. I promised Trent I’d keep her out of there long enough for him to talk to the teams playing trivia tonight—most are also regulars like us so I have no doubt they’ll happily agree to his request—but I actually do need to talk to her.
“Did something happen?” she asks as soon as we’re inside and finish checking that we’re alone.
“Peter, the CEO of Warren’s company,” I clarify when she looks confused at the name, “offered me a job.”
Her eyes squint and her brows pull together. “Well, isn’t he your boss now too?”
I laugh, I’m not explaining this well. “Right, but he offered me a promotion I guess?”
“Oh my god,” she exclaims, and I jump from the volume of her words. “Analise, that’s incredible.”
“I’d have to move to D.C.,” I add, and her excitement fades fractionally but she smiles.
“You and Warren could be together then.”
My lips tremble at that, falling into a frown. “The position reports directly to the CFO.”
I wait for her to realize who the CFO is because I can’t bring myself to say his name in that sentence. Her face falls when she remembers.
“No,” she breathes and all I can do is nod. “What did you say?”
“I said I needed to think about it, because I didn’t want to say no right away.” I know she doesn’t need a reminder of why I’m hesitant to take this. That to me, this is setting us up for ruin again when we just mended the fractures between us.
“Did Warren say anything about it?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t let him yet. They offered it to me yesterday after work and when we got home, I cried, and he just held me. I think he knew I couldn’t talk about it then, but he knew what I was thinking too. I’m going to talk to him tonight, but I can’t take it, right? They didn’t know we were together when they offered it and telling them would only make it more complicated.”
“Ana.” She only uses that nickname when she wants me to listen, when I need to listen. “Technically, he’s your boss now anyway, there’s just a few people in-between. I think this is something you’re going to have to face regardless of if you take the job or not.”
Shit. She’s right. I hadn’t really thought about that since this acquisition is so new, but actuarial departments report up to the CFO.
“But if you don’t take the job, are you just going to stay here while he goes back? When does the long-distance end? When do you get to be together?”
I look down and twist the sole of my sneaker into the ground, thankful to not be in heels. I wear those far too often and my feet are glad for the break tonight. “I thought we’d figure that out at some point,” I mumble, knowing exactly what her response is going to be before she says it.
“You thought that last time too.”
And there it is. My greatest fear. That this time will end exactly the same, that we’re doomed to be an almost and not a forever. I want to do this differently, but what if it doesn’t matter in the end?
I finally look up to meet her eyes and give her a small, grateful smile. “I’ll talk to him. I don’t want this to be the same as last time.”
“Good.” She reaches for my hand and squeezes. “You guys deserve a happy ending after everything you’ve been through.”
We head back to the table, arm in arm. The trivia host looks like he’s just about ready to start asking for team name submissions—perfect timing. I slyly glance at Trent and he gives me the smallest nod but it’s enough. I smile as Ali takes her seat beside him.
Little does she know she’s getting her happily ever after tonight.
“Do we have to go get our sheet?” Warren asks when I sit down, and I laugh.
“You know there was this magical discovery that happened in the past six years.” I’m smirking as I pull out my phone and hold it up for him to see. “It’s called technology, maybe you’ve heard of it.”
Back when we won it was still a paper and pencil process, but about two years ago it switched over to a fully electronic process that’s so much easier, and makes the games go by faster since there’s no reading of answers or manual collection process.
The corner of his mouth quirks up even though his eyes try to glare at me. He takes my phone and looks at it with a puzzled face. “How do I use this technology you speak of?”
My grin grows, and I lean in to kiss him as I take my phone back. I unlock it and lean into him as I pull up the website. “What’s our team name?”
He doesn’t answer so I glance up at him and he’s looking at me like I’m insane. “You better be joking.”
I laugh as he takes the phone and enters The Summers and adds a sun emoji next to it, but before he can hit submit, I take it back and add a heart emoji—so it’s just like the one we wrote up on that scoreboard all those years ago.
After I submit it, I look up at him and his eyes are glassy. His hand comes to rest gently on my cheek and holds me like I’m the most precious object he’s ever touched. He leans in so slowly it’s like time keeps pausing to let me soak in each second of him looking at me this way.
He pauses when his lips are just touching mine. “I’m still taking your last name.”
“I’ve heard all this before,” I whisper even though my heart flutters and my hands want to reach out and pull him closer.
“I won’t make the same mistakes again,” he says before pressing his lips to mine.
We only separate because the microphone makes a squeal that has everyone cringing.
“Is this right?” The mans voice flows through the speakers. “Do we have trivia royalty in the house with us tonight?”
The other tables start looking around confused, but our table understands. He can see the team names and just pieced together that ours is the same as the number one spot.
“Is this actually The Summers ?” he asks.
“Yes!” Sterling shouts immediately and he and Will start pointing at us.
My cheeks flush as all eyes in the room turn to look at us. The attention suits Warren and he beams down at me.
