After three days together on a mountain, we returned to sea level, high on love and lust. True to his word, Theo had shown no signs of jealousy or possessiveness since that first night at Whistler. We got along beautifully, and that nagging feeling I had that this couldn’t possibly work was gone, somewhere at the bottom of Green Lake by now.

Officially, I continued to stay at Chloe and Ethan’s. Even though I never really wanted to leave Theo, I also enjoyed the kissing in cars and on doorsteps as we greeted or said goodbye to each other. I loved the little texts we sent to each other throughout the day, and the anticipation of seeing him at night. Being so openly in love in L.A. somehow felt even dreamier and more surreal than when we were on vacation.

We went to Winsome for brunch, sitting side-by-side, holding hands, and those waitresses who had always flirted with Theo looked surprised to see us like that, but not so shocked that I’d feel insulted. We met Ethan and Chloe for drinks at Library Bar downtown after work—our first double date—and it absolutely felt different than all of the other times we’d all hung out together before. Instead of feeling more grown-up, it made Theo and me act like a high school couple around them for some reason. We delighted in making Chloe laugh and Ethan uncomfortable because of our public displays of affection.

It was when we were lying together, wrapped up in each other in that hammock that he had set up on his back porch, while listening to the birds chirping and the small fountain gurgling, that I had felt so overwhelmed with pure joy and bliss I suddenly burst into tears. If I had done this with anyone else that I had been dating for a couple of weeks, it would have surely ended things. But Theo just glanced down at me for a moment, then went back to closing his eyes, and tightened his grip around me. “I know,” he said. “It’s good.”

Once I’d dried my eyes and calmed down, he removed his arms from around me, reached into his pocket, and then held up a ring so that I could see it. It was an elegant, wide sterling silver band with a matte finish. Simple and lovely.

“This is for version 3.0 of our relationship. It’s engraved on the inside…”

I tilted the ring so that I could see the secret message. This is real.

“You can wear this until you feel comfortable wearing the wedding band. In public, I mean.”

I slid that ring onto my finger and kissed him. “I love it. I love you.”

“Me too…Should we try to fuck on this hammock, or what?”

I playfully punched his bicep. “Way to ruin the moment.”

“Successfully fucking in a hammock could only make this more romantic.”

I waved my hand in the air. “I have to ask you something first.”

“No, I’ve never fucked in a hammock before.”

I covered his mouth with my hand.

“Something’s come up. I have to go to Cleveland next weekend, for my parents’ thirtieth anniversary party. Their best friends are organizing it for them, at a country club…Are you busy next weekend? Would you like to come?”

I removed my hand from his mouth.

“If you want me there, of course. I’ll come.”

“Really? Do you want to stay at my parents’ house with me?”

“Do they know about us? About what’s going on now, I mean?”

“Yes. I told them before we went to Whistler. Let’s just say they’re pleased. I wouldn’t want it to go to your head or anything.”

“Really?” He grinned. “Good. My Mom’s happy too.”

“Really? Good.”

He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it.

“So Andrew will be there?”

“Yes. I mean, I assume so. Is that a problem?”

“No. I’m fine with it. As long as you are. Have you been in touch with him? Lately?”

“We send polite birthday and Christmas texts. You know. Like old family friends.”

“So he doesn’t know about us?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I doubt it. I’m sure he doesn’t care, either.” I buried my face into his chest and we didn’t talk again for a while.

That nagging feeling that this wouldn’t work had emerged from the bottom of the alpine lake, crawled out and found me again. But I ignored it. It was the nagging feeling that didn’t feel right to me anymore. What I had with Theo now was real, and we deserved to stay happy like this for as long as possible. That was the goal, and whatever I had to do to achieve that goal for us was necessary and worth it.

That’s what I told myself—it was like successfully fucking in a hammock. At least one of you has to keep both feet on the ground at all times, and it’s important to stay quiet and maintain a sense of balance while enjoying the blissful, dizzying feeling of being so connected to someone while suspended in mid-air.