When Life Turned Purple (4 page)

Her eyes widened even more and Russ saw hope and fear in them. “I—we—we don’t even know each other, Russ.”

Russ frowned. “Yeah, we do,” he said, scouring his mind for more proof. “You do space art—really amazing space art—and you’re gorgeous—and we understand each other—and you’re really cool to hang out with and—well, what more do you want to know about me? Ask me anything.”

Lia sat with her hands in fists together in front of her chest, her shoulders hunched, and a little “Ha!” popped out of her mouth.

Russ leaned back against the car door. “Really. It’s your own personal AMA time with Russ Martin. Ask anything you want.”

Lia’s shoulders relaxed and she smiled. “Oh, Russ. That’s not—I mean, I feel like I’d need to spend more
time
with you to really get to know you….” She ran a hand over her hair. “Are you sure? I mean, for yourself. Do you really feel that—well, that you want to spend the
rest
of your life—with
me
?”

Russ nodded. “Yeah, sure, baby. I never met anyone like you. And—and I don’t think I ever will.”

Lowering her eyes, Lia bit her lip and nodded to herself. Then she looked up at Russ and said, “I need like to think about it, Russ. I—I’ve never met anyone like you, either.”

Russ gazed at her another moment, then gave a nod. Centering himself in front of the wheel, he geared into drive and continued to speed down the road.

“Where do you want to go now?” he asked.

“Home, if you don’t mind,” she said. “I’d like to do some thinking.”

As they drove back to Lia’s apartment, Russ noticed her glancing at him from time to time. But mostly, she stared out the window, her fingers lightly tapping her lips.

As usual, Russ walked her up to her apartment. There was something soft, shining, and vulnerable about her eyes as she looked up at him to tell him goodbye.

He jumped into his car and cranked the engine.

Now that he’d actually asked her, he felt even more certain that marrying Lia was the right thing to do.

The problem was that she hadn’t said yes.

But she hadn’t said no, either.

After a lot of web trawling, Russ finally settled on a jewelry store.

True, Lia hadn’t said yes, but maybe when she saw how serious he was about everything, she would come around.

The woman behind the counter wore a plain sweater. But her hair looked like it was used to expensive cuts and shampoos.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Maddie. How can I help you?”

“I’m looking to buy an engagement ring—something purple.”

“Like amethyst?”

“Uh, is there anything else purple?”

“Is price an issue?”

“Um…no. Not really.”

“Well,” she said with a smile, “there are purple sapphires.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“And, if price really isn’t a concern, we can create for you a tanzanite gem with purple as the face-up color.”

Russ stood with his hands in his pockets, trying to figure out what tanzanite was and what the heck was a face-up color.

But with a knowing smile, Maddie pulled out another padded velvet tray and held up a stone between tweezers. Russ couldn’t tell if it was purple or blue.

“Tanzanite is what we call pleochroic,” she said. “That means its color changes depending from what angle it’s looked at.” She held it up for him to see, slanting it at different angles and having him move around to see it from different sides. “Most people want some shade of blue tanzanite,” she continued. “Meaning that when you look down at it, it’s blue from that angle—its face-up color. But some tanzanite is available with purple as its face-up color.”

“Never heard of it,” he said, still staring at the gem.

“It was discovered in 1967. It’s rarer and more expensive than diamonds,” she said.

He shot her a look. “No kidding,” he said.

“Nope. You can even look it up if you don’t believe me.”

Russ nodded. “How much is it?”

“At this size and weight, it’s around six hundred dollars.”

He whistled.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

Russ figured she didn’t get many tanzanite whistlers. Probably most tanzanite buyers leaned casually against the counter and arched a well-sculpted eyebrow.

The pansies.

“What kind of setting are you interested in?” she asked.

He rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. Something sleek, cool, and polished for Lia.

“I guess silver,” he said.

“That would be a beautiful match,” agreed Maddie. “And if you’re interested, we also have white gold.”

“What’s the difference exactly?”

“White gold is solid gold mixed with a white metal that makes it look like silver.”

“I’ll go with that, then.” Russ liked the thought of giving Lia gold.

They discussed more details about the setting. As they spoke, Russ could tell that Maddie was tuning into Lia’s personality through Russ’s words. It reminded Russ of how he related to his own customers. What transformed sales from a job to an art was achieving a kind of mind-meld with the customer, enabling the seller to intuit exactly what the customer needed.

Finally, Russ made his order.

“Usually, a couple comes in together to get just the right setting and fit,” said Maddie.

Russ gave a wry smile. “Yeah, well, I want to surprise her,” he said.
To convince her.

Maddie smiled as she looked down at the order. “Oh, she’ll be surprised all right. Getting a ring like this happens once in a drizzle-free day in December.”

Russ sauntered out of the store. Leaning on his car was Evan, who raised his arm in greeting when he saw Russ. Russ jogged toward him. They shoulder-clapped each other as Evan explained he’d been passing by when he saw Russ’s car. Then Evan took Russ’s keychain. “I love driving your car,” he said. “Please, big brother?”

