“No,” his voice grows firm. “We’re definitely not breaking up.”
Awarm, fuzzy feeling explodes in my chest and radiates down to my toes. I can’t help the smile that’s forming on my face. It’s something about the way he says it so surely that has any sense of doubt dissipating into nothingness.
I lean forward and set the glass of wine down on the coffee table. Then, once my hands are free, I crawl across the length of the sofa until I’m curled up to his side. Theo shuffles his glass to his other hand and then wraps his arm around me. His hand settles on my hip, his thumb dipping under the hem of my worn-out t-shirt until he’s rubbing soothing circles on my skin.
I nestle myself against his chest and close my eyes, basking in the lovely feeling of being this close to him. His clean scent overwhelms me in the best way possible, and I find myself wanting to be consumed by everythingTheo.
We sit like that for a few minutes together, basking in this newfound security of our relationship. Finally, Theo breaks the silence by asking, “So how many things did I actually check off of your damn list?” Then he pauses, and his chest rumbles. “Actually, I’m not sure I want to know.”
I fight off the smile. “Are you sure? It’s a new world record.”
He exhales. “Fine, tell me.”
“Nine,” I tell him.
“You’re telling me I’m not a perfect ten?”
I lean back so I can see him, “Not according to the list. But in real life, you absolutely are.”
He smiles and bends toward me, pressing his lips to mine. When he pulls away, he’s still smiling. “I guess I can live with that. My competitive nature will just have to get over it.”
I kiss him again, content with how this evening—thisday—has turned out. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. That was never my intention.”
He runs his free hand over my hair. “It’s okay. I’m glad we talked about it. Just promise me this will be the end of that. Idon’t want to feel like every little thing I do is being measured or weighed up against something else.”
“I promise,” I say, wondering if I’ve ever meant something as much as I do now. “I’ll never even think about that list again. All I want is you. Even if you’re not a perfect ten.”
Now Theo laughs and shakes his head. “You sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself.”
I quirk a smile. “I do my best.”
He gives me another fond look before setting his glass down and drawing me into him. He kisses me until I no longer can even think about numbers, let alone any kind of list.
And later that night, when we’re lying in bed and Theo gathers me into his arms, I can’t help but smile.
Because this handsome, trustworthy, honest, successful, attentive, committed man is mine.
All mine.
Theo
“I propose a toast,”Leila announces the minute the server walks away after leaving our drinks on the table. She reaches for her glass of white wine and raises it toward Whitney and me sitting across from her. Chase looks at Leila in amusement but follows her lead, picking up his glass and raising it, too.
“What are we toasting to?” Whitney asks, though she plays along as well.
“The end of the school year,” Leila raises her glass to her lips and then takes a large gulp.
The table erupts in laughter from Leila’s sense of humor. Among other things, the last day of school for Leila is one of the many reasons we decided to come out tonight to celebrate.
Additionally, Whitney just got a promotion to more of an executive role. She’ll now be overseeing a number of tasks and functions throughout the company. Though I don’t know the exact details of the ins and outs of the inner workings of Nexus anymore after being fully engulfed with my position at their lead competitor, I know she’s excited about it.
And I know she’ll excel.
Just like she does at everything else.
I follow suit, and we raise our glasses, clinking them together and toasting for this new chapter that is steadily approaching.
There is another thing that Whitney doesn’t realize we’re toasting to. But I found a home outside of the city, which I think will be a perfect place for us to start this next chapter. She and I will be traveling out there tomorrow to take a look at it and determine if it’s the right fit for us. Hopefully, she agrees that it’s everything we need, and we can put an offer in right then and there.
