His Proposal

His Proposal - 43

Nate walks into the house after school. He walks over to me. "What's going on?"

Looking at him, I say. "Aleysa needs to have chemo tomorrow."

"That sucks. Do you want me to spend time with her at the hospital?"

Shaking my head. "School is important. You're about to graduate, and I don't want you to take any more unnecessary time off from school. Can you look after Aleysa tonight? I'm going to the bar with Jai."

He smiles. "Sure, do you mind if I have a few friends over? We have an assignment due tomorrow, and the guy's parents don't want them to have a group of people over."

"Okay, but if it turns into a party, you'll clean the house after your friends go. Don't leave a mess for other people to clean up."

"Fine, thanks, sis."

Jai walks into the living room, and he looks at Nate. "What's going on?"

"A few guys from school are coming over. We're going to work on a school assignment."

Jai looks at him. "I used to pull that one with my parents, and it never worked. I can't believe Chloe would fall that far."

Crossing my arms. "I saw Nate's assignment on the table earlier. It has the names of some of the guys from the football team on it. Does that still make me..."

Jai takes the paper off the table and looks at it. He whistles. "Damn, I forgot about that assignment. It was a pain when I had to do it. You chose a crap class."

Hitting his shoulder. "It's an interesting assignment. Aleysa should be able to help you out with that."

Aleysa walks into the kitchen and looks at us. "What can I help Nate with?"

Nate looks at the floor. "We were assigned a disease, and we're supposed to write about it. My team got leukemia. There are many things we won't be able to get offline." He scratches the back of his neck. "Would you be able to help us out?"

Aleysa walks out of the room.

"Aleysa," Nate yells. He starts to walk to the door.

"Nate, give her a couple of minutes. She might have gone to get you the information she got from the hospital. If she's not back, you can go to her room and talk to her." I walk into the kitchen and pull chicken breasts out of the fridge."

Nate sits on the barstool and looks at me. "What are you cooking?"

Looking at him. "Chicken, rice and my special sauce."

He licks his lips. "Are you ever going to tell me what's in that sauce?"

"It's one of the recipes Mom taught me while living at home. I will give it to you when you move out. You could always make it for your girlfriend or wife."

He laughs. "I'm never going to cook, sis."

Jai looks at him. "It's fun to cook. If I weren't always getting in Chloe's way, I would help her."

Throwing a carrot at him, I say. "Peel this. Then make a salad."

Jai walks to the sink, peels the carrot under cold water, brings it over to the counter, and looks at me. "How do you want me to cut the carrot?"

"Cut it into sticks, please. I don't care how you cut the rest."

Aleysa returns to the kitchen with a pile of papers and places them on the table before him. She looks at him. "Don't forget to add the weight loss, bruises and hair loss to your assignment." She holds her hand out to Nate, and I see a chunk of hair. "You can add this to your assignment. Tell your entire class how your sister has leukaemia. I'm sure they would like to hear about your experience of living with someone who has a disease like this." She looks at me. "Chloe, when we return from the hospital tomorrow, I want you to shave my hair. I don't want to watch my hair fall out gradually."

"I will do it."

Aleysa walks over to me and hugs me. "Thanks," she sighs. "I was worried you were going to say no."

Looking at the hair on the table. "After seeing that chunk on the table, I couldn't say 'no.'" I touch her hair. "I'm going to miss this."

"Me, too." She looks at me. "Mom always said it was beautiful hair. She told me to grow my hair out and keep it long when I went into remission. She loved sitting behind me and braiding it."

Taking Aleysa's hand, I pull her over to the kitchen table. "She used to do the same with me. I kept my hair long for her." I hold her hand. "I'm going to cut my hair tomorrow too."

She throws her arms around me. "I love you, Chloe."

"I love you, too, Aleysa." I look at the kitchen. "I need to finish cooking dinner before Jai and I go to the bar."

She looks at me. "Do you have to go to the bar?"

"I feel like working tonight. If you feel uncomfortable with Nate's friends around, call Jai, and we will come straight home."

She looks at Jai and then at me. "Promise?"

"Yes," Jai says.

***

Jai pulls the car in front of Lusive. He steps out of the vehicle. He rounds it and opens the door for me.

Stepping out of the car, I place my purse on my shoulder. "Thanks,"

He smiles. "You're welcome." He puts his hand on the small of my back as we walk to the door.

Ethan looks at me, and a smile appears on his face. He hugs me. "It's good to see you around here, Chloe. We've missed you."

I laugh. "I have missed you, too, Ethan. What have I missed since I haven't been here?"

He points at Jai. "He fired the newest dayshift manager. So, he's looking for someone to do that shift, and he recently gave the night shift manager job to..." Ethan cuts himself off, and I look at the door as it opens.

A guy steps out of the club and slaps Jai on the back. "Hey, Boss. I was wondering when you were coming in." He looks at me. "I see what the holdup is. How did you score a beauty like this, man?"

I keep my mouth shut and wait for Jai to tell me.

Jai looks at me. "She came into the club with her guns blazing and demanded that I give her a job." He touches my face. "I couldn't let a beauty like this walk out." He kisses my cheek. "It was the best decision of my life to keep her around." He turns to his friend. "Terence, this is my girlfriend Chloe." He looks at me. "This is my friend and night manager, Terence. You two will be working closely together tonight. Be nice."

I'm always nice.

Looking Jai, I say. "I need to go to the bathroom. I will meet you inside." I enter Lusive and make my way to the bathroom.