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“That’s incredible!” I let out my breath. “Is that enough to pay off your dad’s house?”
“Actually,” Sully says, “I bought something else.”
His expression is secretive, but I can tell he’s pleased. I slip back into his arms, tilting up my lips for a kiss. “Tell me everything…”
He grins down at me. “Better yet…how about I show you?”
He drivesme to a little hole-in-the-wall in West Hollywood. I think we’re there for lunch, but the dark windows and cracked front door make me concerned that they might not be open at all.
“Have you eaten here before?” I say a little nervously. I’m not against diners and dive bars, but this place looks like it’s never had even a passing acquaintance with food safety standards.
“Not yet,” Sully says.
He pulls out a key and unlocks the front door.
That’s when I finally get it.
“Oh my god. Did you?—“
“Yup,” he grins, throwing the doors wide open. “Come see your new restaurant.”
We walk into a dark, dingy space cluttered with mismatched tables and chairs. There’s an inch of dust on the windows and two inches on the countertops, not to mention several shattered bottles scattered across the floor. A dead plant rots in the pass-through window, and three of the four mousetraps I can see are already full.
“Sully…” I whisper, hands clutched to my chest. “It’s perfect!”
He laughs. “It is now that you’re standing in it. Hold on—“ He runs into the kitchen, returning a moment later with two brand-new, matching frilly pink aprons. “One for me and one for you.”
I never thought an apron could make me cry. But I can’t pretend it’s just the dust—pretending is over.
“Sully,” I sob. “I can’t believe you did this…”
“Tell me the truth if you don’t like it—because I can still back out of the deal. We can find something else if this isn’t what you pictured?—“
“No, no,” I shake my head. “I told you, it’s perfect.”
Sully holds my hands in both of his. “Itwillbe perfect—we’ll make it perfect together.”
“You’re going to help me?”
“God, I hope so. I’m so fucking sick of real estate. Will you take me as your partner, Theo? I want to work at something I believe in—and there’s not a thing on this planet I believe in more than you.”
I’m already saying yes, tearfully, joyfully, when I realize Sullivan has dropped to one knee on the filthy floor. He’s holding up a box in which something glimmers brighter than a star.
“Will you take me as your business partner and your real, actual fiancé? Will you move into my house and stay there forever? Will you let me love you, Theo? Now and forever?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I sob.
He stands and slips the ring on my finger. It shines brightly in the dingy space, like all our future hopes concentrated in one sparkling point balanced on my finger.
Sullivan wraps me in his arms. He holds me tightly with his lips pressed against my ear.
“Love’s the only thing that matters, Theo. The only thing that can be counted on. Tragedy comes to all of us, pain and unfairness. You can only avoid it for so long. When it hits, theonly thing that helps is not to be alone. The next shitty thing that happens—I want you with me when it comes.”
He holds me in our new restaurant that’s filthy and full of junk. But those things are only temporary and easily fixed.
What’s real is his arms around me and the warmth in my chest.
Already I can see how bright and lovely this place will be when we’ve emptied it out and scrubbed it clean and filled it with new tables, new recipes, new friends…
