Gamble on Engagement (22 page)

“I’ve got to head over to Dave’s apartment,”
Jennifer said, strolling up. Of course her one suitcase just
happened to be rolling by us just as she got there and she quickly
grabbed it, ready to leave. “His neighbor thinks he smelled gas
coming from his place.”

“And you’re just going over there?” I asked.
I mean, I know I hadn’t known Jennifer that long, but I could not
imagine just heading on in to an apartment that might have gas
leaking. What would a person even do if there was gas? “Do you
think that’s a good idea with the baby and everything?” Plus, you
know, she was just going to leave me alone in my time of need?

She just shrugged. “It’ll be fine. His
neighbor is apparently just really nosy, and Dave doesn’t think
anything is probably up, I’m just checking in for a sec, just in
case. Go ahead and take the car I booked, I’ll just grab a
cab.”

I sighed, not even caring if she got ticked
off or whatever. Seriously, she had to have known I didn’t want to
be by myself. “Do you want me to come with you?” I asked,
hopefully.

The look on her face… well, all I can say is
it faltered a bit, but she brightened almost immediately. “Oh no,
that’s okay. Thanks though. I’ll just be like, ten minutes behind
you. You can get settled at home and maybe start unpacking and
before you know it, I’ll be there.”

I did my best not to look too annoyed. It
was becoming more and more obvious that she wanted to be alone or
whatever. I guess she probably wanted some more time to think about
everything. Of course, the thought that she just needed to get away
from my whiny ass did cross my mind too. “Okay, well, see you at
home, I guess.”

“Great! See you then,” she said, too
enthusiastically.

I waited another ten minutes before my last,
small case came pathetically down the conveyor belt. Everyone else
had already cleared out. One look told me what had taken so long.
The hard-backed case had obviously popped open, its latch
apparently busting to pieces. Clothes spilled out the sides of the
case, and the case itself was duct taped into oblivion.

Of course, what else was I supposed to
expect?

I piled it on top of the rest, so beyond
even caring if people saw my lacy undies sticking out or not. I
found the driver Jennifer had booked—not so difficult a task
considering there was pretty much only one guy standing in the
arrivals section anymore, and, you know, he was holding Jennifer’s
name up.

“Hi, I’m Josie,” I said. “Jennifer’s
roommate. She said I’m supposed to catch a ride with you.”

“Of course,” he said, taking charge of my
overstuffed luggage cart, and not even glancing at the disaster
that was the case on top. “She let me know all about it on her way
out to the cab line, Miss McMaster.”

Well, at least she didn’t leave me totally
hanging, looking like I was trying to steal somebody’s ride or
something, and at that moment, I was willing to take even the
smallest of victories.

Normally I would at least offer to help with
the luggage, but all I could do was flop into the back of the car
and hope that it got me home quickly. I was exhausted, almost to
the point where I just couldn’t take the tedious parts of life
anymore. I was going to go home and not unpack as Jennifer
suggested, but pass out instead. It had been too long since I’d
slept in my own bed.

But, as it often does, life had a different
plan for me.

A ‘driver going in the complete wrong
direction and totally getting us lost’ kind of plan.

Cripes.

I tried to tell him where to turn, but he
just would not listen. It was like he was direction dyslexic or
something. Every time I said to turn right, he’d go left. When I
said north, he’d make his way east. We’d made it all the way to the
fanciest part of town, which, believe me, was a long way away from
my apartment.

“Please, just listen to me,” I begged. “If
you would just go back the way we…”

And then he stopped. Right in front of the
cutest little motel I’d ever seen. It was like a real life
dollhouse, even including pink trim like you’d see in a
magazine.

After the day I’d had, I almost wanted to go
in there and ask for the most comfortable bed they had. Of course,
I was certainly in no position financially to do that, so I sighed
instead. “Can you please just take me home?”

“I’m sorry Miss McMaster, but we’ve reached
the destination I was instructed to bring you to.”

