Chapter 30
Allie
I was sitting at my vanity when I heard Steven come in my front door. He knocked twice then let himself in, calling out my name as he closed the door behind him.
“I’ll just be another minute!” I called back.
He was picking me up to take me to his parents’ house for a family dinner. I was excited to see them in a less crowded environment. I loved his parents and hadn’t been able to get as much one-on-one time with them at the cocktail party as I wanted. I had spent a lot of time with them as a teenager. His mother had given me advice that helped me get through the ups and downs of high school. I suspected she had always known how I felt about her youngest son.
I rifled through the drawers in my vanity hunting for my favorite shade of liquid lipstick. I found it buried at the back and applied it to my lips. It was a bold, deep red that complimented the neutral eye makeup I was wearing. I had my hair in an updo pulled to one side with strands curled around my face. I was wearing a dark gray, long-sleeved bodycon dress and red heels. I knew Steven would like the dress.
I grabbed my coat from the edge of the bed and joined Steven in the kitchen. He was leaning on one of my counters while he waited and was flipping through a home design magazine I had left out. When I emerged from the bedroom, he looked up.
“You look stunning,” he said, reaching out to me. I took his hand, and he pulled me toward him. He ran his thumb over my jaw and then pulled a strand of loose hair from my face. “Absolutely stunning.”
“Thank you,” I said softly. “You look pretty handsome yourself.”
I wasn’t lying. He had donned a perfectly tailored black suit. The only thing he wore that wasn’t black were the silver cufflinks in his jacket sleeves.
“I have to try to look good if I’m going to be sitting next to you all night.” Steven chuckled.
We made our way out the door and to his car parked at the curb. He opened my door for me, as per new Steven fashion, and minutes later we were pulling away.
When we parked in front of his parents’ home, I had butterflies in my stomach. The last time I was here was when Steven had really started to pull away. I was worried that something might happen tonight that could change his mind. I had thought about it over and over as I got ready. Finally, I convinced myself that I had to walk through those doors and get through the evening. Steven and I couldn’t be anything if we couldn’t sit in a room with his family.
We walked up the path to the front door. Steven knocked. We waited. I was tense. Steven didn’t seem as nervous as me. I shot him a quick look when I heard footsteps in the foyer. He took my hand and gave me a reassuring squeeze. Maybe he understood how I was feeling, after all.
His mother opened the door with a bright smile. She opened up her arms and hugged us both before inviting us in out of the cold. She led us to the living room where the rest of the family was enjoying pre-dinner cocktails. Steven’s father was in his usual green claw foot chair by the fire. He had a glass of brandy in one hand. Andrew was on the matching sofa with his arm around a beautiful blonde woman.
Steven and I took our seats on the sofa across from his brother.
“Well, don’t you two look sharp,” Andrew commented with a smile.
“Don’t we always?” Steven asked, his eyes flicking to the woman under Andrew’s arm. “And who’s the new face?”
“This is my girlfriend, Hannah. Hannah this is Steven and Allie.”
Hannah smiled at both of us, and I smiled back. She was quite beautiful. Her eyes were covered in a shimmering gold shadow, and her high cheekbones were perfectly bronzed. She looked like a beach goddess. She was wearing a flowing silk sheath dress that was a mixture between gray and navy blue.
“Nice to meet you both,” Hannah said pleasantly. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Hannah is a florist,” Mrs. Marx chimed in. “She does beautiful arrangements. You should see her work.”
Hannah waved her hand to blow off the compliment. “Thank you, but it’s really nothing special. I just like working with the flowers.”
“Well, I think you’re quite talented,” Mrs. Marx insisted. “Being humble is sweet dear, but there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging your gift.”
I smiled. Mrs. Marx was the same as ever. She loved to give everyone her two cents. She was a ray of positivity for me.
The conversation shifted from Hannah’s florist shop to how things were going at work for me. I didn’t want to get into how much I hated my boss, so I left that alone and assured them that I was still happy working at the publishing company. Steven talked about his app and the near implosion of everything after it was hacked. Luckily, he had fixed the security breach and had only lost one investor. He was confident that he would be able to replace them in a week or two.
