a bit more silence before Gabe found his voice. “Holy fuck … I mean … wow! I assume she said yes?”
“Of course I said yes!” I yelled, unable to contain myself.
“Well, congratulations! Sorry I missed the main reveal. I’ll bet that was interesting with Nate and Aria.”
“Yeah, to say the least.” Jensen’s face darkened for a moment.
“So, when is this soirée going down?”
“Whoa, slow the marriage train down!” Jensen said with a laugh. “We’re doing the long engagement thing."
“Oh! Well, now it all seems to make a little more sense that you two would take such a leap by getting engaged. It’s not going to happen for a long, long time, I take it.”
Hmm, when he put it that way, it sounded contrived. I bit my lip to stifle the thought.
“No, of course not. Mia’s still in high school and I’m just starting college.”
“Yeah,” I broke in, “that would be weird to be the only married girl still in high school. I don’t need people thinking I’m pregnant, which I’m not.” Jensen threw me a look that I didn't really know how to interpret on-the-fly.
“Well I’m sure that’s a relief, eh, Jensen?” I could almost see Gabe’s big grin. If he were standing next to Jensen he would have elbowed him.
“No shotgun wedding here,” Jensen agreed. I leaned my head against his shoulder.
“Alright, man, I’ll see you on Tuesday.”
“Later."
“Bye, Gabe,” I added before the click.
“So, you're having a movie thing?” I teased with my best stern look as Jensen set the phone down on his bedside table. I figured I could let him sweat a little for not telling me until after he'd planned it.
“I thought I told you. You don’t mind, do you? I’ll hang with the guys while you and Alicia are doing your thing with pictures," he offered, looking extremely guilty.
I couldn't continue in good faith with faking my ire since he sometimes forgot little things because of his car accident last year. “Course not. I know I can’t keep you all to myself. Tell you what … how about I drive Alicia so you don’t have to be our chauffeur? That way you’ll have more time with the guys.”
“Really?” Jensen searched my eyes.
“Really,” I confirmed.
“Best girlfriend ever.”
“And don’t you forget it.” I gave him a sly look. “Alright, back to packing. The sooner you get it done, the more time we have to do other things.” I flashed him another one of my sultry gazes, which Jensen caught onto right away.
Jumping up again, Jensen doubled his efforts to finish packing while I went over to the stereo and changed the music to Janet Jackson’s newest CD, which I had purposefully left there so that he could listen to it now and then. I made a mental note to ensure he didn't pack it.
After trying to help for a few minutes, I just ended up being in the way and went back to the kitchen to hang out with Alicia. She was in the same spot where we’d left her.
“Hey, that was fast,” she teasingly noted. “You should tell my brother to take his time.”
“Ha, ha. We called Gabe and then Jensen went back to packing again. I tried helping but I think I was just in the way.”
“Good,” Alicia said, “then you can help me make a decision.”
I sat on the vacant stool next to her and noticed she was now looking at car brochures. I raised my eyebrow. “Are you actually going to spend some of your nest egg for a new car?” Alicia seemed to be like a squirrel packing away winter nuts when it came to money.
“Yup. Since Jess is taking her car back to college and I can’t ride with you all the time, I’m looking at a Toyota 4-Runner.” She handed me a brochure. “Here, read through this and tell me what you think. It’s between this, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and a Honda Prelude.
“So, it’s an SUV versus a teeny-tiny car, huh?”
“What? They’re cute,” she simply replied.
“But not very practical for winter, although it does seem like your kind of car.”
“Read," Alicia commanded, pointing to the Toyota brochure. She went back to reading about the Prelude, and five minutes later she tossed that aside and went for the Jeep brochure.
Reading about the 4-Runner and looking at the colorful pictures, I couldn’t help but think that I’d like to get a 4-Runner for myself at some point in time. Reluctantly, I put the brochure down and picked the one up for the Prelude.
“Hey, there you are.” Jensen wandered into the kitchen from downstairs. “Car brochures?” He leaned across the island, raising his eyebrow and smiling crookedly in his usual sexy way.
“They’re for her.” I pointed to Alicia.
“Wow, really? What do we have?” He pulled the Jeep brochure out of her hands and started flipping through it.
“Hey!”
Leafing through it to look only at the pictures, Jensen tossed it back at her and rolled his eyes before picking up the other two.
“A Prelude, a 4-Runner, and a Jeep. Tough choice.”
“What would you get?” I asked. “I’m kind of sold on the 4-Runner.”
“Oh, the Prelude all the way,” he said sarcastically.
I shook my head to indicate that Alicia was seriously considering that car and not to knock it just yet.
“We all know that you’d pick the Jeep, Jensen,” Alicia said, sighing and tossing the brochure down. “This is almost as tough as picking a college.”
“You’ll decide. You always do.” I stood up and put my hand on her shoulder before walking over to Jensen and lightly leaning against him. “So, all finished packing?”
“Just about. My packing supervisor left early.” He smiled crookedly and followed when I grabbed his hand and led him back down to his room so he could finish. Right away I noticed that he’d snuck in a Nine Inch Nails disc while I was gone and I wasn’t going to stay if I had to listen to that. Flipping through his CDs, I found the Singles soundtrack. To Jensen’s annoyance I popped it in.
“Hey, I was listening to that, you know.”
“Yup, and now it’s time for a change,” I said matter-of-factly as I searched for my favorite Mother Love Bone song that I wanted to listen to. The low piano melody started streaming out of the speakers as I returned to the bed, lying back down on my stomach, propping my head up with my arms. Jensen let out a sigh, realizing there was no use fighting with me over the music choice. He went back to packing with his pace quickening.
4. Poses and Lockers
Waking up early to darkness that Tuesday morning, I sat up in a panic from whatever in my dreams had awakened me. Drenched in sweat and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked around as the surroundings focused me back into reality. Jensen was to my left was lying peacefully on his side, and his slow and rhythmic breathing told me he was in a deep sleep and hadn’t been stirred. A rush of relief washed over me. My dream had been quickly erased from memory, but trying to remember it was the last thing on my mind considering the sadness and loneliness I now felt. I touched Jensen’s arm lightly to make sure he was, in fact, real, and then I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t still dreaming.
“Ouch, stupid,” I whispered to myself, feeling a little silly. I laid back down, pulling the sheet back up to my chin and rolling onto my right side so I could snuggle up to Jensen and pull his