Our Chance (39 page)

That was getting easier for her to say. She’d had a difficult time finding her way back to me but we were there and we were happy.

“You’ll pick me up after work and we’ll go straight there, right?”

I kissed her forehead. “Right. Are you sure you want to spend the weekend with my parents?”

“Of course. I love your parents.”

“Yeah, but you love them based on spending a few hours with them three times since we got together. A whole weekend is–”

“Damon, will you chill. This is going to be great. No commitment fear anymore, remember?”

“You sure about that?”

“Maybe I worry sometimes but not because I think we’ll turn out like my parents. We won’t, I know that for sure.”

“Then what do you worry about?”

“You leaving me,” she whispered.

I almost laughed in her face but thankfully I managed to pull it back at the last minute. “Come on, Nell, be serious.”

She folded her arms over her chest defensively. “What?
You
asked!”

“You honestly think there’s even the slightest possibility that I’d leave you?” I asked.

“I do. I can’t help it. You’re the best thing that’s
ever
happened to me and I’m so sure that I must be dreaming here.”

“Funny,” I replied. “I feel the same.”

“When we ended things before it hurt more than I could have imagined but I know if anything happened now…” She looked away and I saw a tear trail down her cheek.

“Hey,” I said, lifting her chin. “Baby, look at me. I love you, Nell, and I always will. Whatever happens in the future we’ll be okay because we’ll work at it. You’re stubborn as fuck so as long as you’re willing to hold on and not let go we’ll be just fine.”

She let her arms drop and fell into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and leant my chin on the top of her head. “Do you trust me?” I asked.

“More than I trust myself.”

“Then believe me when I tell you I won’t let anything happen to us. You’re stuck with me for life.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded against her. “Yeah. Now have we finished this discussion and fought off your doubts?”

“Mmm hmm,” she breathed into my chest.

“Good. Let’s get to work and then.”

I dropped Nell off and headed to my office. Today had better pass quickly because I was really looking forward to spending some real time with my girl and my parents. I loved how she integrated in my family as if she’d always been there.

Nell was waiting outside her office when I picked her up that afternoon. Unlike when she worked for those last pricks she had a big smile on her face. She loved her new job, got the respect and recognition she deserved and was making good changes for the company. I loved to see her happy in all aspects of her life.

She opened the door and dropped in the seat, lobbing her bag in the back. “Hey, baby,” she said, leaning over for a kiss.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Very okay but it was a long day. We walked around the whole warehouse, offices and workshop. We’ve made great progress and both Harold and Margaret listened to my ideas so we’re definitely making progress. Oh, and I bought a new desk.”

Nell worked for a company that made, up-cycled and sold furniture and home furnishings. She spent at least 20% of her wages there and loved one-of-a-kind things. Thankfully so did a lot of people, mass produced flat packed shit was on its way out and people wanted quality. They needed to expand quickly and Nell was hired to plan and oversee that.

“We might need to look for a bigger house.”

She grinned. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. Three bedrooms will do.”

There were two of us and we shared a room but of course we needed an extra two.

“Well I look forward to paying out hundreds more a month so all your new stuff can be stored.”

“There’s a retro pinball machine they’re working to restore…”

My eyes flicked to hers as I pulled up at a red light. “You’re trying to get around me with man toys?”

“Absolutely. Oh, and sex. I plan on having lots of sex with you in each of those three bedrooms.”

Who was I kidding, there was no way I was pushing for a smaller place if offers of arcade games and steamy sex was on offer.

“Fine. Start looking for bigger places then.”

Squealing, she pulled out her phone, no doubt hopping on Rightmove to start the search right away. I couldn’t care less, as long as we could comfortably afford it, the place it didn’t matter to me, where we lived or how much space we had. I’d live with her in a hostel if it meant we could be together.

Nell had come so far and she deserved everything she wanted.
We
deserved it.

Two hours later, we pulled up at my parents and I went to get the bags out of the boot. Nell had been organised and packed the night before so we could go straight from work since we’d be travelling at peak time.

Mum answered the door and hugged Nell first. I hadn’t realised that when I got a girlfriend I’d be bumped down on the favourite list. But I loved it.

“Hi, darling,” Mum said, crushing the life out of her.

Nell laughed and squeaked a, “Hey.”

“Will you put her down?!” I said, laughing and kissed my mum’s cheek once she’d let Nell go. We walked inside and I headed to the living room to find Dad. No doubt he’d be watching football. I rounded the corner and sure enough found him waving his hand at a footie match.

“Hey, Dad,” I said, dropping down beside him.

“Alright, son. Nell not with you?”

“Mum stole her.”

“She never had a girlie daughter. I’m surprised she’s not in there combing Nell’s hair.”

Cara was not one bit girlie. The one time Mum bought her a dress and asked her to try it on and see if she liked it Cara took it out in the garden and burned it.

“How is C getting on at Uni?” I asked.

“She’s not called asking for money in a week, so doing better I think.”

“I remember those days.” I laughed and kicked my feet up on the coffee table same as his. We’d both get told off for it but we still did it every time.

“How are things going with you anyway?” He asked.

Dad was the only one of them that knew the whole story with Nell. There was no way I was telling Mum. I’d only get my ear chewed off about the correct way to treat a woman – being not to have casual sex with them. Didn’t matter that it was a mutual decision between two adults. It’d be my fault.

