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How close had he been to losing this?
How close had he come to not having this kind of perfection in his arms? Someone who saw him and loved him.
Just because he was so afraid of being misunderstood.
In that moment he decided that no matter what happened in the future, he would always come back to her. They could talk about it. He was confident that she wouldn’t run away and hide, that she would answer his questions. Even if everything went very, very wrong, the truth of her was that she would show up and talk to him.
She would work through it with him.
But for now, he needed to make her an espresso. It was the least he could do.
He pressed his lips to her cheek, and she hummed a happy tune in the back of her throat.
“Well,” he said, pushing through the emotion clinging to his voice. “I happen to know how to operate almost every espresso machine in circulation.”
“Oh, fancy,” she teased, stepping out of his arms and giving him room to work.
He eyed her for a second, wanting to say more but not having a clue where to start. She waited and when he just shook his head and sighed, she smiled and hopped onto the counter.
And he made her an espresso.
* * *
André joined them a few hours later.
“Hangover for Christmas?” Sabine asked. “And I thought I wouldn’t know what to get you.” She filled a glass with water and handed it to André along with a bottle of aspirin.
He took it and squinted uncomfortably in the sunlight. “It’s that damn pink wine. I never know how much is too much.”
Sabine rolled her eyes.
And that was when the entire world had a panic attack.
Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration.
But Sabine’s phone pinged with a text, and then another, and another, then it rang.
“Damn,” she said, picking up her phone. “It’s Max.”
Dave held up a hand, remembering the status of his phone, just as she answered.
“Hello? Yeah, he’s here. No. Last night. I don’t know. Here, talk to him yourself.” She shoved the phone at Dave. “It’s your bestie.”
“Hey,” Dave said, way too casually.
“Really?” Max did not sound amused. “So you’re alive. Are you okay? Have you been kidnapped by pirates in the South China Sea?”
Dave chuckled. “I’m fine. Still in Chicago. I’m at the loft.”
“Curtis called me,” Max said.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. But I was in the shower, so ma answered.”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes. Where the hell is your phone?”
