Page 93 of Call the Shots (For The Arena #1)
JUNE
EPILOGUE: THE OKAPI CUT SCENE
Before the end of our senior year, Bear signed his contract for the Boston Bulldogs.
He was anxious about it—he signed in March and panicked about our two months apart—but after years of on-and-off relapsing, I had hard-earned stretch marks, shinier hair from eating more, and a great support system of friends and family who knew about my struggles and wanted to see me happy and healthy.
I pushed him to Boston knowing I’d be fine.
I’d never forget getting the video call with Bear grinning at the camera, flashing his new jersey.
Number forty on the Boston Bulldogs lineup.
No, I didn’t ask him to pick that, and despite the Gladiators begging me for the story, Bear and I never told anyone what his jersey number meant.
In May, I graduated, and Bear moved me to Boston into a condo that he conveniently rented by my new law school. The time went so quickly. His season began and he was on the road most of the time and my days were slammed with classes and internships. Busy times a thousand.
I went to his games, he took me out to dinners to celebrate my case-reading workshops, I wore my Forty jersey everywhere, he repaired my bookshelf when my textbooks literally collapsed it.
On the rare occasion our schedules matched up, we knew how to spend it—sleeping for a twelve-hour thunderstorm video, with melatonin gummies and his hand up my shirt.
For our first Bostonian Christmas, we decided to spend none of it in Boston.
Our month was drawn on the whiteboard in our kitchen.
I followed him to hockey games, we’d spend his free weekend at his cousins’ place in Canada, actual Christmas with my family, and the following free days back in Canada.
It was crazy, chaotic, but I was so grateful.
At his aunt’s place, I walked through the kitchen with my cup of hot chocolate, searching for the Moreaus. They’d disappeared while I was engrossed in a textbook, and I’d glanced up to realize everyone was gone.
“Bear?” I called, confused. “AJ? Jillian?”
“We’re in the den!” Bear replied. “Why don’t you join us?”
Ooo…that sounded suspicious. His cousins weren’t above pranks. I studied for booby traps, shuffling across the carpet. “Does someone have silly string? Should I be concerned?”
Bear sat on the couch, eyebrows raised, a smile playing on his lips. He’d grown out a post-five o’clock scruff for Christmas and I loved it. It would’ve been hard not to drool over him anyway with his thick Christmas sweater, looking oh-so domestic.
“Is she coming?!” AJ screamed, running into view. “JUNE!”
Jillian peeked around the door. “Okay, she’s here, act natural! ”
I grinned. “Feels like something’s going on…”
Bear held up his controller. “We want to game with you.”
The three of them had moved on to a new video game—some kind of old-timey Civil War storyline with three guys searching for two hundred thousand dollars in gold—but whenever they included me, we still played Zoo Cultivation IV on the same zoo with an exhibit overflowing with our okapi bloodline.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“Because your cousins are freaking out, AJ’s turning purple…”
Bear glanced at Jillian, doing handstands against the wall, and AJ holding his breath, pointing at me while he banged his fists against the couch.
“Guys, calm down,” he warned, handing me my controller.
“Is it happening?” his aunt shouted. She hurried in, drying her hands on her pants. “Are we getting this show on the road?”
“Okay, what is this?” I laughed.
Bear just pulled me to their couch and started the game. The kids were vibrating and Jillian kept yelling at Bear to hurry up, like he could’ve cut the title sequence.
“This is so casual,” I whispered to Bear. “I feel at ease. I couldn’t be more relaxed at a spa.”
A flash went off from his aunt taking a picture and I burst into harder laughter. Bear threw me a sheepish smile. Clearly something was going on, I was the only one with a controller while he clicked on the okapi exhibit from the map.
“You’re going to feed the okapis,” he explained.
Feeding the okapis meant an unskippable cut scene the kids hated because it paused the game. I loved the cut scenes, they were twenty seconds of adorably animated fun, but the kids had forbidden me from clicking them.
Bear let me watch them to my heart’s content when we played together but that was before we even left Marrs. I’d already gone through all of them, especially the okapis.
I sighed. “Is this like when you dropped me into the toy shop and my avatar had to rollerblade everywhere?”
“No. Just do it.”
Biting back a smile, I snuggled into Bear and started the cut scene. It began the same, the zookeeper leaning forward with the leaves to feed one of our great-great-great grandokapis, the camera panning to the waterfall. But there was something different.
The waterfall had…letters on it?
“What did you do?” I giggled. “Are those from the zoo signs? How did you break those apart—how long did this take you?”
More letters appeared from the new angle.
JUNE WILL YOU MARR ME
Staring at the screen, I lowered the controller. The breath left my body. I was stunned speechless. Bear slipped away, taking a knee in front of me.
“There were no extra Ys!” Jillian burst out. “We made so many zoos to find one—we couldn’t cut any of the Ys!”
“June Basil.” Bear cleared his throat. “Damn, I’m not supposed to be nervous.”
“You don’t have to be nervous—I’m going to say yes,” I blurted out.
The smile on his face—that hopeful, boyish smile that melted me like no other—made my heart pound.
“June Basil,” he repeated, cracking open a black box from his pocket.
He rested it on my thigh, talking exclusively to me like his family wasn’t freaking out beside us.
“If you…would’ve said no, the kids were ready to convince you to say yes, it took us a lot of gaming sessions to figure it out. ”
“A lot, ” AJ agreed. “I was so bored?—”
“Thanks—I’m trying to propose here, AJ.” Bear cupped my face, his warm brown eyes on me. “Will you marry me, baby?”
I threw my arms over his neck. “I—yes!”
His family hugged us too until the kids were jumping on the couch, chanting, “ OKAPI, OKAPI, OKAPI! ”
“Your parents gave their blessing if I propose again at their Christmas party,” he whispered, kissing my shoulder. “So, this is part one of the proposal.”
“I love you,” I managed, sniffling. I dropped my voice. “Oh, you’re so getting laid tonight. I don’t care how squeaky that bed is.”
Bear laughed, breaking away to kiss me.