Chapter Thirty-Nine
Zack
Monday
Thump, thump. I scanned my eyes anxiously over the crowd, trying to work out just how many people were staring back at me. Hundreds of eyes met mine; it was almost too much.
Thump, thump. A sickness swirled around me. I’d been preparing for this for days, but I still didn’t feel totally ready for it. All the words I’d prepared fled from my mind, leaving me clueless.
Thump, thump. The nerves were almost about to get the best of me, but just at the right moment, I felt the warm, comforting touch of Olivia’s hand sliding into mine. She was still by my side; she wasn’t going anywhere, she was there to support me.
I turned to smile at her, and the reassuring look that she gave me back told me all that I needed to know. I could do this; it wouldn’t be so bad. I just had to get my little speech out.
“Thank you, everyone for coming,” I started, maybe a little too quiet. “I really appreciate you being here, especially members of the press.” I hadn’t had the best time with the media, but I’d learned from Lark that taking control of it made it a whole lot easier. “It’s great to be able to introduce you all to my new charity today. Military First.” I indicated behind me towards the building that was now ready to be opened. There were still small bits to do, but it would probably always be a work in progress.
“We at Military First want to help military men and women in two separate ways. Soldiers are coming home from war often need more help than they’re currently getting with settling back into this life. Also, we want to help vets who’ve fallen through the cracks of a broken system. The men and women that have fought for our country and are now struggling with nowhere to turn for support. Those are all people that need help, and Military-First will be there.”
Hands raised everywhere, but I wasn’t quite ready to answer questions yet, so I indicated to the group of people behind me.
“First off, I would just like to introduce you to the team. Here is my father, who helped me set up the venture. And here are the team; Javi, Helen, Amy, Lori, Max, and Liam.” My father and I had grown the team, and it was really starting to become something amazing. “So if you have any questions for any of us, please ask.”
I felt good as people fired off some really reasonable questions about the charity. Everyone in attendance appeared to be really interested, and I felt certain that would lead to some awesome press in the morning. Finally, the papers doing me a favor.
One part that everyone really went for was the family home being converted into a shelter. It gave the whole charity a unique angle and personalized the story.
Finally, it came to picture time. The photographers raised their cameras as I grabbed onto the oversized novelty scissors to cut the ribbon outside the office. Cheers burst out, the crowd celebrated with me, which only helped me to see even further that I was doing a good thing with the money.
Olivia squeezed my arm, reassuring me. I turned to look at her with a bright, genuine smile on my face. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispered in among the cheers. Somehow, I managed to hear her louder than everything else. “You’ve done a great thing.”
My dad popped champagne, and the celebration started to take more of a party mode, but all I could focus on was Olivia’s beautiful face. I left all the fun to everyone else as I snaked my hands through hers. She pulled me closer and rose onto her tiptoes. Then, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, she kissed me softly.
I thought it was a moment just for us, but as we pulled apart, I chuckled loudly at the camera flashes that seemed to come from the audience.
“Uh oh, now that will be the picture in all the papers tomorrow.”
“Oh well,” she shrugged happily. “At least the building’s in the background. It can’t be all bad.”
“Definitely not. With you around, it’s all good.”
Olivia turned and raised our hands up high. Certain people standing in front of us might have thought that they knew our story because of what they’d read, but they didn’t. No one fully knew anything about Olivia and me, but they celebrated in our love anyway, which felt nice.
***
“Wow, that was something else,” I happily gasped as we walked further up the stairs in the apartment building than we usually did. Now, we were headed right to the top floor to our brand new home. “Crazy, wasn’t it?”
“Not as crazy as choosing to live higher up in an apartment building without a working elevator. What the hell were we thinking?”
“We were thinking that Dolly’s old apartment was the penthouse suite, twice the size of both of ours and that we wouldn’t have to move our stuff too far,” I replied smilingly. “Also we thought it wouldn’t be too much of a change for Meghan.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know all the reasonable answers. I just doubt how clever that was.”
“I’ll call someone tomorrow. I’ll get the elevator replaced. No point in continually fixing it. It’ll cost a lot, but if we’re staying here, then we might as well get it done.”
“Yeah, we don’t want your leg to suffer again. Might actually be worth it.”
It had been a huge shock when Dolly said she was leaving New York to go to Paris, but actually it worked out really well. She by far had the best place in the whole building, and she left behind a bunch of furniture, too. Much nicer stuff than either Olivia or I had, so it worked out perfectly.
