Unspoken (22 page)

“Marion,” I heard someone calling me but I just assumed they would let me know what they needed since I couldn’t pay attention to anything but what I had in front of me. “Mar,” that immediately made me snap my head up. There he was. With a beard. My hands stopped working and my brain did too.

“You need to wait for your turn,” was all I could say. He seemed happy, he seemed relaxed. He looked so much like the Jackson I met 8 years before.

He smiled,
really? You are making me wait?
We still had it. We were still connected.

“Yes,” I nodded “you can’t cut in line, right?” I asked the girl whose cupcake I was putting in a box.

“Fine, I’ll wait,” I saw him walk to the end of the line.

“What the fuck?” I said under my breath to Alexa.

“What did you expected, Marion? For him to leave you in such an important day?” she asked while working with some boxes.

“You knew?” I looked up at her.

“Of course I knew, he calls every day to see how you are doing,” I searched for him and there he was still. In line.

“What does he think about Leonard being here?” I asked as I delivered a champagne cupcake.

“It was his idea to call him as reinforcement,” I couldn’t believe it. I felt tears. Traitors, they were supposed to come out when we were alone. I was overwhelmed by the amazing support system I had.

“Can I talk to you now?” I heard him ask as the line approached me.

“I’m working, Jackson,” I said no looking at him

“I love you, Mar,” he said and all the women in line turned to look at him “I do, I love her,” I didn’t want to look at him because I would die in the spot “I’ve loved her for almost nine years, I loved her when I first met her, I loved her when I avoided muffins and cakes for 6 years, I loved her when I got engaged to another woman and I loved her so much more the moment I saw her face again,” I heard a bunch of awws and I still couldn’t look at him.

“I’ll get it, Marion,” said Alexa as she and Lauren took over the packing of cupcakes.

“Why are you here, Jackson?” I finally said as he moved all the way to the place in the stand where I was.

“I wanted to see your optional category cupcake,” he was grinning.

“Why would you want that?” I tried to look busy while stacking boxes

“Because no one would tell me what is it,” I walked to the end of the table and showed him.

“You love me,” he said looking at the cupcakes. The cupcakes formed a bouquet of purple tulips. My way to remember him. My to remind myself that he was somewhere thinking of me and I was thinking of him.

“I do,” I finally let out a sob and covered my mouth with my hand.

“Mar,” he looked around trying to find a way to jump over the table and reach for me “I am here, with you, for you,”

“I want to believe you, Jackson” I couldn’t stop crying even knowing that the few people that have heard his love declaration were looking at us.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said holding both my hands, “I bought a house here,” I instantly looked up and met his eyes.

“What?” that was more permanent

“I did, Connor helped me with a few renovations and it’s ready for us to move in the minute you accept,” wow.

“Accept what?” my heart was coming back to life, I felt the emotional glue working it’s way around the cracks of my heart and soul.

He was smiling at me like I’d never see him again,
Marry me!
That surely sent me into a fit of sobs

“what did he say?” Alexa asked and I heard somewhere in the line say
Nothing.

“Jackson,” I choked still not believing this was happening to me.

“What do you say, Mar?” He smiled,
Be my wife!

I smiled back at him,
Ok.
I’d just agreed to marry the man of my life by smiling at
him.

“Seriously?” he finally spoke. I just nodded. Still crying. He took that moment to finally kneel on one knee.

“Oh My God!” I heard Alexa screamed and a general gasping sound from the tiny crowd in the stand.

Still separated by a table I tried to jumped to the other side but found it too difficult. Leonard came running towards me and lift me from the waist placing me right in front of Jackson and then quickly ran back to wherever he was standing.

Jackson placed the ring on my hand and smiled,
you’ve made me the happiest human being alive.

“I love you, Jackson,” I finally said to him and he grabbed my face with both of his hands and kissed me. I kissed him back and felt my heart becoming a whole. There was cheering and clapping around us but all we cared was that we were finally together. We were right there with nothing preventing us of living or love the way it was supposed to be lived. There was no one stopping us from being together and we had our whole lives ahead of us. We were in our own little world and we couldn’t care less if everything came crashing down. We were together.

Jackson pulled apart and smiled,
You are everything.

You are everything
, I smiled back.

