The car drops us off at a house that is nothing like we expected: it is modern and architectural, more like a sculpture than a house, and it’s painted in bright shades of blue and yellow and pink. The front is made up of wood and rock gardens, with a smattering of palm trees, and it’s perched on a hill overlooking the…

Ocean?

I spin around and knock on the car window, which the driver slides down begrudgingly.

“Excuse me, sorry. Is this really where we are supposed to be staying? I thought we were going to be closer to the airport, not the water.”

The driver shrugs. “Casa Maya. This is it. I’ll be back in two days. Unless there is an evacuation. Then… call a cab.” And he speeds off. I turn and look at Daniel, who has taken the camera out of the crate and is filming me.

“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be filming me. You should be filming that terror that is bearing down on us from over the ocean.”

Daniel laughs from behind the camera. “You’re a hell of a poet, aren’t you?”

I roll my eyes. “Let’s just get inside. It’s getting chilly out here.”

I take the key Carrie gave me and the door unlocks immediately. This is indeed the right place. The house is just as unique on the inside as it is outside. The front door opens up into a bright pink kitchen, connected to a garden in an atrium. The dining room looks out over the pool and patio area, and the living room is connected to a second atrium filled with structural furniture and palm trees.

The master bedroom is all whites and lime greens, with a huge king-sized bed that overlooks the ocean. The piece de resistance is its very own hammock hanging from the ceiling. Under normal circumstances, the view would be incredible, but now it just reminds me that the storm is getting closer every minute.

Daniel heads straight for the shower, since we’re both still super sandy after our escapade on the beach. I walk over to the sliding glass doors that overlook the water, and just as Daniel is about to step into the bathroom, I call out to him.

“Daniel, hold on a second.”

He pokes his head around the doorway. “What’s up?”

Just over the top of the horizon, ever-so-slightly far enough away to be blurry, I can see something in the distance in the water, bobbing up and down, struggling to remain above the surface. I point out to where I am looking. “Daniel, what is that?”

Daniel walks over to where I am standing and looks where I am gesturing. He squints, and mutters, “I have no idea.” He slides the door open, and we walk out on the patio, and over to where the edge of the garden looks out toward the water. Suddenly, we hear a soft yipping coming from the ocean.

“Oh, my god, Daniel. It’s a dog. There’s a little dog trapped out there in the undertow!”

Daniel doesn’t even think twice. He darts from my side and over to the steps that lead down to the beach below us. I chase after him, but he’s moving so fast, I can’t keep up. In a flash, he’s across the sand and diving into the water, swimming out in such a fury that I lose sight of him almost immediately. My heart is beating a thousand miles-per-minute. All I can think is that after all this time, after him being gone from my life for so long, I’m going to lose him now.

I run up and down the beach, looking for any sight of Daniel, but he’s gone. I don’t even hear the dog barking anymore. My stomach drops down to my feet, and I have to fight back the urge to cry.

“Daniel! Daniel, answer me!” I scream as loudly as my lungs will allow. It feels like a million years have passed, when suddenly, I see him, in a heap, a hundred yards from where I am standing.

I have to fight against the wind as I run over to where Daniel is laying sprawled out on the sand, the shivering little moppet of a dog in his arms. I kneel down beside him, my calves burning from running in the sand, and I kiss his salty cheeks and forehead and lips until he laughs and gives me a gentle push away.

“I need to breathe, Anya. Give me a second.”

“You are crazy, Daniel! Crazy! You could have been killed! What were you thinking?” I almost start to cry with relief, but when I see the scruffy, tired pup lift his head and lick Daniel’s chin, I have to laugh. I reach down and give the scruffy dog scratches, then pick her up and hold her in my arms as I wipe sand and seaweed off of her fur. Daniel rolls on to his side and looks at me intently.

“What? What are you thinking?” I ask.

“Anya, while I was out in that water, there were only two things I could think of. First, there is zero chance this dog isn’t coming home with us.”

I ruffle its ears with a laugh. “Obviously.”

“And two, we should definitely get married.”

I wasn’t expecting that second part, and my jaw drops. “Are you serious?”

“I couldn’t possibly be more serious. Let’s do it. We’ve wasted enough of our lives apart. I don’t want to waste another second not being married to you. We’ll figure all of the other stuff out later. But as long as we have love, we can manage anything, Anya.”

I look into his eyes, and I know in my heart that he means it. I know that Daniel wants to be with me forever, and that we can find a way to make our differences work for the better this time around. We may have to make some compromises, and learn how to change for each other, but this time, for the first time, I know without a doubt…

Daniel and I can face down, and survive, any storm.