Blue Plaid

Acceptance

In which Tyson comes to terms with his feelings. 

Unemployment was horrible. I don’t why I was surprised by this fact, but I was. Maybe I thought it would be like a vacation; that I’d get to spend my days playing Fifa and hanging out with Cooper while I figured out my next move. But the problem was that my next move wasn’t easy to figure out as I hoped it would be.

Of course, I knew that I wanted to cook and at some point, my dream had always been to open my own restaurant, but at the present time, I didn’t have nearly enough funds to make that dream come true. In the meantime, I needed to find a job that would pay the bills, because although Stella’s recent sponsorship bonus from SXB was sufficient for us to live on, I hated not being able to pull my weight.

On the plus side, not having somewhere to go for a night shift meant that I got to spend more time with Cooper and Stella. And I really did mean to include Stella in that thought process because the truth was, the more time I spent with her, the more time I realized that I was developing the world’s most massive crush.

Stella was beautiful, a fact everyone, including herself, knew, but she was also vivacious and loyal and witty and she challenged me in a way that kind of made me want to be a better person, a discovery I found equally exhilarating and terrifying.

Which was why I didn’t hesitate to agree when she asked whether we could go back to her family home in Texas for thanksgiving.

It was a pretty last minute decision because Cooper got the sniffles and we weren’t sure whether he would be over it in time for us to fly down there, but when we woke up two days before Thanksgiving to find him happy as a clam with no signs of sneezing, we booked our plane tickets right away. And that’s how I found myself walking through the Dallas airport the morning of a holiday that I had never grown up celebrating.

Stella pushed Cooper in his stroller through the crowded airport, the strap of his bag slung over one of the handles, as I carried my duffel bag full of clothes on one shoulder and hers on the other and we shuffled along on a mission to find her father.

“Can you slow down a little?” I called out from where I was struggling to keep up behind her, panting as I adjusted the duffel bag straps on my shoulders.

“Sorry,” she laughed, pausing to allow me to catch up and slowing her pace once we started moving again. “I guess I’m just excited to see my family. It’s been a while since I’ve been home.”

I could relate. I hadn’t been back to Australia in a while, partly because I hadn’t been able to afford it and partly because I hadn’t had the time off from work. Now that the job thing was no longer an issue, all I needed to do was scrape together the money to go back and see my family. I texted my mother pretty much every day, but nothing really beat seeing her in person.

“How long?” I asked, reaching up to adjust the olive green beanie pulled over my hair.

Stella’s eyebrows lifted just slightly in surprise, probably because we never really talked about our families, or anything incredibly personal besides work. It was a fact that I figured I should work on if I wanted my little crush to blossom into anything more. I hadn’t yet admitted it to Stella, but there weren’t many times a day when I wasn’t thinking about kissing her, but I didn’t want to make any sort of move on her without knowing that it was something she’d be cool with, so I was waiting for our relationship to go from its current state of lukewarm to full on burning hot. The fact that over the course of the past few months, we’d already progressed from arctic level coldness to this current state was huge and I was eager for it to continue.

“Almost a year,” she admitted, turning her gaze forward, her eyes searching through the upcoming glass doors for any sign of her father. “I’ve missed them.”

Despite the fact that we hardly ever talked about it, I did know that Stella was pretty close with her family. She called her mother practically every day and texted her older brother constantly and even if she didn’t talk to her dad that often, I knew that deep down, she was a bit of a daddy’s girl. Our love for our families was something we had in common and the more time I spent with Stella, the more I wondered why I hadn’t figured out we were so similar so much sooner.

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond because we weren’t very good at heart to hearts, so it was lucky that she spotted her father almost as soon as we passed through the sliding glass doors and squealed as she pushed the stroller forward in a hurry to greet him.

I stretched my lips into a friendly smile as I approached, close at her heels, my grin widening as she stepped around the stroller to hug her large bellied, completely bald father. He squeezed her tight against his chest, pressing a kiss to her cheek as they pulled apart. “Hi Stel Bell. Glad you’re home.”

“Me too,” Stella sighed contently before glancing over to me and down at Cooper. “Dad, there’s some people you should meet.”

Her father turned his gaze first to the toddler in the stroller, who was just starting to perk up from the nap he’d had on the plane. Cooper had been a little bit tense for his first experience with air travel, but he’d fallen asleep quickly and Stella and I had traded off on bouncing him in our lap and making funny faces at him if he ever woke up because of turbulence.

“So this is Cooper, huh?” Stella’s dad said, crouching down in front of the stroller and reaching out to tickle Cooper’s stomach. “He has Georgia’s eyes.”

