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I shoot my most charming smile in her direction. “Would you mind keeping what I’m actually buying a secret? Wouldn’t want the news to reach my girl before I manage to pop the question, even accidentally.”
She winks at me. “A jeweler never spills client secrets. So, is this the one?”
I look at it again, waiting to see if any part of me feels hesitation, but that doesn’t happen. I just feel steady, with excitement starting to build in my stomach. I haven’t worked out yet how I’m actually going to ask Bex, but it feels right to do it soon. It’s not just that I want her to live with me, although of course I hope she decides this is enough to convince her. Kerry is letting me know if anyone else offers on the house, even though it’s not the house I care about; I just want to go to sleep at night—every night—beside Bex. I’ve known since last Christmas that she’s the one for me, that I’ll accept no one else as my wife. The stability of an engagement, especially heading into our post-grad careers, would settle the knot of worry that we might not be forever that I can’t quite untie, and I hope she’ll feel the same.
“Yes,” I say. “It’s perfect.”
“Congratulations.” She peels off her gloves, fixing me with a smile. “Let’s talk price and payment.”
I take out my wallet and hand her my card. “Gladly.”
Chapter 7
Bex
“Bex, hey,” Laura says as soon as I pick up the phone. “How did the job interview go?”
I make a face, even though she can’t see me. It sounds like she’s walking somewhere in public; a car honks in the background, nearly drowning out the end of her sentence. Almost immediately after our graduation ceremony, she went back to New York City, moving in with Barry instead of her parents—not that her parents are there much right now anyway, they’ve been preferring Florida lately. I haven’t had a chance to see their apartment yet, but knowing Laura, it’s a classy space, perfect for her to come home to after her classes at Columbia Law. Not for the first time, I’m glad that James was drafted by a team in the Northeast. It would suck to be preparing to move to California or Texas right now. We’ll still be close to his family, I can see Mom and Aunt Nicole whenever I need to, and I’m sure that soon Laura will be luring me to the city with promises of fancy dinner and an evening spent clubbing.
“It was a disaster.”
“What? No way.”
“Yes,” I say miserably. I’m alone in the house, since James and his brothers went to the city for the day, and at the time I thought I didn’t care, but now I wish James was around so he could console me. “It was just a mess. They hate my work; they kept talking about the energy being wrong.”
“It was a gallery position, right?”
“Yes, but they like their staff to also be artists. Apparently, I’m not the right kind of artist.”
Laura sighs. “Well, boo. They sound like jerks and you’re better off without them anyway.”
“Bedford is the most prestigious gallery in Philadelphia.”
“And there’s your problem. Ugh. Philadelphia.”
I laugh despite myself. “That’s our new fanbase that you’re talking about.”
“I know James needs to be a man of the people, but do you? Everyone knows the art scene in New York is the best.” The background noise cuts off abruptly, like she just walked inside a building. “If you’re not going to be living with him...”
“No. I’m not moving to New York.”
“You could.”
“Definitely not. I want to be close to him.”
She sighs again, more for the dramatics of it this time than genuine exasperation. I know what that sounds like very well. “Then you should just move in with him. What’s the point of being alone in Philadelphia?”
“Or South Jersey. Apparently, a lot of the guys from the team live there instead, because the stadium is just across the Delaware River.”
“You are not making any of this sound appealing. Wait one second.” She switches the call to video so I can see her face. She smiles, giving me a wave as she flops back against a pink velvet couch. “That’s better. I’ll bet those guys who live in South Jersey have kids, so they need to be near the nice school districts. If you’re moving anywhere, it should be to the city. I haven’t been to Philly all that much—”
“And yet you’re judging it,” I interject.
“—and yet, excuse you, I’m sure there’s culture. Somewhere. It is one of the most historical cities in the country, after all. And you’ll find a gallery that recognizes your genius.”
“I don’t even know if I want to work at a gallery,” I admit. “I don’t know what I want to do at all. That’s part of the problem. Before, I had the diner, and now I know I can do anything, and that’s...”
“Kind of freaking you out?”