“Come on up here.” He gestures at us. I shake my head, but Warren stands and pulls me up with him. He smirks at me, and I swear he’s doing this just to get me back for the technology joke. I roll my eyes and let him drag me up to the microphone.
“You guys really are the same The Summers who have held first place on the leaderboard for five years?” he confirms.
Warren nods, but I lean to the microphone and say, “Closer to eight years now, but yes that’s us.”
There are a few cheers from our friends and others who have been coming here just as long and remember us from that night. I laugh and out of my peripheral vision I think I see someone I know, but when I look over, there’s no one there.
“If I remember correctly,” the man continues, “you two were talking about marriage back then.” I stop breathing, my head whipping over to glare at him, but he doesn’t see. “Did that work out? It appears you two are still together.” He gestures at my hand in Warren’s.
“Well . . .” I start but Warren grabs the microphone. Smart move.
“We aren’t married.” The room boo’s him and I glance over at him with a smug expression and mouth a “boo” too. He laughs. “I know, I know. I made some mistakes that drove us off course for a while, but with all of you as witnesses I swear I’m going to marry this girl one day.”
My face gets hot, like I’ve spent the day in the sun, and it’s probably as red as if I did too. Some people in the crowd cheer, but they’re all looking at me. A nervous laugh slips out as my eyes flash to the table of our friends—all four of them are wide-eyed but Sterling has a huge grin on his face.
I take the microphone from Warren before he can say anything else. “All right, I think he’s had enough to drink tonight already.”
“I haven’t even finished my first drink.” He leans into the mic and gets a chuckle from the crowd. He’s so damn charming.
“Don’t we have a game of trivia to start?” I look back at the man, desperate, and he reaches for the mic.
Just before it leaves my hand, Warren leans to it and says, “I’m going to marry her.”
Another laugh comes from the crowd and as soon as the mic is out of my hand, I turn around and playfully shove him. I see the glow in his eyes. He wanted to embarrass me a little bit, but every word he spoke is the truth. It’s because of that knowledge that, when he wraps an arm around my waist and tugs me into him, I slide my hands up his chest and around his neck.
“So, you’re going to marry me one day?” I ask, voice low even though the mics aren’t near us anymore.
Before he can answer Sterling yells, “Kiss!” and it starts a chant that shakes the bar.
His arm tightens around me as his other hand comes to rest on my cheek. I let him lead the movement, hold me, and pull me closer. When his lips meet mine, I savor the gentle, sweet kiss and when his lips part, mine follow, letting him kiss me deeply. It’s the kiss of two people who have spent years memorizing each other, who know that this is who they want to kiss forever.
Emotions swell in me, and I let them out as a small groan while he kisses me. The noise sends a shock wave through him, and his hand squeezes my hip like it’s trying to stay put since it knows where we are. It’s enough to make me pull back and smile. If we kept kissing, neither of us would be able to stop ourselves from taking it too far for our current location.
We take our seats to the low whistle of Will and the jokingly scandalized but happy faces of the others.
When trivia starts, we get more serious. Mostly because we’re supposed to be rigging the game for Trent and Ali to win. Thank god we switched over to this digital version so we can see where the scores lay because everyone getting zero would be too suspicious. Now we can choose which questions to get wrong based on the current standings and make sure they’re on track for the win.
With only five questions left, Trent and Ali are in second, and none of us can figure out who team JSON is who’s in first. It’s a pretty large margin, and considering Trent talked to everyone beforehand, it’s a dick move to not help out here.
There’s some confrontation on the other side of the room, and as the next five questions pass, JSON gets them all wrong, and Trent and Ali get just enough right to end up in first place.
All of us let out a sigh of relief when the results pop up.
Ali squeals, they haven’t gotten first place before, and their score just squeaks them into fifth place of the overall standings, so they’ll get to put their names on the board.
“Looks like we have a new winner.” The man’s voice rings over the speakers. “Where’s team TrentAli?”
Ali waves her hand, not afraid of the attention and Trent swallows nervously. They’re invited up on stage which isn’t a normal thing if there’s no tiebreaker, but since Warren and I got called up earlier it’s not as suspicious. Maybe everything worked out perfectly after all.
After asking them their names, the man says, “There is one more question you have to answer before you can add your name to the board though.”
Ali looks back confused and while she’s distracted Trent pulls a box out of his pocket and gets down on one knee. When the man doesn’t give her the question she looks back to Trent for help and her hands fly up to her mouth. Tears immediately cloud her eyes.
I’ve never heard it this quiet in here as Trent says, “Alison Jennings, will you marry me?”
I don’t know if he had planned to say more or not. He’s shaking and is obviously nervous from this attention, but he looks at her with nothing but love in his eyes.
She’s practically bouncing as she nods her head and says, “Yes,” before reaching down and pulling him up to kiss him. All of us cheer, our table loudest of all as he slips the ring on her finger.