Page 75 of Meet You Half Way
He sucked in a breath of air and exhaled before he looked up at me. “So, Glen and I had a long talk while I was in Sydney last time. He has jobs lined up for me in all parts of the world. Parisfirst and then Milan and then a whole heap in New York. Jobs a mile long. I could basically work as much or as little as I want.”
“Really?” I asked, smiling as that spark lit up his eyes like it always did when we talked about his modelling career. “You want to live in New York?”
He bit on his lip and I knew it was something he must have been thinking about for a while. “I mean, yeah, I do,” he admitted. “But you’ve thrown a big spanner in the works and I’m slightly less enthused about the idea of globetrotting than I used to be.”
“Would the idea of globetrotting be made easier if I came with you?” I asked tentatively, not quite sure if this was what he was hinting at. But then he smiled, that newly released smile that spoke of freedom and dreams and liberty and I knew I was right.
“Yeah. It would,” he said simply. “I know I can’t just expect you to drop your life and follow me around the world. But there’s a lot of money attached to these jobs with some of the biggest names in the fashion world who I’ve only ever dreamed of working for so money won’t be an issue. And Glen has an apartment in Manhattan that we could live in while we’re there. And I’ve been looking up the qualifications for Australian paramedics over in the States and it’s just a fairly simple visa application and a short training course …”
He stopped talking, eyes finally looking up at me as I felt my heart literally stall in my chest. He’d really thought about this a lot, even to the extent of researching how my qualifications would transfer cross country.
“I’ll follow you, Mateo. Wherever you go I’ll follow,” I told him, reaching out with my other hand to grasp onto our clasped hands, watching as emotion choked up my beautiful boyfriend.
“You would do that for me?”
“Do you really need to ask?”
“You know I need to ask,” he admitted, ducking his head.
“I know. I know you haven’t always had the love and acceptance you deserved or needed,” I told him. “But you’ll always have that from me. And if that means taking a shot at your career and moving to New York City well then sign me up, darling. I’m all yours and I’m all in.”
I swear a tear nearly escaped Mateo’s eyes as he pressed his lips together, trying to clamp down on displaying his emotions as we just sat and watched each other from either side of our table.
“I don’t know how I got so lucky to have you,” he said quietly, words barely above a whisper. “Before I met you I was drowning in heartache, locked in a job I was too scared to leave and hiding who I was from everyone I knew. You changed everything for me, Jamie. Everything.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I told him, bringing our hands up to my mouth and pressing a kiss to each of his knuckles.
“No. We’re both getting exactly what we deserve,” he said, a hint of that playful smile on his face as he finally started believing my words, the ones I’d been repeating to him endlessly in the hopes that he would finally believe me. Looked like I may have finally won him over.
Because he was right. We were both worth it. He was worth it and I was worth it. And now it seemed he finally knew it too.
EPILOGUE 1
2 months later
jamie
I was early but I never could help myself from being early for Mateo. He just had that kind of effect on me. I literally always wanted to be with him. Soon that would be our reality when we hopped on a plane for Europe in just a few days’ time, a reality I hoped he would enjoy as much as I knew I would.
We were starting in Paris first where Mateo was booked solidly for a month with photoshoots and fashion shows that he had been deliriously excited about when Glen had sent the schedule over. I admittedly couldn’t name one fashion house from the next but it was so nice to see Mateo literally buzzing with happiness. It just confirmed for me that we really had made the right call here with his career.
And with each other. That part I was very, very sure about and I was just as delirious about the idea of getting to wake up beside him every morning as I was about this crazy whirlwind overseas move we were about to embark on.
After Paris it was over to Milan for fashion week casting call which Glen assured me would be a shoe in for Mateo with fashion houses already clamouring for him. We were going to take a few extra weeks while we were in Italy so Mateo could show me around where he had grown up, including a week inhis home town. I wasn’t sure if I was more excited by the idea of eating my way through Italy or hearing Mateo speak his native language. Which still admittedly got me rather hot under the collar.
After that we were heading straight for New York and to Glen’s apartment in Manhattan. We’d committed to staying there for six months but I had a feeling we wouldn’t be leaving. I’d seen the list of jobs Mateo had lined up for him over there with fashion brands even I had heard of. That plus the ease of access to the other fashion capitals in Europe and I could see it was where he needed to be. And I needed to be wherever Mateo was. Simple as that.
Mateo reliably rolled his eyes at me which I now knew was his love language as I followed him to the kitchen, waiting as he added the yellow gerbera I’d just given him to the overflowing vase that was bursting with the colourful bunch he’d collated over the last two months. He’d had to keep throwing out the older ones as they dried out but there were still enough beautiful, vibrant gerberas in that vase to leave him in no doubt of my feelings for him.
Mateo’s eyes lingered on the vase, that soft smile playing on his lips that told me he loved his growing collection of gerberas, the ones I gave him whenever I saw him. Just so he never forgot how much I loved him. Turned out my boy was a bit of a romantic at heart. Well, deep, deep down at heart at any rate.
“How was your last day at the office?” I asked, eyes tracing the way his light blue jeans hugged his ass, that black leather jacket I had originally fallen for squeezing his shoulders.
“Good,” he smiled. “Really good. I think Lucille is going to be great and Dante already loves her. They’ll never even know I left.”
“Sure,” I teased, brushing my lips against his temple. “Dante will miss you and you know it.”
Mateo sighed. “Yeah. I know.”
