“Tell me everything,” I say as I wrap my hands around the warm paper cup filled with liquid wakefulness. After a few sips of latte, I’m alert and ready for this. “What happened between the meeting at Dr. Kent’s office and this morning, when you picked me up?”

We’re sitting in a small café in the passengers-only Departures area. Travelers and their wheeled luggage bags litter the spaces between tables. It’s so cramped here that my knees and Gabe’s touch under our tiny table—which I don’t mind.

My man—I think I can officially call him that now—is looking fine this morning. He’s even kind of pulling off that herringbone flat cap he put on in case he needed to cover his face when he picked me up this morning.

He’s lucky my mom was the one who came out to talk to him while Ray was dragging me out of bed. If Ray had seen him, he would’ve been recognized, cap or no cap.

I mean, just look at those intelligent green eyes and those prominent cheekbones. How does anyone miss a face like Gabe’s?

A few women have turned their heads as they whiz by with their big bags, but Gabe’s eyes are on me. He probably doesn’t even realize the kind of attention women give him all the time—that’s why he had no idea I had a crush on him when we were younger.

Those green eyes cloud over with pain. For the fifteenth time this morning, he says, “I’m sorry, angel. It still kills me when I think about how I just let you cry in that office.”

“I’ll have to admit, it really stung when that happened,” I say. “But that’s behind us now, and I’m sure you had a good reason, otherwise you wouldn’t be here in front of me right now.”

“Thank you for being so understanding.” Gabe smiles at me and strokes the back of my hand with his thumb.

“That’s kind of premature,” I say with a teasing smile. “I’m not saying I’m definitely going to be okay with whatever you’re about to tell me. If I don’t like what I hear, I could still get on that flight to Chicago.”

“I’m going to drag you to the plane, kicking and screaming, if I have to. You already said you were coming with me and there’s no turning back now.” Gabe’s smile tells me he’s joking, but there’s solemnity in the statement, too. He’s not going to let me go just like that, the way I thought he did in Dr. Kent’s office.

“Fine,” I say in mock anger, “just tell me what you thought you were doing.”

“To be honest, I had no idea what to do yet, when I saw you walk into the office. That was a surprise to me, too. I didn’t know he’d called you to the hospital,” Gabe says. “My mind was… a mess. You were waiting for me at home, and you were finally ready to tell me your secret. You even seemed distressed about having to hold on to it, even for just a few hours longer.”

My mind flashes back to that day. God, that was just yesterday, wasn’t it? It feels like it’s been forever.

“I knew…” I pause to reconsider my words. “I had a feeling that someone might tell you about me, and I wanted you to find out from me. I was afraid you were going to feel so betrayed you would’ve left me right away. Like you said, had you known who I was when we first met, you would’ve kept your distance.”

“And that would’ve been the biggest mistake of my life,” Gabe says.

I smile—how can I help it, when he’s acting so sweet?

“I was shocked when my dad told me who you were.” He studies my features. “I just… You were… When I left, you were just a teenager. And now, you’re… you.”

I find it unbearably endearing that he can’t find the words to describe me. “Thank you. I grew this—” I gesture at my face and my seated body “—myself.”

“Well done.” He grins. “So when you walked in, I was still in this state of shock, and I didn’t actually have any plan at that point. My dad literally told me, and then a few minutes later you came in. I’d had no time to react.

“But I knew two things.” Gabe holds up his index finger. “One, I couldn’t lose you, no matter who you were or what your name was.” His middle finger shoots up to join the other one. “Two, I couldn’t give my dad any hint that I wasn’t going to play along with his plan. I didn’t want him to quash my plan before I’d even come up with it.”

Gabe pauses as the PA system loudly calls for a Mr. Victor Smith to go to Gate 43.

“My dad is a spiteful man. And resourceful, too. That’s a scary-ass combination,” he says with a wry smile. “I was afraid he was going to use you against me. He could ruin your career, and I had no idea if you’d choose me over your career. I couldn’t be as selfish as to make that decision for you. I didn’t want to ruin your future.”

Warmth fills my chest as I listen to Gabe. The whole time, he was thinking about me, about how every little thing could potentially hurt me. “I do care about my work. But I love you more, Gabe.”

He stares back at me with bright eyes, grinning from ear to ear. “I love you, too. And I wanted you to make that decision yourself. That’s why I still have the Chicago ticket in my bag.” He leans forward over the small table and smirks. “But now that you’ve already said you’re staying, you’re stuck with me.”

