Inevitable (40 page)

What can I say, I’m a twisted fuck. But it
was totally worth it to see her face contort into an expression I’d
never before witnessed on any human being when our platter of
Escargot Bourgogne was placed between us on the table.

“
Please tell me that’s not
what I think it is,” she said with a horrified glint in her eyes as
she weighed up the snail shells. Laughing, I picked up a snail with
my tongues and scooped the meat out with my snail-fork before
popping it in my mouth.

“
Try one,” I said. She
looked at me like I’d just asked her to fellate a dead donkey.
“Seriously, they’re not that bad. You can really only taste the
garlic.”

“
I can’t believe I’m doing
this,” she said, tentatively picking up her tongues. Pausing the
forkful of snail meat in front of her lips she closed her eyes,
took a deep breath and tossed it in her mouth. Instantly she gagged
but she managed to keep it in her mouth until she’d unraveled her
napkin. Then she discreetly wiped her mouth and spat it out in the
process.

I couldn’t resist laughing and then I
practically jumped out of my seat when she kicked me under the
table.

The next course of oysters went down in a
similar manner and she refused point blank to try the egg caviar.
Needless to say she was starving by the time dessert arrived and
she practically devoured her lemon soufflé in one bite.

“
Present time,” I said,
pulling out the shiny gold-wrapped gift from my pocket as we waited
for the check. Her brow furrowed in confusion. “I planned this
night for your birthday remember?”

She nodded a little sorrowfully and I felt
bad for bringing that night back to the forefront of her mind.
Smiling bashfully she took the little gold parcel from me and
deftly teased it open without tearing the paper.

“
An iPod! Blaine I love it,
thank you!” she beamed, rising from her chair just enough to lean
across the table and kiss me.

“
Have a scroll through it,”
I said as she sat back down. With an excited glint in her eye she
did as I said.

“
Oh my god, how did you
know all these?” she asked, biting down her lip as she scrolled
through the list of her
favourite
bands.

“
Believe it or not I
do
listen to you
sometimes,” I said with a smug grin. I was feeling mighty proud of
myself at that moment. I knew she’d love it. Although god knows
why, I’d made the mistake of actually listening to some of that
shit when I loaded it on there.

“
Take That, Boyzone, The
Script… oh my god you’ve even loaded the songs from Glee!” she
squealed and she had never sounded so…
girly.
I liked it. “Blaine this is an
amazing present. I love it,” she said again, squeezing my hand
across the table.

The check arrived at that point and Maddie
picked it up before I had chance to get to it. I watched, amused as
the blood visibly drained from her face.

“
Shit, Blaine, how in hell
are we going to pay for-”

“
Don’t sweat it, lish,” I
said casually, waving my credit card in the air. Well technically
the account is my father’s and I’m not supposed to use it
irresponsibly but what the fuck. He can’t possibly hurt me more
than he already has so what’s the point in trying to please him
anymore?

“
I’ve had a really great
time tonight,” Maddie said with a heartfelt smile as the valet
brought my car back round to the front.

“
It’s not over yet,” I said
proudly. She clasped her hands in front of her like a kid on
Christmas. She was so happy. I made her feel like that. It was the
best feeling in the world and completely worth whatever shit I had
waiting for me when I got home.

The next stop on my planned itinerary was
the hour long drive to the beach but after Maddie’s uneventful meal
I made a quick detour to McDonald’s. She put up a weak fight at
first, but then the smell of fries wafted through my open window
and she was practically drooling all over her dress.

A Big Mac Meal and Oreo McFlurry later we
were ready for my next surprise destination. Her eyes lit up the
dark evening sky when I pulled up at Baker Beach.

“
Cliché much?” she teased
but her beaming smile gave her away. She was impressed with my
ability to be romantic. In all fairness, so was I. Just a few
months ago the idea of walking a girl along the beach would have
bored the shit out of me. But now… I was all kinds of proud and
excited to have Maddie on my arm as we walked barefoot along the
warm sand.

As I suspected her eyes were drawn to the
magnificent sight that is the Golden Gate Bridge. I impressed her
by spouting its entire history. If I’m honest I made half of it up
but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care – she seemed to just
enjoy listening to me talk.

“
Did you know more people
die from suicide at that bridge than anywhere else in the world?” I
said, and I really didn’t make that one up.

“
How do you even know
that?” she asked incredulously, wrinkling her cute button
nose.

“
Wikipedia,” I admitted,
shrugging nonchalantly. “Interesting though right?”

“
I guess,” she replied,
looking at the bridge with a whole new expression. In that moment
she snuggled herself into my chest as we stood at the waters edge,
the cool water lapping gently over our feet. Then she wrapped her
arms around me and squeezed.

Tensing, I stepped back.

“
Shit! I’m so sorry!” she
exclaimed, remembering the damage which lay beneath my shirt. It
still stung like a motherfucker. I still can’t believe I did that
to myself. I’m such a dick.

“
It’s fine. Just a little
sore that’s all,” I tried to reassure but her face was suddenly
grey with worry. I didn’t like that. I didn’t want her worrying
about me. Especially not tonight. “Come on, let’s look for rock
pools!” I suggested – exactly as planned. Besides, I needed to
erase that look of concern from her beautiful face.

Maddie raced me across the beach, waving her
high heels in the air with one hand whilst she bent down to splash
me with the other. That was such a girl move. A good kick of a foot
would create more of a splash. So that’s exactly what I did.

She squealed as the water bounced off her
chest and even in the dark I could see her rock-hard nipples
teasing me through the sodden purple fabric.

“
Found one!” I yelled,
summoning her over to the rock pool by my feet. I had to steer her
away from the water fight and into the task I’d originally set if
she was ever going to find the ring. “Guess I win,” I said, knowing
damn well that would bring out her fighting attitude.

