We’ll get along if…
You know how to banter
The biggest risk I’ve taken is…
Is it cheesy if I say joining this app? No, yeah, that’s way too cheesy. Um, let’s see, uh…I’ll come back to this question when I think of something better.
Wow, that was rough getting through a second time. What did I ever see in you?
This year I want to…
Find the love of my life.
In that case, I have some very good news for you…
“Leticia?” He turns back to me, twin dimples on either cheek making an appearance as his grin spreads. “Explain, please.”
“Was the question behind me not clear enough?”
“I’m already your boyfriend,” he reminds me. “Why are you asking?”
“Because I don’t want to date you exclusively anymore,” I say. “I want the whole thing. Commitment. Working through the hard stuff together. That, and I love you. According to Marcela and Angela, grand gestures come with the territory when you’re hopelessly in love.”
“You love me?” That smile somehow spreads even wider. He steps back from me and unbuttons his shirt. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“What are you doing? Are we going straight to theI love yousex?” I make a show of shrugging and blow out a resigned breath as I lift up my shirt. “If you insist. But we probably shouldn’t ruin another couch, so let’s go to my room and—”
“This isn’t a sex thing,” he says, tugging down my shirt before holding out his right forearm to me. He has new tattoos on the underside of his arm I haven’t seen yet. They’re nothing special, just a series of numbers tattooed in a simple font in black ink, except for the third date, which is in red ink. The significance doesn’t hit me until I realize they’re dates.
4.10.21
8.9.25
10.16.25
11.6.25
“First, second, and third first date.”
I suck in a breath, but it’s a struggle when the wind has been knocked out of me. “Plus October sixteenth. The night of your concussion.” A cross between a sob and a laugh leaves my mouth. “This is gonna make celebrating our anniversary kind of hard, don’t you think?”
“I figured October sixteenth will be our anniversary since that’s when we unofficially got together, but we’ll have some fun extra dates to celebrate on in case you forget. I know your memory is no good, and I’m anticipating it’ll only get worse as you get older.” He plants a kiss on my lips when I scoff at him. “How does that sound?”
“Sounds like a plan.” I smile. “When did you get these?”
“After we got into that stupid fight about your brother. The first one,” he says. “I would’ve shown you sooner, but I wanted to wait until we were on better terms. It’s not the only one I have.” He turns his arm over, revealing his ring finger with the perfect circle that is now accompanied by straight lines to indicate sun rays.
“A sun for my sunshine boy.” I bring his hand to my lips, kissing his ring finger.
“It wasn’t a sun until you made it one.” My brows crease as I stare at him. “It was originally supposed to represent life coming full circle.”
“Sorta like us,” I tell him, and he takes in a deep breath.
“You have no idea,” he says. “But it means something else now. My mom once said she couldn’t wait for me to find my person, the one who’ll look at me and see the sun.”
He moves the side of his unbuttoned shirt away and places my left hand on his bare chest over his heart. Tenderly, he moves it down until my index finger lands on a tattoo I’ve never noticed before. I must’ve seen Julian shirtless hundreds of times, and somehow missed this one. It’s much smaller than the others around it. Easy to overlook unless you know what you’re searching for. Two words that let loose a gasp from my lips.
Sunshine boy.
