Callum & Harper (20 page)

We were both silent for a very long time, our chests heavy with labored breathing. This was it. We were actually going to do it. I couldn’t believe myself. This felt like the best and worst decision I’d ever made.

    “
What do we have to lose?” He asked.
Everything.
   
“Okay, so we’re not acting anymore,” he said, thinking. “Well go to a pawn shop, buy a few rings, apply for a license, tell our friends.”
    I gulped audibly. “When?”
    “Today, right now. Why? You got somethin’ better to do?”
    “No,” I nervously chuckled. “Won’t we lose our place in line?” I stupidly asked.
    Callum eyed me. “Do you want to do this, Harper?”
    “Yes,” I said with conviction and stood. “Let’s go. I think I saw a pawn shop three blocks down.”
    “I know the one,” he said. “We’ll try to be back before the doors close and just hope for the best.”
    “It is The Hope House,” I lamely joked, making Callum contort a funny face at its dorkiness.
I laughed.
    The pawn shop was old. You could tell the same owner was in possession since the fifties and he still ran the counter.
    “How can I help you?” A kindly looking older man asked.
    Callum grabbed my hand and smiled down at me. “We’d like a few rings please.”
    The older man’s face brightened as he stood. “No kidding! Well isn’t that fantastic. Here. Here,” he said gently but excitedly, rounding the corner behind his counter. “The rings are here. Anything in particular you’d like?” He asked.
    “I’ve never thought about it,” I said.
This surprised Callum and he shoved his shoulder into mine.
    “Well, let’s see what we have here,” he said.
Callum and I bent over the glass display case and studied the array of rings before us.
    “You pick mine,” he said.
    “Really?” I asked.
    “Really, go ahead.”
I perused the bands for men and picked a simple white gold band with straight edges and no embellishment whatsoever. It seemed so Callum to me, simple, classic, beautiful.
    “This one,” I said and pointed to the ring in the case.

The man brought the ring out and set it on top of the glass with a clink. Callum picked it up and examined it before turning to me. His eyes melted me to the floor where I stood, twinkling with happiness.

“
It’s the one I hoped you’d select,” he said, swallowing hard.

I took a deep breath and laid my hand on his forearm.
    “And for the bride?” The man asked, shocking us.
    “You pick mine,” I said, following Callum’s lead.
    “You don’t want to choose your own?” He asked me warily.
    “No, I want to see what you’d choose for me as well.”
Callum bent over the display case, considering all his choices carefully. He sat up and his shoulders sagged a bit.
    “I don’t like any of these for you,” he said sadly.
    “It’s okay just pick the best one, then.”
    “No,” he said with conviction, making my stomach dip suddenly. “It’s not here.”
The old man held up a finger and went to the back. He was gone for a good five minutes before finally emerging with a wooden case, setting it on top of the cabinet and opening the lid.

Inside were a crumpled pile of rings. I watched Callum’s eyes shoot wide and his hand made a beeline for a ring, buried beneath a few others. I didn’t even know how he saw it. I held my breath as he wrestled it from the heap and brought it up to the light above us. I gasped when he brought it down for me to inspect, burning tears threatening the corners of my eyes. It was everything I didn’t know I wanted and was shocked into silence at the beauty of it.

   
The stone was round and framed within many small diamonds. It was art deco inspired, filigree following up the band itself and many more diamonds filled the band as well.

“
That is the prettiest ring in this store,” the man said, his eyes crinkled with a smile. “My wife found that at an estate sale before she passed away, God bless her.”

I smiled and my breath sped up as Callum slipped it onto my finger. It fit perfectly.

   
Callum held my hand, sending warm sparks up my arm and into my chest, making my heart beat unnaturally.
    “How much do we owe you?” Callum asked without looking from me.
    “One hundred and fifty,” he said.
Callum and I both turned to the man, stupefied.
    “Only one-fifty?” Callum asked.
    “Yes, for the gentleman’s band,” he said.
    “But we’ll take both,” Callum said, gesturing to my ring.
    “And I’ll
give
you both but my wife would roll over in her grave if she saw me sell a ring that was only meant to be given. Trust me, it is my absolute pleasure.”
   
