His phone rings, and he checks the call display. “It’s Graham.” He accepts the call. “Hello? Hey.” Nate wanders away from the bed and stands at the window. “Really? Wow. No, I don’t think I can do that.” He looks back at me. “I really need some time off.” He listens, his eyes trained on mine. “Yeah, that’s great. It’s really good news, but let’s just take some time to regroup, okay?” He pauses. “Sure. Yes, I agree. I just ... I’m not right in the head yet. Thanks. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Nate ends the call and stares at his phone for a few seconds.
“What’s happening?” I ask.
He returns to his chair, takes my hand, and kisses it, yet again. “Nothing. Just a bunch of phone calls about when the restaurant will reopen.”
“Phone calls from who?”
“Reservation requests,” he explains, “and some reporters.”
I feel a rise of excitement in my chest, and I lay my hand on his cheek. “Sweetheart ... this could be huge for you. You should go.”
He blinks a few times, looking confused.
I smile warmly and feel goose bumps all over my body. This is his dream, and I’ve wanted it for him since the first time we met. It hasn’t always been easy, climbing this hill, but he supported my dreams with my business, and he gave me two beautiful children. It’shisturn now, and he needs to take it while the stars are aligning.
“Babe, go open your restaurant,” I say. “I want you to. You have to go and milk this publicity for all it’s worth.”
He stares at me and slowly processes my words. Then a smile spreads across his face. He rises from the chair, and I sit up as he bends to kiss me on the mouth.
“I love you,” he says.
“I love you too.”
As he backs away and grabs his jacket off the chair, I feel a lightness in my bones, a glowing sense that all is right with the world.
“Whatever happens,” he says, “I just want you to know ...”
I wait with bated breath for him to finish that thought.
“It’s all for you. Everything I am and everything I do, from this day forward, is for you.”
I feel like I’m dreaming. Happiness bubbles up in me—not a fleeting, surface-level joy, but a quiet and profound contentment that fills every space inside of me. It’s a feeling of being whole, of knowing, at last, that everything was always meant to be just as it is. There is no more longing, no more searching, no more aching for what was or what could have been. I want only what I have, here and now.
I want Nate.
Epilogue
One year later
Graham pokes his head into the back office. “Does he have any idea?”
“None at all.” I roll my chair back from the desk. “He thinks I came in early to work on payroll, so he volunteered to walk Oscar.”
Graham looks down at the stack of glittery party hats on my desk. “He’s going to hate those, you know. They’re very off brand.”
I raise a finger. “That’s why we’re doing this during brunch, before the restaurant opens. We’ll have all the streamers taken down before the doors open for dinner.”
Graham offers to blow up the balloons, which I appreciate. He takes them out to the dining room to summon help from Becky, who’s out there hanging streamers.
I roll my chair back under the desk and find myself staring at the framed group selfie of me, Nate, and the kids, and Oscar in my arms, with a gigantic pine tree behind us. It was taken last year when we went on a camping trip to Kejimkujik National Park to connect with nature. It was a planned celebration of my full recovery.
We’ve come a long way. Today is Nate’s forty-fifth birthday and also a significant milestone because it’s been twenty years since he announced to his family that he was quitting law school. Since that day, he’s succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, and I, too, have been blessed with a new career I didn’t even know I wanted.
Shortly after Martina resigned, and not long after I was discharged from the hospital, I decided to step into the role of temporary restaurant manager until Nate could find a replacement. At first, I worked from home, because those were the early days of my recovery. But the demands of the job turned out to be good for me, physically, and good for the restaurant as well. My past experiences running my own company were invaluable to Oblique.
(Not to toot my own horn, but I did a much better job than Martina ever did with the financials, along with everything else, except maybe flirting with the older male patrons.)