In dramatic fashion, he pulls out said ticket for the flight to Chicago and tears it into pieces on the table.

“Oh, no. What am I going to do now?” I say with a flat expression.

“Ha. You should be scared, young lady.” His smile slowly fades and he continues his story. “So I had to take care of a few things first. I wanted to get a head start. And I wanted you to be in on it.

“Right now, my dad thinks I’m still at home, and you’re about to fly to Chicago. It’s going to take him a while to realize we’re gone.

“Meanwhile, we can take a leisurely stroll around the airport, or just sit here on our asses, drinking overpriced coffee. If he’d caught wind of my plan, he would’ve shown up here and done anything in his power to stop us from leaving.”

“Like what?” I ask, curious about what my former boss is capable of.

“I don’t know.” Gabe shrugs. “At the very least, he could buy a ticket and get onto the same plane as us. Do you want that?”

I quickly shake my head.

Twenty hours with that scary man who made me cry yesterday, in an enclosed space that could catch fire and crash at any time? Uh, no, thanks.

“Exactly,” he says. “He could follow us around, find out where we live, figure out where we work… He could do all kinds of things.”

I hesitate before I ask my next question. “Didn’t you suspect me?”

“Not at all,” he answers with full confidence.

“Why not?”

“I’d seen you struggle with something—some kind of a secret you were keeping from me. And I knew it wasn’t pleasant for you. It must’ve been difficult.” He smiles and stares at me like I’m something rare and precious. “You don’t have what it takes to be a bad guy, angel. You’re too kind. You couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Maybe.” I give him my best sinister smirk and raise my eyebrows. “Or maybe you’ve been fooled this whole time. You’re blinded by love.”

“I’m okay with that.” He shrugs. “I may be blind, but I’m also the happiest I’ve ever been. It’s a fair trade.”

“I could’ve been working together with my brother to set everything up.”

“But you weren’t, were you?” Gabe asks in a way that tells me the answer is obvious to him.

I shake my head.

“I told you I’d stick around no matter what. There’s no faking this.” Gabe puts his hand behind my head and pulls me into a kiss.

He tastes like caffeine, and a hint of nicotine. He only smokes when he’s under pressure—it must’ve been an absolute torment to get through last night on his own, coming up with a plan and making all the preparations himself.

“I should’ve been there for you,” I say, pulling away just enough to speak.

Gabe is barely two inches away from me, and I can feel his breaths on my skin. I can’t help but imagine those lips on my neck, on my tits, on my…

Obviously, I can’t just keep kissing him, or we’re going to end up doing something completely inappropriate, right here in this busy coffee shop. I don’t want to be dragged away by the cops for indecent behavior when we’re so close to getting away.

“Yeah. I told you. You should’ve picked up my phone call.”

“Maybe you should’ve thought up your plan faster,” I counter.

Gabe chuckles. “It wasn’t as easy as that, angel. It was really hard to think. You only have yourself to blame.”

“Hey,” I protest. “What did I do this time?”

“You made it hard for me to think clearly. I was losing confidence in my own judgement. I’m just gaining it back, thanks to the success of this covert mission.”

I giggle.

I’ve essentially been fired and probably blacklisted in various hospitals in San Francisco. As if that’s not bad enough, I’m turning down an offer from a prestigious hospital in Chicago to go live in Africa.

I must’ve gone crazy with love too, because it feels like we’re going on a fun adventure. Or maybe that’s because Gabe makes me feel so safe that I don’t even sense any danger at all.

“I didn’t do that to you, though. I didn’t do anything,” I say, still giggling.

“Angel, I made you give me a blow job in a hospital room, for fuck’s sake. When we were both supposed to be working,” Gabe says, lowering his voice.

I giggle even louder. “You totally did.”

“Let’s agree that I’m not the smartest guy there is when you’re involved. Unless there’s absolutely no other person who can do it, I’m not to be trusted to come up with important plans.”

“That’s okay,” I say. “I’m hoping this is the last such plan you’re ever Ghana have to come up with anyway. We’re not Ghana see your dad in Ghana.”

Gabe laughs. “Okay. I get it. It’s a bad pun.”

Bad pun or good pun, we’re too giddy to care.

As if we’ve inhaled a tank of laughing gas, we continue to annoy the sleep-deprived travelers around us with our excessive exuberance.

We only leave when we hear the announcement saying that our flight is boarding soon. With our hands linked, we’re ready for anything.