Jo-Jo: My God, I miss you. I can’t stop thinking about you at night, when I curl up in the world’s smallest twin sized bed in this dorm. The freshmen are slowly settling in, the sophomores are excited to reunite with their old pals, and our few juniors are lagging their feet, anxious to get the term started. The dorm is noisy, all the time, and it reminds me of the barracks back in the Marines. I’m finally at home here, but not home. Home was with you, Abby girl, you and Zoey. I wish I could take back everything I said, but is it really too late for us?

“Are we seriously going to an arcade?” I moaned from the back seat of Randy’s car. My finger hovered over the send button on my phone, but I closed the app instead. Abby hadn’t contacted me in three months, and I knew it was over. I wasn’t an asshole who didn’t know when it was time to get over it. Even as much as I struggled through it. Thank God for my new position at the school. Randy had been right: being RA was hard. Every week there was a new camp, a new issue, and orientation. I was glad for the distraction.

Now it was Sunday afternoon, the day before classes started, and Randy had asked if I was up for an adventure. I wondered what it would be this time: wine tasting, painting, or even riding go-carts. I had no idea he meant an arcade was an adventure. The last time I’d been in an arcade ended very differently.

“I am totally dying for Pacman,” Andrew, Randy’s boyfriend, said from the passenger seat. “And pizza. They have the best Philly cheesesteak pizza I’ve ever had in my life at this place.”

“Where are we going, exactly?” I asked for the third time.

“It’s called the Play Place,” Randy said, throwing me a brief look as he pulled into the parking lot behind a two-story building. “There’s an arcade upstairs with laser tag, machines, and this cool roller coaster simulator thing.”

“I’m not going on that again.” Andrew slapped Randy’s arm when we got out of the car. “Last time it made me sick.”

Randy chuckled. “It was funny.”

“Brat!” Andrew mock yelled at him.

“So, tell me again why three grown college students are going to a little kid place?” I complained as Randy held the door open for us.

“Just stop griping already,” Randy told me. “It’ll be good for you to hang out with people other than us for a change.”

I just chuckled. Hanging out with these two over the summer had been an absolute riot. I’d been dragged to every gay bar in the city, hit on more than once, and spent a day at the beach with a group of men who loved to show off every inch of their bodies. I was confident in my straightness, but I did have to fend off questions constantly why I was always at every event.

You see, there’s this girl I can’t quit thinking about it, and I’m not ready to move on, and around you guys, I don’t even have to think about it. I wasn’t ready to be honest, though, especially not to Randy and his friends. Randy and Andrew knew, of course, they knew everything, because I couldn’t keep my damn mouth shut, especially when I was breaking her one-drink rule. Nevertheless, it still felt a little awkward to talk about Abby around them. Hanging out with Randy’s crew, though, I never had to worry about an awkward female hitting on me, the buff, sexy Marine in the corner, though I’d had to fend off a few gay men at times. This summer had actually been a lot of fun, and I’d learned more about farmer’s markets, wine tasting, surfing, and how to cook the perfect pasta my mother never taught me.

I blinked at Randy as we stood in the foyer that opened to stairs on our right and a huge indoor slide and play equipment that reminded me of a fast food place. I got hit with the smell of singed pepperoni and spicy buffalo wings, but that wasn’t the first thing I noticed. At least three birthday parties were underway, and dozens of children, ranging from toddlers to teenagers, ran around like someone had opened an all you can eat sugar buffet. Three teenagers thudded down the stairs and jostled pasted us, causing us to back up against the door. They raced each other to the soda machine at the far end of the place, hastily, and quite messily, refilling their blue plastic cups.

“You mean you want me to meet a lonely single mom.” I eyed Randy, who looked everywhere but at me.

Randy and Andrew shared a glance. “Well, you do like kids,” he started.

Andrew glared at him and clapped me on the back. “Just go upstairs, buddy, and enjoy yourself.”

“Isn’t that what you said last night?” Randy whispered, but in the din of the place, I heard every word.

I laughed at them. “That makes zero sense. Also, gross.” I ignored them and took the stairs two at a time.

