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“I don’t, no.”
“I understand that too.”
Sam turned around. He walked to the glass wall, inadvertently scaring his snitching employees to duck behind the cubicles, and stayed there with his back at me.
“Five months without you made me see how much I could do alone. I could do anything. Delegate my work, go travel the world, spend time with my girls. Until I realized that whatever I’d do, I’d always miss my life with you in it.” He turned around to face me. “No great adventure could fulfil the void you left behind. So no, I don’tjustlove you anymore. Now I know I love you enough to not want to spend another single day away from you. Not one.”
My breath caught in my throat. But I held myself back from pouring my elevating excitement.
Regardless of his latest admission, Sam’s face didn’t matching my current emotions. He was hiding his raging emotions too.
Sam stepped forward, towards me but to my regret, he went past me. He stopped at the grand conference table. He picked up the coffee mug he had gifted me and turned it around to show the print on the other side. The caption above the snowy mountains now read ‘I love snow… and you.’ Oh, dear. It’s a heat-changing mug. I hadn’t seen that before.
“You are the core of my world, Lucille.”
Oh, Sam. Still, I contained my delight. There was one thing he mentioned before that I hadn’t forgotten and which could be our catalyst.
“You said you were moving.”
“I am.” Sam said easily.
“Going far?”
“Not too far. You might know the place. By the shore. A little further up from the house with the blue windows.”
This time, nothing could have held back my smile – my big smile. “I know the place.”
Sam took a tentative step forward, closer to me. “You see, I knocked on the door of the house with blue windows first. I made myself look like a creep just to ask the owners if they were interested in selling. They wouldn’t budge. Said it was the previous owner’s fault for creating such a beautiful house. So I knocked on a second door, the red one, and I did not leave until I had a set of keys in my hands. I just had to tick bullet point number two off my bucket list. Well, half of it.”
“What was bullet number two?” My question came out almost as a whisper.
“Create a home… with my sunshine.”
He remembered. Sam remembered about my dream house.
A tear of joy popped off my eyelashes. I wanted to throw my arms around his neck and never let him go. But not yet. Our talk wasn’t over yet.
Suddenly, I was feeling the most confident I’d ever been. And it wasn’t because of the power suit I wore.
This was my moment. My chance to tell him every single thing that I’ve been replying in my head to tell him. Well, I would have if I actually remembered all of the words. There was just too much I wanted to say to him. So I improvised my next words. “I got the first part of my plan down too. Want to hear it?”
“Mhm.” Sam crossed his arms at his chest, as if anticipating a long speech. The sly smile playing on his lips was the dead giveaway of his thoughts.
I cleared my throat. “First, I want to get the wheels turning on my new business venture. I have no doubt that with you steering it with me, it will be a huge success. Then I can move on to my next goals. I want to draw more frequently, just for fun not for work. I want to learn how to cook more because honestly, that cookbook you got me, I’ve tried all the recipes and I’m tired of eating the same food now. Of course I can’t do any of that without someone to teach me, someone to critique me and inspire me to be better. Someone who could make me feel alive every day… Someone like you.”
Sam’s smile dropped off his lips as he took a dominant step towards me. “Why someone like me and not me?”
“You should have read all my bucket list.” Walking the final steps between me and Sam, I closed our distance. Then I pulled out my phone and showed him my list. Specifically the end of it. One bullet point. Just one word in bold. Just his name. “It may be the last bullet point on my list but it’s my first priority.”
A happy laugh escaped from his lips. Gosh, that sound.
“It may have started off as sexual attraction to you, Sam, until I got to know you. I’ve always known you were smart and charming and incredibly handsome. But then I found out about your kindness, your chivalry, your lonely soul so similar to mine. I just know there’s no one else I’d rather set goals with.”
His hands reached for my hands and clutched on them like I was his lifeline. “Then let’s merge our lists as one. Let’s share our goals and share our lives and our traditions.”
“Like your collection of mugs?” I teased playfully.
“Just like that, yes. Actually better than that. How about we start our own collection? We could get our one first from Scotland.”
