Thirty Happens (21 page)

I closed my eyes and thought for a second before opening them up and staring back into his questioning eyes.

“You. I want you.”

chapter twenty-seven.

“
C
hris, we have reservations for seven. If we don’t leave now, we’re not going to get our table.”

I yelled up the stairs at him.

We’d been living together a year now, having moved in together after only about seven months. Hey, when you knew you knew.

I was getting antsy for marriage, I mean, I was getting up there. These eggs were going to be drying up soon and I wanted at least one kid out of the deal. I realized that twenty eight wasn’t exactly ancient, but at the same, time, I didn’t want to be constantly explaining to people that I was the kid’s mom, not the grandmother.

He came down the stairs and I just stared.

We’d been together almost two years, and my heart still sped up like crazy whenever I saw him. I figured that was probably a good sign.

“Okay, okay, I’m ready. Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be the girl who makes the boy wait?”

He swiped at my arm, before pulling me into a deep kiss.

Damn.

I remembered when we had our first date I was freaking out over whether or not he would be a good kisser. Those fears were completely unfounded.

He was a good everything.

Well, good at everything except getting ready on time.

“Forgiven.”

He just grinned at me as we walked to the car.

“Hey, how’s Ashley doing?”

I frowned, thinking about my friend.

Her boyfriend, Craig, sort of broke up with her recently. Well, I mean, not quite broke up with her, just like, walked out and said he needed a break. I guess she was a little too relaxed in the relationship or something, according to her.

We all banded together and had her doing all sorts of stupid dares to try to broaden her horizons and basically try to keep her mind off of it all.

I smiled thinking of the four of us. It had been kind of a whirlwind couple of years. Nonna passed away. It turned out she was older than any of us had ever imagined. She’d left her granddaughter the house, and so Alex did come up to Massachusetts after all. And she’d opened the bakery that she and Nonna had always dreamt of.

As a result, I was at least one size bigger than I used to be. Ashley introduced us to Leah, who owns a local gym, and the four of us have been inseparable ever since. We met for wine and ice cream just about every Friday, and coffee every Saturday morning. I kept expecting us all to get tired of each other, but so far, it worked.

“She’s really hurt by the whole thing. Like, he hasn’t texted her, called her, nothing. She’s trying to act like everything is okay, but it’s not. I really feel so bad for her, Chris.”

“I really thought they had something, you know? I really enjoyed our group dates.”

We group dated with Ashley and Craig, Alex and Nick. Leah went through men like Pez, so if she was dating someone at the time of the group date, she came too. She was always invited but seemed to not want to be the odd man out. I fully understood. Nothing like seeing a group of happy couples when you were living the single life.

“Yeah, me too. Looks like it might be double dates for a while.”

I pouted a little.

“Glad to know that I’m enough for you, babe.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You know what I mean. It has been so much fun having the group dates. I just hate to see that come to an end.”

“What if we tried to hook Ashley and Leah up?”

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Ew. Dude, they do
not
swing that way.”

“A man can dream.”

“What is it with men thinking that female friends should be lesbians?”

That question somehow broke through his lust filled googly eyes and made him squint his eyes in confusion a bit.

“What do you mean?”

“I just don’t understand why anytime a guy sees a group of female friends who are very close; joking with each other, laughing with each other – for
some
reason you feel that the only possible thing that makes sense is that they must also be lovers.”

He nodded solemnly.

“Because it
is
true. You also have those pajama parties that last all night, and you have pillow fights and slap each other’s asses.”

“Honey, have you been watching porn again?”

I pretended to be all stern like a schoolmarm.

“Uh, I’d like to assert my Fifth Amendment privilege on this one.”

“Mmmmm hmmm.”

I swatted at his arm as he pulled the car into the parking lot across the street from the new Mexican restaurant in town. My mouth started drooling as I pictured the bowl of queso that would soon be on the table.

“Seriously, though, Chris, those ‘movies’ aren’t real life. Women who are besties are not automatically going to turn into lesbians who want to bang each other all day long, and some of the things that go on in those movies,
no
woman will allow a man to do for free.”

He pouted.

Like, legit pouted.

“They like it, though.”

“They like the money they are getting for
acting
like they like it, my love.”

“So no an-“

I held up a hand to cut off that hideous question that I knew was almost always on his mind.

“No, no and
hell
no. I’ve explained this before. It is not happening. Not until your ninetieth birthday.”

“I won’t be able to do anything when I’m ninety.”

I smiled sweetly at him and patted the top of his head. That was the damn point.

We walked in and were almost immediately seated.

It had been almost two years since I’d moved back home, and it never failed to surprise me still how easy it was to get a table at a restaurant when you left the city.

“Thank you for coming to Sabroso. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Two margaritas on the rocks with salt, light on the rocks, please. Oh, and can we get a bowl of some cheese queso, too?”

The server nodded and left the table.

I smiled at Chris.

“I love our date nights.”

“Me, too. I know we both get really crazy busy at work, and sometimes don’t really interact much during the week. It’s nice to be able to just be us.”

I nodded. Right then my margarita appeared magically and I took a long refreshing sip through the straw.