“
Win what?”

“
Well I found a rock pool.
You didn’t. So, I win.”

“
Bullshit! There’s bound to
be a ton of them round here and I’m going to find every single
one!”

She was just too easy sometimes.

After kicking one last spray of salty water
her way I charged past her and ran up the beach, pulling the ring
from my pocket as I did so. I plopped it into the next rock pool I
came to, making sure it landed on a cluster of rocks sticking out
of the water, before running ahead again – praying to god she’d
find the damn thing. Fifteen minutes later she’d found a further
two rock pools but not the one with the wallet-busting ring inside
it.

Seconds away from crapping myself and
assuming my ingenious plan had gone tits up I heard her calling my
name. I loved the way her accent curled around my name. I would
never tire of hearing it.

“
Someone must have dropped
this. We should report it or something. It looks valuable.” She was
holding the white-gold band, twiddling between her fingers and
staring it at like it was the prettiest thing she’d ever
seen.

“
It is,” I said.

“
What?” she asked, blinking
as if she had a grain of sand in her eye.

“
I said it is. Valuable I
mean. But not as valuable as the person whose finger it was made to
sit on.”

“
What the hell are you
banging on about?” she asked, confused.

Yeah, I hadn’t actually planned the whole
conversation when I thought of this idea. It wasn’t exactly going
as smoothly as I’d hoped.

“
Oh for fuck’s sake,” I
uttered, exasperated with myself and my shitty plan. “The ring is
for you, Maddie.
I
dropped it in the rock pool for you to find. It was supposed
to be romantic, but I’ve just ended up confusing the shit out of
you.”

“
But you gave me my present
already?”

“
Well now I’m giving you
another one.” I took the ring from her hand and held it around the
tip of her right-hand ring finger.

“
Blaine, this is
too-”

“
Oh shut the fuck up, lish,” I interrupted playfully. “I
don’t want to hear how it’s too much, or how you’re not worth it.
You are worth
everything
to me. You are my whole world, Maddie. I can be myself with
you, and only you, and you have no idea how refreshing that is. You
make everything okay. When I hurt, you make it go away.

“
I tried to push you away because I thought I’d destroy you.
I didn’t want you to see me struggle – to see how weak I am. But
then I realised… we were meant to be. I’ve never really believed in
fate and all that crap but us being together is the only thing that
makes sense. I mean, why else would my dad bring some screwed-up
hooker he barely knew home with him when he could have had any
woman he wanted? It had to be so Trudy’s connection with you would
bring you to me one day.

“
I’m telling you, lish, we were inevitable. Someone up there
wants us to be together,” I said, pointing up towards the dark sky.
“So who am I to put a stop to it?”

“
I’m glad you feel like that. I couldn’t bare it when I thought
you didn’t want me,” she said sorrowfully, strangling my
heart.

“
You thought I didn’t want you?”

Of course she
did, dumbfuck.

“
Oh, Maddie, I’m so sorry. I will
never
make you feel like that I again. I promise
you, lish, I love you.”

“
I love you too,” she said, her smile warm and
tender.

“
This ring is an eternity ring,” I said, still hovering it
around the tip of her finger and noticing how well the amethysts
compliment her dress. Fuck, there’s that damn vagina trying to
sprout again. “When you wear it I want you to remember every time
you look at it that I will love you for an eternity. This ring is a
promise. A promise that I will try my damndest every single day to
make you as happy as I can. To care for you, and be there for you…
like you are for me.

“
While this ring is on your finger you can rest assured that
you are the most important person breathing in this world. I was
numb before I met you, Maddie. You make me
feel
. You make me feel things I never knew
existed. You make me happy. You make me
hope.
When I’m with you I feel like the luckiest
son of a bitch in the world. I’m a better person when I’m with you,
and I will never be able to thank you enough. But I plan on
spending every hour of every day of my life trying.

“
I love you, Maddie,” I declared, slipping the ring down onto
her finger. “Oh, fuck!” I blasted. The damn thing got stuck above
her knuckle. This sure as hell didn’t happen in the movies. It was
supposed to glide effortlessly over her finger and then she would
rock up on her tiptoes and kiss me and then I’d take her home and
make love to her until my cock turned blue.

“
You still love me even though I’ve got fat fingers?” she
teased, giggling softly as she slid the ring off her finger and
tucked it into my pocket. I would take it to be resized tomorrow I
decided.

“
Hmm, can you get lipo on your fingers?” I teased back,
causing her to punch me in the stomach. I groaned, faking being
winded by the blow I barely felt. “I mean it, lish. I know I’ve
just turned into a walking cliché but I do love you. So fucking
much,” I practically growled the words and then I cupped her face
in my hands, kissing her with every ounce of passion I have ever
felt for her.

Her lips
parted at my tongue’s request and I deepened the kiss, hungrily
licking and exploring her sweet mouth. She tasted like McFlurry and
Maddie. I pulled away when it felt like my dick was about to snap
in half under the pressure of these god damn restrictive pants.

“
You’re important too you know. I know you don’t believe it
but you are. Everything you’ve just said to me
, I feel it too. I was so lonely
before I met you. I had to grow up too young. I missed out on so
much. But you gave that back to me. You make me laugh. You make me
blush. You make me feel important. You make
me
feel things I didn’t know existed
too. And that will be my promise. As long as I wear this ring I
promise to make it my mission to make you believe that you are an
amazing person. That you are brave and strong and that you
are
my
everything. I love you too, Blaine.”

I smiled at
her, I think. But even if I did it was completely forced. Brave?
Strong? If only she knew how weak I really was. No strong or brave
person would lie paralysed with fear whilst their father…