Page 96 of The Prospect

They say that when something is right, you’ll know it. You’ll feel it. You won’t have to question it. So, I guess now I understand the hype of intimacy because, before tonight, I’d never properly experienced it.

“I love you so much, Hazel.” Nothing has ever felt more natural to say than those five words to her.

“I—I love you too, Green,” she responds. “I do. I always have.”

And just like that, on the brink of trying to hold back, I no longer can, as I release and fall limp into Hazel’s neck.

It takes a few seconds for either of us to move after I come. It’s like we both stay put, too scared to say anything to break us away from this bliss.

“You’ve always been my missing piece, Green,” Hazel looks up at me. “The prince in my picture.”

“The what?” I gently pull out, smiling down at her with the slightest look of confusion.

She shakes the thought away with a laugh. “I’ll tell you about it another time.”

I smile, planting another kiss on her lips, and this time, unlike all of our kisses before, as I pull back, I don't have to wonder if this will be the last.

It won’t be.

TWENTY-NINE

H A Z E L

I smileas Green plants another tender kiss onto the palm of my hand while securing his jacket carefully along my shoulders.

It’s surreal walking through this field with him, hand in hand, heart to heart. It’s beyond anything I could have ever imagined—dreamed for, but this is it. This is my life, and this…this is the man I want to spend forever falling more and more in love with.

I’ve always known that, but now, thinking about it again after everything that just transpired, it feels more real than it ever had before.

Green told me he loved me.

That he always had.

I told him that I loved him.

That I always would.

Everyone said today would be my best birthday yet. Christ, they weren’t wrong.

“Are you sure you’re okay,bug?” Green proceeds to ask me for what must be the tenth time as we pave our way through the grass, nearing his parents' garden. “I can carry you if you want?”

I scoff in laughter at his generous,comical, yet downright serious offer. Green has always had this heightened level ofconcern when it comes to me and right now, he’s proving that to be abundantly true.

“I recognize that that was my first time, Green,” I bashfully admit. “But I’m pretty sure I’m more than capable of walking. See.” I skip on ahead, seeing the house as it comes into view. “I’m fine.”

He caves, interlacing our fingertips as he catches up with me. “Alright, as long as you promise me that you’re okay. You are okay, right baby?”

This time, I stop in place, forcing Green to a mutual halt as I wrap my hands around his waist and lean in close.

“Greenie…” Saying his nickname elicits this stupid smile on my face as I prop myself up on my tiptoes to reach his lips. “When I’m with you, everything is more than okay?—”

“Hazel?”

I recognize the voice and almost instantly, I feel an extraordinary wave of guilt rush over my body.

Hart.

Fuck.

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