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“Yes, you can.” Sylvie reached out and grabbed my hand. “We Widows started this adventure to do things we’d never done before, and your wish may have been a cougar cruise, but this, falling in love with a man, is the real adventure you’ve never gone on. It’s time to muster up the courage we’ve used to conquer all our other challenges and push yourself to conquer this new one. Go, Alice. Be vulnerable. Be open. Tell him how you feel.Thatis your real wish. I know it.”
Alejandro stood alone for a moment watching Jessica Rabbit scamper away. Then, with one last glance tossed in my direction, he turned and started out of the room.
“Go, Alice! You can do this!” Doris pressed her hands together. “Go!”
Finally, my body responded, and I pushed out of my seat. One step and then another, I moved toward Alejandro.
What was I going to say? Just blurt out I love you? Tell him I was falling for him? Say nothing? I’d never been in this situation before, and I hadn’t the foggiest idea what would come out of my mouth when I reached him.
“Oh, man.” Jake stepped in front of me, hoisting my martini like a trophy. “It took me forever to get this thing back down here. Martinis are like super hard to carry without spilling. Ya know? I had to go back twice to get it remade. But I made it. Ta-da!”
I stopped and looked at him, then watched Alejandro disappear out of the room. The simple interruption seemed to have broken my trance and shaken me from my newfound confidence. I stammered as I grabbed the drink.
“Thank you, Jake. I appreciate the extra effort.” I looked back to where Alejandro had disappeared, and that last bit of newfound hope in me started to drift away.
“Oh, no! Move it or lose it, mister. She’s on a mission, and you’re not getting in the way!” Marge appeared from out of nowhere and stepped between us.
“Huh?” He tipped his head.
Marge ignored him and turned back to me. “Forward, soldier. Always forward. You put one foot in front of the other, and you go find him. No guts, no glory. Now go! Time to earn you a ‘taken’ tag!”
Her giant shove nearly sent me to the ground, but it was exactly what I needed in the moment.
I took off running out of the ballroom and down the halls, calling his name as I ran.
“Alejandro!” I shouted as I raced outside, scanning the deck for any sign of him and finding none.
I grabbed the bottom of my skirt and raced to the stairs leading to the upper deck and his private cabin. When I reached the top, I saw his white uniform like a blazing beacon against the night sky.
“Alejandro!” I shouted, and he turned to face me.
“Alice?”
I didn’t answer, instead rushing across the distance separating us and crashing into his arms. He wrapped them around me, pulling me against him the way he always did when he first saw me.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I spit out. “I didn’t want to go on a date tonight, but my friends were picking on me that I’d been spending all my time with you, and I wanted to prove them wrong. So I went. And it was a terrible mistake. And I hope I’m not too late and you’re leaving me for Jessica Rabbit. I’m so sorry, Alejandro. Can you forgive me?”
He grabbed me by the arms and pushed me back but kept his tight grip on me. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he soothed. “Slow down, Cariño. What are you talking about? I’m not angry at you.”
“You’re not?” I felt something starting in the back of my throat—a strange tightening.
“No. Was I happy to see you with another man? Of course not. But I also know that you and I have not had the conversation that says you belong to me, and I belong to you. It is not my place to be angry with you.”
“And do you?”
“Do I what?”
I swallowed over that strange tightness I soon identified as the start of tears from the way my voice broke. “Belong to me. Do you belong to me, and I belong to you?”
His eyes locked with mine, burning into me with their fiery passion. Instead of giving me an answer, he released his grip on my arms, snaked an arm around my waist, and bent me backward in a kiss so deep we could have touched the bottom of the ocean below us. I sank into him, and into the feelings he evoked in me that I knew no one else ever would. My feelings for him that felt a lot like love.
The feelings thatwerelove.
When our kiss finally softened, he whispered against my lips, “I have always belonged to you, Cariño. And I always will. The only question is, do you belong to me too?”
“Yes.” I breathed. “Very much, yes.”
He smiled, and I felt it against my lips as he kissed me again.
