40
I haven’t stopped watching her.
The reception is winding down around us, but all I can see is Liv. The way the twinkle lights catch in her hair. The way she throws her head back when she laughs at something Tessa says. The way she keeps finding my eyes across the dance floor and smiling like we share a secret.
Which we do now.
The best secret.
She’s mine. Really mine. Not fake mine, not arrangement mine, not convenient mine.
Mine.
And I’m hers.
After everything—the confession, the microphone, the tears, the applause—we danced. Just swayed together while my cousin’s wedding continued around us, while my family pretended not to be watching us, while the reality of what just happened settled in.
“Ready to get out of here?” I ask when the band announces their last song.
“Yes,” she says immediately. “I love your family, but I need to be alone with you.”
“Good. Because I need to be alone with you too.”
We say our goodbyes—hugs from my parents, promises to call soon, Tessa squeezing Liv so tight I think she might crack a rib.
“I’m so happy for you,” my mom whispers to me as we’re leaving.
“Thanks, Mom.”
The walk back to the hotel is quiet, but it’s not awkward quiet. It’s the kind of quiet that comes from both of us processing what just happened, what it means, what comes next.
My hand never leaves hers.
“That was...” I start as we reach our door.
“Terrifying,” she says with a nod.
“I was going to say perfect.”
“It was terrifying but okay, I guess a little perfect.”
“I couldn’t figure out what the hell the guys were talking about this morning, but. It finally makes sense. They must’ve known what you were planning.”
She watches me put the puzzle pieces together and smiles.
Inside our room, I turn to face her, and for a moment we just look at each other.
This is the first time we’ve been alone since everything changed. Since she stood in front of my entire family and told me she loves me. Since I kissed her in front of everyone and didn’t care who was watching.
“Hi,” she says softly.
“So we’re really doing this.”
“I’m terrified,” she admits.
“Good terrified or bad terrified?”
“Do you want me to move in with you?”
I smile at those words as I reach for her face. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear that question. Yes, I want that, Liv. I want that more than anything.”
I kiss her like I’ve been holding back for years.
Which I have been.
She responds immediately, her arms going around my neck, and for a moment we’re just kissing in the middle of our hotel room like we can’t get close enough to each other.
“I love you, Olivia Rodriguez. I’m completely, stupidly, embarrassingly in love with you.”
“I’m completely, stupidly, embarrassingly in love with you too.”
We move to the bed slowly, taking our time with each other. There’s no rush now, no sense that this might be our only chance.
This is the beginning, not the end.
Every touch is softer than it’s ever been between us. Every kiss tastes like promises. Every whisper sounds like forever.
We take each other’s clothes off. I kiss her entire body, feeling myself fall apart just for her. When I thrust into her, my heart cracks open. I never want this with anyone else but her. Watching her, feeling her, hearing her… I fall a little more with each movement, sound, and touch.
When I make her orgasm with my fingers, I feel her walls spasm around me. It’s earth shattering, ground shaking, and the top best moment of my life as I come deep inside of her.
“I’ve never felt more sure about anything,” I tell her afterward, when we’re tangled together in the sheets and her head is on my chest.
“About us?” she questions.
“Yes. About you. About us. About wanting this to work.”
She’s quiet for a moment, tracing patterns on my chest with her finger.
“I already have my flight booked to LA,” she says finally.
My chest sinks. “When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“But you just…”
“I know, but I have to go back. I have work. Clients. A lease.”
“Right. Of course.”
“But I’ll move in as soon as I can, okay?”
I nod. “I can’t wait.”
She falls asleep sometime after midnight, her breathing evening out against my chest, and I lie awake staring at the ceiling.
Tomorrow she goes back to LA. Tomorrow I go back to Seattle. Tomorrow we start figuring out how to be together when we’re apart.
But tonight, she’s here in my arms, and she loves me, and I love her, and that’s enough.
More than enough.
It’s everything.
I think about her speech, about the way she looked standing there in the garden with the microphone, telling me and everyone else exactly how she felt.
About the way she said she wanted to try.
About the way she said she wanted to love me for real.
I think about how I’m going to make this work. How I’m going to prove to her that this is worth the complication, worth the flights, worth rearranging our entire lives for.
And as I drift off to sleep with Liv in my arms, I’m already planning how I’m going to spend the rest of my life choosing her.