“Good.” He kisses my nose and walks off. “Go inside now, I’m sure your mother and sister are dying to gossip about me.”
“Oh, I can’t wait,” I tell him in all honesty.
“Goodnight, Ciara.”
“Goodnight.” I smile at him as I open the door and close it behind me. I wait a minute, enough time to hear the car pull away, before sighing contentedly because I know that he is still here for me.
I take a few steps towards the living room and find everyone ignoring me indifferently as if they hadn’t been spying on me through the window the whole time. I cross my arms over my chest and stamp a foot on the ground, waiting for someone to speak.
“Oh, hello honey. I didn’t hear you come in,” Mom says with fake innocence.
“Oh please, Mother.”
“Okay, fine, you got us.”
At which point the ears of Carl and my brothers prick up, ready to take it all in.
“What?” I ask. “There’s nothing to say.”
“That’s how you’re going to leave us?” my little sister Amanda agonizes.
I smile and head upstairs, followed by my mother, who is not going to drop it. I enter my room and she follows me.
“Well? Did you talk to him?” she asks.
“No.”
“Ciara,” she chastises.
“I need to be sure that he really loves me first.”
“Do you still have any doubts?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I just want him to want to be with me, not feeling like he’s under an obligation.”
“Ah, Ciara. You always were stubborn. That man loves you, what does he need to do to prove it to you?”
I shake my shoulders and sit on the bed.
I don’t doubt the sincerity of his statements, it’s just that with everything that’s happened, I need to be 100 per cent sure that I am really what he wants.
—
AARON
I get back to a virtually desertedOnly4You.Our customers have almost all gone home to sleep off the buzz. I go to the counter where Jay and Patrick are laughing at something Ned, our most loyal customer, has just said. He won’t go till we turn off the lights.
“Hey,” Jay says as way of greeting. “How’s everything?” He looks at me expectantly.
I don’t know, I just know Ciara allowed me to touch her, to hold her hand, to kiss her, to bring her home…
“It’s good.” I smile. “Everything’s great.”
I don’t need to lie to them or to myself. I feel free and light. Ready to love and accept someone who loves me. Ready for what is to come.
“I need to talk to you,” I add. “Where is Liam?”
“In the back, stocking up for tomorrow.”