“You first, Randy, I like the view,” Andrew said behind me.

I rolled my eyes.

The arcade was much, much less crowded. Unlike the first floor with the slides and tubes and ordering counter, the top floor was split down the middle. On one side, teenagers, and a few adults, meandered casually through over a dozen games, some ripping tickets and others complaining about being ripped off. The other side held a small counter with prizes, a register, and beyond that, double doors with a blazing neon sign that read, Laser tag. On the very far end of the huge room, a looming contraption, like a wire ball with sides people were gladly climbing into, sat under the sign that read: Ready for the Ride of Your Life?

“What is this, the nineties?” Andrew groaned. “Laser tag wasn’t even cool in high school.”

“Whatever,” Randy said. “Come on, Joey, wanna shoot things?”

I lit up. “Always, bro!”

“I’ll just go order some food,” Andrew told us, kissing Randy quickly, before heading back down the stairs. “And then I’ll find Pacman!”

We let him go and checked in at the register for Laser tag.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for this,” I said as we stepped into the vaulted room. It was dark, and we were strapped with the strangest wireless contraption I had ever seen. What happened to the little gray boxes we had to wear around our necks? Now, it was just a little sticker with a blinking red light in the center of our chests. Even the gun had changed over the years to something much lighter and realistic, the plastic form fitting as comfortably in my hand as my Glock did.

“You better be ready,” Randy shouted, and ‘shot’ me square in the chest. The little stick on his counter rolled out a number one as he did. He ducked behind a nearby gray ‘stone’ obstacle and disappeared from sight.

“Oh, damn it,” I growled, racing after him.

Two older teenagers popped out in front of me, and I aimed, fired.

“Shit, man, you’re good!” They both stepped away as I rushed past them. Two more kids, much younger, tried to get a shot off, but I rolled into it and they missed.

An adult woman, flanked by a kid under ten years old, tried to hit me as I rounded another small obstacle, but I dodge them as well.

Up ahead, I saw the back of Randy’s baseball cap and I charged. As he turned, surprised, I saw he’d been shot six times. He may have aim, but not dodge, like I did. Of course, Randy had never seen combat, either.

He aimed and fired, but I sidestepped and circled around. From my hip I shot, then raised for another measured aim, hitting both times. His ‘kills’ clicked up to eight.

He ducked away, and I chased, landing two more kills.

After several more minutes, I had been shot once, by Randy, and he had been shot by me and everyone else over twenty times.

We made it back to the doors, panting and pulling off our gear. “Fun times, yeah?” Randy asked me.

“Yeah, but now I’m starving,” I said. “And I can smell the pizza from here.”

“Let’s go find Andrew.”

Downstairs, the place was even more crowded, and a fourth birthday party had moved in as another finished up. Three women and a man buzzed around the table nearest the stairs with several small children running around their ankles. Two of them with short curly blond hair each tugged at the man’s pant legs.

“Just a second, Sarah, Lilly, Daddy’s coming to watch you slide,” he told her. I watched them, a little older than Zoey I realized, but they still reminded me of her all the same.

“What time is it?” I asked Randy, too distracted to check my phone, as we sauntered past them. I ducked out of the way of a little boy who ran up to the candy machine on the left wall.

He checked his. “Just about two.”

I stared at him. “We were up there an hour? Seriously?”

Randy laughed. “Time flies when you’re having fun?”

“Jesus. I’m starving.” My stomach was rumbling, and the conflicting smells of pizza, salads, and sodas was killing me. “Where’s Andrew?”

“Could he be up in the arcade?” Randy glanced around, trying to see through the crowd. We got to the counter, but he wasn’t there, either. “Oh, he’s at a table. With some blonde woman?”

I followed where Randy pointed. Andrew was seated at a small table with a glass of red wine, opposite a woman who cradled a coffee cup. Her long blonde hair obscured her face from here, but I would know those curls anywhere.

I tried to stop Randy, who obviously didn’t recognize her, as he strode over to his boyfriend. “Did you make a friend, baby?” he asked as I trailed reluctantly behind him. I looked for an escape, but the place was packed. I didn’t have a choice.

