Page 16 of The Other Side of Apart

“Yeah?”

“So…change of plans. Today’s gonna be my last day.”

I don’t remember driving home because my thoughts were nowhere on this motorcycle, nowhere close to Seattle, but I bump into the driveway, cut the engine, and grab my backpack before racing to the cottage. I toss my warehouse name badge in the garbage bin as I pass. Good riddance to swing shifts and the required twice a month graveyard. If I stay up all night from now on, it’ll be because Mei’s keeping me up.

The idea pumps adrenaline through my veins and swims through my head. I smile to myself and unlock the door, tossing my backpack on the table and looking around the cottage for proposal inspiration. Silence pounds against my ears, and the next six days stretch in front of me like a timeline. Propose tomorrow. Get married day after. Honeymoon on San Juan Island. Life could not get any better. I mean, okay…maybe thereare a few things I’m dying to add, but then I’ll really have it all. If Guo can marry us like she hinted at doing before we left San Francisco.

I flop on the couch and scoot forward, elbows on my knees. Phone clutched to my ear, I wait for her to answer. Come on, come on…

“Wei?”

“Guo?”

A gasp, a shriek. “Marcus Miller, is that you, boy?”

“Guo! I miss you!”

“Oh, you. Not as much as I miss you and Mei Li. It’s too boring around here. Nothing but tourists and fried rice. Bah.”

I laugh. “You should come to Seattle, then. Like…day after tomorrow, maybe? Wednesday?”

“Why should I come so quickly, Marcus Miller…?”

I collapse back against the couch, running my fingers through my hair as I smile at the ceiling. “I got back into Stanford so…I’m gonna ask Mei to marry me tomorrow. And I want you to marry us. You mentioned once you could do it for us if we ever needed it…”

I flinch when she shrieks rapid-fire Chinese in my ear. Then I laugh and swear. “Wow. That was a reaction.”

“I AM SO HAPPY, MARCUS MILLER! You just know exactly how to make all the women in your life so happy.”

“I got your excitement loud and clear. And it might be the last thing I ever hear.” My heart squirms a little, pushing tears too close to the surface. I’ve missed Guo’s energy and shady guidance in my life. “Think you can do it? I only want the Love Hunter to marry us, no one else. I’ll even give you full credit, even though I had serious doubts.”

“Yes! Marry her, please! It is all I will ever ask for. Yes, yes, yes. You and Mei Li were meant to be together. I knew it long before you ever met.”

“How’s that?”

“There was an invisible red thread tied from your ankle to hers. It got very tangled with all the different paths you took around each other, but it’s straight now, and it will never break. You are meant to be. I see it, you feel it. I’m right. The end.”

“I definitely feel it, Guo. Wish I’d listened to you a lot sooner so I could have had Mei in my life for longer, but now…she’ll be in it forever.”

“Oh you. It melts my heart to hear you speak about her. I told you that you would love her deeply, and I hear it in your voice. It has happened. You love her more than even yourself, and I will be in Seattle on Wednesday to make it permanent.”

CHAPTER 8

Marcus: Jobless + no Mei = Slowest day in my personal history. Can you get off early? Pull the fire alarm? Fake an injury? Just something that will get you home faster?? Anywayyyyy…continuing our game of Go Fish…

Mei: If you win, I’ll do something minimally criminal and come home early.

Marcus: DO YOU HAVE A GREEN SHARK?

Mei: ………go fish.

Marcus: *#!@#

Jerry’s vintage truck rounds the corner into the neighborhood, and I smile. Finally. I’ve been at the restaurant since 11AM and was ready to come home to Marcus before I even left him to go to work. Since he quit his job at the warehouse yesterday, I’ve schemed ways of going home early all day, but Jerry needed help with inventory. It took a longtime, and he kept checking the clock, then asking me to cross check everything. I can’t be annoyed with him after everything he’s done for us and it’s a good thing he had me double check my numbers; my head was home with Marcus, laughing so hard at something he said that I had to run to the bathroom or pee my pants. Dancing around the kitchen in our pajamas and seeing who could slide the farthest across the wood floor in socks. I win every time, and I bet he practiced while I was gone.

We pull into Jerry’s drive, but the house is dark. No porch lights, no yellow glow in any of the windows, and I frown. “It’s so dark. Wen never goes to bed this early,” I say, gathering my satchel and jacket.

Jerry waves his hand. “Oh, she’s probably tired tonight since she stayed up way too late listening to one of her true crime podcasts last night.” He glances at the gate that leads to the cottage, then the dashboard clock. “I’m sure Marcus will be very glad to have you home, so go put him out of his misery.” He looks at the gate again, and I almost expect Marcus to be standing there, but he’s not.

---