“Well, then, there must be some mistake,” I
said.

But the driver tilted his head in the
direction of a little stairwell on the side of the building, toward
a handmade sign that simply said, “Josie,” and had an arrow
pointing up the stairs.

And I couldn’t help but wonder what in the
hell I was in for next.

~ 20 ~

It took every ounce of energy I had left to
make my way out of the car and to the stairs. I honestly just
wanted to sit down right there and cry, thinking that if this was
Mattie’s idea of a sick joke, I was going to pummel the shit out of
him the first chance I got.

I stepped up onto the stairs, slowly making
my way up, which seemed pretty weird actually, since I couldn’t see
a door at the top of the staircase, or anything up there for that
matter. As I neared the top, the staircase actually wrapped around
the back of the building.

One more flight to go.

I’d made my way to the roof, which might not
have been the best decision on the part of whoever was setting me
up. Rooftops could equal disaster. Who knew, if I didn’t end up
throwing myself off it, I could not be responsible for my actions
and someone else may even go overboard.

Maybe I was just being dramatic.

I stepped out onto the roof, a large brick
wall on my left, blocking my view, and nothing but a very long drop
to the ground below on my right. I took another step, and another,
finally rounding the wall and seeing…

…Jake?

The roof was set up like a tropical garden
with large plants and flowers everywhere, lit up with a million
tiny candles flickering in the moonlight. And then there was Jake,
dressed in a tuxedo.

He was a sight for sore eyes.

“Jake?” I finally found the word.

“Hey Jose,” he said, and smiled that smile I
fell in love with.

Suddenly, I wasn’t quite as tired anymore.
“Jake? What are you doing?”

I saw then that some of the candles were set
up like a pathway and I took a step down the makeshift aisle
without really realizing it.

Then I took another. “I thought you were
never going to talk to me again.”

He shook his head gently. “I would never do
that.”

“I’ve been trying to call you.”

He nodded now, looking down. “I know.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“I know that too… now,” he said. “I mean, I
didn’t think you’d think I would just never talk to you again.”

I shrugged. “I did think that though.”

“I am so sorry. I just kept thinking about
how I wanted this all to be a surprise.”

“All what to be a surprise?” I asked, my
curiosity reaching new heights.

“This,” he said, gesturing around him.

“But what about the tabloids? I thought you
were mad at me about the tabloids. And Leo.”

He put his hands in his pockets and looked
at his feet. “I was, for a few days I really was. Tearing the shit
out of my trailer at work, being generally pissy to anyone who
dared walk in my path.”

“Really?” I mean, not that I condoned it or
anything, but it wasn’t unpleasant knowing I had that effect on
him.

“And then it finally hit me. Well, after the
director threatened to fire me if I didn’t straighten up. I figured
I should think about why I was really so upset. I mean, I’ve
certainly been in relationships that didn’t work before, so why was
I such a mess? And then I realized… I was jealous.
I
wanted
to be the one that you did all that fun stuff with.
I
wanted
to be by your side instead of on some stupid movie set. I mean, I
love my job, but it can get really, really lonely sometimes. And
that’s when it hit me. You’re the one Josie. And I don’t want to
spend another minute without you.”

He stepped back and I thought this was when
I would wake up from the dream. Something was about to go
wrong.

But then he dug into his pocket, pulled out
a tiny box, and knelt down on one knee…

