Page 23 of Defining Moments

“He’s pretty great, Ella.”

The rest of our dinner was filled with laughter and playful banter as I caught up on what Ella was up to in London and heard more about the recent adventures of WanderHub. The investors had received the first prototype and were pleased with the results, providing another series of funding for them to introduce additional features before launching to the market next month.

“That’s incredible, Ethan and Ryan,” Ella beamed as she sipped her wine.

“Sasha was really my inspiration. I came up with the idea on the flight back from London and scribbled it on a cocktail napkin at 30,000 feet.”

“I had no idea,” I stated, turning to look at Ethan whose eyes were full of pride and joy as he looked at me. This was the first time he’d mentioned it to me. “That’s incredible."

“Well,” Ella clapped, “I’m not going to mince my words. I just landed three hours ago after being apart from Ethan for 4 weeks and all I can think about right now is getting fucked so hard I forget what time zone I’m in, so I think we’re going to call it a night.”

Ethan choked on his sip of whiskey as I chuckled at Ella’s boldness.

“You two have fun.” I stood to give her a kiss as they headed out to meet their awaiting Uber.

“What about you? You interested in getting fucked into a different time zone?’ Ethan asked grinning as he paid for our tab.

“Fucking is always on my mind when I’m around you.”

That night, as Ethan buried himself inside of me, his thick cock filling every part of my physical body, I felt another part of me fill. My heart. And when our orgasms crashed into each other leaving us reeling with the shockwaves of our deepening connection, I knew, I had fallen in love.

Chapter 20: Ethan

Three weeks later…

I couldn’t wait to reunite with Sasha later tonight.

Things had been going well since we made the decision to become official after our date to the cherry blossom festival.

Despite our initial intention to take it slow, our passion got the best of us, and the past three weeks were mostly spent inside of each other at her condo after our days spent separately working. Every moment together was a celebration of rediscovery, and the happiness I felt was genuine, a stark contrast to the challenges I’d faced when I first left the U.S. one month ago.

As another Monday morning unfolded, I made my way back to my downtown DC apartment to take a quick shower and change my clothing before meeting with Ryan at the office to work on our latest iteration of the app.

Wanting to keep Ryan in the loop with my timing, I shot him a text, giving him a heads up that I’d be late for work this morning. Today was the start of our third test run and we were interviewing new testers to be the first to try out the features we’d implemented after our recent round of funding had been received.

I walked into my building and turned left instead of towards the elevators, deciding to check my neglected mailbox first. It’d been a few days since I’d been here and once I finally got the key in place, letters spilled out all over the cold, marble floor.

I bet the post office hates me right now.

I quickly worked to scoop them up, noticing one that stood out, a weathered, brown envelope with a familiar stamp in the corner.

My eyes drifted to the upper left-hand corner where the name “Jake O’Donnell” was plainly written, along with a postmark that declared it “undeliverable” to my old address from two years ago.

My heart sank, and my throat tightened, a rush of distressing emotions threatening to overwhelm me.

What the hell?

I stood up and turned towards the elevators, urging myself to walk forward though I could barely feel my legs as I entered the waiting car.

Once in my apartment, I tossed my belongings aside, slamming the letter onto the counter, and reaching for a bottle of Jack Daniels and a glass. I poured it to the brim then pressed it to my lips, finishing it in one long gulp.

Slumping to the kitchen table, I buried my hands in my hair.

Why the hell was this letter surfacing now? How could it have been overlooked and sent to my old address?

I stood up, needing to examine it once more—the aged message connecting me to my departed best friend.

Pouring another glass of Jack to the brim, I seized the letter and made my way to the couch.

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