Page 37 of One Night with the CEO

“Absolutely not. I will be throwing your phone off a snowbank if I even suspect you of filming my humiliation.”

Mia held her hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. But that won’t protect you. I’ll remember every minute of it and remind you about it until we’re old and gray.”

“You—”

They both broke off at the sound of a phone ringing. Mia was the first to bolt out of the shower, with Genevieve hot on her heels. They had both set special ringtones for this particular number.

It was Genevieve’s phone that was ringing. Mia tossed Genevieve a towel to dry her hands and hurried back to the bathroom to turn off the shower while Genevieve answered.

“Hello?”

Mia threw herself down onto the sofa next to Genevieve. Both of them were still dripping wet and naked, but neither cared right now.

“Yes, this is Genevieve. I see—that’s excellent. We’ll be back on the fifteenth, so any date after that would work for us. No, we both work, but we can rearrange our schedules for this. Okay. Excellent, I will await your email, then. Thank you.”

Mia was practically exploding with excitement as Genevieve hung up the phone.

“Our application was accepted?”

“It was!” Genevieve flung her arms around Mia, squeezing her so tightly it took her breath away.

“I can’t believe it… you’re going to be a great mother, you know.”

“I suspect you’ll be better than I am. Adoption is always tricky, and we’re specifically adopting from a home that has kids with trauma. You have so much more experience in that area than I do.”

“Personal experience, sure, but you have more experience in caring for someone with trauma, which will probably be more valuable in the end.”

“Well then, I suppose our child will be lucky to have both of us.”

“I’m a bit nervous about the appointment,” Mia admitted. “There will be a lot of children there, and we’re only looking to adopt one, or two at most if they’re siblings. How would we even go about choosing? It feels wrong, like you’re picking pets from a shelter. This is so much more than that.”

“Well, they’ll likely give us some files to look through. They’ve done a thorough look into our lives, so they will probably know which kids might be a good match for us. We’re unlikely to just be dumped among then and asked to choose. I’ll confirm details with them when I get the email, but from what she said, it sounded like we’d meet a couple of children, then choose one or two to foster. If that goes well after a few months, we can proceed with the adoption process.”

Mia nodded. It was difficult to be anxious when Genevieve made it sound so simple and easy.

Of course, raising a child, especially one with trauma, was not going to be simple or easy, but Mia couldn’t be more excited for the challenge. She was going to give this child the home she had needed when she was younger but had never had.

“Let’s go do something to celebrate.”

Genevieve grabbed the towel and got up. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Mia beamed at her. Genevieve’s life, so sterile and cold before, was now filled with spontaneity and passion. Mia, on the other hand, had the stability and care she had craved all her life.

“What are you thinking? You’re suddenly looking at me with gooey eyes.”

“I’m just thinking about us. This path of ours has had so many twists and turns, but they’ve made us stronger, you know? I certainly haven’t behaved optimally in the past, but I don’t regret it, because it brought us together and made us the couple we are.”

“I know what you mean. I never thought I would find someone like you, Mia. I’m so proud of you, and of how far you’ve come.”

Mia had certainly come a long way. She had wanted to be fully healed from her trauma before she took on raising a child, especially one who already had experiences that might be triggers for Mia.

She had been nervous when she had first explained her wish to Genevieve, but Genevieve had been on board from the start, taking on a lot of the organizational stuff that she thrived on but wasn’t Mia’s strong suit.

“Where do you want to go?”

Genevieve shrugged. “You decide.”

“Let’s take a stroll down the street, then. I saw a lot of potential nice-looking restaurants there when we came in.”

“That sounds perfect.”

Genevieve and Mia got dressed into casual but warm clothes and headed out of their hotel room.

They joined hands as they walked down the snowy avenue.

The present was bright, and the future was even brighter.

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