We made our way into the dining room about an hour after we arrived and tucked in to enjoy a delicious meal. We had honey ham with scalloped potatoes and tons of different vegetables. Food at the Marx home was top notch.
Dessert was a piping hot chocolate lava cake. I burned my tongue as I ate, but was enjoying it too much to stop. Afterward, we sipped on Irish coffees. Steven refrained so he could drive us home.
At the end of the night, we walked back to Steven’s car. His family stood in the open doorway of the home and waved goodbye when we pulled away. As we drove, Steven rested his hand on my knee.
In my heart, I felt like things couldn’t have gone any better. But I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a one-sided feeling. “That was a perfect evening,” I said, shimmying a little lower in the seat to get more comfortable.
“It was,” Steven agreed.
“How do you feel about everything?” I asked.
He looked over at me. He was temporarily illuminated by warm white light as we passed under a streetlight. God, he was beautiful.
“I feel pretty damn good,” he said, the corners of his mouth curling upward. “I’m completely in love with you, Allie Wright. I need you to know I get why you kept the secret to yourself. I understand now. And, listen, as long as you never keep anything like that from me again, I want to be with you. Not just as friends with benefits. I mean it. For real. I want to make this thing work. I want you. All of you.”
My stomach did a backflip. My eyes welled with tears. I half-laughed half-sobbed, and Steven looked over at me in horror.
“Why are you crying?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” I said, dabbing at the corners of my eyes and trying not to smear my eyeliner. “These are happy tears. I can’t believe it. You mean it? You and me, a couple?”
“I mean it. You and me. This is how it was always supposed to be, don’t you think? I don’t know why it took us so long to figure it out. But now that I have you, I don’t plan on letting you go.”
My heart swelled with joy. I couldn’t believe this was happening. As we stopped at a red light, he shot me a dazzling white smile. He looked as happy as I felt. I leaned over, laughing and crying at the same time, and kissed him. He kissed me back, and we only came apart when the light turned green.
The rest of the drive back to his place was the best drive of my life.
We arrived at his home well after midnight. We both kicked our shoes off at the door and went straight to the bathroom. While he brushed his teeth, I took off my makeup. It was such a mundane thing to be doing together, but it felt so good.
“This is pretty cool,” I said as I dried my face with one of his washcloths. “You and me. Getting ready for bed together. As a couple.”
Steven grinned and patted my ass as he walked past me to go into the bedroom. “It doesn’t get better.”
I joined him in bed a few minutes later after applying my face creams and brushing my teeth. He pulled the blankets down for me and then wrapped me up in his arms once I was under the covers. I fit perfectly against him. He nuzzled his chin into my shoulder. I listened to him breathe. I focused on being present in the moment: on Steven Marx’s arms wrapped around me. My boyfriend.
I smiled into my pillow.
Steven pulled me up tighter beside him. “This is good.” He breathed in my ear.
“This is so good.” I giggled.
“Maybe a little surreal,” he admitted.
“Isn’t that how the best things feel at first?” I asked, turning my head to try to look at him.
He planted a kiss on my cheek and pulled my hair off the side of my face. He cupped my cheek and turned me to face him. We kissed, soft and tender, and then he hugged me tighter. “Goodnight, Allie,” he said. “Tomorrow morning I’ll drive you to work. I’ll drive my girlfriend to work,” he added. I could hear his smile in his voice.
I sighed happily.
We had made it. Finally.
All the drama, all the bullshit, was behind us. We were taking our next steps together, and I knew there was nothing that was going to get in our way; not this time. This time things were going to work. He and I both wanted this, and we were the kind of people who would do whatever it took to have what we wanted. I think it just took him a bit longer to figure it all out than it did for me.
And I was okay with that. Because now he was mine, and he was curled up against my back. His breathing evened out. I listened to him fall asleep. I felt each of his deep breaths in his chest at my back.
I fell asleep grinning like a fool.