Page 112 of Yours, For Now

When he turned back to me, his eyes crinkled at the corners with his joy. "We're getting dinner on the plane. We can change before landing and the car will take us to the show. Then we'll stay in a hotel, before flying back tomorrow morning. I’ll have to work while having breakfast, probably, but…" he shrugged. "I wanted to treat you."

My insides liquified, the movement intense enough to count as a small tide. My heart jumped to my throat. "Gabe—"

Unable to speak, I stood still for a moment. Gabe's smile widened further, the sight amazing on his face and thawing me out of my shock. He lifted a hand to me, and I practically ran around my desk to hold it.

I stepped right in front of him, our fingers interlocked, and I gazed up at him. "Thank you."

"We said we'd make time for special nights, didn't we?"

I nodded. "We said we'd do more than work together in our pajamas."

"Exactly. Especially on a minor anniversary."

"A… what?" I pushed away from him with my free hand on his chest. "What anniversary?"

He dropped a soft kiss on my lips. "Happy three months together, Lina."

To the surprise of us both— judging by the way he blinked twice, eyebrows high on his forehead— I scoffed.

"We've been together for a bit overfivemonths, Gabriel."

The gesture on his face didn't change as he let a gust of air out. "No."

"No? What do you mean, no?"

"Can't believe you're counting since we—" he stole a glance out the door, to verify our privacy, but seemed to change his mind in the process. "No, Lina. We got together when I gave you the brooch."

The same brooch I had in its velvet box in my bag, to wear later that night.

I slapped his chest in a playful blow. "Of courseI count it since— you know. Since things happened while preparing the contract for the stadium project."

"But that wasn't… onpurpose. After the brooch it was onpurpose. We both meant it and—"

"Gabe."

"Lina."

We engaged in a stare off for a long moment, before he broke and laughed.

"We are ridiculous, after all, aren't we?" He pulled from my hand. "We have to go. We can keep arguing on the plane."

I pulled back and made him kiss me once more. "Good thing you're so cute."

He laughed and I followed him.

Even though this could become an ongoing discussion between us, it didn't scare me. Because whether we'd been together for three or five plus months, one thing was certain: what mattered were the years we had in front of us.

Something told me they'd be good. And I couldn't wait to make it all true.

Epilogue 1

Thatyear,theConstructionCares gala had the most attendees I'd ever seen. Unlike my first few years participating and bringing my friends with me, this time I also brought my fiancée.

The whole gang had attended this year, as well as my parents. My friends and their person, this time including my sister in the group as Jake's partner— things had finally cleared up there a few months before— socialized with some of the people we met here annually.

To think that I used to seek Lina out for a yearly check-in the same way, before everything had changed for us. Awe moved through my chest, warm and airy, and lifted me up, because I hadn't had to wait years to have her in my life every day. She slept next to me every night, and she was the first thing I saw every morning. Between her and my newly appointed CEO position, my chest swelled with the same kind of joy I saw in my parents' eyes when they looked at me.

I squeezed Lina's hand, the one carrying a jewel she liked to say was way too big for her. She secretly liked it, I thought.