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“Come on. I’ll drive you.”
“Are you sure? I can take a rideshare,” she offers looking down at the beer in my hand.
It’s the only one I’ve had tonight. I’m not buzzed, not even close.
“I’ve only had one beer. Oakley’s isn’t far from the apartment building. We can walk over and get my car.”
“Really Ryker. I’ll just take a rideshare. You don’t need to go through the trouble.”
If she had already moved in, we could just walk back to The Commons a few blocks away.
“Looks like there’s a lift only two minutes down the road. You won’t have to wait long,” she says.
“I don’t mind waiting,” I assure her.
And I don’t.
She grabs her flowers and I grab our empty glasses.
We walk down the flight of stairs to get to the bottom level of the bar. Half the guys have already left and there are only a few people still in the bar.
I drop the empty glasses at the end of the bar.
“Night. We’re out of here.” I call out to Oakley who’s wiping down the bar top as we walk through the space and toward the exit.
A few goodbyes call out from who’s ever left in the bar right before Juliet pushes through the door in front of me.
The February night air hits against my face the second we exit the bar.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you home?” I ask.
I don’t like the idea of her in a rideshare at one in the morning.
“It says he’s a block away. I’ll be fine. I only live twenty minutes from here.”
I push my hand into the back of my pocket. I have one last thing to give her.
“Here,” I say, handing her an envelope with a check made out to her. “Your down payment for your brother’s lease contract.”
She stares down at the envelope in my hand for a second before reaching out for it.
“You’re giving it to me now? I don’t need it for another couple of days, and we haven’t even had the interview to make sure this is going to work.”
“I know but you’re anxious about the contract deadline and I wrote up the check the day that you texted me with your conditions. I know you’re going to be more relaxed at our meeting tomorrow if your brother's contract is signed and paid for.”
“Ryker… I don’t know what to say.”
She stares down at the white envelope now in her hands, creased in the middle from where I folded it to fit in my pocket.
“Say you’ll see me tomorrow.”
The rideshare pulls up, but she doesn’t acknowledge him, she’s still smoothing her thumb over the white envelope I handed her.
“Thank you,” she says and reaches her arms around my neck, like she did at the game after she said yes, and I slipped my ring on her finger.
She pulls back and looks up at me, her hands still around the back of my neck.
Déjà vu from my proposal hits me, and I contemplate dipping down and trying that kiss again- this time without thousands of witnesses applauding. But this situation is delicate, and if I make a move that she isn’t comfortable with, it could cost me a fiancée.
