Page 28 of The Boardroom: Kirk
“It’s okay,” I said. “I forgive you.”
Marissa sat down next to me and I wrapped her in a hug. “I really do,” I whispered. “For all of it. And it was my fault too, I was being stubborn.”
“Don’t say that,” Marissa said. “It was a hundred percent me, me and my stupid need to have everyone like me, even stupid girls from high school who were never even my real friends in the first place.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
“No,” Marissa said. “No, it’s not. And I never properly apologized for what happened in high school, either. But I’m done. I get it now, and I swear it won’t happen again.”
I smiled down at her, and I believed her.
“Back then, Kirk, I think you were my only real friend,” she said softly, staring down at the ground. “And you’re the only one I’m keeping, too.” She squeezed my arm and smiled. “By the way,” she said. “I’m your secret Santa too.” She pushed the cardboard box towards me and grinned.
I opened the box to find a microscope inside, an older looking one with a sticker bearing the name of our high school on it.
“No way,” I said. “How did you get this?”
Marissa blushed. “It might be stolen…”
“Marissa!” I laughed.
“It was supposed to be yourbirthday present, all those years ago,” she said. “I remembered you said in Bio how much you wanted to have a nice microscope like the ones at school to play around with…so I might have asked some guys from the football team to steal it while they were doing their senior prank, and it’s been sitting in my parent’s shed ever since. I asked them to ship it over from Buffalo.”
I couldn’t stop laughing. “Unbelievable,” I said. “Literally unbelievable.”
I reached into my briefcase and pulled out the box. “And this,” I said, sliding the box across the table. “Is for you.”
Marissa opened the lid of the box and beamed when she saw the delicate ruby surrounded by the chain of gold. “It’s beautiful,” she said, and then looked up at me, “Oh my god, did you remember my birthstone?”
“Maybe,” I said, and grinned. Marissa came over and hugged me.
“I love it Kirk,” she said. “And even more, I love the fact that we’re okay.” She looked up at me with honest eyes. “I don’t think I could ever bear losing you again.”
“Me either,” I said, finally kissing her again. Marissa took the necklace out of the box and I helped her fasten it around her neck. She looked lovely in it, and as radiant as ever.
After another hour of sitting in the coffee shop, warm with the peace of our reunion, we went outside to rent skates and spend some time circling around the ice rink. The crowds had thinned out, giving Marissa room to skate across the rink in wide, graceful circles as I followed awkwardly behind. We held gloved hands as we made our way around and around, finally relishing our relationship, the version of it that was free of the tension that had always threatened it.
We stopped by the side of the rink to buy hot chocolate from a vendor, and smiled as large, fluffy flakes of snow began to fall down. Acoustic versions of Christmas carols rung out from the loudspeaker, and the tree next to the rink glowed with tiny lights.
“It’s almost too perfect, isn’t it?” Marissa said.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” I said, and leaned down to kiss her. “By the way,” I said. “It is Christmas in a couple of days, so, I was thinking…you want to attend my family dinner?”
“As your proper girlfriend, this time?”
“Oh, definitely,” I said, and kissed her again as the snow fell.
