“I thought you could use some food.” She looked around the office, it not being the first time she’d been in here but this time it seemed like she was taking in more of the scenery.
It was my fortress for a reason. I had the walls lined with books, graphics novels, comic books, anything that I loved, I tried to shove into this office. It made it feel like my space, rather than sitting in a stuffy cubicle for eight hours a day that looked like everyone else’s.
“From the looks of it, you needed it, too.” Melanie pointed to the food and then to my desk that had papers spread out everywhere. Apparently that was a clear sign that I hadn’t left my desk for the past six hours. She was right though, I hadn’t. “Do you do that a lot?”
“Do what?” I sat on the edge of my desk, sitting down the bag of food she’d brought me.
“Not eat?” Her faced showed how concerned she was. Her eyebrows wrinkled together as she pursed her lips.
“Only when I’m deep into a project, like I just was.”
“Did I interrupt?” Melanie went from concern to panic in five seconds and I was off the edge of my desk and down on my knees in front of her in the same time.
“I was taking a small break, going through my checklist, so this was perfect timing.” I pulled her hands into mine and placed them to my lips.
“I wasn’t planning on staying very long but I thought it’d be a nice surprise.”
“It definitely was.”
I stood back up, leaned in, and placed a kiss to Melanie’s lips, savoring the taste that I’d had to leave this morning. I’d left for work as Melanie had left to drop off Amelia at school. In an hour, she’d be picking her back up and then I’d be to her house not long after that to pick her up.
With us spending each night at Melanie's place, I’d been wanting to do something different tonight, so we were going to my place. Even though I fought Melanie on it, she was still going to make dinner for us, like she did every night. I wanted to do something for her but she never accepted. She always made sure she was one step ahead of me and if I offered, she already had something planned. It was like the roles were in reverse sometimes and even though I tried hard to beat her to the punch, when she did something for me and Amelia, her face lit up and there was no stopping me from seeing that.
“Not what I needed to see today.”
I turned to see Max standing in the doorway of my office, with Chase and Greg behind him.
“It’s not like you haven’t seen your sister kiss someone else.” I pulled Melanie up from the chair. My arm wrapped around her waist instinctively.
“That’s true but the person has never been you, Jack.”
“I’m going to go.” Melanie slowly pulled from my arms and before I could grab her for one more kiss, she was out of the office. We had never showed much displays of affection outside the comfort of our places but I hadn’t expected her to leave without anything more while her brother was here. I’d make sure we talked about it tonight because I wanted her to be comfortable and if she wasn’t, I wanted to know so I could make sure she wasn’t in that kind of position ever again.
“You should probably make sure your office is closed the next time she comes,” Greg snickered before charging into my office and taking the same seat that Melanie had been in.
“Shut it,” I snapped at my brother.
“Exactly, Jack. Shut the door,” Chase chastised and took the other seat in front of my desk. I turned around to see Max taking my seat and I stood there with all of their eyes on me.
“What?” It felt like a gang up and it probably was. We all hadn’t been together in a while and that was partially my fault. Any guys night they tried to orchestrate this last month, I bailed on each one. It’s not that I didn’t want to go but I was not going to pass up the time to spend with Melanie, especially when that time turned into Melanie and Amelia.
“You two seem to be getting along.” Greg crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair.
“We are.”
“Do you have anything else to tell us?” Chase asked. I looked again at all three of them, trying to figure out what it was they were fishing for.
“If you’re wanting to know something, then just ask.” I raised an eyebrow at Max because I knew he had to be the one who banded everyone together. He might have told me I could pursue his sister but now that things were getting more serious, he wanted to know exactly what was going to be happening.
“Where is this going?” Max’s question was flat. It had no emotion to it. He didn’t want me to beat around the bush. He wanted a direct answer.
“I want to marry her, Max.” It was the first time I’d said the words aloud but damn did they feel good to say. Gasps came from the peanut gallery next to me but my eyes stayed trained on Max.
“Were you planning on talking to me about it or just keep it a secret?”
“I wasn’t planning on talking about it today, Max, because I wasn’t planning on proposing today but fine. We can talk about it.” I sat on the corner of my desk, hands crossing in my lap, prepared for whatever Max had to throw my way.
“Why do you want to marry my sister?”
