Offices and Orchards (A New Adult Sweet Romance)

Chapter 30

At 5pm, Autumn rushed out of the office and down to her old car. Her plan was to be at his house before he got there. Autumn needed to talk to him, outside of the office. She got held up in traffic once or twice, but made it there, seemingly before he had. Feeling nervousness and excitement, she checked her appearance in the rear view mirror, grabbed something from the back seat, and went up the path to wait on his doorstep in the cold. When he had not shown up in fifteen minutes, she began to regret her plan, and just as she was about to get back into her car, headlight beams turned onto the street, and then into the driveway. She stood up so he would see her. She could not see him, but she prayed he was happy she was there. It felt like ages before he finally got out of the SUV.
"What are you doing here?" he seemed surprised, not angry.
"Can we talk?"
"Of course, you wanna come in instead of waiting on the doorstep?" she nodded.
"Do you mind if I just go get changed? I'll just be a second. You know where the living room is," without waiting to hear her reply, she heard his feet run up the stairs. When he came back down in grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt, Autumn stood up from the sofa, and they looked at each other for a moment.
"I brought you something," she handed over the picnic basket covered in a tea towel. Harvey took it from her, and took a seat before pulling back the tea towel to reveal a cake in the shape of an apple, decorated with light green icing marbled with a bit of red. 
"You did this?" the smell of the icing met his nose.
"Yup," 
"It's beautiful! Can we eat some?" Harvey could not resist his sweet tooth and especially not when combined with apples.
"It's for you, as part of an apology, I wanted to apologize for how I've handled everything. I've been wrong, I judged you when I met you and I kept doing it, even though I thought I wasn't. I'm sorry."
"Let's sit down and eat the cake," he ran to the kitchen, reappearing with two forks, and that was it. "I figured we just dig right in," a little smile, Autumn high-fived herself in her head.
"It's a Mutsu,"
"What?"
"A Mutsu, you know, a late season apple from Japan?"
"Of course I know what a Mutsu is, but how do you?"
"Well, I've been reading this blog," she paused for effect, "by a guy called Adam Orchard..." she paused again, "and it wasn't until I read something the other night, that I realized you were Adam Orchard," Harvey looked back at her, his mouth still full of apple cake.
"But, how did you know?"
"I can't say, just some of the things you said, some of the things Adam was writing, they sounded so similar. You called me your little apple seed, you called your blog that, You talked about feeling at home in the orchard, and in your speech at the wedding you said something about finding your home. Then I found out your middle name was Adam back at Canadian Thanksgiving, but I didn't put two and two together until the other night, I can't say why exactly. It is your blog though, isn't it? It's beautiful. You're a really talented writer. I've actually read nearly the whole thing! I was even going to try the recipes, but those didn't work out," Harvey just kept digging into her peace offering. "Look, I was really shocked about what I heard Harvey, and I reacted badly to it. It's not the first time I have judged you unfairly, I've been doing it since the second I met you actually, and I can't guarantee that it won't happen again, but I will try my best to make sure it doesn't. The thing is, I love you." Instead of saying anything, Harvey took yet another a big forkful of the cake. A smile spread across his face.
"I forgive you," he took another mouthful. "Here, have some cake! It's delicious," talking with his mouth full. Autumn laughed out of relief. "I love you too," He said it so casually it was as if they had been together for months, and not as if it was the first time they were saying it to each other. "Where did you go, anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"The next morning, after you kicked me out of your room,"
"I spent the week with my Grandpa,"
"Oh," he was speaking between mouthfuls. "So that's why you weren't at home,"
"What?"
"Well, after I realized you had left the island, I came home myself and I might have checked your house a few times, just saying, your car was there the whole time,"
"Speaking of car.." she trailed off, while he stayed focused on the cake.
"So, it's not a new car, but yours is going to die any moment, and I thought that's how we should spend the money," Autumn laughed, he was treating the bet as if it was something they had done together and won together.
""I've never won anything before," she said.
"Well, five grand isn't a bad first prize to win,"
"Five thousand dollars? I thought it was one." she gasped.
"Yeah, long story. Staffy got involved, and he increased the prize money. And since you and I had kept things fully secret, nobody believed anyone was in with a shot based on how you behaved at work." Autumn could not believe it.
"You played them?!"
"I sure did... we did! Look, I was going to stay in the room when you kicked me out, and try to explain, but you hated me in that moment, and you wouldn't have believed anything I said. I went back the next day to try again, but you were gone,"
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"I thought it would be better to wait until we had some time together, alone, anaway. Plus I wanted the surprise of the car in place before I told you. Well, this cake is delicious." Harvey was more than halfway through it by now. "For someone who can't cook, you're an excellent baker, those muffins today too, delicious!"
"I must have used good apples or something."
They kept catching up, and in the end, they both agreed that Harvey should have mentioned the bet, and that Autumn needed to cool her jets when she gets angry. "Now that the important things are out of the way... come here," he handed her her fork. Autumn laughed: only Harvey would think that eating cake was more important than making up after a breakup, but then he pulled her into a hug and a kiss. "I didn't like being without you, and I missed you at the orchard,"
"You were at the orchard?"
"Yeah I went up a few times during the week,"
"Can I come?"
"I'd love for you to! Although picking's done for the year now."
"Just cleaning up before putting the orchard to bed right Adam?"
"Still can't believe you found my blog," he shook his head.
