I blush.

“Every moment I spent with you during that fall semester was perfection, and I lie to you not, I’ve thought about those times every single day over the past ten years, and I wish I’d been able to put my goddamn pride to the side and call you to apologize and make up for lost time, but I was too stupid. Wait a second.” He flips the post-it over. “I never stopped loving you, I’m still in love with you, and if you let me, I will show you just how much I love you from here on out.” He pauses. “I also miss fucking you. Terribly. I love you, Dean.” He crumples the paper. “Ignore those last few lines, I completely forgot they were there.”

“Yet, you read them anyway.”

“Only because you needed to know.”

“That you still love me?”

“That I miss fucking you.”

I’m pretty sure my face is bright red and I have no idea what I should say right now.

“So,” Dean says.“Will you take me back? Will you give us another chance?”

I don’t say anything. I let him stand there, and let him start to look absolutely nervous about the possibility that I might say no. I even take a step back for dramatic effect, just to mess with him. Just to get him to ask me again.

“Mia...” He steps forward and I step back again, and we continue this until I’m up against the wall.

“Are you going to answer me?” He’s looking into my eyes, impatiently waiting. “Sometime today?”

“I’m not sure.” I smile. “You’ve no doubt completely sold me on the getting back together aspect, but I’m not quite sure about the second aspect.”

“What do you consider the second aspect?”

“How badly you miss fucking me.” I manage. “I’m standing right here, and you have yet to even make a move.”

He laughs softly and presses his forehead against mine. “I was actually seconds away from doing that.”

He lifts up the hem of my dress, pushing it all the way up to my stomach. Then he covers my mouth with his, kissing me just like he used to, like he’s in love with me.

My hands quickly unbuckle his belt and pull down his zipper. He tells me he loves me again and again as he trails hot kisses against my neck, as he softly bites my skin.

I moan as he wraps my leg around his waist, as he pushes my panties to the side with his fingers and thrusts his cock inside of me.

He commands me to wrap my arms around his neck and then he cups my ass, pushing me further onto his cock. He says “I love you” one last time and then he fucks me against the bricks until I come. Twice.

By the time I come down from my high, I’m panting heavily and realizing that we’ve been gone for an entire hour. He helps me redress and I start to panic, running around the room looking for my heel that got tossed across the room during our quickie.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, handing me my shoe. “Why are you in such a rush to get back all of a sudden?”

“I only have twenty minutes left of the showing and it’s rude not to personally greet the buyers at the end, especially if one of them bought all of my paintings.” I pull my hair into a low pony tail. “I need to make sure I’m there to tell him thank you.”

“You can tell him right now.” He smiles at me.

My jaw drops. “What? You weren’t there at opening. How were you able to buy one of them, let alone all of them?”

He pulls me close again and looks down at me. “Autumn. She hung up on me five straight times, but when I texted her and told her what I wanted to do, she happily agreed to help.”

“Just like that?”

“No. She did the parentheses thing and called me an asshole, a douchebag, and threatened to cut off my balls if I ever hurt your again. But she did say ‘thank you’ for the purchase.”

“You actually have enough space to hang up all my art?”

“More than enough space,” he says. I have a new condo, one floor down from Eric all to myself. I’m especially interested in hanging the painting you did of us, the one that features us in three time periods: high school, when we were apart, and now, in shades of grey and white.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the title of it intrigues me and it fits us very well I think.” His hands are in my hair again. What was it again? Regret, Resentment, & Redemption correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct.” I say as he leads me back towards the gallery. “But that was a piece I just finished a few days ago so I can remember it perfectly, and you’re missing the last word of our title.”

“What word is that?”

I stand on my toes to kiss him and whisper against his mouth. “Rebuild.”

** The End **

Acknowledgments

First, to my best friend, the one who knows when I’m in need of a funny text, an encouraging email, motivational article, and sometimes a phone call telling me "Don't cry, I got you." She's "my person," like they say on Grey's Anatomy :-) Without you, Whitney, this book nor this dream would have been realized. I thank God for bringing you into my life those 10 years ago and I'm so grateful to have a best friend that truly understands me and whole heartily supports me. You're generosity and willingness to share the joy you've found truly touches me. I love you and I don't know how to say thank you enough, for all that you do.

Next, to my husband Chris for all his patience and support. He willingly spent many nights and weekends alone as I navigated through this journey. He never once complained and offered continued words of encouragement, inspiration and often times, plot points (sorry, I just couldn't agree with your "someone has to get shot or die" suggestion :-)). I love you and I have faith that this all will pay off for us one day.

Thank you to my amazing family for continuing to support me every day. Your encouragement and excitement really motivated my work. I love and appreciate you all.

Also, to the many people who saw me through this book, to all those who provided love, support, read, offered comments, assisted in editing, proofreading and design. Thank you, Evelyn, Rosalind, Lakeetha, Tiffany, Max, Thang, Cordney, my parents, Najla, Nicole, Caroline and Carly.

Last, but not least, to the readers, THANK YOU, so much for taking a chance on my very first novel! I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I wrote this book out of a love for writing and also writing a novel was an item on my bucket list :-) )

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