Hey guys, how are you? Hope you're all doing great. I'm updating today because after Marina's interview and the preview for tomorrow's episode something tells me that my heartbreak will continue after tomorrow night.
Thanks for all your wonderful reviews and for taking the time to read! You're the best!!
Happy reading!
Xoxo,
Nina
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.
"Your plus one? What are you? Five?" Hailey asked in that typical Upton manner. It was Saturday and they all decided to have breakfast together at Atwater's, his siblings were home and it was a nice moment to catch up. Besides Vinessa was great with kids and Gracie was enjoying spending time with her.
"Don't be so hard on him. It was the best he could do. Maybe Gracie helped him out." Jay mocked his friend.
"Adam, seriously, how did you manage to get dates with those lines?" The blonde woman couldn't believe the lack of swag her friend had. That was not the Adam she knew.
"Judge me all you want, but she said yes." He closed his eyes triumphantly and shrugged. "She's going to be sitting at our table, so be nice." His eyes swiveled to Hailey.
"I am nice. What happened before was a mistake and I apologized for it."
"And I appreciate it. I really like her and I want to try to make the best out of the night for all of us."
"We know bro. It'll be one hell of a night." Kev commented after taking a bite of his bagel.
"Relax Ruzek, we'll be civil enough around her." Jay said, making Kevin chuckle. "For what it's worth, I think she'd make an excellent addition to the gang if you ever decide to take things further."
"I think we can all agree on that." Hailey backed up what her fiancé had just said and squeezed Adam's shoulder.
"Yeah, I think so too." Adam agreed with a silly smile on his face. "Plus, Gracie seems to think that I need a girl in my life." They all laughed at that. "I'm serious, she had that talk with me."
"That girl is outta this world, man!" Kev shook his head as he looked towards Grace.
They spent the rest of the morning eating, talking and unwinding. That was really all they needed, a good time with family and friends.
Kim and Sylvie also decided to spend their Saturday together.
"Remember that time I told you I wish we had gone to prom together?" Sylvie asked out of the blue. They went shopping, Kim had nothing to wear for the gala and Sylvie wanted to see what she could find for herself. "It's like I finally have my wish, a nice party, hot dates and my best friend there too." She continued talking after getting no answer from Kim. Since the gala involved first responders, Casey and other members of firehouse 51 were invited and of course Sylvie was Matt's date. "This is going to be so much fun!"
"It is! And I'm so happy you'll be there too! I think being around his friends will be a bit weird, especially after the last time I tried that."
"I think it's going to be pretty different now. You've talked to Hailey and most importantly, you've talked to Adam. Whatever happens, I think now he has a better idea as to how to back up his girl."
"I'm not his girl." Kim denied like a six year old. Sometimes both her and Sylvie found themselves replicating their students' behavior. It wasn't cool, but it happened.
"Come on Kim, you totally are. I know you guys don't have any labels or anything. But you're totally together."
"I don't know. I'm not gonna tell you we're just friends, because that would be a massive lie, but…"
"Are you second guessing him? Like, maybe this whole thing with Grace changed your perspective or made you see a part of him you don't like that much?" Sylvie was very interested and also concerned about this. It was important to her that Kim was happy and confident with the decisions she was making. Sometimes she was afraid that she was pushing Kim too much.
"No, definitely not. If anything, seeing him with Grace only makes me like him more. You have no idea how sweet they are together, how much he cares about her, he's so protective of Grace but on some other level I feel like he's protective of me and I like that. And well, I obviously physically like him too."
"Ok, so?"
"I'm starting to feel things and I don't think I want to get into the labeling thing just yet. I'm good like we are right now. I really want to take one step at a time and I don't think that analyzing whatever this is would help at the moment."
"What if he wants to define things?" Kim looked at her in disbelief. In her head there wasn't even the slightest possibility that Adam would want to bring that topic up.
"He has a million things going on right now, I'm sure the least of his concerns is whether we are in a real relationship or not."
"That could also be a reason as to why settle things down. I don't know Kim, I'm just thinking of a hypothetical situation." The blonde explained, she just wanted to make sure all the possibilities were contemplated.
"Well in that case I guess I'd listen to him and see what he wants and then tell him what I think and try to work it out." Kim shrugged after giving that plain answer. "The only thing that I'm sure about right now is that I like having him around, a lot, and I wouldn't like having all of that go to shit."
"Wow. That's a super wise and mature decision." Sylvie said as they walked into the third store hoping to find something to wear. "I feel like you're in a totally different place now. You seem confident and relaxed. I like that."
Kim took a deep breath and looked at her friend instead of the dresses in the hangers. "You know? I feel better, too. Opening up about Andrew and everything that that means to me, it really helped. I need to thank you for that, because you were the one who encouraged me to do it."
"You don't need to thank me. You were going to do it sooner or later, I just speeded up the process a bit." Brett's bright smile was all Kim needed to smile back. "Besides, I like Adam very much. He's sweet and it really seems like he genuinely cares, I think you'd be great together." It was very important for Kim to feel that Adam had Sylvie's seal of approval.
"You sound like Grace, who said that Adam should be my boyfriend."
"Really? She said that?"
"She did."
"That's one bright kid." Sylvie added as she grabbed another dress to try on.
"And that was one weird conversation." They both laughed and Kim took this opportunity to change the subject. "Speaking of weird conversations, I went to have dinner with your aunt and uncle the other night."
"Yeah. Aunt Susan told me about it."
"Mm-hmm, she kind of asked me about Adam." Kim had never seen Sylvie's eyes so wide.
"I swear, I told her nothing. I mean I only told her about Gracie, but that's all."
