Page 62 of The Pursuit of Happiness
“I’d seen you at other events after that and I always wanted to try again, but I didn’t want my pride to take a hit like that again after you rejected me the first time,” he looks embarrassed.
I reach up for his face with my hand, “And I did it to you again at the club,” I whisper, realizing how awful I really was to him that night. The guilt starts eating me alive.
He nods, a small smile on his lips. “Yeah, you did. It hurt worse that time because you weren’t high.” He tries to laugh it off, but I shake my head, frowning.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.
Sly tilts his head at me, “Don’t apologize. You gave me a chance that night at the club. It only took you three years.” He looks amused but I don’t find any part of this story funny.
“You wanted me for that long and I was so rude to you,” I frown.
He kisses my temple, “I’m not mad.”
“I am.”
“Don’t be,” he says soothingly. “We’re here now.”
I groan, “The tape. I was so mean and bitter after that tape. I was horrible to you. I’m so sorry.” I remember how awful I was and cringe.
He continues caressing my face with his thumb, “You had every right to be angry with me. You were drugged and recorded against your will. You were violated and you didn’t know me well enough then to know I wouldn’t do that to you.”
I give him a confused look and pause, hoping he’ll catch the mistake he made, but he doesn’t. “Sly,youwere violated too.Youwere drugged too. It wasn’t just me.”
He shakes his head, “It was different for you. They were ready to high five me because I have a nice dick but they were quick to slut shame you and destroy you in the media for doing the exact same thing I did.”
My mouth gapes at how perceptive he is. He was aware this whole time. “So if you knew you got off easy, why did you agree to work with me to do damage control?”
He gives me a sympathetic look, “Because I felt guilty that I played a part in your public destruction. I felt bad I was in the tape and that I didn’t suffer as badly as you did. I agreed to work with your band and to fake a relationship with you because I wanted to help.”
This man. This man before me is so unbelievably selfless. So loving. “You agreed to be in a fake relationship with me even though you had real feelings that I at the time did not reciprocate? Why would you do that to yourself?” I ask, though I think I already know the answer.
He tilts his head and smirks, the signature Slater Nicks smirk that has the power to save the world. “Because I love you and I was willing to walk through fire to help fix your reputation.”
“I rejected you so many times after that,” I cringe at howhorrible my actions of the past were. Especially because of the way I feel about him now.
He laughs, “Yeah, you definitely made me work for it.”
I don’t laugh. I don’t smile. I just look at him and wonder how I became lucky enough to be loved by him. All this time he loved me even after I rejected him and treated him so poorly. He was still willing to move Heaven and Earth for me after all I’d done. “Sly?” I whisper.
“Yes, Kane?”
“My entire life has always felt like an endless pursuit of happiness. Like I’ve been chasing it forever, but the finish line was never in sight.” I try my best to let him see inside my heart as I speak. “I finally saw the finish line when I met you.Youhave been my pursuit of happiness. I’m such a fool for not seeing it sooner. I love you, Sly,” I confess, realizing how much I mean those words as I lay myself bare.
His face freezes and he pauses for a moment. I think for a second I may have broken him, but then he whispers, “Say it again.”
I smile through my puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks, “I love you, Slater Nicks.”
He kisses me so hard my back hits the mattress and he falls with me, never breaking our kiss.
“God Kane, you made me wait a long time but the wait was worth it,” he smiles against my lips.
I kiss him chastely before promising, “You’ll never have to wait again. You have me forever, body and soul.”
He kisses the tip of my nose and then my forehead, “Say it again.”
“That you have me, body and soul forever?”
He shakes his head, “No, that other thing.”
