Where is she? How long does it take to get ice?

I want to fix her a drink. I want to get her into the shower.

I want to ask her another really serious question.

Finally, she comes back and closes the door behind her softly.

“There’s my girl,” I say as she slips out of my slippers. She smiles softly and comes over to the bed, snuggling up against me.

But her smile is not as bright as it was just a few minutes ago. It’s dimmed.

“Baby, something happen?” I ask as she puts her head on my chest. I can feel my heart beating, and I hope she can feel it too. She should be able to feel it. I want her to feel all of me.

“No,” she says, “nothing.”

“Okay doll,” I say, sitting up and bending my knees up under the sheets, “one of my hidden talents is being able to read people. So let me know what’s bothering you.”

“It’s…” she scoots away from me and draws her knees up into her chest next to me. “I met a friend of yours in the hallway, or an acquaintance or something. She was very sweet, but it just left me with an uneasy feeling.”

“Okay,” I say, putting my arm around her, “who was it, and what did she say?”

“I don’t want to say who it was because I don’t want to gossip. I don’t like talking about people behind their backs as a policy. But I just felt so...so far away from you, Liam. It just reminded me that all of this is for show. She said you’re not a girlfriend kind of guy.”

Fuck me. This is not happening.

My sweet Anna hurts. And that hurts me.

“She is right,” I say, “I’m not a girlfriend kind of guy. That’s why I needed to ask you to be my girlfriend. I had to put us on the fast-track.”

Anna breathes sweetly and nuzzles into my arms.

And I can’t allow this to go on any longer.

“Anna, please look at me. Come here.”

I guide her so she is facing me, the sheets and blankets swimming around us like we are on the perfect little bed island. In our perfect little world.

But it’s not good enough.

“What is it, Liam?” she asks, looking up at me with her pretty eyes.

“I wasn’t a girlfriend kind of guy. I like the attention I got from being perennially single. I loved it. Are you kidding me? Who wouldn’t love it?”

“I don’t think I would,” she says.

“You would, Anna. Look at you. You probably think we are opposites, but we really aren’t all that different at all. You stand on a pedestal and stand there with your perfect smile, and your perfect skin and hair and body, and everyone treats you like an unbreakable doll. Well you know what? Behind a computer screen, people look at me the exact same way. We’re both fucking objectified on a daily basis, we both pretend to be something we aren’t, and it’s enough. I’ve had enough of it.”

Her eyebrows rise slightly and she bites down on the corner of her lip.

“Liam, what are you talking about?” she asks, her eyes flashing at me.

“I am going to quit my blog. I want you to really be my girlfriend. And I’m going to ask my father if I can take over his company. I know it will be more acceptable for him to give me control if I focus on that full-time, and I know that the only way for me to save all those jobs is if I get control. So I’m going to talk to him, and tell him my plan, and tell him I’m done with being an ab model on the internet, and tell him that more than anything else, the most important thing is that I’ve found the girl I want to be with.”

Anna sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and narrows her eyes at me carefully, and leans forward.

And she steals a perfect, sweet kiss from me.

“You’re going to give up what you love?” she asks.

“No,” I say, my heart pounding in my chest, thrumming in my ears, making me excited and turned on and fucking eager for her, for the future, “I’m not giving up anything. What I’m doing is gaining something. I’m not losing anything. I need you, Anna. When I told you you were mine, I wasn’t kidding. I wasn’t pretending. I need you. I am absolutely falling for you.”

“Liam,” she says, throwing her arms around my neck, “I just don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. You’re mine now baby. For real. It doesn’t matter how it started. All that matters is how it’s gonna end. And you know how it’s gonna end?”

She pulls away from me, smiling, looking into my eyes.

“I don’t know how it’s gonna end,” she says, “so just tell me already.”

“It isn’t gonna, baby. It’s never gonna end. It’s me and you from now on.”