Page 97 of East (The Moral Compass 3)

“Are you fucking kidding me? All this time, you knew? And you never said anything? For fuck’s sake, Zed. I wish you had, and then I wouldn’t have had the very same secret hanging over my head all this time.”

“What do you mean? Did you know?”

“Yes, but… I don’t know. I didn’t want to believe it. Well, I didn’t know for sure, but I couldn’t remember getting the licence, and when I looked into things, no ceremony is legal without one.”

“Is that the only secret you’ve kept?” I ask.

“Yes, and even then, I wasn’t sure. What about you? Anything else you need to get off your chest?”

I shake my head. I do, but it’s not really a secret; it’s more of another surprise.

“So, I am going to officially be Mrs. O’Brien, then?” She leans forward and kisses me.

“If you want to.”

“Yes, I do, and sooner rather than later, if you don’t mind. I was getting quite attached to the name.”

I can tell she’s getting horny. I check my watch, but we don’t really have time.

I point to my body. “You can have as much of this as you want, but later. We have to go. I have a couple more things to do before the day is out.”

“More surprises? It’s a surprise in itself, Zed. I never thought you’d be such a romantic.”

“It’s a one-off. Don’t get used to it.” Although, seeing her this happy makes me want to do this every day.

As we drive down the road that leads to North and Kara’s house, East starts to fidget.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to, you know, go somewhere where we could be on our own.”

“East McGarry, do you not think of anything else? What the hell have I created?”

“It’s in the genes, I think.” She laughs. She could be right.

When I drive past the entrance to their house, she looks at me, puzzled, and when I pull into the driveway next door, she smiles.

“This house is for sale, Zed.”

“Yes, and if you like it, it can be ours, but only if you want it. North and Kara are a little too excited that we could be neighbours.”

I say neighbours, but there is at least half a mile between the houses.

The agent meets us at the door and shows us around downstairs. It’s perfect. It’s not too ostentatious, but it’s not too small, either. When East asks to see outside, the agent admits he doesn’t have the key to the back doors, and she would have to see it from one of the upstairs bedroom windows.

“Oh, okay. I would rather see it properly, but I suppose we can get the idea.” We both head upstairs as the agent disappears.

Just as she’s about to walk into one of the rooms, I pull her back.

“East, when you go in that room. I don’t want you to go mad. This was all my idea, okay? No hitting anyone.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Are you feeling okay? You’ve done some crazy stuff today.”

“Yeah, and it’s going to get even crazier.”

“Why? What have you done?” she asks.

“You know how you said you wanted to get married soon? That was such a relief because I’ve been planning this for the last two months. We are getting married in about erm… an hour.”

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