Russ grinned as he gave him another clap on the shoulder and they got into the car.

“Let me guess,” Evan said as he pulled out onto the street. “You weren’t in that store to get your nose pierced.”

Russ pressed his lips together to hide the giddy grin punching its way out.

Evan glanced at Russ and smiled. “You crazy Sasquatch. I can’t believe you did it—you guys hardly even know each other! Well, out with it—what’d you get her?”

Russ described it to him, smirking as he tossed out words like ‘pleochroic’ and ‘crystallographic direction.’

Evan’s eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open. “
Ho
-ly—and how much did this little dandy cost?”

Russ told him.

Evan shot up, the top of his head bouncing off the roof of the car. “NOOOOOOO!” Gaping-mouthed and round-eyed, Evan jerked his head to look at Russ before directing his eyes back to the road. “Don’t tell me that kind of price while I’m driving!”

“Well, you asked, little bro.”

“Yeah, but—oh, gosh…you really want to set yourself back that much?”

Russ grinned. “I see it as setting myself ahead.”

With a deep sigh, Evan nodded thoughtfully. “Hey,” he said. “You know that you two are pretty young to be doing this. No one else gets married at this age—unless they’re from Grant County.”

Russ didn’t bother answering. Instead, he picked up Evan’s phone, which always featured the latest apps and stuff. Scrolling along, Russ suddenly saw Lia’s number and his heart stiffened. He shot a glance at Evan, then looked back at the phone.

“What’s Lia’s number doing on your phone, Evan?” he said in a low voice.

Evan grinned. “Oh, she called me,” he said.

“Yeah, I can see that, you stupid nit.”

Evan’s grin dropped when he heard Russ’s tone of voice. He glanced at Russ and rolled his eyes. “Oh, come
on
, Russ.”

“No, seriously,” said Russ. “How long did you guys talk?”

Evan smirked. “A loooong time.”

Russ felt his chest tighten and heave. Breathing hard through his nose as he struggled to keep his voice low and steady, he said, “What’d you guys talk about, Evan.”

Evan’s smirk deepened as he gave an exaggerated shrug.

Russ fell toward Evan and grabbed a handful of Evan’s shirt around the throat. “I said, WHAT DID YOU TALK ABOUT, EVAN?”

“Aack!” Evan gagged as the car swerved and the others cars honked. “Not while I’m driving! Are you freakin’ crazy? If I brake, we’ll get rear-ended, you fruitcake!”

But Russ didn’t let up.

With coughs coming out in strangled pants, Evan gasped, “Oh, thank God—a crosswalk!”

He braked and looked at Russ. “We talked—we talked about
you
, you tool!”

“Me?”

“Yeah, of course? What’d you think? You asked her to marry you and she’s trying to figure it out, so she calls me to find out a lot more about you!” Evan glared at Russ and threw up his hands. “I mean, get real! Since when has a girl ever been attracted to me when
you’re
around?” And he gave Russ an exasperated huff.

The fist holding onto Evan’s shirt relaxed as Russ contemplated Evan’s words.

“
Thank
you,” said Evan.

“What’d you say about me?”

“Don’t worry; I only told her good things. Not the truth.”

Russ raised his eyebrows.

“Just kidding. Look, I told her about you, about growing up in foster care after Mom and Dad died in the car accident....” Evan rubbed his lips together before continuing. “I explained what makes you tick.” He paused. “I reassured her about how serious you are about this.” He looked at Russ a moment. “You’re really in love with her, aren’t you?”

Russ nodded as he said, “Whatever that means, but yeah.” Then he let go of Evan’s collar and leaned back in his seat, staring the front window.

Cars honked tentatively behind them, but Russ and Evan ignored them.

Evan rubbed his neck and collarbone with both hands. “Gosh, I haven’t felt that threatened since I dropped my weapon when falling off my dragon steed and landing right at the feet of an absolutely gigantic gremlin-troll mutant. Hoo!” Evan’s cheeks puffed out as he exhaled.

Russ pressed his lips together as he glared at Evan. “Knock it off! That stuff isn’t real! Just stop it already!” Russ jabbed the air with his hands. “Why don’t you say something normal, like about something really terrifying—like the time we were camping on Mount Ranier and I snuck outside the tent in the middle of the night and pretended to be Bigfoot?”

Evan leaned back hard in his seat and shook with silent laughter before it came bursting out. “Oh, yeah! That was nuts!” He shook his head, still chuckling. “I’ve got to tell Edison about that.”

“The gaming girl, yeah?”

“Yep.”

Smiling to himself, Evan grew pensive, then gave another chuckle. “This is a great moment for me. I mean,
you
got jealous of
me
—over a girl! And a really gorgeous-looking girl, too....” Evan sniffed and pretended to wipe away a tear. “I’ll always treasure this moment, Russelkins.”

