Chapter 19 I Told You So A Six-Year Journey #2
Vinnie climbed down and walked to my door, then looked back at me with an expression that clearly said get your ass up.
“Since when are you the boss of me?”
He bleated again, more insistently.
“Okay, okay. I'm going.”
I stood up, my heart pounding so hard I was sure Artie could hear it through the wall. What was I going to say?
Artie, I'm in love with you. Too abrupt.
Vegas wasn't practice for me. Better, but still not right.
I've been in love with you since... Since when? Since graduation when she said yes to being my roommate? Since the first time I saw her play rugby and those thick thighs began living rent free in my brain? Or since high school when she was the first person I ever came out to?
Maybe since always.
Vinnie was literally pushing me from behind now, his little head shoving against the back of my knees.
“I'm going, I'm going.”
I made it to my bedroom door, hand on the knob, heart in my throat. I could do this. I could tell her the truth. I could stop being a coward and finally—
I opened my door and there was Artie standing in hers.
We stood there in the hallway, staring at each other. Her eyes were red like she'd been crying. Her hair was messy. She was wearing my old Dragons shirt. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
“Artie.”
“Gryff.”
We both spoke at the same time, then stopped.
“I need to tell you something,” we said, again in unison.
A nervous laugh escaped both of us.
“You first,” I said.
“No, you,” she insisted.
Holly appeared behind Artie, and Vincent was still behind me, and suddenly both goats were pushing us forward, literally shoving us together in the hallway.
“The goats want us to—“
“Yeah, they're not subtle,” she agreed, stumbling a step closer from Holly's insistent pushing.
We were maybe two feet apart now, both breathing hard, both clearly on the edge of something monumental.
“Vegas wasn't practice for me.”
“I wasn't practicing in Vegas.”
We both blurted our words out, one barely after the other.
The words hung between us. My heart stopped. Her eyes went wide.
“What?” I breathed.
“You felt it too?” she whispered.
“Felt it? Artie, I…” The words I'd been holding back for months, maybe years, came pouring out. “I'm in love with you. I've been in love with you for so long I don't remember what it feels like not to be.”
“Gryff.”
“Vegas wasn't practice for me. It was... it was everything. I gave you everything because I thought it was my only chance to show you how you should be loved. How I want to love you. Every day. Forever. If you'd let me.”
She was crying now, tears streaming down her face. “I can’t date Tyson.”
“What?”
“Tonight I couldn't even hold his hand because he wasn't you.” She took a shaky breath. “It's only ever been you. Even when I was dating other people, even when I thought I was broken at intimacy, it was because none of them were you.”
“Artie…”
“I love you,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. “I'm so in love with you it's eating me alive. Vegas wasn't about learning to be intimate. It was about being with you. You're the only person I've ever been able to be completely myself with.”
“Why didn't you say anything?”
“Why didn't you?” She laughed through her tears. “And why are we such idiots?”
“Complete idiots,” I agreed, moving closer. “I'm sorry I kept saying it was practice.”
“I'm sorry I let you.”
We were inches apart now. I felt her breath on my face, saw every tear track on her cheeks, felt her heart beating as if it was my own.
“I love you,” I said again, because now that I'd said it, I never wanted to stop.
“I love you too,” she whispered.
I cupped her face with both hands, thumbs wiping away her tears. “This is real?”
“So real.”
When I kissed her, it was different from every kiss we'd shared before. There was no pretense, no practice, no holding back. It was just us, finally being honest, finally letting ourselves have what we'd both wanted for so long.
She made a soft sound against my mouth and pressed closer, her arms coming around my neck. I backed her against the wall, needing to be closer, needing to make up for all the time we'd wasted.
“Wait,” she gasped, pulling back slightly. “How long? How long have you been in love with me?”
“I don't know, a long time,” I admitted. “But when you said yes to being my roommate, I realized I didn't want to do life without you. You?”
“Probably the same, but the bathtub incident that shall not be named clinched it for me,” she said, and I groaned.
“The bathtub?”
“When you got...” She gestured vaguely downward, blushing. “I realized I wanted to affect you that way. That I wanted you to want me. But honestly? Maybe always. Maybe I've always been in love with you and just didn't know it.”
Vincent and Holly were sitting in the hallway watching us, their little tiny tails wagging, looking extremely pleased with themselves.
“I think they planned this,” I said.
“Definitely. They're probably wondering what took us so long.”
My phone started buzzing on my bed. Then Artie's started from her room. We ignored them, too wrapped up in each other to care.
“Flynn's going to be insufferable,” she said against my lips.
“Jules probably already has a PowerPoint presentation ready.”
“Titled 'I Told You So: A Six-Year Journey.'”
“With graphs.”
“So many graphs.”
We were laughing and crying and kissing, and it was messy and perfect and everything.
“So what now?” Artie asked, pulling back to look at me.
“Now we stop pretending.”
“No more practice?”
“No more practice. This is real. You and me.”
“I like the sound of that.”
I kissed her again, deeper this time, trying to pour everything I felt into it. Six years of friendship, months of pining, weeks of torture, all culminating in this moment.
“Your room or mine?” I asked against her mouth.
“Yours is closer.”
We stumbled backward into my room, still kissing, tripping over Vincent who bleated in protest. We fell onto my bed, laughing, and Holly immediately jumped up to join us.
“We're not having sex with the goats watching,” Artie said firmly.
“Agreed.” I wasn't going to fuck this up again. “As much as I want to make love to you right now, I also want to do this right. Let me romance you, take you out on a real date. But can we just... lie here for a while? I feel like I'm dreaming, and I want to wake up with you in my arms.”
She curled into my side, her head on my chest, and it was the same position we'd been in that morning in Vegas. Except this time, there was no pretending, no panic, no pulling away.
“I love you,” she said quietly. “I feel like I need to say it a thousand times to make up for not saying it before.”
“I love you too. And you can say it as many times as you want, but I’m going to say it more.”
She hit me with a pillow. “Yeah, well, I said it first, so I win.”
“Technically Vincent heard it first. I've been telling him for weeks.”
She sat up and glanced between me and little Vinnie. “The goat knew before me?”
“He’s been very supportive.”
Vincent bleated in agreement, then climbed between us, settling in like he belonged there. Holly followed, curling up against Artie's side.
“We're never going to have privacy again, are we?” Artie asked, but she was smiling.
“Probably not. Is that okay?”
“As long as I have you? Everything's okay.”
“That was cheesy.”
“You're cheesy.”
“Your face is cheesy.”
“Say it again.”
I didn't pretend I didn't know what she meant. I wanted to say it again, and a million more times. “I love you, Artemis.”
“I love you too, Gryffen.”
We lay there, finally together, finally honest, finally home. Tomorrow we'd have to face our friends' told-you-so's and figure out what this meant for everything else. But tonight?
Tonight was ours.
And it was perfect.