I went to Ro’s office to ask her about it. We hadn’t spoken since I’d spilled my guts to her a few hours earlier.
“Do you smell that?” I asked her, nose wrinkled.
She was sitting at her desk, but she didn’t appear to be working.
She had a peculiar look on her face, like she was embarrassed but defiant at the same time.
“Smell what?” she asked, fake innocent.
“That was a real piece of bad acting. What’s going on with you? And why are you in denial about that smell? God, what is it? And why is it smoky in here?”
I moved to investigate but she stopped me. “There was a small fire in the house, but I’ve contained it. The smoke is just lingering, but I’ve opened several doors to help clear it out. It should be better in a few hours.”
“A small fire?” I asked her, going to stand right in front of her desk. “Where? How?”
“Where? Your sex bed. How? It was a match.”
I couldn’t quite believe it. “What did you just say?”
“Your sex bed caught on fire. It’s under control now, but the bed didn’t make it. It was unsalvageable. Actually, that entire room’s a goner. Nothing survived. Oops.”
I was just staring at her like she was a crazy woman.
“Care to explain?” I asked carefully.
“I never liked that room. Not at all. So I set it on fire.”
I started to get it then, feeling a sense of wonder and joy overtake me. It was a struggle not to smile at her.
“You love me,” I told her.
It was like she hadn’t heard me. “I was just getting you back,” she continued, rallying, grasping at straws in an effort to justify herself. “It was revenge. It’s a fair exchange for when you burned my clothes.”
I was silent.
She wasn’t. “Don’t you agree? It makes sense, right?”
I didn’t answer, still just staring.
“Tell me that makes sense,” she ordered.
“That makes sense,” I repeated back obediently.
She was studying me like she thought I might be mad.
On the contrary. I was ec-fucking-static. There was only one reason a woman would do that.
She was jealous. Possessive. And there was only one reason she’d be either of those things.
She cared.
And she wasn’t hiding it from me. She was showing it to me.
I went to look in person at her fit of jealousy.
I studied the damage she’d done as she hovered behind me and made excuses.
I wasn’t listening to her right then, I was too busying having a rather profound revelation.
I wouldn’t miss one thing about that room. I hadn’t even been inside of it for months, but it was something I hadn’t realized until just that moment.
The sex room, the complicated positions, the parade of partners, the threesomes, all the kinky shit had been there for one reason, to disguise one thing.
I’d been nothing so much as bored. Sex with random women was boring. Had been boring for a very long time. That’s why I’d made it into a game. To get some sort of entertainment, something to replace the enjoyment I’d taken out of the robotic motions of getting off.
And now said unwanted room was a complete disaster, and it was making my day. “Did you have a book burning party in here, as well?” I asked her cheerfully.
“Maybe,” she said sullenly. “You don’t seem that upset,” she pointed out.
I turned and looked her dead in the eyes. Tried to. She was too short. I pulled her to the closest staircase and set her two steps up.
Hands on my hips, eye level now, I stared her down. “About time you showed some guts,” I said succinctly.
She exploded. “You’re right!” It was a shout. It was the first time I’d ever heard her yell.
Usually she just quietly verbally decimated me.
“You’re right.” Quieter now, the words coming out in a fast, passionate jumble. “I’ve been a coward. When I saw those messages, I was very, very hurt and so scared of being more hurt—scared that you were getting bored already, that you were going to end it with us, so I did it first. I thought it would hurt less that way, and I shut you out. I didn’t think I could hear you say those words to me and bear it—couldn’t bear to risk that. I’ve been turning my back on the risks. There are no guarantees.”
“I guarantee I’m better in bed than that virgin you’ve been dating,” I couldn’t help slipping in.
She giggled.
“I changed my phone number,” I told her, still going down the checklist of things I needed to prove to her. “I wish I’d thought of it sooner. Also, before I did that I sent out a mass message to every single woman I know and told them I was happily married and expecting a baby soon.”
Her eyes widened, her mouth opening and closing, before she finally said, “You’re insane.”
“Well, yes. What’s that got to do with anything?”
Her face was solemn now and tender.
“And you love me,” she said.
It was almost a question, stopping just short of it. “I love you,” I agreed. “I’m crazy about you. It started way earlier on than I’d like to admit to. You’ve charmed my socks off from the start. I love everything about you, from the top of your head to the bottom of your itty bitty adorable feet.”
She opened her mouth, and I knew what she was about to say. I covered it with my hand. “No. I do not have a foot fetish. Stop that.”
I took my hand away. “Your turn. You love me too. Say it.”
She was trying not to laugh. It was perfect. “You can’t just tell me to say it like that.”
“I did and I am. Hit me with it, cupcake.” I gave her a give it to me motion with both hands. “You know you want to.”
Our eyes on each other were tender now. And she didn’t have to say it, I knew now how she felt. She’d shown it in the form of the smoke we were both inhaling right at that moment.
But she did say it, thank God. “I love you, Turner. I love you so much.”
I closed my eyes, soaking that up for a moment before I pulled her from the second step to the floor.
I took a ring box out of my pocket and went down on one knee. I grinned, an I told you so grin.
Her hands covered her mouth. She was so ruffled, I could hardly stand it. I wanted to drag her down and ravish her right that second.
Instead, I opened the box, took the ring out and said, “Now marry me.”
I put the ring on her finger. “Nothing to say?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she said simply. “I’ll marry you. Yes.”
“Good,” I said briskly, standing. “We’re going to get the paperwork done today, right now. We’re eloping as soon as it is legally possible. I need that. I’ve spent too much time not married to you. Does that make sense?”
She didn’t answer.
“Tell me that makes sense,” I told her.
“That makes sense.”
EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE
I made her call Aaron and dump him on the spot. I wanted to talk to him myself, to do the honors.