Page 32 of Impulsive Decisions
“What? When? Um,” Chelsea put her hands on her hips and let her gaze drop to the ground. She shuffled between both feet, gathering her thoughts before she looked up. “You don’t want to, um, are you going to marry her or something? Is she pregnant?”
“Despite what you believe, Chelsea, two people in love don’t have to be expecting a child for them to want to spend their lives together.”
“But, it’s so soon.” The disbelief dripped through her words.
“No, it’s not soon enough. I’m done explaining my life to you, Chelsea. I don’t owe you anything, but a trip to Human Resources Monday morning. You’re fired.” I told her.
“What do you mean, fired?” she screeched, “You can’t fire me!”
“I can, and I have. You showed up to my home. My personal home unannounced and threatened my fiancé. You’d have to be insane to think I wouldn’t be upset about this. I’ve never led you to believe we had a personal relationship. Our communication begins and ends with work. We’re done here. You have two seconds to get back in your car and get off my property.”
I didn’t wait for her rebuttal. I walked to my car and pulled it in the garage. After I got out of the car, I stormed inside to pull up the security footage. I had the cameras put in when I first built the place, but added a few more to make Nina feel safe. I headed straight to my office and turned on the computer monitor. Thankfully, Chelsea was gone.
It was a hard thing to wrap my mind around.
“What was she thinking?” I mumbled to myself as I replayed the piece of footage showing her as she showed up to the property and as she left.
“She was probably thinking about surprising you. Probably a little head, and -”
I cut Nina off with a glare that told her I didn’t want to joke about this. “Her showing up here like that was dangerous. What if you thought that was Ray or something and shot a few rounds into her car or something?”
“You say that like I was going to pull a machine gun out of nowhere. Oh, and great news about Ray is that he’s been officially convicted and sentenced. The judge rejected his plea deal because he violated his parole with a violent offense. He won’t be eligible for his new convictions for at least another 15 years. Probably longer, but I wasn’t doing the math on that. I just know he’s not my concern, or yours anymore.”
“That is good news. I’m happy you’ll get to feel safe again. Unless Chelsea dives off the deep end and tries this shit again.” I shook my head, amazed at the audacity.
“Wait a minute. Did he get all of that time because you made a call like last time? Like when you got him fired?”
I shrugged. “I talk to people every day, Nina. If one of the people I respect, and who respects me, rejected the plea deal of a violent criminal who attacked the woman I love, that’s not my fault. He got exactly what he deserved. Chelsea’s lucky she didn’t exactly break the law or else she’d be getting arrested, too.”
Nina laughed. “My hands would have been enough to handle her if she got jumpy.”
“Babe,” I held my hands out to her, pulling her into my chest. I needed to feel her against my body. She molded right into me like we were built for each other. “I’m so mad right now and I don’t want to be. Then she just lied!”
“Yeah, I told you she was two-faced.” Nina rolled her eyes and tipped my chin down to kiss me.
“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. Next time, I’ll know that when my fiancé tells me to watch out for someone, I’ll watch out. I still can’t believe she showed up here like that. Who does that?!”
“What I can’t believe is how you just glossed over the fact that I’m your fiancé. When did that happen?” She asked me, holding her ringless hand up, squinting like there was something there she couldn't see.
“It’s going to happen,” I assured her.
“Oh okay,” Nina giggled. “I’m going to finish getting ready. Did Drew make it into town yet?”
“I don’t know,” I called out to her. I tried to keep this whole thing a surprise as best as I could. After a quick shower, I got dressed and escorted my soon-to-be fiancé to my car where I handed her the keys. Nina smiled as I opened the door for her and let her inside the car. She leaned over and opened the door for me.
As soon as I sat down, she laughed, “You know me, I ain’t no selfish broad.”
I plugged the address into the GPS coordinates, which made her raise an eyebrow. Nina narrowed her gaze at me. “You and I both know that as Dylan’s best friend, I know the address to Velvet Black and that ain’t it.”
“Nina, love of my life, can you please drive to the address on the GPS?”
“Fine,” she huffed, “But don’t complain about Drew showing up late when you have us making detours too.”
The one thing I never expected to happen were the storm clouds rolling in as we drove into downtown Broad City. Thunder growled across the grey skies just as lightning struck somewhere off in the distance. The minute we stepped outside, the skies opened up and water drenched everything it touched.
We ran hand in hand just like the day we met, into the same coffee shop that brought us together. Only this time, it was made for us. Nina’s eyes scanned every face and decoration around Cocoa Caffeine with awe as she let tears fall down her rain soaked cheeks.
“What is happening?” She asked as she spun around, taking it all in.
When she turned back around to me, I’d gotten down on one knee, with a leather box in my hand. I opened it to show her the ring Morgan helped me pick out for her. I took Nina’s hand in mine and kissed her knuckles tenderly.
“I don’t know when I loved you, I just knew that once I did, my home was with you. It doesn’t matter where we live, where we go, or how many hours we work. The amount of time we spend apart only makes it that much better when we’re together.I’ve been waiting for a girl like you,”I partially sang. It was terrible and made her blush, but I asked her anyway. “I can be me, just me and for you to love me unconditionally, exactly the way I am, lets me know you’re the perfect woman for me. Will you, Nina Wilkins, do me the honor of being my wife for the rest of my life?”
“Yes, Mr. Warner, I will,” she answered as the rain poured down outside of the perfect cafe where I’d met the perfect woman.
Our friends and family surrounded us with dozens of “inside out” cupcakes. I had the idea of having a massive food fight with them since she smashed one into me that first day, but one look from her made me think otherwise.
Finding love when you least expected it was one thing, but finding it when you actively avoided it spoke volumes to me. No matter our differences, Nina and I were meant to be.
