Page 61 of Hard to Forgive

Six Months Later

“I’d like to thank our amazing development team for the hard work they put in on this app,” Jacob Brighton’s voice boomed out over the microphone. Silas, Isabel, Declan, Lucas, Larry, AJ, Yvette, and I all stood up. All around us, applause filled the room. “In less than a year, they took this app from client concept to a go live.”

We stayed standing as Jacob extolled our virtues to the gathered crowd.

It was the official launch of the dating app I’d spent the past almost eight months of my life working on. Our past projects hadn’t garnered the media attention that this one had. I had never been invited to the launch of any of the projects I’d worked on, but then again, I’d never worked on anything this scale.

After Jacob finished his speech, a meal was served. While we ate, people from the client’s company gave speeches about the app and the future of their company. When dessert came around, a young couple that had been a part of the Beta testing came up to give a testimonial on how they’d found one anotheron the app. It felt a little scripted, but the audience (and more importantly, the press) seemed to love it.

The food was cleared and a DJ began to play music. People joined a makeshift dance floor. I watched as Isabel went to dance with Declan and Lucas. The two men were gazing lovingly into one another’s eyes, even as they included her in the way they moved. I hadn’t seen those two coming, but according to Silas, I was the only one.

AJ and Larry stayed at the table, sipping from their drink and talking with a few of the guests who’d been sat at the table with us. Yvette danced with a handsome man almost a foot taller than her. I hadn’t even known she was married until two months ago, when her husband came in to bring her the lunch she’d forgotten to grab when she’d left that morning.

“You wanna dance?” Silas asked, leaning in close.

“You want to go for a walk instead?”

The party was being held at this amazing venue in King’s Bay, an old brick building surrounded by fragrant gardens, close enough to the beach that you could hear the waves and smell the salt water. I’d always loved coming here when I was younger, never for events but just to wander the gardens. Once upon a time, I’d dreamed about getting married there, even though I knew I’d likely never be able to afford it.

When Silas had found out that fact, he’d told me that when we got married, we’d get married here. It was the first time he’d saidwhenwhile talking about our future. I remembered how safe that simple word, just four letters, had made me feel. Eli laughed at me, when I’d called him later to tell him about it. He’d warmed up to Silas over the past six months, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t still going to laugh at me for going all warm and gooey about a future with the man of my dreams.

I knew he’d meant it with love.

Silas and I slipped out of the banquet hall and into the gardens. I took a deep breath of the fragrant air, flowers mingled with salt water, and felt myself relax.

Silas slipped his hand into mine, and we started walking through the gardens. “I’ve been thinking,” Silas said as we walked through the gardens. “You said your lease expires next month, right?”

I’d mentioned it the week before, when my landlord sent over the new lease for me to sign. “Yeah.”

“Have you signed the lease yet?”

“Not yet. I was going to call the landlord and talk about the rent increase first.”

He knew this. I didn’t understand why he was asking me questions he already knew.

“What if you just didn’t make that call?”

“Then I’ll be paying a lot more and unless you’re convincing your uncle—”

“I meant what if you didn’t stay there,” he interrupted, before I could really point out the flaws in not contacting my landlord about the rent.

It took me a moment to realize what he was asking. I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”

“I am.”

That warmth that I’d gotten when he’d mentioned a future with me paled in comparison to the way I felt in that moment. I’d thought about living with him some day, but I hadn’t thought about it being any time soon. If I had, then I wouldn’t have been worried about the rent increase.

“It just makes sense,” he told me, when I didn’t answer. “We spend every night together anyway. Even Thursdays after you go out with your friends. I love going to sleep with you. I lovewaking up with you. I want a future with you, so why wait another year for your lease to expire again?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?” He almost sounded like he didn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Okay,” I repeated. “I’ll move in with you.”

I’d never seen him smile as big as he did in that moment. I’d never loved him quite as much as I did in that moment, when he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me under the moonlight in the gardens of the place where I one day wanted us to get married.

“Have I told you how much I love you?” I asked as I pulled away from the kiss.

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