Nemesis(36)

There must be at least twenty bouquets of sunflowers, all in stunning glass vases, with a black bow on them. The vases have leaves artistically wrapped around the inside of the vase, very beautifully done.

“Happy birthday, beautiful,” he says. “The restaurant owner knows you’re, like, their best customer, and he didn’t mind letting us have the place to ourselves for an hour,” he explains, his chest brushing against my back.

A waitress comes out from the back, smiling. “Are the two of you ready to order?”

I glance around at all the flowers, seemingly in shock. No one has ever done anything like this for me before, put in so much effort to make my birthday special.

Cohen answers her, and leads me to my seat, pulling the chair out for me.

I sit.

He does the same.

“So, you didn’t forget my birthday,” I say, thanking the waitress as she pours me some water.

“As if I’d forget your birthday, Jacinta.”

I smile, and he smiles back.

“I wanted to talk to you about everything today, but it’s your birthday, so I want you to enjoy it. We can talk later.”

“Okay,” I say, not wanting to get into an argument on my birthday either. I’d rather just enjoy it, enjoy the peace between us today. It feels like us before everything went down. It feels perfect.

“Do you want to open your present now?” he asks, nodding towards the gift sitting between us on the table.

“What is it?” I ask, staring inquisitively at the square-shaped box.

“Open it and see.”

I reach out and take it in my hands. It’s almost too pretty to open, but I pull off the bow and rip the wrapping away. Inside is a black box, a jewellery box. I open it, and it contains the most beautiful diamond bracelet I’ve ever seen. Delicate and dainty, I absolutely love it.

“It’s beautiful, Cohen,” I say, staring at it in awe. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I know,” he replies, smiling. “But I wanted to.”

He’s so f*cking sweet. Why is he so sweet? That’s playing dirty. I want to kiss him, but I know now is not the time. Until we speak about everything that happened, there’s no way I can touch him, because then it’s going to be that much harder to take a step back if what we have to say to each other doesn’t work out for us both.

“Thank you, Cohen,” I say softly, my voice filled with emotion. “Can you put it on for me?”

“Sure.” He leans over, helping me do up the clasp. “There you go. It looks perfect on you.”

“It fits perfectly,” I gush, lifting my wrist.

“I guessed,” he says, looking pretty damn pleased with himself. “Now, we better order or we’ll be late back to work.”

“We’re going to be late anyway.”

“I know.”

Apparently neither of us cares.

*****

“Holy shit, look at the bling on your wrist,” Sadie exclaims, looking at my bracelet atdinner that evening.

“Oh, this old thing?” I say coyly, touching the bracelet with my fingers. “Cohen got it for me. I think it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever been given. The flowers were more than enough, he didn’t have to get me this.”

“It’s stunning,” Sadie replies, drinking some of her wine. “You get that when you’ve been nothing but a bitch to him recently? Imagine what you get when you’re actually nice to him.”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t want anything from him. I just want him. All of him.”

“You need to tell him that.”

“I will, as long as his explanation for what Rebecca told me pans out,” I state, scanning the restaurant. “He said it was true, but it isn’t now. I’m hoping that means he stopped all that shit when he met me, but that’s probably just wishful thinking, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know,” my best friend says, fiddling with her ponytail. “You need to talk to him about it. I don’t think it’s wishful thinking, but I’m a romantic. Maybe you are his exception after all. Maybe when he met you, he changed his ways. Maybe you were enough for him. It’s not saying there’s anything lacking with his past women, but sometimes when you have that connection with someone, everything else pales in comparison. I know you’re not someone who connects with people easily, which is why you’re not letting this go, when normally you would have walked away by now. You want to fight though, because that damn connection is worth fighting for.”

Her words are all true. I hardly connect to people, and when I do, I never want to let go. All my friends have been friends for a long time. I don’t really add new people into my life much, unless someone amazing comes along. Someone who makes me want to open up to them, someone I crave to be around.

Does Cohen feel the same way about me?

“Let’s wait and see what he says, I guess.”

“I think him doing that for your birthday says he wants you,” Sadie adds, clapping her hands together. “Shotgun bridesmaid!”

I put my hands in the air. “Okay, you need to calm down. There will be none of that.”

But she’s now in her own wedding dream land. “Don’t even think about eloping. I’m planning you a huge-ass wedding that everyone will be talking about years from now.”