“Can you park your car in here, next to mine, please?”
“It’s fine out there.”
“Harlow, there’s plenty of room. I’m leaving you room so that you park your car in here and it doesn’t just sit out in the driveway.”
Harlow was facing her car, but she heard something in Larissa’s tone that had her turning back around to her instead.
“Why do you sound so annoyed with my car being out there? I always park it out there. It’s not leaking oil or anything.”
“You parked it out there before we got together,” Larissa said and opened the interior door.
“And now that we’re dating, it goes in the garage?” she asked and pressed the button to close the garage door before following Larissa inside.
“I would like my girlfriend to park her car in the garage when she’s here,” Larissa replied.
Harlow followed her farther into the house and asked, “Your girlfriend?”
“Yes, my girlfriend,” Larissa said and dropped her stuff onto the floor. “Etta and Frances’s story is amazing, and I’m so glad they found each other, but the whole drive home, I kept thinking that I’ve already wasted so much time we could have had together. Thirteen years, and we’re only getting herenowbecause I didn’t see what was so obvious before.”
“Hey, it’s not like that, and you know it.”
“But I don’t want to waste any more time, Harlow.”
“We’re not. We’re together now. I’m your girlfriend.” She took Larissa’s hips in her hands. “And very happy to be, by the way.” She sighed. “Larissa, I don’t want to wait, either. I want what you want.”
“Do you?”
“Us together? Yeah.”
“I want you here.”
“Iamhere,” Harlow said and cupped her cheek. “Babe, what’s going on?”
“I don’t want you to move out.”
“You don’t?”
“No,” Larissa said, shaking her head. “I know this part of our relationship is new and that my sister might have a very strong opinion that we shouldn’t do this, but I don’t care. I know it’s far from your office, but you know that I don’t have to live here. This is the house my parents gave me, but it was never meant to be my home forever. I’ll sell it. I’ll move closer to your office so you don’t have to drive over an hour to get there. I… I just want every day and night with you now that we’re finally here. I want to be the woman you never break up with. I don’twant to be the woman you have to run away from and find a new place to stay.”
“Larissa?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you,” Harlow said and let out the deepest sigh of relief of her life.
“Are you telling me this now because you’re about to say that you’re not ready for everything I just said?”
“No, I’m telling you that I’ve loved you since I was, I don’t know, about nineteen years old, and I’ve never stopped. All these years later, and I still love you. You’re… It’s always been you for me, and it always will be. Trust me, I’ve tried to shake you. I ran away with Kacey, and that didn’t work. I dated other women, thinking I could love them how I’ve always loved you, but it didn’t stop the feeling in my gut that it wasn’t supposed to be them. It was always supposed to be you. I love you. There are no conditions on that. We can live together. We can live separately. I can drive an hour to work every day or work from home. We can go on a cruise, or not.”
Larissa laughed a little as tears welled in her eyes.
“Either way, I love you, and I can’t believe you called me your girlfriend before because I’ve always wanted you to call me that,” Harlow continued. “I shouldn’t lie to you anymore, though, so let me set the record straight.” She ran her thumb across Larissa’s cheek, catching a tear. “I don’t want to be your girlfriend forever. I’d like to be your wife one day when we’re ready for that. And if you really think we’re ready forthis, I’ll move my car into the garage right now.”
“You will?”
“And I’ll park it there every night we live here,” Harlow added. “Wherever we live, I’ll always park right next to you. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Larissa replied. “Wait. I want to say that differently.”
