“It’s just you and me.”
Another nod.
The dispatcher said the police were close.
I kept one arm around Josie and one hand on the napkin at her neck.
Sirens sounded a few minutes later, and Main Street was filled with red and blue lights. The first officer came in with his hand near his weapon, with another right behind him.
I stood slowly, keeping Josie behind me. “She’s in the freezer.”
He looked at me, then at Josie. Then toward the freezer door where Brandi was still pounding. “Weapon?”
“Under that table.”
The other officer moved toward the knife.
The first nodded. “Step back.”
I did, keeping Josie at my back.
They opened the freezer, and Brandi flew out screaming. The two officers grabbed her before she got more than a step, but she twisted and fought, hair wild, face red, eyes locked on Josie. “You ruined everything!” she screeched.
Josie trembled against me.
I reached me arm back, and pressed her tight against me. “Don’t look.”
Brandi kept screaming. At me. At Josie. At the officers. At the world.
They cuffed her and dragged her toward the door.
She looked at me one last time. “I loved you!”
I stared at her. “I only love one woman in this shop, Brandi, and it isn’t fucking you. Get some fucking help, Brandi. You need it.”
Brandi shrieked more, most of which did not make any sense, and then she was gone. The bell over the door jingled behind her and the officers.
The shop went quiet except for Josie’s shaky breathing and my heart pumping in my chest.
I looked down at the woman in my arms. Her eyes were wide, her cheeks tear-streaked, and she was just exhausted. Alive, though.
She looked up at me. “You said...”
I swallowed, because yeah, I had. In the middle of the worst moment of my life, the truth had come out. No taking it back now. Not that I wanted to. “I love you.”
Her breath caught.
I brushed my thumb over her cheek, avoiding the cut near her neck. “I know this is shit timing.”
A laugh burst out of her. “The worst timing.”
“Yeah.” I smiled, but it felt rough. “Still true.”
Josie cried harder, but this time, she reached for me. I pulled her close and held her.
“I love you, too, Rome.” She took a shaky breath. “Even though I’ve been trying to stop it since I met you, I love you. Even though I think you’re blind and need glasses, I love you, too.”
“I don’t need glasses,” I laughed.
