I OPENED MY eyes slowly, and when his bare chest came into focus, I happily sighed. Mio. Mine, I thought to myself as he slept deeply.
It was crazy.
Two years, and here I was, ready to start everything like nothing had every stopped.
Because I never stopped loving him.
Not once.
I had half-heartedly tried. Going through the motions of getting over the heartache. Heartache I understood now as I lay next to him, fascinated with his long inky lashes. We’d been so young when we’d met. We still were, still in our early twenties, but we knew now. We had a base of where to kick things off from. We were better equipped to deal with the things that came with commitment and creating something from nothing. My degree, his time in the military. Those were the things that would help us create the sort of life we both wanted.
The night before, in the restaurant, he had said he wanted to be clear about where he wanted us to go. What he wanted out of our relationship. I wasn’t stupid. Endgame. He was mine, and I was his, but in it was just the beginning of our future.
Our future.
It was absolutely insane, but I wanted that. I wanted the future we had dreamed up so long ago, and I didn’t want to wait. I wanted it now.
Why did we have to wait to get to go through the motions of getting reacquainted?
Sure, we had both grown and matured, but ultimately, we weren’t all that different. I knew him. He knew me. At the core we knew one another. We knew the other’s strengths and not so great qualities. We even knew one another’s families. I still sent birthday cards to his mom and on occasion spoke to her.
He shifted, drawing my attention back to his features, and I watched him come awake.
“Morning,” His lips quirked up, his voice raspy with sleep.
“Hi.” I smiled, and he leaned over and touched his lips to mine. I couldn’t help but think how waking up like this every morning for the rest of my life sounded perfect to me.
“I really like waking up with you,” he mumbled against my lips, his mouth quickly moving to the crook of my neck, rolling me to my back. One of his hands rested above my head as the other roamed the curves of my body until it rested above the swell of my ass, pulling me up toward him. “Really like waking up with you.”
“Ditto.”
“Plans today?”
“I’m on the same page,” I blurted out, and he pulled back, tilting his face to the side as he studied me. “I mean… last night, you got to say your whole spiel, and I didn’t say anything.”
“I threw a lot at you.”
“No. It wasn’t because I didn’t know how I felt about you or us.”
“Baby,”
“Let me say this,” I said, placing a finger over his lips, and we silently shifted so we were both on our sides, looking at one another. “I know I stayed quiet, and it wasn’t because I didn’t know how I feel. I know how I feel about you. About us.” The tone in my voice softened, and I stroked the line of his strong jaw with the tips of my fingers. “I was feeling so much, I didn’t know where to start, and this morning… It made me think. We could have ended up on completely different chapters of a book after two years.”
“You would use a book analogy,”
“Don’t be cute when I’m trying to tell you I’m on the same page as you when it comes to us,” I poured out and waited, hoping he got what I was trying to explain.
Brandon
“Same page?” I repeated, wondering if she knew what those words meant to me. Hoping to fucking God she was talking about the same thing I was thinking.
“Same page,” she repeated, scooting her naked body closer to me, and I lifted the sheet over her. The room was chilly, and covering her sweet flesh would help keep me focused on what she was saying. “I don’t need time to know.”
“Nina…”
“Shhh.” She placed a finger over my lips. “I love you, Brandon Chu. I think I fell in love with you at first sight, that first time we looked at one another four summers ago. I never stopped.”
“I have issues from the shit overseas,” I warned, not wanting to ruin the moment but wanting her to know what she was getting into by telling me this.
“We will figure out how to cope… together,” she responded easily, and I leaned down, our foreheads touching.
“I don’t deserve you.”
“That’s not true,” she whispered back, stealing a small peck.
“I fucked up. Ending shit with you. I don’t want you to think I might walk away again.”
“Baby…” Her eyes smiled. “I’m in. You and me, for the long game. Last night, you said you wanted everything, and now I’m telling you, I’m in. We’re on the same page, Bran. I’ve always been on it. I might have finished school, but other than that, my life’s been on pause. I’ve been waiting for you to come back. I understood why you ended us. I did. Life was complicated, and the distance was killer.”
“But?”
“But you made the tough call. You were strong enough to do it, baby.”
“Strong enough?”
“That’s what you were. Because of you, we both achieved the goals we had set out for ourselves,” she said, and I had to grit my teeth together so I wouldn’t break down and cry like a little kid. Breaking it off had been risky and so fucking hard. I had doubted the decision countless times during the last two years. I’d stayed up endless nights wondering whether I had done the right thing. “Our roads have changed now, B. Realigned. We can continue on and be stronger… together.”
Together. That one word undid me.
“Fuck,” I cursed and shut my eyes tight as I held her even tighter. “Tell me, again,” I ordered gruffly.
“I love you, Brandon.” Her words sunk into my heart, and I knew to the day I would die her voice would be the one it echoed. I opened my eyes to look at her, and there was no holding back the words this time. No chance for second thoughts or hesitations.
“Marry me. Today.”
