Page 77 of Intersect
Trevor’s margaritalooks like the most delicious thing I’ve ever seen in my life—the dollop of foam on the top, the frosted glass, the neon green that couldn’t possibly come from nature. Pregnancy is a miracle of life, blah blah blah. I’m still allowed to missmargaritas.
“It tastes like piss, I swear,” says Trevor, catching myglance.
I laugh. “Right. That’s why you ordered a secondone.”
Just as I expected, they made me change clothes for this, Trevor insisting the jeans I wore were unacceptable because “we are not dock workers,” whatever that means. The outfit is of Caroline’s choosing, a white, Tom Ford wrap dress, cut low and flaring out at the waist. It seems like a lot of effort for what is definitely going to be a short evening, but I’m not complaining.Senator Reillyis going to enjoy this look a great deal when I gethome.
“Look at your boobs,” Caroline says, shaking her head. “They’re stupendous. You’ve gone up at least one cup size, if not two. You know I really don’t want kids butwowyou’re making me thinktwice.”
“There are easier ways to get boobs,” says Trevor, rolling his eyes before he turns toward me. “But speaking of kids, when’s Nick going to make an honest woman ofyou?”
I shrug, feeling the tiniest prickle of worry that I instantly push aside. “We’re not in any rush. There’s enough going on.” The truth is Idowant him to ask but he seems to have just forgotten about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have shot him down those first few times he brought itup.
“Watch out,” says Caroline. “Remember Daniel? Hewas—”
“Oh,here we go,” says Trevor. “Now she’s going to tell you a warning story about the timeshewas a mother of twinstoo.”
“Shut up, Trevor. Anyway, he was always saying he wanted to marry me and then it turned out he wasalreadymarried.”
I laugh. Their stories appalled me before, but now that I’m with Nick, the stories seem too terrible to even be real. “I’m pretty sure I’d know if Nick was already married, given that we live together and haven’t spent a night apart inweeks.”
Trevor gets a text and his face lights up. “It’s showtime. The senator is down at the waterfront.” He and Caroline exchange a quick glance and then they both wave frantically for thebill.
“What are you not telling me about this guy?” I ask, looking between the two ofthem.
“Nothing,” they reply in unison, which makes it that muchfishier.
“Neither of you can lie for shit. What’s the deal? Is the senator someone I know?” I ask, and then I gasp. “Oh my God. It’sJeff, isn’tit?”
Trevor rolls his eyes. “As if. I don’t have a straight bone in my body, but if anyone could bore me out of homosexuality, it would behim.”
We head down Wisconsin Avenue toward the river. I remember the days when I’d look at all the bars we are passing longingly, a desire for the years of being a wild, single college student I missed out on. Now they do nothing for me. Going to any of them would feel like a punishment if I could be home with Nickinstead.
We cross the street to the waterfront just as the sun begins its slow slide over thehorizon.
“Hey, isn’t this where you went dancing with Nick?” Trevorasks.
I glance at the couples shuffling over the waterfront’s travertine tiles. “Yeah, right before—” my words falter at the sight of a tall, broad-shouldered hunk in a suit cutting through the dancing couples. Nick. My heart is doing pirouettes in my chest. “Hey!” I shout, moving as fast as I can in the four-inch heels Caroline forced me to wear. “I thought you said you didn’t wantto—”
He drops to one knee. His face is every bit as sweet, as earnest, as it was when he was a teenager. He looks at me as if I hold his entire world in the palm of my hand, as if I’m his to crush or to keep. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black velvetbox.
The couples around him have mostly stopped dancing. Caroline, standing on one side, and Trevor, standing on the other, push me forward until we are in front of him. “Since I couldn’t ask your father, I asked them instead,” Nick says with a shy smile. The dimple blinks intoexistence.
“You have our blessing,” saysTrevor.
Caroline kisses me on the cheek. “I’d totally let him get me pregnant,” she says as Trevor pulls heraway.
I’m so astonished all I can do is stare: at Nick, at the box, at the dancers and setting sun. It feels as if my brain is moving a little more slowly thannormal.
“Marry me,” Nick says. People around us are listening, so his voice drops to add, “in this lifetime and any others we find ourselvesin.”
He pops the box open and I gasp. It’smyring, the oval diamond I remember from London. I reach for it and he pulls the box back. “You have to actually agree before you get the ring, greedygirl.”
“But how…where did you find it?” Iask.
He grins. “My grandfather gave it to me when I went to see him. I’ll tell you about it later.Afteryouanswer.”
Goose bumps crawl over my arms, but they’re the good kind. The kind you get when you’re so thrilled and astonished at once that you have no idea where to begin. “Yes,” I whisper. “In this lifetime and all the other ones, I will only wantyou.”