Page 128 of The Tape Job
After a moment of staring, Liam spins me around once more.
“I don’t suppose you’ve looked in the box yet?” he says.
“At your jersey?”
“At what’s under there.”
“No …” Lifting the jersey up, feeling the weight of it. I slip it over my head and enjoy the heaviness of the material on my shoulders. It completely engulfs me, and I love it. But then I spot the disk that’s sitting in the otherwise empty box.
“What’s this?” I ask, picking it up. But I know full well what it is. “Is this the—?”
“Yes.”
“Then what’s the—”
“That’s how I knew you didn’t watch it because what you found before was my original proposal. Remember when I said I had it all planned out? Do you want me to put it on?”
“Wait. What is going on here?” I ask. “There’re two disks?” I make a hurry for my closet, pulling out the box where I hid the sex tape. I fish it out, looking at it. There’s a tiny ‘V+L’ written next to the hole in the middle. I look back at Liam who’s standing next to the empty box, holding the second disk.
“This is the sex tape. That is my planned engagement tape. Or CD, I should say.”
I step a couple of paces to my desk, reaching for my laptop and running my finger along the side of the computer.
“Does your laptop have a disk drive? Why is there no disk drive on this thing?” I panic.
He grabs his backpack from the hallway and pulls his computer out, setting it next to mine on my desk. He powers it on and we watch as Windows suggests now is a good time to finalise updates.
“Which one do you want to watch first?” he asks into my ear but I’m already fumbling with the button on the side which pops open the disk drive. I press the disk into the drive, push it closed and give Liam some space to make it play.
Finally, there on the screen, is a slide show of our entire lifetime together in photos, then a few home videos, then, to my complete surprise, Lois’ beautiful face pops onto the screen.
“Hey sweetie, if you’re watching this, I know he’s finally gone and done it, but I just wanted you both to know, I’m proud of you, and I love you so much. Take care of each other, especially when times are tough. Remember why you came together in the first place. I know if you really want to, you’ll make it work. I know neither of you are perfect, but you bring out the best in each other. Enjoy the time you have together because you really don’t know how long you have. And make sure you separate your whites from your colours, or it’ll ruin your clothes—”
“Christ, Mom, you can stop now—” Liam’s voice cuts across Lois’ at the end and then more pictures cycle through the screen.
But I’m laughing. And I’m crying. I don’t even know the whole range of emotions I’m feeling now, but Liam’s arm wraps around me again, and I feel completely elated and normal all at the same time.
“Stillkeen?” he says.
“Yes,” I nod, my eyes fixed on the screen as more pictures fly by.
My left hand is tugged away from my side, and he holds it out in front of us for a second before slipping a familiar ring onto my finger.
“She wanted you to have this. I can get you a new one if you want.”
“No. It’s perfect.”
I spin around and kiss him as if it’s the first time.
Epilogue - Liam
“I’m so glad Johnny is back to being captain,” Danny says.
I unlock the door to our apartment, and we go inside. We have about ten minutes to get ready before we’re off for what the guys are calling my ‘Stag Do.’ We both head straight to our rooms to change our clothes. The rest of the guys are meeting us downstairs for taxis.
As soon as I open my door, I can tell there’s someone in my space, and the intoxicating perfume makes my dick twitch. The two things combined make me excited despite my inner battle to maintain sensible control: Vicky and my bedroom.
“How did you get in here?” I ask her. She’s standing at the large window, looking out at the parking lot.
