“I really don’t mind, by the way.”
“No. I can do this. I’m fine.”
She started walking towards my front door, then stopped and turned. “But thanks for offering to do that for me. It’s really sweet.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Ash. All you have to do is ask.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “A lot of stuff was said today, between us.”
“It was,” I agreed.
“And we should really talk about it.”
“We should.”
“Maybe when my shoot is over? I’ll be going into post-production, but it won’t be as hectic as this, so maybe we should do a dinner or something like that?”
“I’d like that,” I said.
She started for the door again and these words, these huge words, bubbled up inside me and I wasn’t able to stop them.
“And now, Ash?”
“And now what?” She turned, leaning against the doorway. She looked so good in my house like this.
I put my hands in my pockets to anchor myself. “If I asked you now? Today? What would you say?” She knew exactly what I meant. I could see it on her face.
“I would have to think about it, Max,” she said, and then turned and walked out the house, closing the door behind her. I smiled. She had not said no. Fucking hell, Ash had not said no.
“Where did Ash go?”
I turned to find my mom standing there. “She had to go back home.”
“She doesn’t live here?”
“No, she doesn’t,” I said, but she did look really good in my house. Like she belonged here.
“Is that because you never asked her to marry you that night?” my mom asked.
“How do you know that, Mom?” In every single one of her recollections, Ash and I were either married, or engaged. This was a new memory that seemed to be surfacing.
“Well, you threw that ring over the fence and then went to Europe.”
“Mom!” I walked up to her, put my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “You remember that?”
“Sure I do. Why wouldn’t I?”
Salty tears gathered in the back of my throat. “Of course you would remember that, Mom.”
“Such a pity too—you saved all year for that ring,” she said.
“So true.”
“All those terrible double shifts you did at that smelly diner.”
I laughed. I’d forgotten about that.
“You used to come home and your clothes smelled like fish. No matter how much I washed them, I could never get that smell out.”
