The Arrangement | Book 2 | Completed

24

Matty's POV

"Are you coming over?" I ask Candace, who has stayed with me in the office all day. Although there is a significant amount of work that hasn't gotten done because of her visit, I can't help but love and appreciate her company.

"Do you want me to?" She asks.

"I do." I reply honestly.

"Then I will." She smiles.

As I grab my coat and she grabs hers, the phone on my desk starts to ring.

"I guess i'll answer this first." I say sarcastically. "Hello?" I ask into the receiver.

"Matthew." I hear. It's my dad, I already know it.

"Dad? Why didn't you just call my cell phone?" I ask him.

"Because, I wanted to see if you were still in the office or not. Which, you are." He tells me.

"Well, I'm about to leave." I tell him.

"Okay, well I just wanted to let you know that your mother and I are in town. We rented out a house for the week. Christy and Ben are in town as well. Ben and I have to go to Portland for a few days and will be leaving tomorrow morning. He's interested in investing out there, and I agreed to go with him. Your mother is staying here with Christy. You should go and have dinner with her or something. It would be nice." He tells me.

"Since when were you guys coming into town?" I ask, pinching the bridge of my nose. Something about this is all a bad idea. I don't know what, but I know that something is wrong about all of this.

"Since today. We got a quick flight out of Vancouver. We've only been here for like two hours or so." He informs me.

"Okay. Yeah, I'll go and see her. I'll give her a call in a little bit." I say.

"Good. I'd like to see you before I leave, too." He tells me.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll see. I'm pretty busy right now." I tell him.

I hear him sigh, but he doesn't push the issue. Although we're on better terms than we were a year ago, things are still far from where they need to be. If we're being honest, I don't think they'll ever be how they used to be. I don't know if I want them to go back to how they used to be.

"Okay. I'll talk to you soon." He says and hangs up the phone.

"Who was that?" Candace asks as we leave the office.

"My dad." I sigh. "I guess him and my mom are in town? For like...a week. My mom is here with Christy and my dad is leaving for Portland with Ben in the morning. He wants me to go and see them." I tell her.

"Oh. If you need to go and do that, you can. We can always hang out some other time." She tells me, but I can hear the slight disappointment in her voice.

"I want to see you, too. You're leaving soon. I want to spend as much time as possible with you." I tell her honestly. This is true. We don't have long with one another. I know that every day that passes is one day closer to losing her. I think about it every morning when I wake up and every night before I fall asleep. It's the dark cloud hanging above us that is going to erupt into a storm any second. I don't want it to happen, but I know it's going to happen. I know that when she leaves again, I'm going to be in that same terrible place that I was when I first moved here. It took me so long to finally start feeling good again. It took me so fucking long to feel good. I know that when she leaves, I'm going to be starting from the bottom all over again. I know this and I'm not doing a single fucking thing about it.

I guess I'm just enjoying it while it lasts.

"We can hangout after you see them?" She offers.

"Or you could come with me?" I counter.

"I don't know. I haven't...I don't know." She mumbles.

"They would really like it. I know they would." I tell her honestly.

My parents love Candace. They always have. They always will. I understand why they love her. Candace is really...everything.

"I don't want to intrude." She sighs.

"You're not. I'm inviting you. Plus...I really just kind of need you there."

"Okay." She tells me, but still looks nervous as ever.

"We'll have dinner with them and then we can go back to my place." I smile. "And then we can do whatever we want to do." I wink.

She rolls her eyes but laughs. Her appearance has gone from tense to relaxed with one sentence. The thought of me being the reason she relaxes is comforting to me. It shouldn't be, but it is.

"Are you implying something in particular?" She asks with a laugh.

"Not quite. I would be fine with anything. But...if certain things just so happen to occur in that amount of time, I definitely would mind." I laugh.

"You are terrible." She says with a giggle. I love her laugh. I absolutely fucking adore the sound.

"I am." I agree. "Come on, let's go." I tell her.

"Are we going over there now?" She asks me.

"I think so. We'll get this over with and then finish the rest of our day. "

She nods as we leave the office. The wind instantly pierces my skin. I already feel my face getting red from the bitter coldness. She notices too and smiles softly.

"What?" I ask with a small grin.

"Your face turns so red out here. It's cute." She tells me.

"I hate it." I laugh. "I need to go and start tanning again." I tell her honestly.

"Tanning? You go tanning?" She laughs.

"Of course I do. You think I got that tan skin back in the day from actually being outside?" I ask with a laugh.

"I should probably tan, too. I'm pretty pale." She says.

"Well, I love the way you look. You're perfect."

She blushes from this compliment but doesn't say anything further. As we approach my car, I quickly go ahead of her and open the door. She smiles and quickly takes a seat, cringing at the feeling of the cold leather.

"I'm sorry!" I say, quickly starting the car and turning the heat on full blast.

"I wish we were somewhere warmer." She laughs, holding herself with her arms to keep warm.

"I do too." I mumble. I wish we were back in Florida. I want that more than anything right now. Even as disastrous as that trip was, I would do anything to go back and do it all over again.

"I miss Florida." She laughs, as if she were completely reading my mind.

"I do too." I repeat.

I fucking do too.