by Jen Stevens
She shakes her head at me, still not prepared to accept my compliments easily. It’s something we’ll have to work on together. When I offer her a smile as a peace offering, she stands from her chair and wraps her arms around my neck in a tight hug. I forgive her for every single thing she’s done. I know that eventually, everything is going to be okay between us.
***
I’m mentally and physically exhausted by the time Marnie walks me to her front door. She’s tried to convince me to stay multiple times, but I’m too eager to get back to Eli. For once in my life, I feel like he’s finally mine and I’m not going to waste another second squandering it. The walk across our lawns feels longer this time knowing that each step is taking me to the man of my dreams. When I reach his porch, he’s already opening the door for me, a silly grin painted on his lips.
“I was sure that she’d convince you to sleep there,” he greets, welcoming me through the door.
“She tried, but I wasn’t going to give up the chance to spend the night with you uninterrupted.” I try to offer him a sexy, enticing smirk but I’m pretty sure it falls flat under the weight of my fatigue.
“Let’s get you into bed.”
A loud squeal escapes me when he bends over and scoops me into his arms to carry me up the stairs. His brows knit together in playful warning, reminding me that his mom is still in the other room. I lift my arm to cover my mouth and quietly giggle as we ascend the stairs, but Eli pulls it away and replaces it with his lips.
Once we reach his bed, he gently lays me onto it and eases down beside me. We turn to face each other and stay like that for what feels like forever, simply staring into each other’s eyes. I’m still in disbelief that we’ve made it here. That he’s capable of looking at me with anything but disdain and that he finds me worthy of his heart.
I realize that I’ve misunderstood my friendship with Eli the same way I had with Marnie and I wonder how many other people I’ve written off based on pure miscalculation. Has my view of these crucial relationships been skewed my entire life?
The thought is interrupted when Eli’s hand moves between us and cups my cheek. “What’s putting that look on your face?”
I can’t help but smile, remembering all the times he’s asked me that same question throughout our lives. I’m not sure how I’ve ever been so stupid to have missed how he feels about me.
“Nothing. I love you,” I murmur before finally closing the distance between us.
We don’t waste any time tearing away any piece of clothing that finds itself in our way. When all obstacles are removed, Eli gets to work showing me exactly how he feels about us finally being together. It isn’t anything like it’s been the past few weeks, when he was trying to prove his point. He’s somehow even more generous with me this time around.
His tongue has made its way around every inch of my body before I can even get my hands on him. I’ve been brought to the edge of ecstasy three times and can’t take any more teasing. Once he hands over control, I’m eagerly grabbing his length and putting everything I have into bringing him over the edge. When I’ve done all that I can with my hands and mouth, he climbs off the bed and pulls me over to the edge, lining us up perfectly.
“You’re finally mine,” he marvels, gazing down at me in disbelief.
“You’re finally mine,” I repeat. I know exactly how it feels to finally be able to say those words. The obstacles that have been overcome to get here.
There’s something monumental about this moment together. This isn’t our first time. Not by a long shot. But it’s the first time we’re here without any boundaries or doubts. Nothing is standing in the way of us claiming each other and finally righting the wrongs that have been made. We’re no longer fighting fate, and it feels amazing.
As if he feels the shift happen right along with me, he leans over and places a tender kiss on my lips, and then gently pushes into me.
I know it seems foolish to constantly let my guard down around the people who have spent a lifetime hurting me. Between my mom, Marnie, Eli, and even Emma, I have every right to walk away from this place and never look back. But I've learned that maybe I've miscalculated things. Maybe Marnie is right, and I have been focusing on the many negatives in The Hollow to make it that much easier to leave. In my time back here, it's been made clear to me that my perception of how things have happened has been a little skewed. I've even been completely wrong about some of it. My own feelings clouded my judgement so much that it was hard to see the true reality. So, while the easy thing to do is write everyone off, I think the brave thing would be to hear them out and forgive.
Just as they've forgiven me.
I had an Ethics professor at Cornell who always went off on tangents. As a student, it drove me crazy. Why was she wasting precious class time to talk about her life or whatever menial thing she read that day? But now I understand that there were always life lessons weaved into her ramblings. Things that would help us far beyond studying any ethics case or cramming for an exam.
One day, she went on and on about sunflowers. She explained to us that through their early stages of development, the heads of the sunflowers follow the sun throughout the day, changing direction as their stem grows in different spots. At night, they reset and prepare to do the same thing the next day. One snarky student interrupted to ask what sunflowers do on cloudy days, when the sun is nowhere to be found. "Do they grow at all on those days?" He had wondered, a teasing grin plastered on his face.
