“Where you off to in such a rush?” he asked.
“To be honest?” He took a deep breath and held out his license. “I was trying to get to the restaurant Daisy is at before she leaves so I could tell her how sorry I am, and to try to win her back.”
Tim frowned. “Being sorry isn’t enough for that.”
“I know.” He locked eyes with the other man. “I had other things to tell her, too.”
Tim hesitated, taking the license. “Like what?”
“With all due respect, that’s between me and her, Officer Mathers.”
Tim took his stuff and walked away without a word, sliding into his car and doing whatever it was that cops did when they pulled people over. Mark picked up his phone and sent off a quick text to Steven. Tim pulled me over. Delay as much as possible.
He got an immediate reply. I’ll try.
Mark tapped his fingers on the wheel impatiently, and sat there for what had to have been twenty
minutes. His phone buzzed, and he picked it up. It was a text from Steven.
We’re leaving. Sorry, man, I tried.
He tossed his phone on his seat, with the wrapped present, and stared straight ahead. “Fuck me.”
After what seemed like millions of years later, Tim approached, shaking his head. “Your record is ridiculously clean. Not a negative mark on it.”
He wasn’t sure if he was referring to his driving record or his police record. Either way, it was true. He was clean. “Is that what took you so long? You were checking to make sure I wasn’t a serial killer before cutting me loose?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he had handed Mark his stuff back with a frown. “I’m letting you off with a warning this time, but don’t do it again. Speed limits aren’t optional, and they aren’t supposed to be ignored when it’s convenient.”
Mark stared straight ahead, taking his registration, insurance, and license. “Thank you, Officer. It won’t happen again.”
“And about Daisy?” He rested a hand on his roof. “I’ve been there for her through the bad and the good. I’ve held her when she cried, and when she wanted to die. I picked her back up, I helped her find her footing again, so you damn well better not knock it out from under her again. Treat her good. You fucked up once. I’m willing to let that slide, considering you two are both new to one another. But fuck up twice? You answer to me.”
And with that, he walked off.
Mark watched him leave, and then pulled back out onto the road, heading for the restaurant in case Daisy stuck around after Steven and Lauren left. He walked inside, scanning the interior, the present in his hand. No red hair. No angry green eyes. She was gone.
Turning, he left the restaurant and headed to her apartment, locking his car doors and heading up the stairs once he got there. When he stopped outside her door, he held the present behind his back, took a deep breath, and knocked three times.
There was the faint noise of something falling, and then he heard light footsteps. Since Tim was out on patrol…it had to be her.
The door didn’t open.
“I’m sorry, Daisy,” he called out through the door. “So sorry.”
Nothing.
“I know I was an idiot, and I never should have sent you away that night. If I could go back and change it, I would. I’d hug you close, say I was sorry for those awful things I said on that street, and tell you I want to be with you. And hopefully you’d smile and say you want to be with me, too, and everything would be fine.” He broke off, feeling dumb as hell. He was writing an alternate universe where this could still happen, and it couldn’t. “But I can’t change the past, only the future. And so I’m here, promising you through a damn door, that next time I get scared—because there will be a next time—I’ll do better. I’ll hug you, and kiss you good-bye, and wait for you to come back from work with a goddamn smile on my face. If you just open the door for me, and give me a chance, I swear I’ll make it up to you. I’ll…I’ll…” He rested his head on her door, sighing heavily. “Please. Open the door. I want to see you. I want to smell you, and touch you, and…shit, I don’t know. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine.”
Someone cleared her throat from behind him, and he stiffened.
“Jeeves is a nice cat and all, but I don’t think he’ll be down for that.”
Slowly, he turned, not sure what the hell was going on right now, but hell, she was here. And that’s all that mattered. Daisy stared at him, clutching a bag of groceries to her chest. “Uh… You have a cat?”
“Tim does.” She licked her lips and shifted her feet uncomfortably. “If you want to pet him that badly, and smell him, I’m sure he’ll let you. He’s pretty friendly.”
He laughed uneasily. If she was making jokes, maybe that was a good sign. “How much did you hear?”