“Yeah,” Stella whispered, nodding slowly. “And Eric’s smile.”

Stella and Georgia were friends from childhood, so it made sense that Stella’s father was aware of Cooper’s existence and what had happened, but Eric and Georgia hadn’t ever come back to visit Texas after Georgia moved to New York with her new husband because once her parents were gone, they didn’t really have a reason. So thus far, Stella’s family had only seen Cooper through pictures.

Nodding sadly, Stella’s father shot one last grin at Cooper, who giggled in his stroller, before standing up straight and turning to face me, that friendly smile still stretching his lips as he extended his hand for a shake. “And you must be Tyson. I’ve heard a lot about you. Roy St. Clare.”

Knowing Stella and the tenseness of our relationship prior to becoming parents, none of those things were good.

“She says you’re quite the amazing chef,” Roy continued as I firmly shook his hand. I wondered if Stella had added in the bit about me losing my job. That was sure to play well with the people who were for all intents and purposes, my in laws.

He didn’t mention my current state of unemployment or give any indication that he was disappointed in me, however, so I just returned his grin and nodded, winking at Stella before responding. “Your daughter’s pretty amazing as well.”

“I know,” Roy laughed, pulling Stella into his side for another quick hug before taking the handles of the stroller and guiding us towards the parking garage. “Come on, we better get going. Your mother has had the kitchen in a frenzy since eight in the morning and your brother has been sitting in front of the TV watching football for about the same amount of time.”

“Reese is at home already?” Stella asked in surprise, reaching out to grab her duffel bag from my shoulder so that I could walk at a normal pace.

“Came in last night,” Roy nodded, looking both ways before he crossed the street. “I think his plan was to mark his territory on the couch and sneak food from the kitchen when your mom’s not looking.”

“Sounds like him,” Stella snorted, leaning towards me and lowering the tone of her voice. “My brother is two years older than me, but he consistently acts like he’s about fourteen.”

“Can’t wait to meet him,” I grinned, being genuinely serious. Even if I was developing more than platonic feelings for Stella, seeing her annoyed was still highly amusing.

“You would,” Stella rolled her eyes as we came to a stop beside a silver SUV.

I smiled at her innocently as we loaded our bags into the trunk before removing the top part of Cooper’s stroller, which conveniently doubled as a car seat. Stella sat in the front with her father and I kept Cooper company in the back.

It was amazing how comfortable I felt with her father only a few minutes after meeting him. The conversation flowed effortlessly the entire thirty-minute drive to Stella’s family home in the suburbs and even Cooper chimed in every once in a while, repeating words he recognized and answering questions that were directed at him excitedly.

By the time we pulled into the garage of the red brick house at the top of the hill, I felt like I had known her father forever. Roy lifted Cooper from his car seat to carry him inside and I carried the bags while Stella took care of the stroller and detachable car seat, leaving them both in the garage as we stepped through the door to the laundry room.

The sound of something sizzling and pots and pans clanking as I followed them into the kitchen sounded just like home and I was already grinning when Stella’s mother, a tall, lanky woman with short black hair, turned from where she was chopping onions atop the granite island to greet us.

She immediately stepped forward to embrace her daughter, kissing Stella on the cheek as she pulled away before smiling warmly at me and extending both arms to give me a hug as well.

“Tyson,” she said as she squeezed me tight, “It’s so good to finally meet you. I’m Suzanna.”

“Nice to meet you too,” I replied when she pulled away, a little breathless from the force of the hug and bit emotional because I was suddenly missing my own mother.

“And Cooper,” Suzanna sighed happily, reaching out to pull the toddler into her chest and immediately peppering his cheeks with kisses. “Aren’t you handsome?”

“What do you say, Cooper?” Stella laughed. “Can you say thank you?”

“Sank…oooo,” he managed to get out through his giggles, his chubby cheeks flushing adorably.

We all laughed before Stella nodded towards the tall male sitting with feet propped up on the couch in the lounge room and smiled as she called out, “Hey, bro. Thanks for the warm welcome.”

The male, who I assumed was Reese, tore his eyes away from the football game on the television to grin at Stella and nod at me. “Hey sis. Hey Tyson. Glad you’re home.”

Suzanna rolled her eyes and chuckled before bouncing Cooper lightly on her hip and turning her attention to us to give us instructions. “Tyson and Stella, you guys are sleeping in Stella’s room, and Cooper can sleep in the master bedroom with us.”

I blinked in confusion and glanced at Stella, who was gaping at her mother as well.

“Tyson and I sharing a room?” Stella stammered out, her brow pulled into a deep ‘v’ as her gaze shifted between me, her mother, and her very uncomfortable looking father.