“Randy! Did you two have fun up there?” Andrew grabbed his hand and squeezed. “You’ll never guess who this is. She’s the new prof they hired to replace the old one!”

I had stopped listening. I didn’t need to hear her name. It had been on the tip of my tongue for three long months. The woman looked up and her blue-gray eyes under those long lashes stopped my heart like the first day she walked into my history class six months ago. She was wearing a pink blouse with ruffled arms, and it was low cut, giving me a full view of just two parts of her I had missed dearly.

“Hi, Joey,” she said. “How are you?”

Missing holding you in my arms every damn day! My brain screamed. Instead, I clamped down on my tongue.

“You know each other?” Andrew said, blinking at me.

“Know each other?” Randy blurted.

I stomped on Randy’s foot, hard. He yelped, and Andrew glared at me. Ignoring them, I turned to her. “I’m good, Abby. I’m the new RA at the dorm, have been since June. I start university classes next week in case you haven’t heard.”

“Oh, wow, good for you,” she said, a half smile on her face. The casual way she said that to me tore my heart to shreds. She stood suddenly. “It was nice to meet you, Andrew, and enjoy your classes next term. I’ve got to get back to my daughter’s birthday party.”

Zoey was here? Where was she? I looked back to the group setting up, but in a sea of blond heads, I couldn’t make her out. I stepped back and let Abby slip beside me.

“Is that her?” Andrew was whispering to Randy.

“Yup,” he said, not bothering to keep his voice down. “That’s her.”

“Shut up, both of you,” I hissed.

“What are you waiting for?” Andrew said urgently, dropping his voice even lower. “Go grab her and pin her against the wall and kiss the shit out of her!”

Pin her against the wall. I winced, remembering the last time that had happened. I shook my head, trying to dismiss it. “No,” I said firmly, ripping my eyes away from Abby as she joined the circle of other parents. She beamed at them and laughed as the man said something. “I can’t.” The same man picked up a blonde girl, who I recognized as Zoey now, and Abby patted his arm.

Fuck. She’s moved on. My breath hitched in my throat but then came out in a ragged exhale. Well, that was fast. I guess I didn’t mean as much to her as I thought.

“Why the fuck not?” Randy insisted. “Just because she sent you away doesn’t mean you can’t rush over and sweep her off her feet.”

He trailed off as a commotion started at Abby’s table. The doors at the back of the place opened, and a tall man in military camo strode in. He looked around the room and finally spotted the man next to Abby.

In the screaming, yelling, running mess of children, I couldn’t hear a word he said, only saw him mouth something. Abby patted the man’s arm and pointed at the soldier. She took Zoey and smiled brightly.

“Rowan!” the soldier shouted above all the noise, and the man ran into his arms. Soldier picked him up and swung him around and they kissed fervently. I could see the two little blonde girls, too close in age to be anything but twins I noticed now, running up and grabbing the camo-clad legs. I barely heard them cry, “Daddy!”

Relief washed through me and I almost felt dizzy.

The soldier sat the other man down and they embraced again, and even from here I could see the man was wiping at his eyes. “You’re early,” he nearly yelled at him. “How are you early?” He slapped at him but kissed him all the same.

“Aww, that’s so sweet!” Andrew was standing behind me now. I heard him peck Randy on the cheek. “I just love happy endings!”

I was frozen watching everything happen, but my legs started to work before my brain did. I marched over to Abby, ignoring the rude ‘Excuse me!’ from one of the women she was talking to. Rowan and his soldier were openly staring at us.

“Can I talk to you.” It wasn’t a question.

“Joey, not now.”

“Daddy?” Zoey cocked her head sideways.

“Who is this guy?” The woman sitting to my left said as she rocked a baby in a carrier at her feet.

“It’s fine, Julie,” Abby told her. She turned back to me. “I’m at my daughter’s birthday party. We are about to light the candles on the cake.”