“I wouldn’t feel right,” I said. “That’s too generous.”
    “Something tells me generosity isn’t a gift you two see very often,” he said, not unkindly. “Please, I consider it more a gift to my wife. So, you see? It’s mostly selfish.”
Callum and I both smiled at the man, in awe of the his consideration for his wife even after she’d left this earth.
    “Thank you,” we both said, a bit breathless.
    “There’s a catch,” he said, a mischievous glint in his eye.
    “What’s that?” Callum asked, chuckling.
    “Just send me a pic of your family in ten years. Give an old man something to look forward to.”
    Suddenly I felt very guilty, my stomach fell and I wanted to pull the ring off my finger and flee the store. Callum, sensing my discomfort, grabbed my hand.
    “We promise,” he said, with suspicious confidence.

Callum

We paid the man, thanked him profusely again and headed straight for the Office of the New York City Clerk. The line to apply for the license was of ridiculous proportions as they handled all living documents, including birth and death certificates. We had been there close to an hour already but Harper and I were grateful just to be able to get out of the sun.

    “
Dude, this line is worse than The Hope House,” I joked, feeling lighter in the chest than I had in a very long time.
She laughed.
    They were pumping old hits through the sound system above our heads and Billy Joel’s
For The Longest Time
started to play. Harper started to bob her head a little bit and I noticed several other people started tapping their feet or quietly swaying back and forth. I don’t know what came over me but I took Harper’s bag from her shoulder and set it at our feet. She just stared at me curiously but I refused to give it away, only smiling from ear to ear. I set my own bag down and wrapped an arm around her waist, twisting her into the middle of the hall, making several women around us ooh and awe. I sung the words quietly into her ear, trying not to worry at just how applicable the lyrics were to how I really felt for her. (Look them up, seriously.) And we danced, slowly, achingly slowly.
    Her soft skin melted at my touch, malleable beneath my fingers it was so silky, smooth and cool like glass. At a lull in the lyrics, I pressed my nose into her hair and inhaled loudly, causing a breath to hitch in her throat. She drove me crazy, she was so sexy. We swayed around the little hallway, holding on tightly, her hand cupping beautifully in mine.

As the song came to an all too short end, we looked up to see that a few other couples had joined us, creating an impromptu Prom in the middle of a city government office. I dipped her unexpectedly, my hand sweeping around the back of her neck and resting at her throat. I wanted so badly to kiss her. People started clapping and whistling when I brought her back up and Harper and I stood back in line.

“
That was...so fun,” Harper said, her cheeks pink.

“
What can I say? I’m a fun guy.”

She laughed and bit her bottom lip, sending me into a frenzy.
Just do it, Callum. Take her lips with yours. Right now.
I ordered myself but became sane at the last second.

I bent to grab Harper’s bag just as she did and we met on the floor, our faces close and breathing hard. We came up slowly, pulled into one another’s stares. A woman next to us broke our trance.

“
Getting married, are you?” She asked.

“
Uh, yes,” Harper said. “What gave us away?”

“
The dancing for one and the way you two look at each other.”

Harper and I got slightly uncomfortable when she said that. I don’t know how we had gone so far with all the flirtations and near kisses without ever really discussing them. For God’s sake, we were standing in a line that handed out marriage licenses! How had we never talked about our true feelings?

   
We reached the top of the line and waited our turn. My hands began to tremble so I threw them into my front pockets.
    “Next!” We heard from a Hispanic woman behind a glass wall.
My feet felt heavy and I drug them to the counter.
    “How can I help you?” She asked politely.
    “Yes, we’d like to apply for a marriage license,” I said with a shaky voice, like she could see what a fraud I was.
    “Alright, I need both of your driver’s licenses. Fill this out,” she said, sliding a single sheet of paper our direction. “It’s thirty-five dollars.”

Harper began to fill out our information as I pulled my wallet out to pay. The sections she had no idea what to put she left blank and I filled them out after handing over our cash. I got a kick out of the fact that she was memorizing all the information she didn’t already know.

    “
You’re middle name is Philip?”

The lady processing our application looked at us strangely, like ‘she didn’t know that already’? I couldn’t help but let the little part of my conscience that didn’t think this was a good idea come out screaming but it was brief and I stamped it back into its box. When I was done, I checked over our application and saw that Harper’s middle name was Lily.
Beautiful, like her
, I thought.