"Me neither, there are quite a few blogs about apples, it turns out. But yours is by far the best,"
"Speaking of the blog and the orchard, i have some pretty big news actually."
"What is it?"
"Two big pieces actually, and both of them I have you to thank for,"
"What do you mean?"
"Remember when I first mentioned my blog? Well, I resurrected it a bit after you reminded me of it, and I decided I would send it off to see if there was any interest in that kind of writing."
"And is there?"
"Just a second," Harvey got up from the couch and went to the kitchen. He returned with a plain brown envelope in hand, and passed it to Autumn, who looked at him with round eyes as she opened it.
"Dear Mr. McIntosh,
Thank you for your submission "The Life of an Apple Picker". We are pleased to inform you that this is just the kind of work we are looking for at the moment. If you are ok with a release date next fall, we would be very happy to work with you to prepare this manuscript for publication as it requires significant edits. If you are fine with waiting and editing, please let us know, and we can move forward together at that time.
Oh my goodness. You got a book deal?"
"I honestly can't believe it!"
"Well, a big congratulations to you."
"There's more." he said, with a twinkle in his eyes.
"More than a book deal?"
"While you were gone, I went back to work. I didn't want to stay on the island by myself, so I came back."
"Okaaay...?" she dragged the syllable out, going up at the end in question.
"And I thought a lot about what I want in life. And I realised that working at S and W is not what I want to do forever."
"Okaaay...?" She repeated.
"So, I did something a bit crazy. You wanna know what?"
"Yes, yes, what did you do?"
"I handed in my resignation for the internship and requested a major change at college. In three months, I will be working part time for McIntosh's Orchards and studying agriculture."
"Congratulations, that's wonderful news."
"I have you to thank for it actually - ever since you asked me why I wasn't working at the orchard, I've been thinking, why aren't I working at the orchard? I can't wait, I'll be living my dream job! And it's all because of you."
"That is such good news -I'm so happy for you. So you never applied for Australia then?"
"What? No, really had no interest. Why do you ask?"
"I heard that you had turned it down. Amber overheard a conversation you had with William and Adrianna had told me you turned it down for me."
"No, no, the conversation with William she heard was related to me thinking of leaving- I think she must have misinterpreted what was said. I had mentioned it to him in confidence and he wasn't supposed to mention it at work or to anyone. I'm sorry about that by the way."
"About what?"
"About you not getting Australia."
"That's ok, I understand why now. I just wasn't the right person for the job. There will be other opportunities I am better suited for I hope."
"There certainly will be."
"Speaking of which, you'll never believe what happened to me this afternoon?"
"What's that?"
"I had a meeting with Derek and William and Melora and Thomas." Harvey's eyes widened.
"They offered me the job! I'll be working as a junior advisor next summer, and all throughout my studies. And, they are giving me scholarship too."
"I knew it!" Harvey said. "Congratulations, you deserve it Autumn. You really do. Your parents will be so proud."
"Actually, that's something I want to tell you about."
Autumn told the story. The whole thing. For the first time ever since it had happened. And she didn't feel embarrassed or ashamed or shy, she just explained. Of course she cried, and so did he, but she wasn't only crying because of her loss, she was crying with happiness that she had met someone that she could share her burden with. She still hadn't moved on from it, she never would, and she still thought of him everyday, but she had, only recently, finally started to accept it had happened, and I'm doing this, she started to regain herself.
"Anyway, you hungry?" Harvey enquires.
"We just ate an entire cake,"
"So...yes?"
"Yup,"
As if planned perfectly, the doorbell rang, and a delivery person handed over two big brown paper bags. Within seconds, there were prawn crackers, bowls of egg fried rice, some boxes of food, some chopsticks and a bottle of soy sauce on the coffee table. "I ordered when I went upstairs to change before," "Talk about perfect timing,"
"Sorry about all the chicken, I know you don't like it,"
"You know, I think I could get used to eating it again, I'm pretty sure the last time I ate it was with you at the Oktoberfest place, which was quite awhile ago now. Things have changed now."
"They have, haven't they?" He put his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
"Well, for one I like Fall now!"
"Wait. What?" Harvey exclaimed.
"Yeah, I mean, I used to feel like fall was the end of all things good, and everything turned brown and cold and ugly. It was the return to school, the end of family time spent at the beach or on the water, and you know, the season closest to 9/11. But now I know the opposite is true. I judged Fall without getting to know it. And I can be myself during Fall. Unapolegetically me. I can cuddle up with a hot drink and read while it rains outside. I can put on a knitted scarf and walk along on a quiet street watching leaves fly around as they fall to the ground. Above all, I can see that accepting transition into different stages of life is a positive thing. I always thought Fall as the end to all good things, but really, it's a new beginning. A clean slate. I was named Autumn for a reason after all."
When it started to get late, Autumn stood up to go, and Harvey gave her a long hug, one full of love, hope, relief, promise, one which meant that all of the other emotions that they had dealt with over the last few weeks were in the past. Autumn felt so comfortable, safe, protected and happy there again, that she could have stayed for hours. Then their lips met, and everything seemed right again. When they parted, he asked her, "You busy this weekend?"
"Well, I was going to do some baking but I suppose I can reschedule,"
"Feel like coming to the orchard with me?"
"Under one condition, you come to meet my family for real Thanksgiving the weekend after, in Brighton,"
"I guess I could bring some apples?"