Heaven. I was pretty sure Heaven tasted like tequila mixed with sugary margarita mix. And salt.

I opened my eyes to see Chris just staring at me.

“What?”

“You’re beautiful.”

Oh. I took a mental inventory of what I did to get ready, but I didn’t recall anything all that special.

“I don’t mean just in this moment, which you are, but in general. You are a beautiful person, both inside and out.”

“Aw, Chris. Thank you, baby, I think you’re handsome, too.”

“Sweetie, thanks. But let me finish. I noticed you that first day, you know? In the elevator. When I walked in the elevator I felt like I was hit in the stomach with how beautiful you are. I felt drawn to you but didn’t want to acknowledge it. I had dealt with local women for so long who had believed all the eligible bachelor crap, so I really didn’t want to be interested. Then you spoke. I believe you said ‘hi’. I was shocked, you weren’t throwing yourself at me, and you were attempting a conversation. I was smitten. And I haven’t stopped being smitten.”

This was sounding like an important conversation. Like, a wicked important one. A forever type of conversation.

He opened his mouth as if he was about to go on, and at that moment our chips and queso arrived.

“Are you two ready to order?”

I never wanted to throat punch someone as bad in my life as I wanted to throat punch this server. Did she have any idea what she just maybe interrupted?

I placed my order for the fish taco, and Chris ordered his usual veggie burrito.

I turned back towards him after the server left, expecting that he’d pick up where he left off, only to see that he’d begun to dig into the queso.

“You meeting with the girls tomorrow?”

He spoke through the chips and queso that filled his mouth.

“Is tomorrow Saturday?”

I replied very sarcastically. I was a little grouchy with the completely abrupt change in topic, but not wanting to beg him to please go back to how awesome I was. Okay, that sounded bad even in my head.

Ugh. I hated feeling needy but I was feeling pretty damn needy right this second.

He chuckled.

We did the whole small talk thing through dinner and then when we were waiting for the check he reached for my hands again.

“So, as I was saying. I really feel blessed every day that I chose
that
elevator on
that
day, where the most incredible, pushiest, sweetest woman in the universe was waiting for me. I’m pretty sure you were put on this earth to make my life so much better.”

Oh my God, this was it. This was the moment I had dreamt of since I was a little girl. Well, it wasn’t going quite like I had planned, I mean, there was not a single white horse in sight, nor were there fireworks and falling stars. At this point, I didn’t care.

The server came with the bill, so Chris released my hands again.

I glared at her for her shit timing again.

I took the time while he was counting out the cash to pay plus a generous tip, and wiped my hands on my pants, to try to get the nervous dampness off of them.

“You ready to go?”

What?

Are you freaking kidding me?

I looked at him and tried my best to neutralize my expression and not burn a hole into his chest with my laser beam eyes.

“Uh, sure, yeah, let’s get out of here.”

I reached for his hand and he led me out the front door and across the street to his car. My clammy hands were a concern of the past. The fact that my hands were not balled up into tight fists of anger was a small miracle.

He opened the door for me and I slid in, silently seething. I mentally killed that server about thirty times in my head for interrupting. I had half a mind to write the manager and complain.

Chris slid in the driver’s seat and leaned over to kiss me.

“Honey, do you mind checking the glove box to see if my phone is in there? I want to make sure I didn’t leave it in the restaurant.”

“Sure. Whatever.”

I realized I was being a little bitch, but seriously, why would he talk like that, say those things and make me believe that…

There was an open ring box staring me in the face from the glove box.

More importantly, there was a solitaire diamond ring shining at me.

I looked at Chris, who was grinning from ear to ear.

“Well?”

I was confused.

“Well, what?”

“Will you?”

My jaw hit my chest.

“If that’s how you think you’re going to ask me to marry you, you have another think coming, mister.”

Chris got out of the car and slammed the door.

Oh, shit.

Well, no. I would
not
feel bad for possibly ruining this moment. He ruined it first.

A tear trickled down my cheek and splashed on left hand. My still ringless left hand.

The passenger side door whipped opened and Chris held his hand out to me.

My hand shook as I reached for his and let him pull me out. He turned back to the car and when he came back, got down on one knee.

“Karyn, you challenge me. You love me unconditionally. You make me laugh. You have been the most amazing, unique and crazy thing that has ever happened to me. I could have covered our room with flowers, I could have put this ring in your margarita or at the bottom of a champagne glass. I could have suggested a moonlit walk, where I proposed on a bridge over a perfect little river. But that’s not us. That’s not different and unusual. That is what everyone else gets, and you deserve to have your own proposal that hasn’t been in a million movies or romance novels. I’m sorry I got it a little wrong by trying to draw out the suspense back in the restaurant. I love every breath you take. I think you are gorgeous first thing in the morning even when you have morning breath. I love the cannibalistic way you gnaw on your bottom lip when you’re nervous. I want to share every breath with you. I want to see you first thing in the morning every morning. I want to be the person to forever kiss your poor, bruised lip when you’re nervous. I want to be your forever. Will you marry me?”

A circle of platinum was poised over my finger, paused at my first knuckle, waiting for permission to be slid all the way.