Our apartments were still on the market; we hadn’t yet managed to sell them, so there wasn’t too much pressure on us. We had an escape if need be, but I couldn’t see that happening anytime soon. We were happier than we’d ever been, and that just kept building every single day.
“It’s not that bad, Mommy,” Meghan announced as she bounced up the stairs, showing off that boundless energy she had. “I like living further up.”
“Yeah, it’s alright for you though, you never get tired. Mommy can’t hack it like you can!” Olivia smiled brightly at her daughter. “But it’s good you like it; it’s important to me that you’re happy in your new home.”
“I never want to go back. There’s much more room here. Plus, I like it with Zack in our house, too. It’s fun.”
That touched me greatly. To be so accepted by Meghan was incredible. We actually had this really awesome bond building between us, which I hoped would only get stronger.
“Yeah, I bet it helps that you have all my games, too,” I teased. “But thanks, Meg, I like having you in the same house, as well.”
To think I originally wrote Olivia off because she had a child, and now I loved Meghan dearly. I couldn’t wait until we really became a family, all three of us. Maybe to the rest of the world, we were moving too fast, but I truly didn’t feel it. I felt like I wanted to keep on moving rapidly down this rollercoaster because it was the best ride of my whole damn life.
I pushed open the door and let Meghan run inside. She raced into her bedroom, which she was very proud of. She had it decorated in a superhero theme, which I’d already promised her to do more of. I wanted to get in a painter to create some sort of mural, and I also wanted to ensure she had all the toys she needed. She deserved it.
“Wow, she really does love it here,” Olivia laughed. “And somehow, the stairs don’t tire her out at all. Would you like a coffee? I feel like I need some caffeine to get me through the rest of the afternoon. That tired me out.”
“Yeah, sounds good.” I glanced around the apartment, trying to work out what I wanted to do next. “Thanks, Liv.”
“Liv?” She spun on her heels and flashed her eyes angrily at me. “You cannot call me Liv ever.”
“Why not? Don’t you want a cute nickname?”
“Urgh, not that.” Her nose screwed up in disgust. Her hands flew on her hips, which made her look adorable rather than mad. “That makes me sound so…old. I don’t like it at all.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll keep on thinking.” I held up my hands in a surrendering gesture. “I understand. Sorry, Olivia.”
As the coffee brewed, I moved over towards the white, leather couch. It wasn’t one I would’ve picked out for myself, it seemed like it’d get messy far too easily, but Dolly had left it behind, and we decided to stick to it for now. I decided to get myself down on one knee quickly because it took me too long to do it coolly. I only had one good leg left, and while my other one was much better, it still wasn’t perfect.
Having Olivia turn around to find me in that position was the only way it would work.
“Are you having coffee or… Oh my God, what are you doing?” Her hands clapped over her mouth as she spotted me on the ground. “Zack, what are you doing? What is that in your hand?”
“It’s a ring,” I told her gleefully. The shock on her face had me ecstatic – I wanted it to be a surprise. “I picked it out a few weeks ago.” Her eyes flickered over the diamond with her eyes bugging out of her head. “Because I knew even then that I want you to be my wife.”
“You do?” she began to shake all over, she looked visibly stunned. “You actually want me to be your wife?”
“Not just that, I want to officially adopt Meghan, too, if you’ll let me. I want us to be a real family. I already know that I love you both incredibly and will always want to be with you.”
Tears streamed down Olivia’s cheeks, but they seemed to be happy tears, so I continued actually giving her the speech that I’d planned in my head beforehand.
“Olivia, ever since you first walked into my life, I’ve felt something strong for you. At first, you were just the annoying neighbor; then you became the girl that I really wanted to kiss in the shadow of darkness at the zoo.” She giggled at the memory, just as I hoped she would. “And then, I started to fall. Deeper and deeper, head over heels. So what do you say? Will you be my wife?”
“Oh my goodness, of course, I will!” she put me out of my misery quickly. “Zack, you have no idea what this means to me. I don’t even know what to say. This is all so lovely.”
I slipped the ring onto Olivia’s finger and allowed her to pull me upright. Then we kissed so lovingly it cemented everything.
“And as for adopting Meghan,” she said between my lips. “That’s fine by me, but you’ll have to ask her. And she might not be as easy to win around like me.”
“Ooh, now I’m worried. Do you think I need to panic?”
“She’s tough,” Olivia nodded knowingly. “But luckily she loves you, so you might just be okay.”
I glanced towards her bedroom. “Right, here goes nothing. I’m going to ask her now. Wish me luck!”