   
In less than fifteen minutes, we had a paper license that needed three days to be considered good in our hand, an appointment with a judge Saturday afternoon at three p.m., and a conscience full of tsk’s.
    “So what now?” Harper asked, folding the license and placing it in the front pocket of her bag.
    I took out my pocket watch and glanced at the time. Five fifteen.
    “We’re a little late but we could try The Hope House. What do you say?”
    “Yes, let’s at least try. We can tell the gang tomorrow of our plans?”
    “I was thinking the same,” I agreed.
    The line for The Hope House hadn’t yet grown the way we thought it might and that was a slight relief. We’d have a chance, at least. When they were shuffling people inside, Harper held on tightly to my arm thinking we’d be left out as usual but when we reached the doors we were just guided in with the rest. Harper’s mouth fell open wide and I couldn’t help but feel surprised myself. Well, surprise and relief. Relief until we realized that the boys and girls slept in two separate spaces.
    “I’d rather sleep in the street than leave you,” she said, not realizing, I think, the honesty in what she’d said and giving me hope.
    “Harper, it’s just one night. We’ll be fine,” I tried to soothe her but I wasn’t so sure myself. I’d gotten used to sleeping near Harper if not directly with her and my chest ached with just the possibility of her absence.
    “Alright,” she said, sighing as a volunteer there tried to move us along to clear the area.
    “Remember,” I said as she walked the other direction. “I’m right over here. I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep tight.”
Harper broke free from the volunteer’s light hold on her arm and ran to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.
    “Thank you...for everything,” she whispered in my ear. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re my family, Callum.” She broke away to join the volunteer, giving me one last look over her shoulder.

I could only stand there, my hand grappled at my chest. I could feel my heart beating furiously against my rib cage.
Just marry her Saturday and you’ll figure it all out later
, I told myself.
Chapter Ten

Joy of Man's Desiring
Callum

   
The next morning, Harper saw me and jumped into my arms.
    “I missed you,” she said, making me smile.
    “I missed you, too. How’d you sleep?” I asked.
    “Terribly,” she teased and rolled her eyes.
    We worked the entire morning at the docks, then the restaurant in the afternoon. In between jobs, Harper and I showered at Cherry’s and let her know we’d like to have a little get together that night. She asked us what it was all about but we told her she’d have to wait just like everyone else. Cherry said we could use Charlie’s, encouraging us both to come there after the restaurant to help her because she thought, and I quote, ‘Announcements always go better with dinner’. We didn’t know where she got the impression that it was an ‘announcement’ but Harper told me girls are freakishly intuitive and I left it at that.
    We obeyed Cherry and showed up at Charlie’s around three-thirty. Charlie and Cherry were both there and Harper and I both noticed how
friendly
they’d become of late.
    “So what’s this all about then?” Charlie asked in his impossibly English accent.
    “You’ll see,” I said, holding plates in my hand, following Harper around like a little lost puppy as she placed them neatly on place mats around Charlie’s table.
    The gang started trickling in around five-thirty and Cherry passed around glasses of wine around as everyone chatted. They were all gracious enough not to mention John for which, I think, we were both grateful.
    Then it was time to eat, a few of us sat around the table and up at the bar, the rest on random cushions on the floor near the table and on the couch. Harper and I chose to stand.
    “We have an announcement,” I said, extremely nervous. Harper placed a hand on my back, offering her support. “Harper and I are marrying.”
We were bombarded with absolute silence, a few forks and knives fell on plates in clangs as all turned to stare our direction.
    “Now,” I continued, “I know this seems rushed but I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life and it was only a matter of time anyway. We thought it was stupid to wait.”
Again, nothing.
    Sam broke the quiet. “Oh my God, she’s pregnant,” she said with disgust.
    “No!” I said emphatically. “Harper is
not
pregnant.”
Harper snorted.
    “But you’ve only known her for a few weeks!” Sam said, whining out the last word.
I looked around, locking eyes with Charlie as he processed the information I’d just laid on them. Then he came full circle and stood.
    “Congratulations, Callum,” he said, slapping me on the back and hugging me fiercely. He grabbed Harper’s little frame and hugged her just as tightly before pulling away. He placed a hand on each of our shoulders and looked us both in the eye. “This is wonderful news!”
    And the dam broke. A sea of sincere congratulations came gushing over us,