A Blessing in Disguise 5 | COMPLETED

Paper Bag

The last droplets of coffee dripped out of the pot as Hailey poured herself a cup. She needed a nice kick of caffeine since she still had quite a lot of paperwork left to finish. Walking out of the break room, her eyes caught the sight of a head of brown slowly reaching the top of the staircase. Once Jay had met her eyes, she arched her eyebrow at the paper bag he held on his left hand. "Hey," she was greeted with a casual peck on her forehead. She watched him place the paper bag on top of his desk and walked off to the break room. Her eyes followed him and snapped back to the bag. Her eyebrows furrowed; her mind debated whether she should take a tiny peek or just ask the man about it. "Hey, you ok?"  She turned around to see him coming out of the break room with a mug in his hand. "Yeah, yeah. I'm just..." "Confused." Jay finished her sentence. "Yeah," her voice was soft, almost silent. "Hailey," Jay set his coffee on his desk, then held Hailey by her arms. He hoped that the gesture would assure her that she had nothing to worry about; unsurprisingly, it worked. Hailey subconsciously let out a sigh of relief and now she was staring into him. "What's in the bag?" He smirked in amusement when he saw that Hailey's eyebrows were furrowed again. "I'll tell you about that later." Jay' let go of Hailey's arms and flashed her a reassuring smile. "Really?" There was a hint of annoyance in Hailey's question. "Mhm, later," Jay responded. "So, let's finish our paperwork to get to 'later' faster." Hailey rolled her eyes and finally went back to her desk.

"Alright, I'm done." Hailey announced to the only person left in the bullpen. "Hang on, I'm almost done." The quick successions of papers ruffling around, drawers opening and closing, Hailey's chair sliding across the floor made Jay's fingers move quicker across the keyboard. A few minutes passed and he could feel Hailey's impatient eyes burn into his skull. He knew that he needed to get this done. His head snapped up from her placing her coat back down onto her chair. "What?" She asked, stunned at how his eyes were telling her how startled he was. "I just..." Jay's eyes quickly spotted Hailey picking her empty coffee mug up, he released a sigh of relief. "You ok?" "Hmm maybe if I ran out of things to do, then I'd probably not be ok," the sarcasm that leaked from that statement caused the brunette to work even faster. He heard her soft chuckle before she made her way to the breakroom to wash up her mug. A few more minutes later, Jay finally finished his paperwork. He swiveled his chair to face the break room as Hailey made her way out. A smile appeared on her face, "Done?" He nodded as a reply, then he grabbed his things and stood from his seat. "What's in the bag?" It was almost like an inaudible whisper, but he heard it. "I don't know, Hail. What is in the bag?" This earned him a playful jab on the shoulder. "Ow!" He exclaimed as if it was a real hit. "I can go stronger if you want," Hailey suggested. Jay's eyes grew wide and he quickly responded, "No, I think I'm good. Let's go home."

"Now will you tell me what's in the bag?" Hailey questioned for almost the umpteenth time; she was growing very impatient. "You'll get to see it in a bit," Jay replied. "Fine." Hailey let out a sigh of defeat as she stumbled out of the car and went to her front door with Jay following close behind. The front door creaked open to a dark and empty house. Hailey was confused at this; Lizzie would often be home by this time and she would be by the couch, watching TV. "Hey, you good?" She heard Jay's voice from behind her. "House is weird. Lizzie's supposed to be home." Jay's head tilted to his side as if he too were surprised by this. "Let's go check inside to be sure," he suggested. Hailey nodded and went into the house. Flicking the light switch on, a bottle of wine sitting in an ice bucket and two sets of cutlery on opposite sides of the dinner table welcomed her home. Her confusion grew and the only person who could help her was right behind her. She turned to face him only to be more confused as the man had a smile on his face. "Jay?" He only stared at her and she could see the whirlwind of emotions he wanted to convey. Then, he reached into the paper bag and got down on one knee. Her eyes grew wide at the twinkle of a metal band stuck between the maroon cushions of the small box that Jay held.  "Hailey Anne Upton, I wanna wake up every morning to make you a cup of coffee and waffles for breakfast, I wanna try out new and exciting things with you by my side, I wanna be there for you everytime you need me. I got Will to come by the district to give me mom's ring. Vanessa and Lizzie set this up and they won't be back here in a while." A soft chuckle escaped Hailey's lips and his smile now reached his eyes. "Hailey, will you marry me?"