…and that’s approximately the same time as I
lost consciousness.

~~~

I yelled one word when I came to.

“Yes!”

I totally didn’t even know what had
happened, but even as I’d passed out, I knew what my answer would
be. Of course I wanted to marry Jake.

I also didn’t know if it was Mattie or
Jennifer squealing when I came to. It was a very feminine sounding
scream. But it could have been either one.

They both came rushing up and knelt down
beside me, chattering away.

“Oh my God, I thought we were going to miss
it,” Jennifer said, as if her mouth were in a race.

“Well if you would learn how to chase a car
properly, we wouldn’t have been so rushed,” Mattie added.

Only Jake looked at all concerned for my
wellbeing. “Jesus Josie, are you okay? I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay,” I jumped in. “I can’t even tell
you how okay it is.” Tears welled up in my eyes and my smile almost
hurt my face.

Until I realized that I’d passed out before
Jake had even said anything. I mean, he’d reached in his pocket and
pulled out a small box, but what if… oh God, what if he was just
giving me a key to his apartment like how they always seemed to
fool the heroine in movies? My stomach clenched.

“Oh God,” I whispered, “unless…” I panicked,
looking around for the box.

The box would tell me everything.

And there it was, still in Jake’s hand.

Closed.

Oh God. I slowly started sitting up.

“Um, unless I am mistaken about what might
be in that box,” I said, cringing that this might be my most
monumental blunder yet.

Jake looked confused for a second, and
looked at the box as if he was noticing it for the first time.

But Mattie and Jennifer were practically
bouncing with excitement so maybe… just maybe…

“Oh uh, no. Don’t worry, you’re not, I mean…
I am…” He took a deep breath. I’d never seen him so nervous. “This
is exactly what you think it is.”

He pulled on the lid of the box, so slowly
it was like I was on a game show and they were about to announce if
I’d won a million dollars or not, except… it was time for a
commercial break.

But then, miraculously, it really was like I
had just won a million dollars. No wait, it was so much better than
that. Because inside that beautiful leather box was something so
sparkly and perfect that the tears came so fast I hardly had a
second to look at it. I wiped them away fast, staring into the most
beautiful (and huge!) emerald cut solitaire diamond I had ever
seen.

It was so beautiful that I almost didn’t
notice the smoke and the strange burning smell.

“Does anybody smell that?” I said, looking
around.

Mattie’s eyes suddenly grew wide, like, deer
in the headlights wide. And the worst part was, he was staring
right at my head.

And that was around the same time that I
started to feel something very warm at the back of my head.

I mean, I guess I shouldn’t have been
surprised. I was McMaster the Disaster after all. Why wouldn’t I
faint and light my hair on fire the first time I get proposed
to?

There was a flurry of activity while my
three favorite people in the world pounded on my head, knocking me
back down to the ground and pretty much smothering me.

Mattie topped it off by throwing a pitcher
of water—that just so happened to be sitting right there on the
table—over my head. How very convenient.

“Mattie!” I screamed, the coldness slipping
down the back of my neck.

I could only imagine what I looked like, an
entire day on a plane, then drenched like a drowned rat.

Pretty.

“Well
sorry
for trying to save your
life,” he said, sarcastic as ever.

But I couldn’t even be that mad, since Jake
was still holding out the ring.

“Um… so Josie McMaster… will you marry me?”
he asked.

Maybe it was how tired I was, or maybe it
was just pure relief that I hadn’t completely screwed up my life
yet again, but I didn’t even try to stop the tears now. “Of
course,” I said, not even caring how much my mascara must be
running—it already had to be everywhere from the water anyway. “Of
course I’ll marry you.”

And Jake started crying… just a little,
too.

~ EPILOGUE ~

Two months of engaged bliss later…

I stepped out the back door of Jake’s cabin,
into the giant yard filled with flowers and trees, which led up to
the lake. Our lake. The lake where we’d had our very first
date.

Life was perfect.

“Oh no you didn’t!” Mattie said, screeching
through the silence and putting up a talk-to-the-hand gesture, the
other hand on his hip.

“Oh yes. Yes, I very much did,” my mother
said, widening her sensible high-heeled stance, putting both hands
on her hips.

Of course, perfection always did have a way
of cracking into a million little pieces, didn’t it?

I honestly don’t even know how it happened,
but somehow, Mattie and my mother were both under the impression
that they would be the one to plan my wedding. I mean, I may have
sort of not told them otherwise when they’d each come to me with
plans galore, enthusiastically suggesting exactly how my big day
should be, but I swear, I’d never promised anything.