Blue Plaid

Patience

In which Tyson learns that the best things take time. 

It was amazing how easily Stella’s family came to feel like my own. I didn’t even have to ask Suzanna if I could help. As soon as Stella and I reentered the kitchen, she handed me a knife and told me to get to chopping the onions that she needed for the roasted vegetable platter she was making while Stella sat on the granite counter top and swung her legs and kept us company, but kept out of trouble.

We talked as if we’d known each other our entire lives. Stella and I told Suzanna about how we dressed Cooper up as a dinosaur for Halloween and took him trick or treating around our apartment building, but he was much more fascinated by the shiny door knockers than getting candy. In exchange, Suzanna told me about how for Stella’s first Halloween, she was dressed up like a pumpkin and she ate so much candy that she ended up passing out.

Reese and Roy were generally occupied by the football game, but they came into the kitchen every now and then to get drinks and sneak bites of the food while Suzanna wasn’t looking and they’d update me on the score. I didn’t really understand American football, but I appreciated them wanting to keep me in the loop because it made me feel like I wasn’t just another guest.

With my help, the cooking was finished after just two hours and once the dishes were all neatly covered in plastic wrap and sitting on the counter waiting to be heated when the remainder of the guests arrived later that evening, I sat in the lounge room with Roy and Reese and drank beer and kept an eye out for Cooper, who was contently occupied with his toy cars on the floor, as I told them about Australia while Stella went to get showered and changed.

She returned after forty-five minutes, looking stunning as usual in a navy cocktail dress, and I drained the last bits of my beer before I dropped one eye in a wink, smirking happily when I saw her cheeks tint just a tiny bit redder, and went to go get ready as well.

I put my best foot forward on my mission to impress as many members of Stella’s family as possible. I showered thoroughly and shaved even though it wasn’t really necessary because I could hardly grow facial hair and forewent my usual attire of ripped t-shirts or worn out flannels for a crisp light blue button up that I paired with my signature black jeans and shiniest boots.

It turned out my nerves weren’t necessary when it came to her extended family and family friends either, because they all just treated me like I had always been part of the family. Stella’s parents didn’t introduce me as their daughter’s friend, instead just saying my name and assuming people already knew who I was and the most amazing part was that even if this was the truth, none of them had any judgments when it came to our nontraditional family.

I ate as much as I could possibly handle, gorging myself on turkey and corn casserole and green bean casserole and stuffing and cranberry sauce until I could fully appreciate why Stella loved this holiday so much and by the time the last guest had left and Stella’s aunt and uncle and cousins had decided to crash for the night and Cooper was sound asleep in the crib Stella’s parents had set up in their bedroom, I decided that I had never been so happy in my life.

“Oh, Stel, don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it in the morning.”

I looked up from where I had collapsed on the couch in the lounge room to see Stella trying to wash the dishes in the kitchen sink, but being stopped by her mother, who was insisting it could be done at a later time. Immediately feeling guilty for not offering to do that as well, I pushed myself to my feet as fast as I possibly could and ambled over to see if I could persuade Suzanna to allow me to help.

Suzanna shot me a glare that made me stop in my tracks as I approached, turning her gaze back to her daughter, her eyes lighting with an epiphany as she spoke. “Stella, why don’t you go show Tyson around the neighborhood?”

Stella’s brows furrowed in confusion as she stepped away from the sink as her mother had instructed. “Mom, it’s the middle of the night. We won’t be able to see anything.”

Suzanna shrugged as if that fact was completely unimportant. “You’ve always loved walking around at night.”

Blinking slowly because she couldn’t really deny this fact, Stella raised her eyebrows at me. “So?”

I nodded and shrugged, because although the fullness of my stomach was making me sleepy, the thought of being alone with Stella underneath the moonlight was interesting to say the least. Turning from the sink, she disappeared into the laundry room to slip into a spare set of plastic flip flops before nodding towards the front door.

We walked in silence for about ten minutes before I realized I had no idea where we were going.

“You’re not taking me into the woods so that you can kill me or something, are you?” I joked as we turned a street corner and began the descent down a large hill.

“Relax, Kingsley,” she laughed, her eyes twinkling beautifully, even in the moonlight, her arms wrapped around her frame to ward off the cool breeze. “I’ve grown quite fond of you.”

I knew that was an understatement. Stella liked me. A lot. Or at least, she thought I was hot and I figured that was as good a place to start as any. Still, Stella finding me physically appealing didn’t mean she’d ever want it to go anywhere and I fully intended on finding out whether there was a possibility that we could move past sort of friends and onto, well, something real.

“I’m taking you somewhere cool,” she promised as we turned yet another corner at the bottom of the hill. We walked for about thirty more seconds before she gestured to her right and my smile widened at the sight of a small gazebo overlooking a pond with a fountain at the center.

“You’re right, Stel,” I replied, completely serious as we stepped into the gazebo. “This is pretty cool.”

