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She doesn’t answer, rather shoving me out the door and forcing me into the elevator and through and out of the lobby.
The streets are bustling and the sun is shining, and the whole thing feels like a giant lie. Earth and planets and the sun—they’re a bunch of fucking liars.
Sammy, Benji, and I walk the two blocks to the subway in silence, and then we climb down the stairs to wait for the train. I don’t bother to pay attention to anything other than my own two feet and my canine friend.
Not even the line we get on. Nothing. I don’t care about any of it.
Hell, I don’t even know what errand we’re running. Sammy could be leading me to an empty field to bury a body and I’d be none the wiser.
I sit grumpily while the train bumps along for nearly twenty minutes, and I only look up when Sammy grabs me by the elbow to lift me out of my seat. “I guess we’re getting off here,” I say smartly to a complete stranger on the other side of the car. In true New York fashion, they ignore me entirely.
When Sammy pinches me, I decide not to piss her off any further—since she’s basically all I have left at this point—and follow her up the stairs, down the block, and into an apartment building I’ve never seen before.
She’s annoyingly cryptic, even as we step on to the elevator and head for the sixth floor—something I know only from the illuminated button she pushed. “So, where are we going for Mo exactly? Drug deal? Illegal adoption? Picking up some sort of extinct animal to put in the soup special tonight?”
The elevator dings, and the doors open directly in front of the open door of an apartment. As a result, I can see clear inside.
Roses are strewn across the entirety of the light wood floors all the way to the floor-to-ceiling windows, and in the middle of it all, stands the man of my dreams.
Sammy leans into my ear mockingly. “What do you think? Is it time to shut up now?”
I nod. I can’t do anything else.
Every single part of me is focused on Chase in the middle of the room.
He’s perfectly coiffed and shined, and his heart is in his eyes from the first moment I catch them.
What I see inside them is a man who doesn’t want to fight with me any more than I want to fight with him. We’re lovers, in every sense of the word. And, oh my God, I’m going to cry.
I step forward eagerly, stopping myself after only a couple of steps and pulling my arms into my chest. I don’t want to push too fast. I’d give anything not to ruin this.
“God, Chase,” I start, tears forming in my eyes without pause. “I’m really sorry—”
“Don’t be. I told you to do it.”
“To write the book?”
He laughs. “No. To write the flaws.” He shakes his head. “The book was all you, but baby, you did a fucking bang-up job.”
“Chase.”
“They’re perfect in all their flaws, Brooke. Because they’re us. Just like you wrote them to be. I thought I loved this book before, but I had no idea how much more it could be.” He smiles, really, truly smiles at me. “Now, get over here and kiss me.”
Between one moment and the next, I’m in his arms, my legs around his hips and my face in his neck. Sobs rack my body, and he squeezes me tightly against the onslaught of them. His warm hand is a comfort as it rubs at my back, and his very being is a comfort to my soul.
I’ve missed him so much.
He kisses my tears away as I pull my face out of his neck, and I chase after his mouth with my own until I land it. The taste of him mixed with the salt of my tears is the only solution I need to mend my open wounds.
“I love you so much,” I whisper against his lips.
“I love you too, Brooke.”
It’s a long, emotional moment before I can look at anything but the man in my arms, but when I finally do, I realize I don’t even know where we are.
“What is this place?” I ask, just as Sammy steps out the front door and closes it behind herself.
“It’s my new apartment,” Chase says with a smile. “The one I’ve been renovating, and it’s finally ready.”
“Wow,” I whisper, looking around at the sleek hardwood floors and gorgeous warmth the sunlight provides through the windows. “It’s beautiful, Chase.”
“I know,” he whispers back, but when I look over to meet his eyes, he’s not looking around at his apartment. He’s looking at me.
“I know this is going to sound crazy, baby, but I’m starting to realize nothing we do is conventional, you know?”
