“Great. I can’t wait to see your new house.” She pauses. “I can’t wait to seeyou.”
“Same here. I’ve missed you,” I say. I clutch my chest. Jesus, I can barely breathe.
“Josh, I’ve missed you so much,” she whispers. “I’ve been feeling like I’mdying.”
“Me, too, babe. Exactly. I’ve been in physical pain without you. You have no idea.”
I can hear her smiling over the phone line, even as she sniffles. “Really?”
“Hell yes. I’ve been miserable.”
“Me, too,” she says softly. She sniffles again. “I’ll be counting the minutes until Thursday. And maybe Friday, too? Because... you’ll be living here, so . . ?”
“Yep. Absolutely,” I say, breathing a sigh of relief. “You’ll be seeing me so much, you’ll get sick of me. I promise.”
Kat sniffles again. “Impossible. I could never get sick of you.Ever.”
My heart squeezes.
“Okay. Well. I gotta go,” Kat says. “I’m gonna hang up and sob my eyes out now.”
“Okay, babe. Have fun. Call me later.”
“I will,” Kat says. “I can’t wait to see you.”
“I can’t wait to see you, too. I miss you so much, babe.”
“I miss you, too—so, so, so, so much.”
“Don’t be sad anymore, Kat. I’m here now—and I’m not going anywhere.”
She starts bawling on the other end of the line and my heart shatters at the sound of her wails.
“It’s okay, baby,” I coo. “I’m right here. Don’t cry, beautiful. I’ll see you really soon.”
“Okay. I gotta go,” she murmurs, obviously still crying. “I’ll call you later after I pull myself together.”
“Wait, baby. Don’t go,” I say. “Don’t leave like this. You’re crying.”
“No, I’m okay. I gotta go. I wanna have an ugly cry on my own.”
“Okay, baby,” I say. “But call me again soon.”
We hang up and I sit, staring at my phone for a long moment. Oh my fucking God. I love her. I love Kat with all my heart and soul. And I’m gonna tell her so on Thursday—the way I should have told her at the hospital if I’d had an ounce of sense.
Kat was absolutely right to turn me down at the hospital. Actually, I never should have proposed in the first place—I know thatnow. I have no genuine desire to get married—I was just trying to appease the ghost of my father—get his absolution from the grave. But fuck that. My father’s not here to disown me anymore, and even if he were, I’d tell him to fuck off. Okay, fine, I’ve got a hot baby-momma-girlfriend. So fucking what? It’s not the end of the world. We’ll figure it out. The most important thing is that I love her—I know that now.I love Kat.And when I see her on Thursday, I’m gonna tell her exactly how I feel, no holds barred—and I don’t need a fucking ring and the promise of a stupid piece of paper from the government to do it. I’ll tell her straight from my heart and soul. Oh shit. I’ve suddenly got a brilliant idea. Oh my God, I’m a fucking genius. I close my laptop and leap up from the table, a surge of adrenaline flooding me. “I’m going out, T-Rod!” I call to Theresa in the back of the house.
“Hang on,” Theresa’s voice calls from another room.
“Gotta go!” I yell, bounding toward the front door. “I’ve got something important to do!”
“Hang on a sec,” Theresa says, entering the room breathlessly. She’s holding a cardboard box.
“Sorry, T-Rod,” I say, striding toward the front door. “I’ve got something I’ve got to do.”
“Just take a quick peek at this stuff, Josh.” She holds up the box. “The movers were about to load this stuff onto the truck and I thought you might want to pull a few things out to take with you on Wednesday.”
“No. Whatever that stuff is, they can load it onto the truck.”