She flashed me a quick smile, crossing her arms and leaning against the edge of the stone wall, her gaze focusing on the tall fountain of water spewing from the center of the pond. “I used to come here all the time when I was growing up. When I was frustrated with my parents or my brother was driving me crazy or I just wanted to be alone. It’s a pretty good place to think things through.”

“So hypothetically,” I said slowly, mimicking her position on the stone wall by crossing my arms over my chest and leaning forward. “If we weren’t here because your mum forced us out of the house, would you have come here at some point on this trip?”

It was my kinda subtle way of asking whether she had been contemplating changing the status of our relationship lately as well.

I probably should have known better than to think Stella would fall for that. The corners of her lips lifted into a smirk and her eyes sparkled wickedly, but she didn’t answer my question, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing.

Sighing, I did my best to come to terms with the fact that I would never know what went on Stella St. Clare’s mind. Not that I necessarily wanted to know everything, because one of the things I liked best about Stella was the fact that I never knew what she was going to say next, but in this particular instance, it would be nice to know that my feelings about our relationship potential weren’t completely one sided.

I did my best not to stare at her moonlit profile as the silence settled around us, only broken by a soft whisper on her part.

“Hey, Ty?”

“Yeah?” I replied, thankful to finally have an excuse to look at her so she couldn’t accuse me of being creepy.

“Thanks.”

My eyebrows lifted in surprise and I turned my torso to face her more fully, pressing my forearms into the cold stone to keep my balance. “For what?”

“For coming down here,” she smiled softly, reaching up one hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I know it was kind of last minute and you probably had a million other things you wanted to do, but I really appreciate it. It’s nice to be home.”

The truth was that I had no plans whatsoever. When I first moved to New York, I had attempted to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade live and in person, but found I hated the crowds and the cold, so for the past few years, I’d settled for sitting on the couch in front of my television and stuffing my face with marshmallows unless Georgia and Eric took pity on me and invited me over. Spending time with Stella and her family was better for sure.

“No worries,” I shrugged, lifting a hand to tug my fingers through my hair. “They’re kinda like my family now too, aren’t they?”

Her smile widened as she nodded. “Yeah, I guess they kinda are.”

I’m not really sure who initiated it, and I’m sure if you asked Stella, she’d say it was me, and maybe it was, but all I know is that one second, we were both smiling and laughing and the next thing I know, we’re leaning in. And not because we were so deeply engrossed in conversation that we wanted to ensure we caught every word the other person said.

No, at least on my end, I was leaning in because I was aching to feel Stella’s lips pressed to mine.

I felt like it was happening in slow motion. My gaze flicked down to her mouth and I briefly poked out my tongue to wet my own lips and she mimicked my action as though it was instinctive and our heads tilted to the side just slightly and our lips inched closer together and I felt my heart pounding in my chest and just as our lips brushed and I was on the verge of having so many questions answered, it was like she had some sort of an epiphany. Her eyes, which had been fluttering closed, shot open in horror and her head jerked backwards as she stood up straight and brought the pads of her fingers to her lips.

“I’m sorry,” she shook her head and I furrowed my brow in confusion as to what she was apologizing for because I had spent many a night wondering exactly how kissing her would feel. “We should get back. It’s late.”

I didn’t argue with her because she was correct about the time and I got the sense that us almost kissing had freaked her out quite a bit. Six months ago, I probably would have relished in the thought of making Stella squirm, but now, the fact that she was conflicted just made my heart ache and I was disappointed that although she couldn’t deny that she was attracted to me, she had no interest in taking things further.

The walk back to the house was awkward to say the least. I spent the entire time trying to figure out something to say that would break the tension while Stella stared straight ahead and kept her arms crossed tightly over her chest and completely avoided making eye contact.

Things stayed excruciatingly uncomfortable the entire time we were getting ready for bed. Part of me just wanted to say that we should finally talk about the fact that there had always been some sort of tension between us and resolve what it actually meant, but another part of me could tell that Stella was doing some soul searching of her own and wasn’t particularly in the mood for a heart to heart, so I let it go.

She changed in the bathroom she shared with her brother and brushed her teeth and washed her face and slipped under the covers of her bed silently as I went to do the same thing. Once I was successfully ready for bed, I lifted the covers on the other side and crawled underneath, lying flat on my back.

Stella wasn’t asleep yet. Despite the fact that her back was to me, I could tell because her breathing wasn’t slow and deep. Not wanting to end what had otherwise been a pretty perfect day on a bad note, I turned just my neck to stare at the back of Stella’s head and whispered, “Good night, Stella. Sweet dreams.”

I was about ninety-five percent sure she was going to ignore me completely, so I felt light with happiness when I heard her soft voice carry across the bed.

“Good night, Tyson.”

She didn’t turn to look at me and I couldn’t place her tone, but the fact that she had responded at all was enough for me to hope that what had happened at the gazebo hadn’t done irreparable damage to our relationship. So I fell asleep with just a hint of a smile on my lips and when I woke up in the middle of the night to find that Stella had flung her arm across my chest and curled into my side, I pulled her close and kissed the top of her head and hoped that one day, we would get to the point where we could sleep like this intentionally.