My professor simply smiled at him and said, "Even on the darkest days, sunflowers are capable of finding the sunlight."
I think we all need to take advice from a sunflower and be sure to find the sunlight and grow with it, even through the darkest times.
Epilogue
Eli
One year later
“I think I forgot to unplug the toaster before we left. I should go back,” Lyla mutters from beside me as she reaches for the car door.
“It’s fine,” I chuckle, tugging her into my arms. “You’ve earned this, Ly. Give yourself the chance to soak it all in.”
She nods into my chest, holding on for a few seconds longer while she pulls herself together. When she steps away from me, I can see the determination set in her face. She’s worked so hard to get here and she isn’t going to let her anxieties get in the way.
She grabs my hand, and we begin walking toward the theater with her leading the way. As we pass a poster for her movie plastered to the side of the building, she stops to stare at it in disbelief. A couple in a tight embrace takes up most of the poster with the movie name, When Time Stood Still wrapped around them in a playful script.
“It’s still so weird,” she whispers, tracing her fingers along the movie name.
“It’s exactly what you deserve,” I assure, smiling down at her with nothing but respect. I’d like to say I helped her get here, but that would be a lie. Mouse earned this all on her own.
Natalie is already yelling when we make our way around the corner to the front of the building. It took me a long time to get used to her annoying bleach-blond friend. The first time I came to Lyla’s apartment with her, Natalie was waiting with an armful of groceries and a grudge. She openly begged Lyla to take B-List Brad back right in front of me before allowing me to introduce myself. Since then, our relationship has been rocky, but we’ve been forced to be cordial with each other, especially since I moved out here nine months ago.
Ma’s health was on a downward spiral and there isn’t a nursing home within fifty miles of The Hollow. Between that and trying to make a long-distance relationship work with Lyla while she came back to handle her career, the decision to leave wasn’t a hard one. We’d only been together for three months by then, but I had no doubt in my mind that she was the woman I’d spend the rest of my life with. We found a place for Ma that’s five minutes away from our apartment and I got a job right around the corner. And call my crazy, but I think Ma’s health has actually improved since we le
ft that place. There’s just too much bad blood in that town for anyone to thrive.
“Oh my God, Ly. This is amazing!” Natalie wraps her wiry arms around Lyla’s neck, effectively tugging her away from me. When they pull away, she grabs my girl’s hand and walks beside her, forcing me to stay behind.
I’m used to this kind of treatment by now, so I take the opportunity to search the crowd for Marnie and Denise. There’s a lot more people here for the exclusive advanced showing than we were expecting. Natalie wanted to fly somewhere nicer like New York or LA, but Lyla shot down that idea faster than Natalie could get it out of her mouth. She wanted to have something intimate and close to home, or nothing at all, so Natalie made it happen right here in our city.
I spot Marnie’s sandy hair from across the lobby and raise my arms to get her attention. She and Denise see me and fight their way through the crowd, their eyes ping-ponging around to find Lyla, who I now realize has gotten away from me.
“I can’t believe how many people showed up,” Denise marvels proudly.
She’s quietly been one of Mouse’s most avid fans throughout her whole career. I can’t imagine how happy she must be to finally see her daughter making something of herself. She hasn’t always been the most perfect parent, but I’ve seen her make an enormous improvement over the past few years with Marnie, and now with Lyla.
“I’m ready to grab a drink and a seat,” Marnie says, fanning her face with her tickets. She left the girls back at the hotel with Tim for the night, claiming she needed a night away from kids. I can see she’s taking full advantage of her time alone.
We head over to the bar and grab some drinks before following the herd of people into the theatre to watch a movie that wouldn’t be possible without our girl.
Mouse finds us just as the lights go down. She shimmies past the line of seats to get to the one we saved for her and politely accepts Marnie and Denise’s congratulations before turning toward me and tugging my face toward her for a kiss. When she pulls away, I offer an encouraging smile, grabbing her hand just as the movie starts. She pulls our clasped hands over to her stomach and rubs the small growing bump, secretly including our newest gift in her big night.
About the author
Jen Stevens was born and raised in Michigan, where she enjoys the weather of all four seasons in a single day. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree, she quickly realized the corporate world wasn’t for her and instead took on the daunting role as her daughter’s snack maid. Reading has been an obsession for a long as she could remember, while writing has always been an escape. Jen could quote The Office word-for-word and proudly refers to herself as a romance junkie. She could live off anything made of sugar and has recently obtained the title of Lady.
Most of all, she loves connecting with readers!
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