And I’m married to her.
“I’m going to make coffee,” I said finally, unwrapping myself from the sheets with as much dignity as I could muster. “And then we’re going to have a very serious conversation about boundaries.”
“Okay.”
“And personal space.”
“Okay.”
“And the legal definition of breaking and entering.”
“The doorman—”
“Athena.”
She grinned. “Coffee sounds great.”
I walked out of the bedroom, my knee still throbbing, my heart rate still elevated, my entire worldview still fundamentally shattered.
Behind me, I heard her humming.
Something tuneless and cheerful.
In my bed.
In my apartment.
In my life.
Tomorrow,I thought as I walked to the kitchen.Tomorrow I’m changing all the locks and having a very serious conversation with that doorman.
And possibly checking myself into a psychiatric facility.
But first... coffee.
Because if I was going to survive this cosmic nightmare, I was going to need significantly more caffeine.
Chapter Fourteen
Athena
The universe was speaking to me in whispers this morning. Not the loud, obvious kind, like when I had seen Julien in that conference room in Vegas and the entire cosmos had basically screamed, “THAT ONE! THAT’S YOUR PERSON!” but the quieter kind, the kind that settled in my chest like warm honey and said, “Pay attention. This matters. He needs you more than you thought.”
I watched Julien move around his kitchen. Precise, controlled, and every motion deliberate, like he was performing surgery on the coffeemaker, and I could see it now, really see it. The way his shoulders were just slightly too tense, the way he kept checking his phone like he was expecting bad news, the way he made two cups of coffee without even realizing it—one for him and one for me. Which meant some part of him, some deep subconscious part, had already accepted that I was here, that I belonged here, even if his conscious mind was still fighting it.
He needs me,I thought, accepting the cup he handed me with our fingers brushing for just a moment, triggering that familiar spark that said, “Yes, this is right; this is exactly where you’re supposed to be,” and I made a promise right then and there to the universe and to myself and to him even though he couldn’t hear it... I was going to use every single spiritual skill I had, every universal connection, every cosmic insight, to helpthis man who was so busy being perfect and controlled and precise that he had forgotten how to just... be.
“I have to go to the clinic,” he said, not meeting my eyes, his voice still tight and controlled but with something softer underneath. “I have patients. Surgeries. A full schedule.”
“I know.”
“So I’ll be gone most of the day.”
“Okay.”
He looked at me suspiciously, like he was waiting for me to argue or follow him or materialize in his surgical suite, which—okay, fair, I had materialized in his bed this morning, but that was different, that was the universe guiding me, not me being intrusive.
“You’re... okay with that?”
