is fun, but nothing compared to the white-water rafting. That was insane. I thought we were going to die about six times.”
Quinton was laughing hysterically. He was on his seventh beer I believed. Yep, he was tanked. The guy was only five feet six and about a hundred and forty pounds. He just couldn’t hold his liquor like the big boys.
“I told you, man. It will change your life. I’m surprised Sophie isn’t out here with us.”
“Nah, she hates guns.”
“Ok. To each their own.”
I watched Quinton get his gun ready. Then he yelled out, “Pull!”
The disc flew up in the air and he took a shot. He missed by a few inches. “Damn!”
“It’s alright. Just breathe. You almost got this.”
He waited and then screamed for another one. This time he hit it dead center as well. I slapped him a hearty high five. He fired off three more rounds and missed all three of them before he finally sat down to rest again.
“Hey, let me ask you something,” I said. “What do you think of the new girl in marketing, Julie?”
Quinton scratched his head a moment. “Do I know her?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “You met her at the Christmas party.”
“Oh, ok. She seems cool. Why?”
“We’ve been seeing each other for the past month,” I said.
Quinton’s eyes went wide. “That’s great. Sophie would definitely want to hear that to congratulate you. She’s been kind of worried about you spending so much time alone. There hasn’t been any romance in your life for a long time.”
“I know,” I said. “I haven’t felt this close to anyone, since Amanda. I don’t know… when I first saw Julie, I just felt my heart leaping out of my chest. I had to find out everything about her. We started talking and that thing just clicked between us. I think she might be the one, man.”
“That’s awesome. I’m happy as shit for you,” Quinton said. He slapped me a high five and brought in a bro hug. “Good going, man.”
“So, I assume you are keeping this hush hush at work?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I am. Right now, it just isn’t a good time to let the cat out of the bag. She is new. She is working hard to make a name for herself. She doesn’t need the attachment to me or our relationship becoming a gossip, making things harder for her. You know how psychotic some of those people in marketing can be. The whole thing is so cutthroat and full of backstabbing, everyone trying to get their numbers up. It’s brutal.”
“Well, the secret is safe with me,” Quinton said. “I won’t tell a soul. But the four of us should go out sometime soon. We can double date. It will be a blast.”
“Yeah, I think we’d both like that,” I said.
I got ready to shoot another round. It felt good to tell someone about me and Julie. She made me so happy that keeping the news to myself was damn difficult. I just wanted to spread it with the world and show them how much joy I was feeling. It had started to color every single thing I did. Christmas was in a week. Just one week… I couldn’t believe it. Time was flying so fast and I wasn’t even sure what I was going to get for Julie. I didn’t want to get her anything too flashy or crazy, but I wanted it to be something she’d hold near and dear forever. And I hoped that might include me.
I meant it when I told Quinton that she was the one. I wanted to ask Julie to marry me. Maybe that might be the best time to come out and tell everyone. If she said yes. God willing, she would say yes. And we could show the world that this wasn’t some fling, this wasn’t Julie trying to get in good with the boss to get ahead. No this was love. This was the real thing. The thing that they wrote billions of songs about and made hundreds of those annoying Hallmark Christmas movies about every fucking year. Maybe now those sentimental works of art would start to resonate with me.
I knew I loved Julie. I’d probably known since first sight. That’s why it was so hard to breathe when I saw her. It was like walking into some dream and there in front of me was this beautiful angel waiting for me. And when she expressed those same feelings back towards me, it was like