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“I knew you’d end up here. You’re obsessed with me, my darling, fiancée.”
She looks exhausted and absolutely stunning. She’s vibrant and alive and in front of me.
Her head whips around and the curls bounce in place. She clutches the bar, hopping down from the stool and I speak again.
“One, I knew I was on my way to find you.” I take a step closer to her.
“Two, I like to make a dramatic entrance.” She stands up and steps closer to me.
“Three, you are all the reasons, so I’m here.”
Tears stream down her face as I sweep her into my arms.
She says through crying, “Three reasons you didn’t call me back.”
I wipe the tears from her face with my thumbs. Then I take her lips in a way that lets her know, she will always own me. And I her.
She pulls back and buries herself in my chest. I hold her as close as possible and tell her something I did while on the plane.
“I might have borrowed a picture or two.”
“You can have them all if you tell me what happens now?” she says in her very Kat impatient way.
“Now?” I step back and guide her to a booth, never taking my hands off of her. The bartender delivers approximately 25 drinks.
He shrugs and says, “She ordered everything.”
“I did, but I don’t want those drink now. What I want is everything, with you.”
She takes a picture of me with all the drinks in the foreground.
“Are you done finding yourself?” I ask.
She sits back but holds onto my hand. “Turns out I wasn’t missing. I was already a photographer, a sister, a best friend, a daughter and yours. Probably from the first moment I spilled a drink on you in Vegas, I’ve always been yours. And all that makes me more me. I was just afraid to be her.”
I kiss her hand and tears pop to her eyes.
“Stop it. I have a little more to say.”
“Will I like it?” She asks.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean, is it more bullshit about our path or is it something exciting like you have candy in your pockets or you want me to ride you in the bathroom?”
“A bit of all of it.” I pause. “But put a pin in the riding you thing. I’d like to move that to the top of the to-do list.”
“The do-me list.”
I laugh. “Stop. Let me talk. I wrote something and now they’ve asked me to write a proposal.”
She rears back, “Are you proposing to me?”
“Yes.” I quickly get down on one knee in front of her and take her hand. “Will you write a book with me where we explore the world, help some people and you take pictures that interpret our path together?” She cocks her head skeptically. “I’ve never been more lost in my life than in the last five days. Unmoored. You ground me in a way that lets me soar. I love you so much. So ridiculously much.”
“Same.”