Epilogue
Ben
Five Months Later
“ B usy, Hal?” I stroll through the doorway of Hallie’s office and grin at what I see.
Hallie sits at her desk, surrounded by files, a laptop, and four different drinks. The firm officially opened for business about a month ago, with Hallie working almost exclusively on her adoption cases, and she is wildly happy. She looks up, and her face lights in a smile.
“Hey! What are you doing here? Strangely, I’m not busy at all. All three of my clients on the schedule for today cancelled. Actually, my clients tomorrow and Friday cancelled too. It’s a weird week.”
“I’m here to kidnap you for a secret mission.”
“Oooo, sounds mysterious. Is it a sexy secret mission?”
I laugh. “If you play your cards right.”
“I always play my cards right, Benji. And you don’t even have to kidnap me. I’ll come willingly. Am I coming back here today?”
“You’re not, so grab whatever you might need for the night.”
Hallie stands up from her desk and comes over for a quick kiss. She starts to pull away, but I spin her back into me, tipping her head back and taking her mouth for a far more satisfying kiss. She hums into my mouth and wraps her arms around my neck, tangling her fingers in my hair. We’re both a little breathless when we break apart, exactly the way I like it. Hallie shoves some files into her bag, grabs her phone, and takes my hand to lead me out of the office.
“Do you need to tell Jules or anyone that you’re leaving?”
“Actually, none of them are here. I can’t even tell you the last time no one was here on a Wednesday morning. Like I said, weird week.”
It is not, in fact, a weird week. Unless you count the plans I have for Hallie later today. I know exactly where Julie, Molly, and Emma are, and why all of Hallie’s clients mysteriously canceled, but that is embargoed information for now.
“Well let’s go, Hallie girl. Secret mission awaits.”
We head downstairs and walk out into the frigid January air. I lead her to my car and buckle her seatbelt and kiss her forehead like I always do before I close her door. When Hallie and I first got together, I spent a lot of time thinking about the big moments of a relationship. What I didn’t realize was how much I would come to love all the small, everyday moments that make up our life together. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
When I get in the car and start the engine, Hallie’s questions start almost immediately.
“Okay, so where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“But I hate surprises.”
I smirk at her. “I know.”
She flops back into her seat, grumbling.
“Check the back seat, Hal. There’s a bag back there you might be interested in.”
She turns around in her seat and finds the bag I stashed before picking her up. She starts pulling out all her favorite snacks, and I can tell when she gets to the bottom of the bag because she laughs out loud.
Holding up the giant bag of mini-Reese’s cups, she says, “That’s a lot more than two. This must be one hell of an important day.”
“You have no idea,” I mumble under my breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. There’s a cooler back there with drinks, and the tumbler in the cup holder has water in it.”
She grins at me, her mouth already full of candy. “You’re too good to me, Benji.”
I wink at her. “Anything for you, Hallie girl.”
The drive goes faster than I thought it would. An hour in, Hallie realizes exactly where we’re headed and peppers me with questions the rest of the way. I manage to hold her off, but just barely. As we pull up to our final destination, I breathe a sigh of relief and hope that everything is ready.
Hallie
Ben is acting super fucking weird. He’s all one-word answers and nervous energy, and I’m curious as shit. An hour into the drive, I realize we are headed to the lake house. It’s not unusual for us to go up in the winter. We all ski, and Deep Creek is a great place for a ski weekend, so I assume that’s what we’re doing. Lucky all my clients for this week canceled because a long weekend with Ben at the lake house sounds perfect.
When Ben pulls the car up the driveway, my heart lifts just like it does every time the house comes into view. The house is a winter wonderland. Icicles hang from the roof, and the front yard is covered in snow. As much as I like the lake house in August, I’ve always been a winter girl, and there is something magical about being in the snowy woods in January. Ben parks in front of the house and comes around to open my door. When I get out, I smell the smoke from what I assume is a neighbor’s fireplace, and can’t wait until we can snuggle into one of the couches inside in front of a fire of our own. Ben grabs my hand and pulls me onto the path that leads to the backyard.
“Where are we going?”
“Just come with me, okay?”
“Um, okay.” Weird.
He leads me around the side of the house, and I wonder what we’re doing back here. When the lake comes into view, I stop in my tracks and look out in astonishment. The snow has been completely cleared from the small stretch of sand by the mostly frozen over water. There is a bonfire roaring right in the spot where we have all our summer bonfires. And next to the fire are two Adirondack chairs facing each other and covered in blankets.
“Ben, what is all of this?’
“Just come with me.”
