for June

33. Flight of fancy

Chad had gone into hibernation in the weeks since their parents' wedding, or re-wedding as he liked to refer to it. He was desperate to finish the book. So close to finishing it, that he even forced Jo to leave him alone. He didn't need her constant yammering at his desk as she typed. Asking a million and one questions, like: did this really happen, Chad? Oh, I didn't know my brother had a heart. Since when? Why are you so mushy? Were you always so mushy? Or his favourite: how are you even a romance writer, mate? You suck at relationships. Always have.

It was when he'd thrown his pen and notepad to the floor and frog-marched her out the door. "I don't need this right now, woman! Go annoy Tom or something."

"Tom's at work!" She'd protested, holding onto the door frame like a drowning man might hold on to a tree trunk floating past.

"I can't write with you and your million questions."

"I won't ask any then." She had grinned at him, "And I still have another chapter or two to type," she'd said as she pulled at the door frame with him still attempting to dispel her from his house. "I want to know what happens next!"

"You know what happens next, Jo. She leaves!" He had then pried her fingers off of his threshold. "Go home and leave me alone for a week so I can finish this thing. Then you can come back and find out what happened."

"Fine." She'd let go of the door without warning and the force of Chad still pushing her had sent her flying off backwards. He had to scramble to grab her hand before she landed on her bottom. She'd brushed him off. "Make it a happy ending."

"Why?"

She'd shrugged. "It's your signature. Love stories and happy endings. Your book 'Chad' deserves it."

"It's a placeholder until I find a better name for myself," he'd mumbled in embarrassment.

"Good, 'cause your name's kind of dorky." She had smiled as she'd said it. "Now get me my handbag if you want me to leave. My license's in there."

Chad had marched back into the study and fetched her bag. "What if I never get my happy ending?"

Jo had chewed her lip, looking a little guilty. Ever since the kidnapping, Tom was back in her life and things were going well. Great, even. Chad could tell she was head over heels in love and for the first time in her life, maybe even wishing to walk down the aisle in a manner of speaking.

"Go write her an ending she can't resist." Jo had lingered on in the hopes he would let her back in, jingling her car keys. Chad had refused to budge. "Call me when you're done." Then she'd left.

He had watched her back the car out of the driveway and he had the house all to himself. Quiet and lonely, the way it had been before he'd met June. The quiet irked him, giving him the urge to run out the door, and go anywhere to avoid his loneliness. But running away would not write the story for him. So he had turned on the TV for white noise and headed straight to the study. He would not come out until he had finished the damn ending June couldn't 'resist'.

Piles of paper, sheaves of notepads, pens upon pens drained of ink, mountains of fizzy drinks and too many Gin&Tonic, over multiple days later, Chad thought he had it, the perfect ending to an imperfect story that was his life.

'A darn good ending', as Terry would call it.

An ending he wished was the actual beginning to something special in his life. An ending he hoped June would be curious enough to read. Never in his life had he written thousands of words for one reader. It was an odd feeling, like a man about to say 'I love you' for the first time in his life and he had no clue if the other person felt the same. An infinitesimal part of him hoped she felt the same. But an enormous part of him doubted it.