have saved each other a lot of heartache if we’d been braver. But who's to say we would’ve been happy? There’s no sense in beating ourselves up. I just wanted you to know where my insecurities came from. When you left me in LA I thought it was happening again. I thought you saw the road we were on and freaked out.”
“That’s why you didn’t come after me,” she says almost to herself.
“I was a real mess.”
“I’m sorry.” She takes my hand.
“Don’t be.” I smile. “We’re here now.” I lean in and kiss her.
When we come up for air, she looks back at the box on her knee.
“I can’t believe you left here with this still in your pocket. You must have felt like shit.”
“No worse than you, I bet.”
“God, we were stupid.” She shakes her head again. But there’s no point in dwelling. She snaps herself out of it. “Can I see it?”
“I want you to have it. But remember, I was eighteen, clueless and broke.” I laugh.
She opens the box and smiles. “It’s beautiful, Danny.” She takes it out of the box. “Can I wear it? On a different finger, I mean.”
“If it fits. I had no idea what I was doing.” I take it from her and slide it onto the ring finger of her right hand. Amazingly, it isn’t a terrible fit. She looks at it. It’s a thin band of white gold, twisted like a rope and the threads of the rope are studded with tiny diamonds. It’s no engagement ring, but it’s so pretty and it looks better on her hand than I ever expected.
“I love it, thank you.” She kisses me.
“I love
'Thanks for bringing me here today.' She says after a while. 'This means so much. We can put it all behind us now.' I watch her twiddling her ring and think about the real one I have sitting in a box in my desk drawer. I smile briefly to myself, I can't wait to hit her with that.
I lift her hand and kiss the ring on her finger. 'Let's get out of here. I need to go change for work.'
I bring a crate of bottles out of the cellar and catch a glimpse of Liv through the doorway. I watch her showing Connie the ring, she seems so happy. I wonder if she has called her mom. Which reminds me, I should call mine! Not to tell her about the ring, I could never explain all that to her now. But she’ll want to know that my big move has turned out to be worth it. With that, my cell vibrates in my pocket. I dump the crate on the bar and look at the screen, it’s Jen.
“I need to take this,” I tell Max showing him the screen and he nods as I head out the front door.
“Jen!”
“Tell me good news, Danny!” she says enthusiastically.
I laugh. “I’ve got her back.” I sigh. The feeling of relief washes over me again, just being able to say it out loud.
“I knew you could do it.” She squeals.
“I couldn’t have done it without you.” I can hear Scott speaking in the background.
“Scott says well done too.”
“He’s just happy he won’t be hearing anymore about it you mean!”
“We’re both really happy for you,” she says. “So your night out was a success?”
“You could say that.” I smile remembering what happened after we got home. Twice! “Oh and I gave her the ring.” I add.
“
“Oh, no. The first ring. I told her all about it.”
“And what did she say?”
“She was shocked. She told me she would have said yes.”
“I told you!”
“I know, don’t worry, I’m not that guy anymore. We talked about everything, it’s a clean slate.”
“That’s fantastic, Danny. So…what’s next?” She doesn’t even try to mask her meaning.
“Easy tiger!” I laugh. “Give me a chance. I’m not giving her two rings in one day.”
“Well when then?”
“I have a plan, but we’ve had enough excitement to last a lifetime. What I want is some normal for a while. Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Good. So, are you moving back in?”
“I don’t know, we haven’t discussed it yet. I’m off tomorrow, we can talk about it then.” I look up to see Liv sitting by the window, watching me. I wave and she blows me a kiss. “I gotta go, Jen.”
“I know, I miss you,” she says reluctantly.
“I miss you too. Talk to you soon.”
“Okay, bye,,” she says and cuts off.
I walk up to the window and put my hand on the glass, Liv smiles and places hers against mine on the other side of the glass. Smiling, I head back into the bar.
A kiss wakes me. I stretch and smile, wrapping my arms around Liv. This is bliss, I don’t want to open my eyes.
“What time is it?” I mumble.
“Does it matter?” Liv replies. “You’re not getting up today.”
“Hmmm, I like the sound of that.” I grin, prising my eyes open and turning to face her. “Good morning.”
“Good morning. Sleepyhead. Why didn’t you wake me when you came in last night?” “You were dead to the world.” I smile, brushing her hair away from her eyes. “And I was dead on my feet.”
“I tried to stay awake for you, sorry.”
“It was just nice to come home to you, even if you were asleep.” I lean over to kiss her. “What did you get up to while I was working? I hardly saw you.”
“I know. Connie was giving me a hand with some stuff I couldn’t manage on my own, in the afternoon.”
“I could’ve helped you.” I frown. “You shouldn’t be overdoing it.’
“I have a broken ankle, the rest of me is fine!” She laughs. “Anyway, I saw you for dinner, so don’t sulk.”
“I know, I just thought I might see you in the bar.”
She looks away.
“Hey, what?” I ask.
She shrugs one shoulder. “I just find it hard to be down there at night and not be part of it. It makes me feel pathetic.”
I offer her a comforting smile. “It won’t be forever.”
“Yeah” she says quietly. “It’s okay during the day because I have time for all the admin I usually have to cram in. But at night, everyone is heads down, working and I feel useless and lonely. I prefer to be away from it.”
“I understand.”
“So do you want to see what Connie and I did?”
“Sure.” I watch as she gets up and goes to the closets on the opposite side of the room. I prop myself up on my elbows. She opens the double doors on the left side to reveal that it’s completely empty. I frown. “Where did you put it all?”
“I got rid of most of it, and put the rest in here.” She opens the double doors on the right. “For someone that only ever wears jeans and a work shirt, I had a stupid amount of clothes…and this…” she gestures grandly to the empty space, “is for you.” She takes a small bow. Then a look of uncertainty crosses her face. “Err, for whenever you decide to come back…IF, you decide…no pressure.”
I laugh. “Come here.” She comes over and I have to resist pulling her on top of me. I have to keep reminding myself I could easily hurt her. She sits on the edge of the bed, apprehensively.
“You don’t have to,” she says. “I should have asked first, sorry.”
“Stop it!” I say as I sit up and wrap my arms around her. “I want to. I’ll do it today.” I kiss her neck. “I thought you might want to wait a few weeks, slow things down.”