I didn’t know what happiness was until I met Marion. From the very first moment I saw her she became the light of my life, the fire in my heart, the love flowing in my bloodstream. She was everything. From the moment she asked me to leave to the moment I came back I did nothing but work towards our happiness. I knew that being with her would take me real effort, no some weak pathetic excuse of attempt. So, I put my company in the hands of Ray, leaving everything I hated behind. I ended our fake relationship with Sally and decided to build a new life for Marion, for me and four our future kids.

My life with her is everything I dreamt of and maybe a bit more because it’s real. She is real. I can’t help smiling as I sit in a table and see her red curls bouncing around the bakery. I look out the New York streets and realize that living her dream is living my dream as well. Yes, you guessed it. She won the competition and
Bake it off! Manhattan
has been opened for business for a month now.

I’ve focused on the administration of both bakeries and been Marion’s slave. Any kind of slave she wants to have at the moment, kitchen slave, cashier slave, sex slave, anything she wants I am.

I am pretty confident in saying that I found myself in Marion. I found my one and true calling and that is being with her. It doesn’t matter if it’s at home in the Hamptons, where we are living in the house I bought and commute to Manhattan wherever we need, it doesn’t matter if it’s in Manhattan or in the kitchen licking cookie dough of her fingers. My place is wherever she is and I don’t care if I sound sick, or whipped or dependant but I my life would be shit if she wasn’t with me.

We are getting married, maybe in a couple of months or couple of years. Right now the new bakery and our new freedom, as a couple, is everything we need and I’m ok with that.

We have everything we need to feel completely fortunate. Our friends are the most amazing human beings on the planet. Lauren is as big as a house and ready pop any day now; we are ecstatic and can’t wait to meet the little girl. Connor couldn’t be happier he built the most amazing nursery and has been counting the days until he meets his daughter. Alexa is excited for her brother and for us, she hasn’t found a guy to settle down, although she had been dating some
Espresso-Chocolate
client (have no idea what that means) but she says that she needs a good man for Mika, she’s right. Talking about Mika, that boy has me wrapped around her tiny chubby finger. I babysit for Alexa at least once a week while the girls go out for drinks or coffee. They think it’s a sacrifice but it’s not, the time I spend with him is amazing. I think I have more fun than Mika does.

Our mothers. That’s another story. My mother won’t be visiting us in the near future, probably ever, I even doubt she’ll be at our wedding but I’m at peace with that. I had a taste of what live without Marion is and I am not willing to go back to that. I just wish my mother could see that.

Marion’s mom….she’s come around a bit. When Marion showed her the engagement ring she thought it was with Leonard and couldn’t stop shedding tears of happiness until Marion told her that it was with me and then she shed tears of disappointment. Nothing makes a man feel prouder of himself than his mother in law’s disappointment on your proposal.

Little by little Monica has adapted to the situation. She’s been to our house a couple of times and she actually speaks to me now and in a nice tone. I think eventually she’ll realize that I am good for her daughter. I think she knows she is good for me. Maybe she should talk to my mother, just kidding, my mother hates everything that includes the name Galloway.

“What are you smiling about?” she asks me as she sits on my lap and I pass my arms around her waist.

“Our life,” I kissed her neck and feel that familiar fire burning my insides. That’s life with her, always burning ,always feeling. I’ll never get used to that.

“It’s pretty awesome,” she says and jumps out of my lap as a new costumer enters the store.

Yes, this is all we ever going to need.

I close my computer and go into the back of the bakery to help in the kitchen. As I pass by her I see her smile at me
, I love you
.

I smile back at her,
I love you.

As I start chopping stuff in the kitchen I remember part of the conversation we had when first saw each other again.

“I should’ve stayed here… with you Mar”
I said to her

“What for?”
she’d smiled to me
“You would’ve been in the back chopping tomatoes”

That is exactly what I am doing. I chuckle as I look at my hands, chopping tomatoes. I feel her arms surrounding my waist and I know that everything is the way it is supposed to be. I know she is feeling the exact same way and she is letting me know.

There’s something Marion and I learned throughout the years and it was the ability of communicating without words. It was easy because whatever we feel for each other has always been bigger than what words can say.

Right now, as I look at her and she smiles at me, she is letting me know that no matter what happens, no matter when it happens, no matter who happens she here with me, loves me forever. I know it just like I’ve always known, through these unspoken words, that she’d go through hell for me. I just hope that she knows that I would do the same for her.