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Trust your gut, I’d told Caleb, and I’m going to follow my own advice. Because Caleb and me? We feel good.
We feel hopeful.
We feel right.
I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
12
August
Two years later…
The colorful lanterns and twinkling fairy lights decorate the courtyard, and music plays from the speakers in the corner. It’s a warm summer evening, but we’re all dressed up. Waiters walk around with trays of champagne glasses, and I snag one for myself as I look around.
The crowd goes quiet as the music lowers and Caleb steps onto the small wooden platform in the corner of the courtyard. He catches my eye and winks, and I go hot all over. He’s extremely handsome, and like always, ever since the day we first met, I can’t keep my eyes away from him.
He looks almost radiant tonight, with a beaming smile on his face, hair slightly messy still from when I caught him by the kitchen earlier and kissed the fuck out of him.
Caleb clears his throat once more. He doesn’t love the whole attention thing, and even less the public speaking thing, but tonight it doesn’t seem to bother him that much.
“I just wanted to thank you all for being here. It was a hell of an opening night, and having you all here to celebrate is the best gift I could have had.”
Caleb’s food truck kind of turned into an unmitigated success story. He bought an old truck, and we spent a couple of weeks renovating the thing, putting in all new equipment and painting it bright aquamarine. Milo’s choice. He bravely stuck around throughout the renovations, and where things might have been awkward between the two of us, seeing that I was the new boyfriend back then, we ended up bonding during those weeks.
Even now, he’s standing next to me with Madeline on his other side. Caleb has a huge family. Half of the crowd in here is related to him in some way, and amazingly, they’ve all accepted me into their fold, treating me like I’ve always been around.
“We had a lot of fun with our food truck over the past two years,” Caleb continues. “So we’ll keep that going, too, but I’m excited for this new adventure.” He gestures around himself. We’ve spent the last few months setting everything up for this day. Opening day. Caleb’s very own restaurant. I couldn’t be prouder of him. He’s worked so hard for this.
“I couldn’t have done it all without you,” Caleb says. “Especially you, August.” He finds me in the crowd and grins. “You have made me the happiest man in the world over these last two years, and I love you so damn much.”
Like always, those words have me buzzing with happiness. I’ll never tire of hearing them.
“Anyway,” Caleb says. “Time to drink up and celebrate.”
The crowd cheers and claps as he steps down off the tiny stage and heads straight for me. He pulls me into his side and stays there for the rest of the evening.
“Ready to head out?” Caleb asks as he reaches out his hand and pulls me up from where I’m sitting, leaning against the stone wall.
I yawn and nod.
“It was a great party.”
He smiles. “I thought so, too. I’m not even nervous about tomorrow. Everything feels like it’s going to go great.”
We stroll through the dark streets. Caleb grins and points to the stairs that lead to the subway.
“Train or cab?”
“Train,” I decide, and he grins.
Soon enough, we’re sitting in an almost empty car. I lean my head on his shoulder, and he kisses my temple.
“Tired?”
“Just a bit,” I say.
“We’ll be home soon.”