"I know. I'm not saying you told her anything. The topic just kind of emerged. She asked about how I was handling things with Grace, and it's impossible to explain that leaving Adam out of it."
"And what did she say?"
"That he sounds like a really good man, and that what he's doing with Grace seems like something Andrew would have done. That she's happy there's still people like that in the world and that I got to meet him."
"I couldn't agree more."
"You know? I hadn't seen that before Susan said it, but she's right. The more that I think of it, the more I find connections between them." Sylvie handed Kim a purple dress that she wanted her friend to try on and looked her straight in the eye before she started talking.
"I was waiting for you to say something like that to tell you this. Adam reminds me a lot of Andrew."
"Gosh." Kim ran her hands through her face. She felt weird. She knew she was attracted to Adam, but now she felt like she was being a bit unfair with him. Was it really Adam she felt drawn to or was the idea of him having similarities to Andrew? "What if I'm in this, just because of the fantasy of having a part of Andrew with me? What if I'm being completely selfish and not contemplating Adam at all?"
Sylvie listened carefully to her friend and took a deep breath before speaking. "Earlier you said you were feeling things. Right?" Kim nodded in response. "Ok, so connect with that feeling. What is it telling you?" Like always, Sylvie was trying to calm her down. She knew this would happen at some point, but she was sure that Kim's feelings were genuine, and even though both men had a heart of gold they were two different individuals and what Kim's heart was starting to feel now, that only belonged to Adam.
"It's different. I'm getting to know him and I really like what I see. And what I see is Adam, it's uniquely Adam."
"Looks like you have it figured out." The blonde left the dress on the hanger and moved her hand to her friend's arm. "How about we go back to that calmed and relaxed 'one step at a time' philosophy?" Kim nodded and smiled shyly. "And if you want my opinion, I think this is totally about you and him and you don't have to feel guilty about that."
"I really don't want to screw this up."
"Kim, listen to your gut and follow that. You won't mess anything up if you follow your heart."
"Yes. You're right." Kim was struggling a bit. Maybe Sylvie hit the nail on the head when she used that word: guilt. The conversation was getting too heavy for her and she didn't want to get stressed in the middle of the mall, so she tried to focus on their shopping instead. "Now let's follow our hearts to the perfect dress."
"You've got it Burgess."
After going to what felt like a million stores and going through thousands of dresses they both found exactly what they were looking for. Both girls spent the rest of the afternoon together, they even made a quick stop by the firehouse. Sylvie ended up staying there since Matt was leaving in a couple of hours and they had plans together for the night.
Kim and Adam exchanged a few texts during the day. They had gotten into that habit, even when they had nothing related to Gracie to sort out and she liked it, they both did. They were becoming so much for each other and that feeling was both amazing and overwhelming.
In the comfort of her own home, she decided to lay back and watch a romcom, something light to keep her mind away from all the feelings and confusion going on inside her, but of course life had other plans. Kim paused the movie when she saw that Adam was FaceTiming her. She tried her best to fix her hair and look halfway decent before answering the call and was surprised when she saw Gracie's cute little face instead of Adam's.
"Gracie! What a lovely surprise! How are you doll?"
"I'm good! Uncle Adam and I baked chocolate chip cookies." She said with a huge smile while nibbling on one of the cookies. "How are you?"
"I'm great. Thanks for asking."
"Ms. B, do you want to try them?" She asked as she moved her hand closer to the camera.
"I'd love to. You can save one for me and take it to school on Monday."
"Ok." Grace agreed and giggled. Even though she was used to being around Kim, having these more personal interactions with her got the little girl a bit shy at times.
"Is that all you wanted to ask her?" Kim heard Adam's voice a little far away and saw how Grace turned to look at him and shook her head.
"Come. You ask her." The little girl said almost in a whisper and beckoned him with her little hand. Kim heard his laughter and a few seconds later he was sitting on his couch right next to his niece.
"Hey Ms. B! How's your Saturday going?" He asked, playing it cool.
"It's great. I see you guys had a blast too."
"We did. Cleaning up the kitchen wasn't that much fun, though." Kim laughed as she observed how Grace couldn't get enough of that cookie. "Gracie called you because we have an invitation for you."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes!" Gracie spoke again, tiny cookie crumbs in the corner of her lips made her look even more adorable than she was.
"Do you still want me to ask her?" Adam's voice was low and directed to Grace, the little girl only nodded. "Grace and I are going to the zoo tomorrow, and we wanted to know if you'd like to come with us. Maybe we can have brunch together and then head out?"
"Yes, definitely. I'd love to."
"Great!" Gracie squealed. "I'm going to get your cookies ready for tomorrow!" She stated in complete excitement before jumping off the couch and running to the kitchen.
"Be careful." Adam said while his head followed his niece's movements. "Someone is hyped up." His attention went back to Kim.
"Well, to be fair I'm excited too." The brunette said with a smile she didn't intend to be seductive, but that got Adam wanting to kiss her.
"I'm glad to hear that." He wanted to tell her he'd missed her and that he was really looking forward to holding her in his arms, but he couldn't do that with Gracie jumping up and down the house getting things ready for tomorrow. "We're taking you to our favorite brunch place, it was Gracie's choice."
"Can't wait. Should we meet there?"
"No, we'll pick you up."
"Perfect."
"Hey listen, don't think I forgot, tonight I'm watching 'Money heist' to see who wins the bet."
"Ha!" She scoffed. "I'm totally winning that."
"We'll see about that." He gave her a lopsided smile. "I got to go, Grace is making a mess packing your cookies. I'll talk to you later, ok?"
"Ok." Kim couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She closed her eyes and all her doubts went away. What she was feeling was Adam. It was all him.