Purposefully Accidental

Chapter Thirty-Six

"Oh, wow." Jonah's looking up at the treehouse in wonder. Probably amazed that it's still standing, and pretty much in shape after all these years.

"Yep," I tell Jonah. "C'mon, climb up."

Nothing much has changed inside the treehouse. After The Gibbses moved out of town, this place became a bit abandoned because Clara wasn't here to take care of it anymore. Nobody was. But then, I came home after dropping out of grad school. At first, I was apprehensive. I avoided this place as much as I could—too overwhelmed by the memories and what this place meant to Jonah and me. It was only around a year ago that I finally paid this place a visit and cleaned everything up by myself to make it more habitable.

Before the treehouse, this place used to be Jonah's. He was the one who found it and turned it into his place of solace. Long ago, he told me that he used to sit by the river, just to be alone with his thoughts. This was originally his place. To think, to sit down, to yell at the skies. It became ours then—we'd danced here in the rain, kissed on the rocks, built the tree house together. When he left, it became mine. A place where I wallowed in my loneliness, until it was too painful to even sit on these floors because everything I touched reminded me of him.

"You still took care of it?" Jonah asks as he drops the blanket, spreading it out on the wooden floor so we can lie down.

"Not often. I've only been here a few times since coming home."

"I expected it to be... I don't know. Rotting. Completely run down." Jonah holds me to his side, on the floor. His eyes roam around the space, a small smile on his face. "Not even cobwebs up on the ceiling."

I laugh. "That's because I just cleaned it up, like, last week."

He presses a kiss to the side of my head. "Thanks for bringing me here."

"It's our place," I tell him, because it's true. Maybe this place is just nothing more than a barren space. A small deck covered by a roof, nothing too fancy about it. We don't keep anything valuable here. But the memories still linger. We built this place together, during the happiest months of our relationship. It was my own hands that held the wooden pieces while he nailed them together.

I don't really come here often because it made me think of Jonah, and for the longest time, it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. But it's a good place to think. To enjoy the soft noises of the river outside. I don't do anything much when I'm here. Sometimes all I really do here is just take a nap.

I turn and bury myself in his chest. "You can't stay here longer?"

His flight is tomorrow. He only extended his stay by two days, then I probably won't get to see him for a while.

Jonah sighs into my hair. "I have this... thing coming up. I've never done anything like this before, so I'll need a lot of help."

I hum questioningly. I have this feeling that he's hesitating, just a little. I don't really understand why.

He finally says, "There's a fine dining event coming up. It's an annual thing. I've been told that it's a pretty... prestigious event. There'll be like, I don't know. A lot of rich people. You know, celebrities and CEOs and politicians and shit. And, well, basically, I'll be catering for that night."

"Whoa. That's big." I've been to events like these. I'm no stranger to fancy five-course or even seven-course dinners, since Freddie. Most of the time, the food will really be the highlight of the night, no matter what the event is actually about.

"Yeah. I've never done anything like this before, so. Kind of a make-it-or-break-it moment for me." He lets out a nervous laugh. "I won't be doing most of the cooking on the actual night of the event. But it'll be my own menu. My food."