“I believe I’m your soulmate, Paisley, but I don’t believe I complete you. I think you do that on your own, and I’m here to share in that. I think the same is true ofme. We’re here to learn and grow and be better, and I’d like to do that with you, unconditionally. What do you say?”
Tears tumble down my cheeks. I’m not a crier, and yet, here I am unable to stop. “I thought I was coming here to tell you I love you,” I sniffle. “Instead I got the most heartwarming declaration of love I’ve ever heard.” More tears arrive. Wiping at my cheeks would be useless. Klein has a hold of me, and I’m not about to break that contact.
He grins crookedly. “Yeah, well, I thought I went to Bald Head Island for cake.”
I breathe a laugh. “Klein the writer, you have a mouth that says beautiful words, and a heart that feels beautiful things. I can only hope I’m as good as you, as thoughtful, as expressive. And when the time comes I don’t say words the way you do, I hope you’ll see my actions and know how much I love you.”
“Communication has many forms.” Klein gently eases me closer. He kisses me like I’m sustenance and all he desires is survival.
When I take a break to breathe, he says, “There’s another form of communication I know of that’s as effective as the written word.”
My hips wriggle. “Oh yeah?”
He hooks his hands around my backside and presses me harder against him. “Hold on,” he instructs.
I wind my arms around his neck, and he carries us to his bedroom.
Pressing kisses to the scruff of his neck as we go, I whisper, “Kleinthe guy I’m in love with.”
“Of all the nicknames you’ve given me, that’s my favorite.”
“I’ll get it tattooed on my other thigh.”
“And I’ll bite it. Every. Damn. Day.”
We tumble on his bed together.
Pulling his shirt over his head, I rasp, “Please tell me that’s a promise.”
“Everything I say to you is a promise.”
He unbuttons my black work slacks. I tug off my blouse. He buries his face between my breasts, humming happily.
“Paisley the everything,” he murmurs against me.
“Is that my second nickname?”
He nods, taking my nipple in his mouth. “It’s perfect for you,” he murmurs around the hardened peak. “You are my everything.”
My heart fractures, splits, making room for something newer, bigger. He lines himself up with me, notches in, his gaze on mine.
“I love you,” he husks when he’s all the way inside me. He sets a perfect pace, the one he knows I prefer, and hisI love youechoes through me like it was shouted into a cavernous hall. I hear it over and over, with each of his withdrawals, and every return.
I kiss along his jaw. “I love you, Klein. So much, you don’t even know.”
He pulls back, then in again. “I know, Paisley. Believe me, I know.”
I don’t return to work until the next day. Paloma tells me I’m glowing. I ask her for a double date with her architect. She’s cagey, insisting they’re only casual, but Isee through her vehemency.
My mother’s package arrives, and I wrap it in pearlescent paper and attach a note.
A Halston for Halston.
Thank you for everything.
- Paisley
Klein gives it to her at his next shift, and texts me saying she got teary-eyed, then punched his arm when he pointed out the tears.
