Page 118 of The Wrong Sister
She jumps off the chair and runs out of the kitchen. A click of her door and then her quick footsteps. Back in the kitchen, she pauses, looking unsure.
“What’s the matter, Maeve? What happened?”
Her arms are crossed behind her back—looks like she’s holding something. “I walked by this place today when I went to the store.” Her neck moves in a swallow. “And then I saw it. So I bought it. It looked like it could, you know, fit you.”
“Fit me? Did you buy me clothes?” I ask, confused. I’m not sure our styles will match, but I’ll humor her and wear it. She took time to find something for me. Forme. And I’ll wear it for her.
She quietly pads toward me and places something small on the table. Her hand is still covering it, and at this point, my anticipation is through the roof. I’ll wear her duck undies if she asks me to.
When her small hand pulls away, there’s a black velvet box left on the white surface.
I look at Maeve and ask after I swallow a sudden lump in my throat. “What is that?”
Her hand moves toward the box to open it. “It’s the ring I was supposed to have ready for you during the ceremony.”
Then she rushes to add, “It’s okay if you don’t like it or don’t want to wear it, you know. It’s fine. You know what? Let’s forget about it.” Looking like a spooked animal, she strikes her hand forward, trying to grab the box.
She’s fast. Like a little rattlesnake. But I’m faster. Grabbing the box right before she touches it, I lift it up far from her reach.
“Sit down, Maeve,” I order, using the voice she likes. She can chatter all she wants that I’m a douche and an asshole, but she likes to obey when I talk like that. And she does. She plants her ass on the chair and watches me with her big, blue eyes.
I look inside the box. The golden wedding band is simple. It’s not wide, it’s not heavy. But it’s classy. Something that I’dchoose for myself if I didn’t want to impress anyone. Something I can wear every single day.
“What do you think?” she asks in a tight voice.
“I love it,” I say back, taking the ring out of the box and aiming to place it on my finger.
“Wait!” Maeve cries out, making me pause next to my finger. “May I?”
I nod silently, not sure I’ll be able to speak in a regular voice without breaking at the end. She pries the ring from my hand and carefully pushes it on my ring finger. It fits perfectly. Not loose, not tight. It looks like it belongs here.
My gaze moves to her face. She’s biting the inside of her cheek, looking adorably unsure.
I grab her hand and pull her toward me. “Thank you,” I whisper when I hold her in a tight hug.
Her arms come around me, and we stay like that for a long time. Neither of us want to move. It feels like we are where we’re supposed to be. If someone offered me my company back right now in exchange for giving up Maeve, I’d send them straight to hell.
I thought I’d be wearing this ring for her. But with every passing second it’s sitting on my finger, I’m coming to understand that I’ll be wearing it for me.
An hour later, we’re on the couch in the living room, where I’m forced to watch a TV show. I never waste my time on things like TV shows, but if watching these teenagers, who don’t even look like teenagers, swoon over each other lets me hold sighing Maeve for the next five hours, I’m game.
She’s leaning her head on my chest while my arm is wrapped around her body when I decide to pop the question that has been bothering me for some time.
“Mae?”
“Yeah,” she mumbles back, engrossed in this Paxton Hall or whatever it’s called.
“Did you orgasm with me?”
Her whole body goes stiff. I don’t even think she’s breathing.
“Why?” Her voice is robotic.
“Did you?” I repeat, suddenly aware that her answer is very important to me.
“Ezra.” She pulls away far enough to look at my face. “Why are you asking that?”
Ignoring her question, I push mine again. “Did you? Did you really orgasm with me?”