“Daddy!” Zoey reached out and flung herself toward me, kicking off her mother’s stomach so hard that Abby lost her grip. I caught Zoey and hugged her tight.

“Zoey girl,” I whispered in her hair. “I missed you, baby girl. God, I missed you.” I felt tears on my cheeks, and I didn’t even care who was watching.

Abby tried to pry her away from me. “Joey, you can’t just waltz in here like this.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw the man, Rowan, and the soldier standing behind me.

“Everything okay here?” he asked in a high, nervous voice.

I turned and thrust Zoey at him. “Can you watch her for a second? Great, thanks.” Grabbing Abby’s hand, I pulled her behind me and out the back doors.

“Joseph Harrison!” she fumed at me, her hands on her hips. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”

“First of all, it’s a free country. I know, because I fought for it. Secondly, well, this.”

I stepped closer and took her face in my hands and kissed her. She stepped back, her back hitting the brick wall behind her.

I fully expected her to fight me off, pound her fists against my chest, or bring her knee up right into my balls. Even if she did all those things, I wanted that one last kiss. Even if she told me, again, she never wanted to see me, that kiss was my very. Last. Chance. To show her I meant to keep her promise, that she’d let me take care of her.

And after this, if she still sent me away, I’d go. I’d never talk to her again. I’d watch her be happy from afar.

“Joey,” she murmured against me. Our lips were still pressed together.

Her hands found my waist. She pulled me in tighter, returning my kiss with more fiery passion than I started it with. Knowing full well we were standing against a building that faced a public parking lot, I let my hand fall from her face and kept them chastely at her waist. Feeling her curves and warmth under my fingertips sent a shock of electricity through me. Feeling her breasts press into my chest set my nerves on absolute fire.

“Don’t let go,” she whispered when I had to pull away for a breath. “Joey, please. Don’t let me go. I’m miserable without you. I need you.”

“If we weren’t standing in a parking lot, I’d…” I whispered in her ear and then I kissed it, trailing a kiss down the side of her neck. She shivered under my grasp.

“Zoey,” she mumbled. “I have to get back.”

I pulled away then. “Right, birthday party.” I searched her face. “Do you want me to stay?”

She bit her lip, driving me insane. I wanted to taste her lips again and again.

“I want you to stay forever,” she gasped.

“I promise you, Abby, I’ll never leave you again.”

“I promise you I’ll never let you leave. You’re stuck with me and Zoey.”

“Except…shit!” I ran a hand over my hair. “I’m the RA, I can’t just move out. I’m committed to the term.”

“I don’t even care.” She gripped my shirt and pulled me in again, kissing me. “As long as you’re not in my class, if you don’t even get to spend the night, I don’t even care.”

“I love that you don’t care.” I chuckled against her. “Mark my words, though, when this term is over I’m not playing house this time. I want to make a home with you.”

Her lip trembled, then.

“Abby?” What had I said wrong?

“I can’t…” she nearly choked on her words, “I can’t give you children, Joey, you know that, right? It’s just me and Zoey for the rest of our lives.” A tear rolled down her cheek.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I said, tipping her chin up to look at me. “I’ve been around the world. There are orphans and abandoned children in war torn countries who need our love more than a baby we could make. It’ll be fine, Abby, I don’t care. I want you, and I want to help you raise Zoey. Will you let me?”

“Yes,” she said confidently, throwing her head back. “Yes, Joey, I will.”

“I’m not letting you go again,” I said, dropping down to one knee. “I know this is crazy, and maybe stupid, but Abigail, will you be my wife?”

She gasped, sobbing. She couldn’t speak, so she just nodded.

I stood, feeling a little like a fool, and pulled her toward me. “I don’t have a ring,” I murmured into her hair. “I’ll get you one.”

“I don’t need one. I just need you.” She pulled back and grabbed my hand. “Come on, I’ve got some people you need to meet.”

I let her drag me behind her. I’d follow her anywhere.

Soon, she’d make the greatest promise of all, in front of our friends and family. Her other promises fell by the wayside at the thought of this one, this would be the promise where she would finally, after eight long years, be mine.