Leah
I finally catch a break and my boss doesn’t email me when she leaves for the day. That means I’m heading home as soon as I calculate the time it takes her to get to the elevator.
Three…two…one.
She should be gone by now.
I dart from my chair and make my way to the service elevator. Add paranoid to the list of things that’s wrong with me now.
A minute later I’m exiting the building.
I pull out my phone and tap on the Uber icon seeing where the nearest car is and the price.
“Share a lift?”
I don’t even need to look up. I’d recognize that voice anywhere.
I feel the hairs on my arms and legs that I haven’t had the time to shave for going on a week now stand on end.
As if today wasn’t crazy enough he just had to go and make it crazier.
“Xa…” I look at him and my words just stop. All those feelings I’ve ever had for him come rushing back like one of those summer storms that come out of nowhere and just surprise you…catching you exposed when you least expect it.
And I’m exposed all right. Emotionally at least. A tear streams down my cheek, but I’m not sure if I can hug him or not. I need one more than anything, but I don’t deserve one.
I don’t deserve him.
“You look beautiful as always,” he says.
He’s lying, or at least I would think so given how I look, but he looks so sincere and his comment seems so genuine.
“I don’t,” I say.
“You always do.”
He’s the emotional support I need right now more than anything and I can’t hold back. I lean in to him and his big strong arms immediately wrap around me. In this big city where I feel more alone by the day he suddenly makes me feel safe again…like I belong. And there’s no denying from the way he holds me that the man I belong to more than any is him.
“You didn’t make it easy to find you,” he says softly in my ear. “But I’m always up for a challenge when the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is you.”
I pull my head back from his chest and just look up at him. How did I get so lucky to find a guy like this and why was I so foolish to run from him?
He leans in and my eyes close. I feel his lips touch mine and we kiss, holding it as the world around us moves to the beat of the big city but we’re in slow motion lost in each other. The reason we live. To have that other person there just when we need them most.
And somehow he just appeared out of nowhere when I needed him more mightily than I could have ever imagined.
“Anywhere we can get a coffee around here?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say. He wipes a tear from my cheek. “Just a block away there’s a nice place.”
He holds out his arm and I’m quick to take it. He understands me. He really understands.
But will he understand what I’ve got to tell him when we sit down for a talk?