I slide the box across the table and his cheeks lower along with his smile when he opens the box to reveal a platinum Tiffany ring.
“Oh my God, I can’t.” Christopher’s eyes blink away the shock as he closes the lid and slides it back to me.
“You don’t like it?” Fear rises in my throat. “It’s too much, isn’t it. I can take it back.” I shove the box back into my jacket as my cheeks start to burn up.
How stupid am I.
To think he’d be taken by the ring, like John with the watch.
“No, I like it. It’s just… That ring probably costs more than the rent on my apartment.” The touch of his hand on mine slows my pulsing heart, but sets my mind racing.
His apartment.
That’s another conversation I want to have.Needto have at some point. But I don’t want to in case I push him away. I don’t want to lose the status quo, but I also want more. For him to bemy boyfriend rather than dating. For him to move into my room, rather than staying in the guest room.
I shake away the thought, focusing on the topic at hand.
“You know I don’t care about money. And wasn’t it you who joked about me being your sugar daddy?” I nudge him with my elbow as I wink.
“But I can’t afford to get you a present like that. Not on my salary.” His brow furrows as his lips remain horizontal.
“Do you know what my favorite present has ever been?” I reach for his hand. “It was that customized skateboard you got me. Not this watch my label got me. Not the truck I was gifted for my last birthday. The skateboard.”
The corner of his mouth rises as his hand grips mine.
“Here you go.” The bartender passes our drinks over as I quickly pull my hand away.
“Cheers.” I mimic Christopher as he holds up his drink to mine.
“Maybe lay off the attempts at an English accent.” Christopher lets out a chuckle and clinks my glass, both of us taking a gulp before returning to the conversation.
“It’s no fun working hard to earn all this money if I can’t indulge. And I’ll be damned if Paul gets access to it rather than the people I care about. Plus, if you say no to this,” I say, pulling the box back out of my jacket, “then you’ll definitely say no to the other present I got you.”
Wednesday
My eyes widen in sheer disbelief as Christopher walks into my bedroom holding a surfboard under his arm. He hands it to me as I launch from my bed and up to him.
“No fucking way.”
“Do you like it?” He holds the board out in front of him for me to take.
“Oh my God, this is fucking sick.” The bedroom light reflects off the wavy gleam coming from the board. The dark-brown wood makes the ivory-white sound wave in the middle pop out.
“What’s the sound wave?” I rack my brain, running through all my songs, but don’t recognize it.
“Guess.” Christopher’s mischievous smile appears across his face.
“You can call me Al?”
My gaze flicks between the surfboard and the skateboard he got me, mounted on the wall above my acoustic guitar.
“Nope.” He takes the board back from me to put it down on the bed. “He was a skater boy.”
The way Christopher looks at me as he saysskater boy, I know it’s over. That my attempts to honor Christopher’s wish to go slow, to not rush things, have been completely thrown out the window.
“I love you.”
I lean into him to kiss him, not even waiting for him to respond.
