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I’m sitting just outside the garden. It’s amazing. I can’t stop thinking about standing over that stream with your hands in mine. I can’t stop thinking about how happy I am, how unbelievably relieved I waited for you. I must’ve known on some level you were out there, the woman who’d complete me. And when I saw you, I knew.
You’re going to make me cry, I text, pawing at my cheek with my free hand.Remember what we said? We won’t get lost in how amazing the future’s going to be because now is amazing too. I wish I was down there with you.
We said we’d be good, he replies.
I know,I text.But what if we didn’t touch?
What if, say, you happened to come for a walk down here and sit in the garden, and I could watch you? I could watch you like I did when you were the woman on the bus when I thought you were going to glide out of my life forever.
Yeah, that would be a crazy coincidence, right.
I climb out of bed, my hand bracing my bump, careful not to move too suddenly, even as the excitement rushes around me. As I slip my baggy clothes on, again moving cautiously, I slip into my shoes and zip them up.
Eli’s been so great about pregnancy stuff, and I never feel like I have to put on a show with him. It makes me feel wild and sexy to wear something provocative for my man, but he always shows his attraction, no matter what I wear.
I walk down the hallway.
I’m on the first floor. It was the last room available on this level. Eli didn’t want me messing around with stairs or elevators. He’s always thinking of little things like that.
I follow the signs, my hand resting on my bump, and then round the corner and into a different world.
The garden is built so you can see the entire beautiful garden when you look out the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
On these walls, colors clash and dance, lighting the darkness.
It's soothing, vibrant, and beautiful.
I walk over to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows, which has been slid aside, creating a large opening.
I stare up at the light show. I can’t figure out where they’re coming from as they clash on the wall.
In my pocket, my cell phone vibrates.
It’s not always like this.
I smile, looking around.Is this for us? Can you see me?
Yes, it’s for us. And yes, I can see you. You look beautiful.
Oh yeah?
I hold out my hand, splaying four fingers, turning in a slow circle.
My phone vibrates again.Four.
I laugh, peering out of the windows. But with the lights flashing above me and with the garden lit up with soft fairy lights – along the trickling stream, ringing the handrail of the wooden bridge – it’s hard to see. But it doesn’t matter.
He can see me.
I walk into the garden, standing on the bridge, looking into the darkness beyond, and imagining it’s tomorrow. I imagine my man standing in front of me, a smile on his lips, his intense eyes telling me he’s ready to commit forever.
I check my phone.
There’s a text.
I do.
EPILOGUE
