Cindy woke up and levered herself off of Jax, wiping her mouth for drool then his still bare chest. “You should have woke me.” She pushed her hair back from the face and blinked, looking around the hotel room.
“Why?” Jax sat up, rearranged the pillow, and leaned against the posts. “It’s not often I get you completely to myself.”
“You are at a con, you doofus. You don’t need me.” She rolled away to sit on the edge of the bed. “You never need me.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop right there.” Jax reached across to grab her by the wrist. “I always need you. Got that. Don’t let that brain-weasel tell you otherwise, okay?” His blue eyes bore into her chocolate ones.
“But you are at a con. You go to them all the time.”
“And I text to you about them all the time while I’m at them.” Jax moved to sit next to her. “I want you here. Got that. I am so glad you came. You make me happy just by being in the same room.”
She shook off his hand to rub her arms with her hands, crossing her arms across her chest. “But I can’t. I can’t be in the same room. We just tried it and I–”
“And I screwed up.” Jax said firmly, interrupting. “I didn’t notice you having problems, and I should have. You are doing this for me.” He lifted her chin with a finger as she tried to look away. “You are incredibly brave. The bravest person I know.”
“I panic at nothing.” Cindy tried looking away at the abstract paintings of triangles, circles, and squares decorating the hotel room.
“No, you panic at something, we just don’t know what. And you were willing to risk that for me.” He gently pressed a finger against her cheek until she was staring at his eyes again. “Wow,” he said intimately. “You ask me to go into a place where I panic, like a roomful of clowns, I’m not sure I could.”
Cynthia laughed a sad chuckle. “I promise I will never drag you to the circus.”
“Thank goodness,” Jax sagged in pretend relief. “You are the perfect woman for me. I should marry you.”
Red rushed up both sides of Cindy’s neck to flush her checks, ears, and forehead. “Wha…”
Jax did a control fall to the floor in front of the bed, ending up on one knee and grasping both her hands. “Cynthia Amanda Cooper, will you marry me?”
“Ah.” She stared at their joined hands, pulling hesitantly away, but him firmly holding on, but gently. If she actually tried to pull away, she could. “Ah.”
“I meant to have a ring, but …” Jax shrugged, “you know me and being organized.”
“No, you don’t want to be married to me.” Cindy shook her head, whipping the purple hair side-to-side. “You can’t. It’s just hormones talking.”
“I think after four years, we are pretty much beyond the in-love hormone stage.”
“But I can’t be there with you. You are great and handsome and smart and–”
Jax interrupted, “And you are smart and beautiful and funny and caring and sexy.” He released one of his hands from where they were jointed and lifted a finger up to her lips where more protests were forming. “Stop, stop. Shhh. If we were at home, last week or the week before that and I asked, what would you have said.”
Cynthia waited until he lifted the finger away, then bit her lips, tensing her shoulders.
“Ah, ah.” He waved his finger side-to-side the first time she opened her mouth to speak. “The truth.”
She relaxed her shoulders, then leaned forward until their foreheads touched. “Yes. I would have said yes,” she said, “I’ve been ready to say yes since you fell shoveling my snow that first year.”
“Give a guy some hints,” Jax whined.
Cindy shrugged. “I let you move in the next week.”
“Okay, that was a hint. I got to admit that should be considered a hint.” Rocking back on his heels to switch to a full kneeling position. “I’m an idiot.”
“No, Jax, you are a doofus.” Cynthia ran her hand over his hair until she let her hand drop on his shoulder. “My doofus.” She leaned all the way forward to kiss him quickly on the lips, falling completely off the bed into his lap in the process. Laughing in each other arms, peppering kisses on each other between the twin full-sized beds in their hotel room until Jax’s phone rang.
His newly-minted fiancee let him roll away immediately. His medical equipment sales position lived and died on being available to his clients 24-7. Jax pulled the phone out of the holster on his belt and looked at the number before swiping to answer. “Yes? Jaxson Miller here.”
Cindy got herself off the floor, touching him on the head as she passed by where he sat to go to the bathroom and give him privacy, carefully not paying attention to anything he said. Just like he carefully ignored any paperwork and phone talk about her medical transcription job when he had to come into her home office for something. While most of Jax’s clients were hospitals and doctors where HIPPA did not matter since owning certain machines are a given, he had some direct customers where having equipment really was life and death and the medical information was protected.
A to Z Short Story List Breakdown
Rainbow Spectrum (A to F)
Marathon Party (G to M)
Trigger: Cutting (N to Q)
Bookstore Sort (R to T)
Panic at the Convention (U to Z)
4/24/2019 – U is for Uniform
4/25/2019 – V is for Volunteer
4/26/2019 – W is for Weasels
4/27/2019 – X is for Xander
4/28/2019 – Y is for Yuengling
4/29/2019 – Z is for Zillion
How very sweet.
They are, they really are. Wait until tomorrow!