Page 31 of Divine Sense
“Shut up, man. Hank and Bailey are not gonna get a divorce,” I scolded my friend. I wasn’t going to let Conrad and his need to be so painfully literal about everything ruin this for our friend. I looked at Hank again who was sitting to my left and smiled at him.
“Is that why she’s not here tonight?”
“Well yeah, I couldn’t tell you guys the plan for how I’m going to ask her if she’s here. She was not very happy about being told she couldn’t come tonight though.” Hank pulled his lips back into a tight, awkward smile. I could just picture him telling Bailey she wasn’t allowed to come tonight. Poor guy never told his girl no, so I’m sure it didn’t go over well.
“Eh, she’ll get over it once she sees the ring. Girls forget almost everything when you give them something sparkly,” Malcolm scoffed from his seat. His ‘something sparkly’ comment made me think of Magnolia and how her face lit up when she opened the box holding her gift on Christmas day outside of her place. I’d decided to give it to her after staring at it on my dresser as I got ready for Christmas Eve mass. By the next morning, I’d hardly slept due to anticipation and drove to her place with the box tucked safely inside my jacket without a second thought. Seeing the look on her face when she saw it for the first time and putting it on her was something I’ll never forget.
“So what’s this plan you mentioned? You know I love having a plan,” Conrad said from his seat. We all laughed because we knew that not only did Conrad love a plan, heneededto have aplan for everything. The guy was too type-A for his own good and sometimes to his own detriment.
Hank dove into how he wanted to go about asking Bailey to marry him and let us know that he was planning to do it in March around her birthday. He also told us that he’d been saving to buy them a place downtown they could move into together. We congratulated our friend and told him we would help him in whatever way he needed because we all loved Bailey as if she were our own.
An hour later, it was Malcolm who interrupted our gameplay again, which warranted a sigh from Conrad by asking about our plans for New Years Eve. We weren’t normally the kind to go out and party, but Malcolm convinced us all to go out for at least a few hours since it was the first time in a few years he wasn’t working at the bar as the clock struck midnight. Conrad groaned but reluctantly agreed, Hank said he would be there as long as Bailey was down, and I shrugged because what else did I have to do.
Maybe a night out with my boys is what I needed to escape the images of a fair faced girl and the feeling of her lips on my cheek as she thanked me for a gift that I’d picked out just for her.
I was standingin my closet, trying to decide what to wear to the bars when I heard my phone buzz from the counter. I walked towards it, wholly expecting it to be Conrad or Malcolm, arguing about whether or not wereallyneeded to be going out tonight, but grinned at my phone when I read her name on the screen.
1 New Message: Flower
Happy almost new year Jack
Happy almost new year flower.
Ooohhh, so he’s *not* going to leave me on read for once, how nice
I rolled my eyes as I read her text. She could never just let things happen, she always had to make a comment.
Got any plans tonight?
I watched the bubbles on the screen dance as she typed a response, knowing good and well that I could check what she was doing at any given moment. The bracelet I’d given her a week ago had a tracker embedded into the flower charm which I could ping whenever I wanted. I hadn’t checked it since giving it to her and I told myself I wouldn’t unless she gave me a reason. I tried to tell myself I needed it because of the working relationship I had with her family but deep down I knew my reason for planting a tracker on her was more personal than business.
Margaret and I are going out tonight on King. I’m wearing a silver sequin skirt and a pair of white leather booties to go with it.
Wanna see a picture?
Don’t think about white booties. Don’t you even think about it.
Ignoring the offer for a photo, I texted her back.
Where are you two going?
Why are you asking?
Plan on hunting me down and taking me home with you?
You don’t need to hunt when you can simply track the important people in your life through an app.While they may not know it, I had trackers on all the important people in my life. My sisters, parents, and even my three best friends all had trackers on their cars so I knew where they were. Hank was the only one who knew about them but he’d promised not to tell the others. Now, Magnolia had one on her too. But she was too important to me, no matter how much I tried to deny it, to just put a tracker on her car. No, my flower needed something a little closer to her so I knew she was safe.
Hence, the bracelet.
I’m simply asking as a friend.
Again with this ‘friend’ thing. Don’t worry, one of these days you’ll admit that you have feelings for me and when you do, I’ll happily say I told you so. You can’t deny it forever.
Just be safe tonight, okay? Let’s not repeat what happened the last time you went out.
But the last time I went out you took me home with you. Who’s to say I don’t want that again?
I cleared my throat as I stood alone in my master bathroom and adjusted the growing bulge in my pants before responding.Just the thought of taking her home with me in the way she was insinuating made my neck warm.
