Brian pulls back, giving me a sly grin. “I put a couple surprises in your suitcase.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “What kind of surprises?”
He winks. “The kind that require you to be alone to use, with me on a video call.”
I laugh, even as lust shoots through my veins. “Maybe we should grab a couple of them and practice right now.”
Brian opens his mouth to respond, but before he can speak, the door to my apartment opens.
“Hey, world traveler,” Molly calls from the entry. “Detach your lips from your boyfriend’s because it’s adventure time!”
I drop my head to his chest as we both laugh at Molly’s extremely on-brand entrance. I feel him press a kiss to the top of my head, running a hand up and down my back, as I wonder how I’m going to spend six months without this. Without him.
“You heard her,” Brian whispers, kissing my cheek. “Let’s go start your adventure, Liv.”
His voice is light, but I can hear the anxious energy underneath. The same energy that has taken me over, mixing with the excitement stirring in my belly until I’m practically vibrating. But when Brian lifts his head to look at me, wrapping a hand around the back of my neck and bringing his mouth to mine in a long, slow kiss, that all disappears and it’s just us, together.
And everything inside of me relaxes with the rightness of it all.
“God, I’ll fucking miss you,” Gabe says, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug.
“Me most.” Amelia wraps her arms around me from behind so the three of us stand together in front of the airport security checkpoint. Amelia flew in from Boston yesterday so we could all have dinner together last night and so she could say goodbye at the airport. I told her a million times it wasn’t necessary, but now that it’s time to leave, I’m really glad she’s here.
“Okay, Sullivans, break it up and give someone else a chance.” Molly elbows her way in front of Gabe and throws her arms around me. I laugh at her enthusiasm, even though I didn’t realize how much I hated goodbyes until about five minutes ago, and now I’m regretting all my life choices. I definitely should have just done this on the curb outside instead of letting Gabe park the car.
“Take care of my brother, okay?” I say quietly to Molly. “He’s acting fine, but he’s so completely not fine. Make sure he doesn’t do anything crazy, like buy a house in Italy just so he has an excuse to come visit.”
“I heard that,” Gabe says, sounding affronted. “I’m fine. So, so completely fine, and I definitely didn’t buy a house in Italy. Yet,” he mumbles under his breath.
Molly squeezes me tighter and laughs, knowing all too well Gabe’s penchant for making massive and entirely unnecessary purchases for his family. “He’s just having some trouble coming to terms with the fact that you’re a whole entire adult who gets to do things like go to Italy for six months. I promise he’ll be fine. You go and have the time of your life, and we’ll all be waiting for you when you come back.”
I blink hard to stop the tears that desperately want to fall. “I love you, Mol. You’re the best thing that ever happened to him. And to us.”
“I love you right back,” Molly says on a watery laugh.
“Sisters forever.” Amelia tosses her arms around us both. “I want to hug you for, like, four hours,” she murmurs. “But I think if Brian doesn’t get his arms around you in the next ten seconds, he’s going to forcibly remove us from you.”
I laugh, glancing over at where Brian is standing next to Gabe, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans and his eyes glued to me. He looks so fucking good in the soft navy-blue hoodie he wears, his face shadowed with the scruff he didn’tbother to shave this morning, so cozy I want to burrow into him and never let go. “Fuck, I’m going to miss him so much.”
“We’re going to take Gabe to the car,” Amelia says, letting me go. “You deserve a big, romantic airport goodbye without your overprotective brother watching.”
“Definitely.” Molly unwraps herself from me and grins. “Make sure you do the thing where you walk away and then turn around and run back for one last kiss. That’s so fucking romantic I could die. Love you, Liv. Have the time of your life.”
With one last hug for all of them, Gabe holding on for so long that Molly has to drag him away, they finally head out.
And then it’s just me, standing in front of Brian, wondering what happens next.
“I don’t know how to say goodbye to you,” he says quietly, his hands sliding around to cup the back of my neck, his thumbs stroking over my jaw.
“I don’t know how to say goodbye to you either,” I manage, the tears that I’ve held back all day suddenly flooding my eyes and spilling down my cheeks. Brian brushes them away with the pad of his thumb, his eyes steady on mine, and my heart thrums in my chest. “This feels impossible. Why is this so hard?”
“Because it matters,” he says, pressing his lips to mine. “Because what we have is big and real and important. Because we’re meant to be in each other’s lives. But I’m yours whether you’re right here or an ocean away, and you’re mine.”
I take a deep breath, letting his words settle me. Letting some of the sadness ebb and the excitement of what’s ahead for me bubble to the surface. “I’m definitely yours.”
He smiles, kissing my forehead. One cheek. The other. “Mine,” he murmurs. “Today, tomorrow, next week, and when you get off that plane six months from now, we belong to each other, and there isn’t one single thing that will ever change that. Here.” He reaches into his back pocket and hands me anenvelope. One that matches the one hundred eighty-eight other envelopes tucked away in my luggage. On the front is writtenDay 0.
“What’s this?”
