I woke up and glanced at the bedside clock. We had only been asleep for a couple hours, so it was only mid-afternoon. I didn’t want to wake him, but as I lay there, watching him sleep, I couldn’t help but touch him. He was everything I never knew I wanted. He was a genuinely nice guy, smart, funny, low drama, and great in bed. And loved me apparently.

Basically, he was the proverbial unicorn, and I was keeping him. I pulled him closer, and he sighed and snuggled in. I could have stayed here all day, but we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and I wanted to get this whole talking thing out of the way first so we could enjoy our weekend.

“Hey, babe, time to get up and go get some food,” I whispered into his ear as I kissed his neck.

“You keep that up and there won’t be any restaurant,” he replied as he pushed back against me, reaching back to run his finger up my thigh.

“Okay, enough of that,” I told him, pulling away. “We have food to eat and things to discuss before we do this again. I don’t know about you, but I want a shower, and then we can go down and see what we want to eat.”

“Yeah, I need a shower too. You go first and I’ll look online and pick a place to eat. Unless you already have a place you want to go.”

“Nope, there are multiple places to eat here at the hotel, and I was thinking we would eat in one of those tonight. I want to go walk down the River Walk at some point, but none of the things are set in stone, so if there is anything you want to do, just let me know.” I grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom. The whole hotel was amazing, and our bathroom was no exception. There was a huge walk-in shower, and I couldn’t wait until later when I could get Mark in this shower with me. And that train of thought wasn’t getting us any closer to the restaurant.

I finished up, put on a pair of boxers, and went into the room. “Hey, did you decide what you wanted to eat? I want to make sure I’m dressed appropriately.” I turned around and waited for him to answer. He was looking at me like he hadn’t seen an almost naked man in years instead of minutes.

“You look like you’re dressed perfectly for what I want to eat,” he teased.

I laughed. “Hey, you need something to eat besides me so get showered, and let’s go.”

“I thought we’d just eat at the Sternewirth downstairs. It has great reviews, and I think it fits the hotel. Anyway, I’m going to get ready. I’ll be quick.”

I got dressed and wandered out to the terrace to wait for him to get ready. It was a beautiful view. I’d had no idea that Mark had always wanted to stay here, but I could understand why. I owed Grant big for this, because I would never have thought of staying here if he hadn’t suggested it. I stood there and thought about the last couple weeks.

On one hand, we had been seeing each other for months, so this wasn’t moving quickly, but on the other hand, it had only been a couple weeks since that day I picked Emma up from Denise’s and everything changed. But while it seemed like things had changed quickly, the truth was I had been in love with Mark for months; it was just fear that kept me from admitting it to anyone including myself.

I was still afraid, to be honest. I wasn’t just getting a man I loved who loved me in this deal; I was also getting a beautiful princess, an ex-wife, and a Tom, whatever you called him in that scenario. I chuckled to myself. It was unconventional, but it worked for them so I would just have to find my place.

I was standing there thinking about how much my life had changed when Mark came out on the terrace to join me. One of the big selling points for the hotel was the view of the river, and it was breathtaking, but it had nothing on Mark.

He was wearing a pair of jeans and a V-neck sweater in the perfect color to bring out his eyes. As I looked at this man who had turned my whole life upside down, all the things I had been feeling lodged in my chest.

As he stood there in front of me, I had no idea why it had taken me so long to realize that he was so much more than a friend with benefits.

He was everything.

“I really do love you,” I said with so much emotion and wonder in my voice he could hear how much I meant it.

As he took in my expression, he could see all the things I was feeling. He walked over to me, took my face in his hands, and looked in my eyes. For a moment, he held my face, caressing my cheek with his thumb and to my relief, everything I was feeling was mirrored right back at me.

It was like time stopped, and I couldn’t breathe. We had already done the whole I love you thing, so I really thought we had already established how we felt about each other. But no, this was something different. Earlier, that was us admitting how we felt, but this was us making a commitment to each other. This was something so much more.

“I know you do,” he said. “And I really do love you too.” Then he kissed me, and for the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to feel someone else in your soul.

* * *

At first, when I walked out on the terrace, I thought something was wrong. Justin looked so emotional. Not upset really, but more like he was overwhelmed by his feelings. I just watched him for a second, trying to decide what I should do when he said, “I really do love you.” I released the breath I didn’t even realize I was holding.

I walked over to him, took his face in my hands, and looked into his beautiful eyes. They were so full of love. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening for us. For the first time, I understood what Suzie had been telling me all this time. This was what love was supposed to feel like. It was wonderful and scary and amazing and overwhelming. It was the reality that this person was more than your very best friend; this person was part of you.

“I know you do. And I really do love you too,” I said, and then I kissed him, not just because I wanted to, but because I needed to. I swear if I didn’t kiss him right that minute, I was going to die. Then I pulled him into my arms and just held him. He wrapped his arms around me and held on like he would never let me go. I didn’t release him until his breathing slowed, and I could tell he had pulled himself together.

“We should probably go get food, and I don’t know about you, but I could use a beer,” I told him as I let him go and stepped back.

“Yeah. A beer’d be good.”

“You look amazing by the way.” He was wearing jeans and a white V-neck t-shirt with a sports jacket. He looked gorgeous.

“You too.” He let his eyes slowly move over me, head to toe. “I’m maybe rethinking our plan to go out to eat.”

“No, you aren’t, Justin. We’re going, and we’re going now before I cave. You were the one who said we had to go out, so we are going out. Come on, the sooner we leave, the faster we get back.”

We headed down to the bar and had a beer and some food. It was the most amazing food, and the place itself was fantastic. We were seated in one of the fermentation tanks that had been turned into a seating area. It made it seem like we were the only people there.

As Justin looked around the room, he said, “We should come back here around Christmas. Can you imagine what this place would look like decorated? Have you ever seen the River Walk at Christmas time? It’s amazing.” And just like that, we became the kind of couple who planned for the future.

“I haven’t. I’d never been down here until I started coming down for the shelter project. I’ve heard it’s great though.”

“We have to come then. We could stay at one of the hotels farther up the river and bring Emma with us. She’d love the lights, and they have these horse-drawn carriages that are lit up. I’d love to see Princess Emma’s face when she sees that!”

“She would love that.” I just smiled at his excitement. It was like in letting go of his self-imposed rules, he’d unlocked this magnificent man who was full of possibilities.

“What?” he asked after I’d just sat there looking at him a bit too long.

“Nothing. I just still can’t believe all this.” I motioned around us.

“I know, isn’t this place amazing?” He looked around us at the beautiful room, and if he wanted to think by all this, I meant the hotel, it was fine with me.

“Are we headed out to see the sites or should we head back up?” I asked him when the waitress brought our check.

“I think it’s late enough that we should head back up and save the tourist stuff for tomorrow. Besides, I think it is chilly enough to justify a fire in the fireplace out on the terrace, so I say let’s do that.”

We paid the bill and headed back up. Justin seemed like he was lost in thought as we made our way upstairs, and my guess was we were about to have whatever talk it was that he kept saying we needed to have. It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but I also had a feeling it was important for us if we really were going to make this work. And we were going to make it work. I had no doubt about it.