“Great,” I replied, trying to stop the aching grin I got when I spoke about her. Or even just thought about her. My colleagues must think I’d lost it the amount of smiling to myself I did.

“That’s good. Not thought about the next step yet? I knew your mum was the one after the first date and soon after got a ring on that finger.”

“Oh, did you?” I asked sarcastically. The amount of times I’d heard that story.

“You’re not too old to put over my knee.”

I’d heard that a lot too.

“Are you proposing to that girl or not?”

Mum and Nell chose that exact moment to walk in the room. My eyes widened. The last time she’d overheard one of my parents saying something stupid it ended badly. Mum looked as worried as I felt, but Nell sat beside me and placed her hand on my chest.

“I doubt he could afford the rock I’ve got my eye on,” Nell said to my dad.

Dad laughed and I felt like I was dreaming. There was no panic in her eyes; she spoke about our engagement so calmly. “What?” I said, looking at her stunned.

Nell smiled. “I’m only joking, I don’t expect a two hundred thousand pound ring.”

I would’ve choked if I wasn’t still so surprised that we were having this discussion. “Um...”

“You’re not freaking out on me, are you?” She asked, smirking.

What? “Have we switched places?”

“Looks like it,” she replied to me and then turned to my dad. “How are you?”

“Much better now there are two beautiful women in the house.”

I rolled my eyes. He was such a charmer, or so he thought.

Nell laughed and poked me in the chest with her thumb. “Uh oh, I think we broke him.”

Broken wasn’t right but I definitely felt…something. Nell even being able to joke about our future, cemented my belief that we could make this work. It eradicated every last niggling worry I had about her doing a runner.

“I’m not broken,” I grumbled.

“Are you scared about the proposal jokes?”

“The opposite.”
Don’t propose to her when your parents are watching your every move like a hawk.
If we were alone I would’ve blurted it out by now.

Mum made an excited squeaking sound and clenched her fists. She wanted me to get down on one knee, right here, right now. Nell deserved for it to at the very least be in private. God, I wished we weren’t here right now because I knew that she would say yes.

Silence stretched into minutes and Mum, finally accepting that I wasn’t doing it here, got up. “Tea everyone?”

“Coffee for me, please,” I said.

Nell kissed my cheek and stood up. “I’ll give you a hand.”

Dad looked over his shoulder as they walked out. “Look at that, she followed Mum into the kitchen rather than hightailing it out the door.”

“You’re hilarious, Dad.”

“Looks like the only person stopping you popping the question is you.”

“No, I think that was you and Mum. Anyway, there’s no rush, we’ve not been together long.”

Dad looked at me and cocked his head to the side. “Now who’re you fooling? From what you’ve told me you’ve been together a lot longer than that. If you’re sure you’ll make it, then what’re you waiting for? Whether you marry her now or in five years doesn’t change the fact that you’ll grow old and grey together.”

“Lance and Cara should be here to witness you giving good advice.”

“Nothing wrong with my advice, lad.”

If I’d have done half the things he said growing up I probably would’ve been arrested. He was the dad that told me to punch them back until they couldn’t get up and small lies on your tax returns weren’t illegal because the police didn’t have enough resources to arrest and charge everyone that did it.

“I need a ring.”

He cracked the biggest smile I’d seen since I passed my driving test. “That’s the spirit. But don’t ask me to re-mortgage the house to get her that 200k one.”

“Not much chance of that.” My job paid well but not that well. Besides, Nell wouldn’t really care what the thing cost. I was more likely to get shit for it being too expensive.

“You two need to learn to whisper,” Nell said, leaning against the doorframe.

“Shit!” I closed my eyes. There was no chance of this proposal being anything that even resembled romantic now.

She laughed and then bit her lip. I wanted to drag her off upstairs. My old room was still as I’d left it, minus the few boxes of junk that keep finding their way in there. She pushed off the frame and moved aside for mum to get through with the tray of drinks and biscuits.

“Don’t worry. I’ll pretend I know nothing.”

I felt like shit. She could not talk about it all she wanted but we both knew it was going to happen, we both wanted it, so it couldn’t be forgotten. I wouldn’t get to surprise her. It was like knowing what you had for Christmas before the day.

So I decided to do the one thing she wouldn’t now expect, I wasn’t going to ask her to marry me.

Nell

“This one is much better,” I said, looking out of the window in the departures lounge at our massive plane. We were lining up, ready to board. It looked sturdy, unlike the pretend one we flew to Scotland in.

Damon rolled his eyes.

“But this one has a lot further to go,” Chloe said. “More time for things to go wrong.”

I shrugged. Flying didn’t bother me, I felt safe and confidant flying. But when I was in something that looked like it belonged to a toddler I started to get erratic.

It was a year, just over, since Chloe and Logan got married and we were all on our way to Vegas. I was so excited I could pee. We’d not had a holiday since Scotland and it didn’t count to me unless I actually left the UK. So technically this was mine and Damon’s first holiday together.

Since we made us official and decided to give it ago I’d felt an inner peace that I didn’t even know existed. I just felt like I was home and I belonged somewhere. It wasn’t easy, I had a lot of hang-ups, but together we made sure that we both felt safe in our relationship.