Now Russ rolled his eyes. “Oh, for—listen, she’s also a geek. I mean, yeah, she doesn’t look it or act it—but she is.” He rolled his shoulders and loosened his neck. “And I thought—you know. That maybe you guys were connecting in a way that she couldn’t with me. Like maybe she talked with you about Titian terraforming and—I don’t know—Jupitorial radiation? And you were totally with her on it.”

“Jupitorial radiation?”

“I just made that up. But you know what I mean.”

Evan stretched his neck from side to side. “Look, Russ,” he said. “She doesn’t want a geek. Okay? Between herself and the astronomy department, she is up to her frontal lobes in geeks. Believe me, she needs some respite.” He sighed and looked at Russ. “She likes
you
, okay?”

Russ pressed his lips together in a smile and nodded. “Okay, man. Okay. And look—I’m sorry.” He held up his hands. “I just—I’m really sorry.”

Evan nodded and chortled again. “I can’t believe that
you
were jealous of
me
. That is so awesome.” He pulled the gear shift. “And I’ve just got to tweet something about Jupitorial radiation.”

Russ watched him and said, “Want me to drive?”

“Nope. I’ve got to learn to get back in the saddle and keep on going, gigantic gremlin-troll mutant or not.”

When the ring was ready, Russ called Lia to see if he could come over.

“Um, the thing is, Russ…I haven’t really decided yet. I want to be honest with you. I think I need more time.”

“That’s okay,” he said. “No pressure. We can just hang out. Get to know each other better,” he added, thinking that might get her to agree.

It did.

Russ picked up a huge bouquet of flowers in all sorts of feminine colors that he thought might look nice in her light gray living room.

Standing before her door, he held the bouquet in front of his face so it would be the first thing she would see.

When she saw it, she let out a heartfelt, “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....” And she invited him in.

Scrounging out a vase from under the sink, she put the flowers in water and set it on the coffee table because her dining room table was taken up with another painting-in-progress.

They sat on the sofa, chatting. She seemed so shy and vulnerable, sitting as if she wanted to curl up into herself, yet she kept looking up at Russ with shining eyes and pleased little smiles.

Finally, Russ pulled the small velvet case out of his pocket.

Lia’s lips parted and her eyes widened when she saw it. Staring at Russ, she straightened up.

Russ swallowed. “Listen,” he said. “You can still think about it. But I just want you to really know how serious I am about wanting to marry you.” And he popped open the case, tilting it so that the gem turned blue as it caught a different angle of light.

Lia’s chin dropped, and he heard a sharp intake of breath as her hand went to her chest and she leaned forward.

Her jaw moved as if she wanted to speak, but no words came out. Her eyes filled with tears.

“See this?” Russ said, steadying his voice. “It’s tanzanite.”

Her eyes and mouth widening even more, Lia glanced up at Russ, then dropped her gaze to the ring again.

“It’s a purple face-up that I ordered special. But see here, when you look at it like this? It’s dark blue. And these here around it are diamonds and purple sapphires.”

“Sapphires,” Lia breathed “
Purple
sapphires....”

“Yep. And it’s all set in white gold. Like you.”

Lia cast another glance up at Russ when he said that. He saw tears pooled in her eyes.

“No one’s ever—” And she clasped her hands to her hair.

Russ smiled and held it up between his thumb and finger. “C’mere,” he said softly.

Still crying, Lia smoothed her hair back and stretched out a trembling hand. Some instinct told Russ not to touch her. So he just slipped the ring on her finger as lightly as possible.

“They said that if it needs adjustments or anything, we can come back and they’ll work it out for you.”

“No, no,” she whispered, staring down at it on her finger. “It’s perfect, it’s really perfect. I never imagined….”

She took a deep breath and looked up at him. Then a smile spread across her face, and it was like the Northern Lights flashing across a dark sky.

He reached out to hold her face and leaned his face toward hers.

But she pulled back.

“Oh, baby,” he said, gently. “Even now?”

She bit her lower lip and shook her head, her eyes filling up with tears again.

“It’s okay,” he said, his voice still soft. “Don’t cry. It’s okay. You’ve got your reasons.”

She smiled at him again and a sweet little laugh popped out of her throat.

“You can still think about it,” he said. And he rose to his feet.

She looked startled. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to give you some space.”

“What—”

“I’ve done my part. Now it’s up to you to decide.” He gazed at her a moment, then said, “You’ll let me know. Yeah?”

She just stared at him.

He gave her a smile and a small salute, then he turned and walked out the door.

Russ heard her get up and follow him. As he went down the stairs, he glanced up and saw her watching him from the doorway. He gave her another small grin, then continued down to his car.

Ducking to look from the windshield, he saw her watching him from her window and he gave her a wave, not sure if she could see it in the dark.

But she put her hand up to the window.

He pulled away and turned onto the street.

His heart was in her hands now. There was nothing left for him to do.