Wanted

Three days later, Eliza was fading in and out of sleep on the floating dock some way out on the lake when car horns brought her out of it. Sitting up and shielding her eyes in the sun, she saw three cars pulling up to the cabin and she knew everyone was there. Smiling and standing up, she dove neatly into the water and swam her way to the shore, stopping on the sand to pick up her towel and wrap it around her waist.

Brian was already outside greeting everyone as they made their way into the cabin. Immediately, she latched onto Val and Matt, as they were the last ones inside. Linking her arm with Val, they walked inside. Matt and Brian remained outside.

Pulling the beer bottle from his lips, Brian’s eyes remained on the door as he spoke to Matt. “Did you bring it?”

Keeping his own eyes on the door, Matt pulled the box out of his pocket, put it in Brian’s hand and walked inside. Sighing, Brian felt the box before he put it in his pocket, heading inside as he took another swallow of his beer.

Johnny and Eliza were laughing as they grabbed a couple of beers and Katie and Wiki came from one of the bedrooms upstairs where they’d obviously dropped off their luggage. He couldn’t believe he would be twenty-nine years old within twenty-four hours. It felt as unreal as the thought that he’d be married by now.

Sighing, Brian put a smile on his face and headed to where Zacky and Dominic were sitting on the couch, talking. In the kitchen, Matt sat right behind Eliza, hollering that she was starving. She’d picked the grapes out of the fridge and threw one at him. With a small “ooh” he picked it up off the counter and popped it in his mouth.

“I call DJ!” Wiki hollered, heading toward the stereo.

Eliza used Johnny as her pack mule and loaded him down with the burgers, dogs, chicken, and corn she’d prepared earlier in the day. She grabbed a set of tongs, a couple of beers, and led the way outside to the grill.

“How come Brian’s not grilling?” Johnny asked, setting everything down.

“It’s his birthday; he’s going to relax, damnit.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” he said, taking a swig of one of the beers.

Eliza waited for the grill to heat up as Val and Nisa walked outside to sit in two of the chairs. They’d changed into their bathing suits as well, and brought a pair of shorts for Eliza. Thanking them, she slipped them on and took a swig of her own beer.

Wiki came outside as a song started and Eliza nodded her head with it. “Dude, is this Bleeding Through?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Fuck yeah! I haven’t heard them in forever,” Eliza said, smiling.

When the grill was hot enough, she put everything but the corn on and shut the lid.

“What did you guys do for the fourth?” Val asked, shading her eyes.

“Sat on the dock out there and watched the fireworks,” Eliza replied.

A collective “aww” met her and she blushed, telling them all to shut up. Suddenly, Katie screamed from inside the house. Everyone turned to the door as she came outside, smiling like a fool.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Johnny asked.

“This is our song!” she said, looking at Eliza.

Eliza realized Wiki had “Summer Paradise” on her iPod and it was now playing. Laughing, Eliza moved with Katie to start dancing, singing along with the music.

Pulling away from Katie, Eliza moved to the grill to check on the food. She flipped the burgers and turned the hot dogs before applying more barbeque sauce to the chicken. As she did, the music changed, and a rap song came on. She started to sing along with Eminem when Wiki went inside. She realized there was no words to the song.

“Why the fuck are we listening to an instrumental version of Eminem? That’s sacrilege!”

She heard a laugh from inside and Brian walked out, followed by Matt, both with a beer in their hands.

“I wanna go swimming,” Nisa said with a frown.

“The water’s right there,” Eliza said, nodding towards the lake.

“Peace,” she heard and saw Nisa’s back as she headed towards the water.

“Me too!” Val said, following behind her.

“Why don’t you go join them?” Brian asked Eliza, coming up behind her. His fingers played with the skin above the undone button of her shorts.

“I’m cooking!” she said smiling at him.

“I can do that. Go have fun.”

“It’s your birthday, Brian. I’m not letting you cook.”

He looked at her for a split second before grabbing the tongs from her hand. She hollered and tried to get them back, but Brian moved out of reach. She lunged for them again, but Matt came up, picked her up in mid-scream, and carried her to the water.

“Don’t you fucking do it,” she warned his back.

He acted like he was going to drop her, making her scream and latch onto his back. She felt him chuckle and her grip go tighter.

“If I go down, you’re going down with me,” she promised.

“You really think?”

“Try me, Hulk.”

Matt pulled her enough so that her arms let go of his waist and she went into the air with her back towards the water. Screaming, she fell backwards, but her legs wrapped around Matt and he ended up on top of her. When they surface the water, everyone was laughing, including the two soaked ones.

“You better be glad I didn’t have my phone on me,” Matt said, splashing water on her face.
She splashed right back. “You could afford it, rock star.”

They were interrupted by a loud screaming and water being thrown everywhere as Johnny ran his way into the lake, landing on his stomach a few yards away. Everyone laughed until he came up without his swim trunks.

Eliza could’ve sworn it was Matt that screamed, but he claimed it was Katie. They weren’t really sure as they all ran out of the lake. Brian and Zacky were too busy holding onto their sides from laughing to do anything else.



