Casey was doing a wonderful job taking care of Tilly while Vera was in school but the truth of the matter was that he wasn't a professional caretaker and it was a lot of work. Tilly had become a danger to herself and it was difficult for him to manage her and the shop at the same time.
Vera didn't want him to be so stressed taking care of her family for her and Tilly needed a higher level of care than either of them were capable of. It absolutely broke her heart but she made the decision to put Tilly in a nursing home shortly before graduation.
She could be checked out for visits, which was what Vera did so Tilly could be there for the ceremony. Thankfully, she was lucid for it. Though she clocked back out not long after it was over.
It left Vera in tears. Her aunt was slipping away from her more and more.
Casey had gotten a lot better at comforting Vera as this sort of thing continued to happen. He held her securely in his arms and rubbed her back until she calmed down.
He was her rock. Kind of funny how such an anxious person was able to have such a calming presence. She wouldn't have seen that coming before all this. She had wanted someone to help her at work and got so much more than she asked for.
She loved him so much. She wished she could tell him that but didn't know if he would be able to accept it.
Scaring Casey away wasn't an option. With Tilly not mentally there so much of the time when Vera went to visit her, he would soon be all she had left. A devastating thought.
After one particularly rough visit where Tilly didn't recognize Vera at all, she was so out of it the next morning from crying so much that he noticed. "Are you okay, Vera?"
"No," she said honestly, her voice cracking. She buried her face in her hands. "I'm losing my only family. What am I even supposed to do about that?"
"I ban kee—can be!—your family if it would help."
Casey said that so fast that Vera wasn't sure she heard him correctly at first. She lowered her hands and stared at him. "What did you just say?"
His face was bright red and he looked like he regretted saying anything but he did repeat it, sounding more like a question than a statement. "I can be your family if it would help? Never mind, that's really weird—"
It wasn't really weird at all. It was exactly what she needed to hear. That she wouldn't be alone through this, whatever ended up happening.
Vera threw herself into Casey's arms and did something incredibly stupid since she was so overwhelmed with gratitude. She kissed him. She knew she shouldn't have done it but how else was she supposed to interpret 'I can be your family' when she already suspected he liked her, even if his feelings weren't as strong as hers?
He froze, staring at her in shock and she was immediately ashamed, pulling away. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have done that but I lost my head. I was just so grateful for what you said."
It took him over a minute to get out anything that wasn't jibberish. She was usually so good at deciphering what he was saying too. It was only a single word.
"Why?"
The disbelief in Casey's tone cut Vera to her core and she frowned and got defensive on his behalf. "What do you mean why? You're the best person I know after Tilly. After spending so much time with you, it would have been impossible not to like you. I already did before all this happened but now…you mean the world to me, Casey."
His one visible eye was tearing up. "I do?"
"Of course you do!"
Casey wrapped his arms around Vera and he buried his face in her neck. "So do you. You're everything, Vera."
Everything. That was definitely romantic!
She hugged him tightly for another minute before being unable to resist kissing him again. This time, he kissed her back. They made out right there in the middle of the store until the phone rang.
What timing! Vera rushed to answer it, hoping she didn't sound as breathless as she felt. "You've reached Old and Bold: Antique Repair and Sales! This is Vera, how may I help you?"
It was someone calling about a consultation about an antique desk. She took care of that while Casey slunk back into the workshop to do something where he wouldn't be asked any questions by customers who came in. She didn't get the chance to talk to him about what happened between them until lunch.
"So, about earlier…will you be my boyfriend?" she asked, feeling like she had to be the one to bring it up since he probably wouldn't.
He hesitated, biting his lip. "It's not that I don't taunt woo—want to!—but I…I don't want to let you down."
"Why would you think you would let me down?"
"…I let everyone down sooner or later. People don't like me, Vera. I never thought you could like this, even with how nice you are, because that just isn't something that happens."
Vera's heart twisted. She had suspected Casey had bad experiences with people based on some of the things he had said over the years but that was too depressing. He deserved better than that. Why did people have to be so stupid?
"Guess I'm the only person you've met who isn't an idiot then," she said fiercely.
His eyes widened. A moment later, he burst into semi-hysterical laughter that didn't stop for several minutes. When it did, he grinned at her. "That was more forceful than I expected. You were like a little house cat thinking it was a tiger."
Vera scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. He rarely teased her like this but it had happened now and then as he became more comfortable with her.
"Can you please take me seriously? I meant it. You could never let me down."