Page 132 of The Odds of Happily Ever After
“Oh! Sorry.” I loosened my grip on his hand and returned to my question. “Did you resign because people saw you at the club?” My stomach felt queasy, and I internally cursed myself again.
Shaking his head, Gabe said, “I’d already made up my mind. It wasn’t a hard decision.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Well.” A corner of his mouth lifted. “It wasn’t once I identified what I truly wanted.”
I could barely hear him past the roaring in my ears. “And whatdoyou want?”
His eyes were bright as he glanced my way. “I’ll tell you. But first—we’re here.”
I broke my stare to look out at a small park inside what looked like an exclusive residential area of Sterling. “Nice place. Tell me now.”
Chuckling, he parked by the curb. “Hold on. There’s something you should see while it’s still light out.”
His words piqued my curiosity enough that I followed him out of the car. Hand in hand, we walked up a stone path to a lone bench overlooking the pond. The scene was picturesque on its own, but it was the tree by the bench that stole my attention.
It stood low compared to the other trees around it, resembling more of an oversized shrub than an actual tree. Its branches spread out wide, carrying armfuls of leaves bunched together like pompoms. Amidst the greens were bouquets of five-petaled flowers in gradients of yellow to white with borders of pink.
“Is that a kalachuchi tree?”
He nodded. “It’s the only one I could find in town. I planned to bring you here a different time, but since you wanted to go on a drive . . .”
“This place is perfect.” Smiling up at him, I said, “I’m glad you found it.”
He gazed at me, a whirlwind of emotions in his eyes. “Ask me again, Luna.”
Legs suddenly weak, I sat on the bench.
He took the spot beside me, close enough that I felt his warmth but not so close that I felt crowded.
“What do you want?” I asked above the pounding of my heart.
“I’ll start by telling you what I don’t want. I don’t want to lock myself away while I rewrite a paper I don’t care about. I don’t want to teach the same things all over again. I don’t want to continue acting like I don’t mind that other guys can talk to you wherever they want while I pretend you’re just any other student. Because you’ve never been just another student to me, Luna—not even when I tried to fool myself into believing it.”
“Why did you?”
“I told myself it was the right thing to do. People would think I was taking advantage of you, and I’d ruin both our reputations along with my friendship with Tala. But in truth, I was scared of my feelings for you. I was scared that it would ruinmeif you left like all the people I loved did.”
My brain worked on overdrive while trying to make sense of his words. I thought I knew what he meant, but the idea of it was so farfetched that I didn’t want to assume I was right. “So what changed?”
“You pushed and prodded and slipped past my defenses until I couldn’t hold you at arm’s length anymore.” His eyes were solemn as they looked into mine. Earnest. “You were my friend, and then you were more. My first thought every morning. The one person I wanted to share everything with. The only reason I would sign up for a long drive early in the morning and search an unfamiliar city for a drink I had never imagined ordering before.”
My laugh sounded garbled to my disbelieving ears. “You can just say bubble tea, you know.”
A smile flashed across his face before it turned serious again. Taking my hand, he rubbed his thumb across the back of it. “It didn’t happen suddenly—falling for you. I couldn’t have predicted it because I refused to let myself entertain the possibility, but part of me always knew there was something about you. That’s why I pushed you away so often. I wish I could take it all back.”
“We might not have ended up here if things didn’t happen that way.” That I could form coherent sentences amazed me. Everything inside me seemed to blank out and fill in at the same time.
“Maybe not. But here’s what I do want—I want to open my own office. I want to do the work I enjoy and have time to be with the people I care about.” He laid his free hand on my cheekand held my gaze with his. “But most of all, I want to be with the woman I love and for everyone to see how truly amazing she is. How amazingyouare.”
My chest seized. Tears welled in my eyes, distorting my vision, and still the image of Gabe remained plastered in my head.
“Luna.”
He said my name with such reverence, such awe, that my tears overflowed. The two syllables sounded like a prayer and a poem, and it felt like he wrapped my little heart in the palm of his hand and cradled it with the utmost care. I sobbed as a mix of joy, disbelief, and so much love burst out.
“Why are you crying?” He sounded frantic, his thumbs trying to stem the flow of my tears.
