Tia

 

I get the job at Smithson Marketing and the vibe around the office is great there, just as I expected. I miss being responsible for a whole project like I was at the fire station, but I need more experience before I start out on my own, and I’m happy to get it there.

Alice is full of mischief, into everything, but I love helping Logan out with her when I can. She calls the toy I gave her Tia-dog now, and I am just Tia. Emma appreciates another pair of hands at times, too. She says I’m a natural with Alice, but the little one is easy to love.

Even Cassie took a shine to her when we bumped into each other in town when I was with Logan and Alice. Cassie is getting on well at the bank, but we haven’t moved in together yet. We haven’t even talked about it lately. I think she’s hoping to move in with her guy, Ben. And I guess I’d like to live with Logan. But neither of us wants to say we’re definitely not going to be roommates. In any case, we still have our girl’s nights out, our chats, our days out shopping and gossiping.

Logan’s wife is getting help. She has good months and bad months. But she seems to have accepted I’m there to stay, and she hasn’t tried to see Alice again. I worry how Alice will feel about that in the future, but for now, she has all the love in the world from Logan and his family and from me.

Dad is still unsure about me being with Logan because of his past, but I can see that won’t always be the case. I think seeing me so happy has helped Dad to feel better about the whole thing. He even went as far as to say, “I always knew Logan was a good guy. He might even be good for you.”

“What you mean is no one will ever be good enough,” I say, smiling.

“Yes.” He grins at me, and I give him a hug. That’s my dad. “It’s about time he married you, though.”

“Dad! We’ve only been dating six months.”

“Same as I was dating your mother.”

“Really? You said it was too soon with Simon, and I was with him two years before he proposed.”

“I never liked Simon. Ten years wouldn’t have been long enough.”

“Oh, Dad.”

“I care about your future happiness. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No. It’s just you can’t dictate it.”

“Shame.”

I laugh and hug him again.

Logan will be here soon to pick me up.

“Where shall we go tonight?” I ask. Every date with Logan is special so I don’t really care what we do. Dinner, movie, walk in the park, bed. It’s all good.

“I thought I’d take you to where we first met.”

I have to think for a minute because that’s not really a prime dating venue. “To the storm drain in the High Street?”

“The very place.”

“What for?”

“It’s like an old friend. I salute it or give it a wave whenever I pass if no one’s looking. Is that ridiculous?”

I laugh. “Sometimes, I look at it and wonder if you’d have talked to me if you hadn’t rescued me from it.”

“I would. I just wouldn’t have had such a good excuse. We’d have found each other somehow.”

“What are we going to do when we get there?”

“Have a drink.”

At first, I think he means beside the drain. And I’m just about to say he’s really has lost it, when I realize he must be talking about the pub, the “Dog and Duck,” that’s next to it.

But when we turn the corner into the High Street, I see a little table set up at the side of the road, covered in a cloth, complete with champagne on ice and two glasses. The barman from the pub is standing on guard, and when he sees us, he pops the cork and starts pouring the wine.

“That’s for us, isn’t it? You really are crazy,” I say to Logan.

“That’s why you love me.”

“I love you despite your craziness, not because of it.” And he laughs.

He parks the car at the side of the road and helps me out. The barman hands each of us a glass and steps back. A few onlookers gather. This is a curious enough sight even for the people of Bexford, apparently this is as much of an attraction as a girl needing to be rescued from a storm drain.

“I didn’t just bring you here to drink champagne,” Logan says. “There’s something I want to ask you. Will you marry me, Tia?”

I somehow knew he was going to propose in the High Street as soon as I saw the table and the barman, but my heart still jumps when Logan asks me.

“Yes, I will,” I say.

We clink glasses and sip our champagne. And then he takes my glass and puts it with his down on the table and gathers me into his arms. That’s good, because I’m sure I’m bright red, despite how happy I am.

Maybe I’ll end up on YouTube again, but then who cares? It didn’t matter last time and that was a whole lot worse on the embarrassment scale.

But this time the people of Bexford, standing there watching us, don’t get out their phones. They simply cheer, and put their hands together to applaud the crazy fireman and his wife-to-be.

*****