“Yep,” Suzanna replied as though that entire situation wouldn’t be extremely awkward. “Your aunt and uncle are in the guest room and your cousins are in the game room and your brother is in his room, so that’s how it’s gonna go.”

Stella parted her lips to argue, but decided against it, sighing as she nodded towards the duffel bag that she had set on the hardwood floor. “All of Cooper’s stuff should be in there. Tyson and I are gonna go get settled.”

“You do that,” Suzanna nodded, turning to bring Cooper towards the lounge room to officially meet his uncle.

Completely confused as to what had just happened, I grabbed my own duffel bag from where I had dropped it on the floor earlier and followed Stella through the foyer and up the stairs to the first bedroom on the left.

“So this is it,” she sighed as we dropped our bags on the floor by the bed.

I nodded, staying silent as I took a moment to look around. The walls were painted white, but almost completely covered with pictures of modeling shots and shoes and dresses and the wooden dresser was filled with little figurines of ballet dancers and homemade photo frames of Stella with her friends and family.

“What do you think?” she asked, tugging on the sleeves of her oversized sweater to cover her palms. She sounded nervous and I wasn’t sure why because if anyone should have been nervous, it was me.

“It’s very you,” I shrugged, plopping down on the maroon comforter covered bed. It was a vague answer, but it was also true because I saw aspects of Stella in every wall decoration and bit of clutter and trinket that lay on a flat surface. Whether it showcased her playfulness or artistic side or the fact that she saw beauty in everything, Stella was everywhere.

She rolled her eyes, kicking off her black ballet flats to the side before coming to take a seat on the bed next to me.

“Hey, Stel?” I said quietly, avoiding eye contact as I picked on a loose thread coming from the flower embroidery on her comforter. “Do your parents think that we’re…together?”

“No!” she replied a little too quickly for my liking because I honestly would have had no problem pretending to be her boyfriend if she needed me too. I would have had to tease her a bit for the sake of my reputation, but at the end of the day, I would have done it gladly. “There’s just not a lot of bedrooms and they figure we’ve been living together for a few months, so sharing a bed for a couple nights won’t be so bad.”

We figured there was no point in only staying Thursday night, but we also didn’t want to fly back on Sunday when the plane fares were ridiculous, so we had decided to stay Thursday and Friday and fly back on Saturday afternoon. Apparently this meant there would be two nights where I lay awake wondering what it would feel like to fall asleep with my arms around Stella.

“Gotcha,” I nodded, slowly lifting my gaze to meet hers, wondering if maybe she was fantasizing about hugging me in her sleep as well. “And do they know about my job situation?”

“Yeah…,” she replied slowly, scrunching her nose in apology. “I told them. But it’s not like they think any less of you or anything. If anything, they’re pissed at Carlo. I mean, really, what kind of person fires someone for having to leave when their child is in the hospital?”

I shrugged, not really in the mood to reflect on why Carlo was such a horrible human being. “Who knows. It happened, though. And now I have to figure out what I’m gonna do next.”

Nodding, she shot me a closed lip smile, reaching out one hand to rest on my thigh and I did my best not to raise my eyebrows in surprise and fight back the flush that was threatening to spread across my cheeks. Maybe it was out of pity, or maybe Stella was finally warming up to me, but she’d been getting much more affectionate over the past few weeks and I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“You’ll figure it out,” she assured me, squeezing my thigh lightly before patting as she stood once more, having absolutely no clue that I had completely stopped breathing. “Come on, we better get back downstairs. I always help my mom cook and sort of watch the game out of the corner of my eye, but I’m sure she’d love the professional help.”

“You help your mum cook?” I snorted, pushing myself off the bed as well, my heart still beating a little faster than normal. “The fact that she even lets you near a kitchen is amazing.”

I was only half joking because any time Stella insisted she was capable of making us dinner that night, I was always afraid that she’d somehow manage to set the apartment on fire. She seemed to attract disaster. I wondered what that said about me.

“Shut up, Kingsley,” Stella glared at me, though the corners of her lips were trying their hardest not to turn upwards into a smile. “I’m not that bad.”

“Says the girl who burned rice,” I shot back dryly as I followed her out her bedroom door. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

She didn’t have a decent reply because she knew it was true, so she settled for sticking out her tongue and I laughed and shook my head as we made our way down the stairs, thinking that despite everything that had happened the past few weeks, I was actually pretty happy. If you had told me a year ago that Stella St. Clare would be the source of that joy, I would have laughed in your face, but now, I was starting to come to the conclusion that life without Stella wouldn’t be much of a life at all.