Brian woke up to the television on in the living room. Around him, bodies were spread out around him, some of them snoring. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced at the clock on the wall. It was well after midnight. Struggling to sit up, he stretched and popped his knuckles. Confused, he wondered where his shirt had gone. A sound brought his attention the window where the light was on. Someone was moving outside.

As quietly as he could, he stepped over Johnny and Zacky and made his way to the door. Stepping outside, he heard faint music coming from somewhere and saw Eliza, his missing shirt covering her top half, cleaning up the deck.

“What’re you doin, babe?”

She turned around at his sleepy voice and smiled at him. “Can’t sleep; someone has to clean up.”

“You should be asleep. We could’ve cleaned in the morning.”

“It’s fine,” she said, turning back around.

Brian walked to the picnic table and sat on the top of it, putting his feet on the bench as she closed bags of chips. Softly, she was humming a song. Furrowing his brows, he couldn’t figure out what song she was singing.

“What is that?”

“I’m in the process of writing a new song.”

“Can I hear it?”

“I don’t have a guitar.”

“You don’t need one,” he said, smiling.

“Thank you, babe, but in this instance, I do. If I’m going to play you the song I wrote for you then I’m going to need a guitar.”

Brian was off of the table in an instant, running inside and up the stairs to their room to find his acoustic guitar. Quietly, he made his way back downstairs and sat back in his spot, handing the guitar to Eliza.

She rolled her eyes at him, but she smiled and took the guitar from him. She turned around and sat on the table beside him, clearing her throat while tuning the guitar. Picking at the strings, she formed a melody and closed her eyes, rocking slightly. Brian watched her every move.

“We could just go home right now or maybe we could stick around for just one more drink, oh yeah. Get another bottle out, let’s shoot the shit. Sit back down for just one more drink, oh yeah…

Here's to us, here's to love; all the times that we fucked up. Here's to you; fill the glass ‘cause the last few days have kicked my ass. So let’s give ‘em hell; wish everybody well… Here's to us… Here's to us

Stuck it out this far together, put our dreams through the shredder. Let’s toast ‘cause things got better and everything could change like that and all these years go by so fast but nothing lasts forever…

Here's to us, here's to love; all the times that we messed up. Here's to you, fill the glass ‘cause the last few nights have kicked my ass. If they give you hell tell em to go fuck themselves… Here's to us… Here's to us…

Here's to all that we kissed and to all that we missed. To the biggest mistakes that we just wouldn’t trade. To us breaking up without us breaking down; to whatever's come our way..

Here's to us, here's to love; all the times that we fucked up. Here's to you, fill the glass ‘cause the last few days have kicked my ass. So let's give ‘em hell; wish everybody well. Here's to us… Here's to love… Here’s to us,”

Eliza looked at Brian whose mouth was open, staring at her. She chuckled, embarrassed, and handed him the guitar as she wiped away a tear.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Sure, babe,” she said, putting lids on bottles of soda.

“Why is it important to you that you lost the ring?”

“It’s the one you gave me. I figured if one day we decided to try it again, you could use the same one. Plus it was so pretty.”

Brian smiled. “Not as half as pretty as you are.”

Eliza rolled her eyes, but she smiled. “Where are you going with this, Mister Gates? There are eight people other than us in this house. I’m not having sex tonight.”

“How about on our wedding night?”

Eliza’s hands froze and her brow creased. She turned back to Brian and dropped the paper plates in her hands because in his was a small black box. She brought a shaky hand to her mouth as she moved closer to him. Inside was her engagement ring.
“Where did you get that?” she whispered.

“Just one more thing you can thank Jimmy for,” he said, shrugging. “I think he stole it from you, because I found it at his house. I put it in my box of stuff to bring from his house and forgot about it until you went back to New York. I’ve just been waiting for the right time.”

Eliza couldn’t say anything as Brian slipped off of the table and down to one knee again.

“Brian…” she whispered.

“I’ve promised all these things before so I’m not going to promise them again. I’m going to love you forever, Eliza; you’ve always been the only one for me. I’m goingto help get you the life you deserve as well as the family I know you need right now. I’m goingto cherish you forever and a day and I’m goingto be there for you no matter what. You’ll never have to wonder about anyone else because it’s always been you. I’m goingto give you space if you need it—”

“No.”

“No?” Brian asked, confused.

“I don’t want space,” she ground out, her voice filled with unshed tears. “I want you. Always and forever.”

Brian closed his eyes and smiled. He pulled the ring from the box and slipped it on her waiting finger before standing up. Eliza looked down at her ring before back up at Brian. Smiling and happy beyond belief, Brian leaned down and kissed her forehead before capturing her lips.

A cheer broke them apart. They both turned to see lights on in the house and everyone either filing outside or in the windows.

“About fucking time!” Val said, smiling.

“Again,” Matt finished.

“You guys were supposed to be asleep,” Brian said, shocked.

“Gotcha, asshole! Do you think we’d miss that scene for the world?” Zacky said before hugging Brian.

“I promise we’ll all wear ear plugs if you guys wanna do it,” Katie said, nodding.

“I won’t,” Johnny said, grinning.

Eliza threw a cup at him.