“Where did you take her, you…gigantic man?”
“A wedding,” I say, scanning over their heads for some sign of Petra.
All four of them trade a perplexed look. “Did she, um…escortyou there?”
“That’s how it started. I called the agency and no one else was available, so she showed up to help me and…” I double over and plant my hands on my knees, unable to contend with the reality that Petra is crying somewhere inside the house and I can’t get to her. “Please, I know how it must sound, but I’m in love with your sister.”
“What?” they all exclaim in unison. “Why is she crying?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out!”
“If you love someone, you don’t make them cry,” another sister points out.
I release a miserable bellow. “Petra.” I stumble toward the sisters, no choice but to physically move them out of my way. “Princess. Come talk to me.”
The four sisters form a barricade. Four cans of pepper spray are produced out of seemingly nowhere. Held at the ready.
“If she doesn’t want to talk to you, there’s a good reason for it.”
“Don’t spray him,” comes a wobbly voice from within the house. It’s Petra.
My heart clogs my throat when she comes into view at the top of a staircase, her face tear-stained and red.
“Petra, can we please talk?”
“We had the whole car ride to talk.”
She’s right about that. I make a mental note to never delay another conversation, lest I find myself staring down the barrelof four pepper spray cans and a crying angel. “I didn’t know what to say,” I rasp, begging her with my eyes to come closer. “I was afraid to tell you how much I love you. I was afraid to find out I was…just a job to you. One you wanted to be over.”
She descends a couple of steps, as if in a trance. “How could you think that?”
“I live like a hermit. I’m…disfigured. I’m—”
“Thoughtful and brave and forthright and protective?”
A crank turns in my chest, making it impossible to speak.
I can only watch with my heart in my mouth as Petra reaches the bottom of the stairs and closes the distance between me and her. The sisters blessedly step aside, so I can see her, my princess, only a few feet away from me now.
“Did you mean it when you told my sisters you’re in love with me?” she whispers.
“Yes,” I scrape out, trying to stress the truth of my claim with my eyes. “You’re the most joy I’ve ever felt in my life. I don’t even think I knew joy until you answered that phone. I never wanted this weekend to end. I just didn’t know if you felt the same. I couldn’t bring myself to find out if you didn’t. If you…don’t.” I have to hold the doorframe for support. “At the wedding, you made me feel…not just normal. But like I belonged. I belonged for the first time in a long time, but that’s only because you believed it enough for the both of us. Until I could, too. You’re extraordinary in every way, Petra, and that’s the only reason I have the balls to ask you now…to come with me. Let me try to be everything you need. Let me learn.”
Tears spill over and run down her cheeks. “You don’t just want to meet at a hotel in Vegas next weekend, like you said?”
Her sisters gasp, disgusted.
I mentally berate myself for ever making that suggestion. “First of all, I’m sorry I asked you to do that. I was worried a relationship would be asking for too much. That maybe youdidn’t feel the same way about me. But I never want to be your client again; I want to be your boyfriend. Real, not pretend. If you’ll let me.” I swallow a rusty nail. “Second of all, I would split open and fucking die waiting a whole week to see you, princess. I’d never make it.”
Her whole body jerks with a sob. “Then I guess I better come with you now.”
The ground trembles beneath my feet. “Really?”
She nods vigorously, launching herself over the threshold into my arms. “I love you, too, Barry. Since I answered your phone call. It was your voice. Then it was just…you.”
I stumble backward with Petra in a tight embrace, my vision a blur of color. “I’ll learn how to make you happy, Petra. I won’t let you down.”
“You already make me happy, Barry,” she whispers, pushing high on her tiptoes to kiss me. “So happy that the next wedding we attend together will be ours.”
