Page 142 of Mr. Picture Perfect
“You’re acting really weird.”
“What if you hang out here, chill on this pretty bench next to this, uh, garden thing I think Mr. Strong planted at some point and forgot about, and …” TJ glances over his shoulder, then faces me again. “And how aboutIgo and fetch you that drink?”
My eyes catch a glint of something shiny.
A balloon—among a vast amount of colorful others—that are being packed underneath some kind of net by a bunch of guys.
Most of the balloons are orange.
Among them: large dragon-shaped ones, too.
TJ corrects his position at once, blocking my view. “So how’s that sound? I go get you a drink? You sit here like a good boy and stay out of the sun? There’s such nice shade here by this tree …”
“What are those balloons for?”
My breathing has changed. My mind is working too fast. I saw what I saw, and I cannot unsee it.
“What balloons?” asks TJ, nearly out of breath himself.
“TJ …”
His face collapses at once. He looks like he might cry. “I just ruined everything. I can’t believe it. Cole is going to kill me. I was supposed to keep you back here, away. Why didn’t I just—?”
“You mean you took me away from the pool for a reason? You took me on this walk to … to keep me from seeing those balloons?”
TJ locks eyes with me. “Oh, that’s all you saw?”
My mind goes blank.That’s all you saw…
Somehow, I already know.
Where everyone’s mind seems to be today.
Where my own mind’s been wandering.
Something offhanded Cole said last night about “forever”.
How we’ve been looking at houses lately for fun, except Cole always has this strangely confident gleam in his eyes, like he’s up to something, or knows something.
The strange way he acted this morning. Making me breakfast. Kissing me too much. His overt sweetness.
Then being late coming here today on account of his so-called work at the gym on a day when the gym isn’t even open.
And how he recently compared the size of my fingers to his own, on the guise that he was just being flirty and cute.
As if he was checking for…
“Is Cole about to …” I can barely say the words. I take a step back, my heel hits something, and I drop right onto the bench that TJ was guiding me to. “Is Cole about to … t-to propose …?”
TJ drops his arms, devastated, like I just sucked the air out of his lungs and the soul from his very bones.
It’s all the confirmation I need.
How did I not see this coming?
TJ sits next to me at once. “Okay, so I ruined everything and I feel terrible, and Colewillkill me, but … but isn’t this great? Isn’t this great news? Aren’t you excited? The man of your dreams, he’s going to pop the big question.”
I find myself immediately thinking about my own parents and how they look like they never once left the so-called honeymoon phase in decades since my dad tasted a burnt cookie.