Ben leads me to the lake and sits me in one of the chairs. He drapes a blanket over my lap and sits across from me. My stomach is a riot of butterflies as he takes both of my hands in his and starts talking, his voice a little shaky. It starts to sink in what is going on, and my eyes preemptively fill with tears.
“I thought about writing a whole speech, but I don’t need a lot of words to tell you how I feel about you. Hallie, I fell for you eleven years ago when we were just kids. It took me a while to get my shit together to tell you, but I think everything happened at exactly the right time. Because of you, my whole world makes sense. I love you more than I ever thought possible, and I will love you every day for the rest of my life. My world begins and ends with you.”
My breath hitches when Ben reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a small velvet box. When he flips it open and I see the diamond ring, I forget how to breathe.
Ben tips my chin up with his fingers so our eyes meet. His beautiful blues are shiny with tears, and that makes my own tears spill over.
“Marry me, Hallie girl. Be mine forever. Let me be yours.
“Ben,” I breathe. Ye?—”
“Hallie, wait.” Ben cuts me off mid-response.
“I’m sorry, what? You asked me to marry you. You can’t take it back. It’s like, the law. I’d know. Lawyer, remember?”
“Oh, I’m not taking it back. You’re stuck with me, Hal.”
“So why won’t you let me say yes?”
He looks at me, a blush crawling up his face.
“Okay, so before you say yes, there’s something you should probably know first. So we don’t start off our life together with secrets.”
What the actual fuck?
Ben reaches into his pocket for his phone and unlocks it. I see him open his Notes app and scroll through. When he finds what he’s looking for, he starts to hand it to me and seems to think twice.
“Okay, so here’s the thing. I’m mildly concerned that when you see what I’m about to show you, you’re going to want to run screaming. Please don’t. I swear I’m not a weirdo stalker. I just wanted to understand you better.” He hands the phone to me slowly and sits back.
Confused, I scroll through the note, not quite understanding what I’m looking at. It’s line after line of my coffee choices, with notations next to each one, detailing what was going on the day I chose each drink. There must be hundreds of entries going back years. I see everything from “hot with vanilla creamer – first day of big law” to “iced latte – afternoon after the bar exam.”
When I don’t say anything, he starts talking nervously.
“It started off as a game, trying to guess how you wanted your coffee on any given day. For a long time, I thought it was random. Then I wondered if maybe I could find a pattern, so I could always get you the right coffee on the right day. It took a while, but eventually I figured most of them out. The morning of any important career day, you like hot coffee with vanilla creamer. On lazy mornings, it's iced coffee with milk and one Splenda. On exciting afternoons, it’s iced lattes. There are more, but those are the big ones. I know I sound unhinged right now. But it really was a way to understand you better.”
I look at him, astonished. I have no words. All this time, I thought my coffee choices were random. A fun little quirk of mine. I never realized there was any pattern to the chaos. It took him years, but Ben watched and learned and figured out about me what I didn’t even know about myself.
He shifts uncomfortably in his chair. “Um, can you say something? You’re starting to freak me out.”
There’s only one thing to say. I look him straight in the eyes and grin.
“Yes.”
It takes Ben a second, but then his face explodes in the most dazzling smile I have ever seen. He takes my hand and slips the ring onto my finger, bringing my hand up to his mouth, kissing my knuckles, his eyes never leaving mine. He tugs me closer to him and cups my face, kissing me.
When our lips touch, my entire body lights up. The kiss is hard and hungry. It’s both familiar and new, sealing this promise we are making to each other at our most sacred place. It’s you, and me, and always, and forever, I love you with my whole entire soul. When we finally break apart, both our faces are wet with tears.
“I love you, Hallie girl. Forever.”
“I love you too, Benji. So, so much.”
Ben leans his forehead against mine and we breathe each other in, reveling in this moment together. But it doesn’t last long because suddenly, the quiet is shattered by raucous cheering. I jerk my head around, shocked to see both of our families, Molly, Emma, Jeremy, Jordan, and Allie all assembled on the deck.
Ben looks at me with a sheepish smile.
“So, I needed some help to pull this off. I got Jules to handle your clients—they didn’t cancel by the way. I asked my dad to come up to help set up the bonfire so it would be ready when we got here. Word kind of spread from there. I hope that’s okay.
I smile at him and lean over to kiss his cheek. “It’s more than okay.”
“Good. Just so you know, it’s a couple of hours with everyone, and then I’m locking the door to our room because tonight, you are mine.”
I smirk at him. “Just as long as you’re mine, right back.”
He winks at me. “You know it, Hallie girl.”
Ben pulls me up from my chair and kisses my forehead before dropping two mini-Reese’s cups into my hand. Then he wraps his arm around me, and we walk up to the house side-by-side to start celebrating our forever.