Brynn loved this, too. The sheer domesticity and simplicity of their lives. How one of them would come home from work and immediately throw themselves into the other, their bodies melding together as they did.
Maybe this moment they’d found themselves in wouldn’t be able to last forever, but Brynn wasn’t going to take a single second for granted.
Tragically, though, she had to stand up for the next few minutes. There was no way she wasn’t going to be able to make eye contact with Hallie. She planted a kiss on her temple before sliding off the sofa. Which, to her credit, took a lot of effort. Hallie was quick with the cuddling blanket after a long day. A day that had also been filled with meeting the parents, which Brynn didn’t take for granted.
Hallie showed up for her continuously, and Brynn wanted to do the same. Which was why: “I made you something.”
She loved the slightly confused look Hallie’s face made as one of her eyebrows arched upward. “You made me something?”
As they’d been lying in bed one night, Hallie had used a phrase that had struck Brynn dumb. She’d referred to her feelings as “a pining paradox.” And for having little interest in scholarly pursuits, Hallie had hit the nail on the head. That idea had rattled around in Brynn’s brain for weeks before she’d settled on a place to put her energy.
Because she had spent her life trying to understand the world around her. A world that she’d never really felt like she’d fit within. Until Hallie.
“Did you know that today is the three-month anniversary of me arriving in Stoneport?” Brynn asked. When she’d realized it a few days ago, she hadn’t been able to believe it.
Hallie’s whole body softened against the sofa, the exasperation in her voice that Brynn loved so much clearly evident when she said, “Then why did you makemesomething? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
Instead of answering right away, Brynn picked up her laptop from the coffee table and sat down in its place. Hallie was only about a foot away from her, their knees brushing together. When she had what she needed queued up, she put her computer into presentation mode. “You give me the gift of yourself every single day.”
Hallie rolled her eyes, but Brynn was serious. In three months, her entire life had changed. And it was because of Hallie. From her very first day in Stoneport. She wanted Hallie to understand that. How important she was.
She turned her computer screen around so that it faced Hallie. The hardest part had been memorizing the presentation, but she’d spent the last few hours practicing.
“The Pining Paradox,” Hallie read off the screen. “Brynn, did you make a PowerPoint presentation about our relationship? Because I was there the last time you did one of these, and let me say, it didn’t go well for the other guy.”
Brynn laughed, undeterred. “That was me using my powers for evil. This is me using my powers for good!”
“I would argue exposing Grant as a serial cheater was using your powers for good, too.” Hallie had sat up straighter, clearly curious even as she said, “But you really didn’t have to do this, Brynn. All I want is you.”
“And being with me means that sometimes I’m going to do things like this,” Brynn argued. Hallie was going to be given this presentation even if Brynn had to trail behind her through the house until it was completed.
Hallie needed to know how Brynn saw her. Especially because Brynn knew that it was often not how Hallie saw herself.
She smiled, seeing Hallie relent in real time. “Okay, let’s do this. But I reserve the right to disagree.”
“A thesis defense wouldn’t be complete without the ability to ask questions.” This was Brynn, in her element, and she was sure that her research was sound. Well, at least as sound as anything driven by emotion could be. But what the presentation lacked in facts, it more than made up for with the overwhelming knowledge that Brynn would defend her opinions until her dying breath.
She’d never been this sure of anything in her entire life. And with that in mind, she moved on to the next slide. This part had been the hardest, since she’d had to work with Sydney to covertly get photos of Hallie when she’d been younger. To no one’s surprise, Brynn had been lovingly staring at them since they’d arrived in her inbox.
Luckily, Sydney had made Hallie a birthday collage when she’d turned sixteen, which meant that the hard part of getting young photos of Hallie had already been done.
She’d chosen a photo of Hallie and Sydney on the tennis court at the inn. Another of Hallie swimming in the pool at the inn during a summer when she couldn’t have been more than five or six. Another photo that had meant to be of Mason, but Hallie was in the background, spinning around in circles outside. Brynn had had no qualms about cropping Mason out.
She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “The Pining Paradox: A Case Study. Prepared by Brynn Fitzpatrick.”
“Babe,” Hallie half-heartedly pleaded, even though they both knew that Brynn wasn’t going to be stopped.
It only made Brynn smile before she launched into her speech. “First, it’s important to contextualize why we’re here today.”
“Sure,” Hallie responded dryly, even as she continued to look at the photos of herself with rapt attention.
“Philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language through critical inquiry and rational argument.”
“Because everything about this issorational.”
“When considering the context of one’s place in this world, it absolutely is,” Brynn batted back before adding, “But please save all questions and comments for the Q&A period.” She tapped on the screen, holding Hallie’s stare. “We have a lot to get through.”
Hallie laughed and gestured toward Brynn. “My apologies. Please continue.”
