Page 74 of Mr. Perfect

“It was…” I stumble for words. “Just a way for you to get to know me. Something different than the usual tell me about yourself. I’m not a typical man, Ellie. I’m just trying to get that point across.”

“Point taken,” she says, slowly wandering over to me. “And you’re not perfect.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’ve probably made a lot of mistakes with you already. But I hope you don’t hold it against me because I can’t take anything back.”

She offers me up a small smile that comes with a shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t think you’ve made any mistakes. It’s been fun. I know we’ve had fights. But that’s all part of getting to know each other. And I’m starting to feel a little inadequate about how much of my own life I’ve shared.” She laughs and I take this as a good sign. My hints have not yet scared her off.

“I had your Heath messages. I came into this relationship with an unfair advantage, even if they were only delusional dreams.”

She wanders past me and my heart beats faster, wondering if the final envelope has burned away my past yet.

But either she doesn’t notice, or it has, because she takes a seat on the large white couch and tucks her legs underneath her.

I turn and follow her lead, sitting down next to her, reaching for a bottle of beer tucked inside one of the shoes. I pull a bottle opener from my suit coat pocket and pop it off, then hand it to her. She smiles as I repeat this with my own beer.

We clink the glass of our bottles together, like we do this all the time, and each take a sip.

“They weren’t delusional dreams, though,” Ellie says. “That’s really me.”

“Which part?” I laugh.

She shrugs. “Most of it. I want that house. Someday. I want the puppy too. And the kids and the nurseries. I want a perfect life, I guess.”

“And yet I am not the perfect man.”

“Nope,” she says. “It appears not.”

I might have a little panic attack at her admission. Is she having second thoughts?

“But I don’t think you need two perfect people to have the perfect life.”

I let out a long exhale. Relief. “I agree,” I say.

“But there’s more to me than those dreams.”

“I want to know all about you, Ellie. Every single bit.”

She smiles as the light from the fire dances across her face. “I don’t really have any secrets. I mean, you know them already. I want all that romantic stuff. I guess that’s my secret. And I don’t think it’s silly. I just think I deserve it.”

“Did you have a… a bad childhood?”

She shakes her head. “No. Not really. Of course, my mother walked out on me and my father when I was about eight. Just got bored, I guess. Maybe she wanted the perfect life too and my father couldn’t provide that. But it’s all very typical these days, right? People never seem to be satisfied. So that was kind of tragic, but I bounced back. I had my father until I was twenty and he died in a boating accident. Every year we went deep-sea fishing in the Bahamas. It was a constant in my life, even before my mom left. And that year I was in college and couldn’t get away. And of course, that’s when it happens, right? Life twists and things change when you’re doing ordinary things and not paying attention.

“Your father and my father knew each other from childhood. We weren’t as rich as you guys, but I grew up with money, and a certain level of privilege that came with expectations. That’s how I got my internship with Stonewall Entertainment.”

“I’m sure it had a lot to do with your potential as well.”

“Oh, yes. I’m sure. I’m not selling myself short just because I was offered an opportunity. And I’m certainly not saying I’m ungrateful, but this—” She throws her hands out, her gesture encompassing everything around us, indicating this place, and this life, and this moment. “This isn’t what I want.”

“The puppies,” I say. “And the dream house.”

She shrugs. “More than that, but yes. Your father made me an interesting offer today.”

“Will you stay?”

“Will you?”

“He fired me.” I laugh.