Page 36 of Yours, Forever


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Yours, forever.

Yours, forever.

He slips a hand around my waist and pulls me in close as my eyes fly across the screen. "You kept all of them?"

"Of course I did." He smiles down at me. "I loved you so much, Brooke. I don't think I even knew what love really was, not back then. But I do now. And I know that I love you."

Love? Present-tense? A slip of the tongue, maybe? Every possible explanation races through my mind until he crashes into me with a deep, soul-stealing kiss. His hands race over my body and clamp down, holding me, worshiping me. I don't even realize I'm holding him, too, until my fingers are tangled in his chestnut hair and pulling him closer, harder, more, more, more—

Maybe it's fucking stupid of me to want this. Maybe it's stupid of me to throw caution to the wind. Maybe it's stupid of me to want to figure out how we can make thisthingbetween us work.

But god, I want it. I want him. I wantthis. I want us. I don't want to pick up where we left off, pretending that over a decade of life didn't happen. I wantus,with all of our flaws and experience, to come back together with new hope and new dreams.

If only it were that simple.

"I love you, too," I murmur between frantic kisses. "God, I love you, too."

"Oh, I really hoped you would." He pulls back and smiles with sparkling tears gathering in his eyes. "I missedyou. I missed you so much. And I'm so proud of everything you've accomplished. You're amazing."

"Really? I don't feel like I've accomplished much, I mean—"

"No. Stop. Listen to me. You graduated with honors and a CompSci degree. You didn't come back to our tiny-ass hometown. You stayed in New York, and youmadeit. You're amazing at your job—your name floated around the Atmosphere office before I knew who you were. Your team loves you. They respect you. Sure, you had some setbacks, but you rolled with them, and you pulled yourself up. I am so, so proud of you, Brooke."

His words roll over me like a perfectly warm blanket straight out of the dryer. And then the tears come again. I'm sobbing into his chest, shaking and crying, as he gently strokes my back and whispers quiet "I love you"s.

"I'm sorry I keep crying into your shirts," I squeak out between sniffles.

"Don't be. There's a washing machine. Are my shirts, um, absorbent enough? I can grab tissues?"

My wracking sobs turn to laughter at this beautiful, incredible, unintentionally hilarious man. "I love you so much, Dustin."

"I love you so much, too."

Dustin

WakingupwithoutBrookenext to me feels weird. I don't like it. I hated walking her to the train station last night. I hated watching her get on the train. I hated waiting for her to text me that she got home safe.

I did like the picture of Huey she sent, though. I wonder if he'd like Chicago?

I'm still thinking about the logistics of cross-country cat travel when I arrive at work bright and early Monday morning. The people I've come to know nod and smile at me as I make my way to the conference room. The groggy "on my way" text from Brooke is the latest I've heard from her, but I can't keep checking my phone all the time. It's best to just settle in and do my job, like the lost love of my life didn't waltz right back in and tell me she loves me too last night.

Which, you know, super easy to just ignore.

Logging in to my computer, I see piles and piles of emails coming through. Status reports. Status requests. Proposed frameworks for integrating DropTop into theAtmosphere ecosystem based on the investigations and reports I've provided. It's also time for the mandatory training, it seems. I've been assigned my personal favorite (Anti-Bribery training) as well as Sexual Harassment for Management.

That one always makes me laugh because the title seems so silly. It's like it might tell me how managers should sexually harass. It isn't, obviously, that would be obscene and horrific. I jot down a note in my daily to-do list to run through the trainings before the end of the week.

My phone buzzes on the table, and I jump to snatch it up.

Brooke

Be my date on the cruise?

Cruise? What cruise? Just as I start to wonder, another email notification pops up.

Subject: Atmosphere x DropTop – Welcome ABOARD!

Good morning, DropTop team!