”You most certainly are, Lauren. Ya know, for a couple of dysfunctional daters, we’ve kicked ass in this dating thing.”

”Well, its easy when you’ve found the woman of your dreams.”

”Oh you have, have you,” she joked.

”I meant you,” I snickered and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

”Ha ha. I cannot lie, its true.”

”It’s true for me too,” I agreed. ”So how do you feel about the article?”

”I’m okay actually. I mean…it wasn’t really a secret that we’d been dating, but I am sort of happy its out in the open. I mean damn, look at you.” she laughed. ”And look at me. You did pretty well yourself. Winning!” She high-fived me.

”Oh lord.” I laughed along with her and shook my head. I was happy to have it out there too. I hoped it would relieve some of the pressure on her and not make it worse.

”What about you? Are you okay with it?”

”I’m fine. And last night went well.”

”It did. And Scotty held true to his word. This easily could’ve been, ”Bo Dennis and her lover cause bar brawl or some shit.”

I shrugged and groaned. That was true and sad and served as a reminder of the microscope I now lived under with Bo. ”But it didn’t. We’re good.”

”We’re great.”

We both smiled and went back to enjoying our brunch. Life was good.

XXX

Several Days Later

My limbs numb and my body heavy, I was stuck somewhere between sleep and real life. The crack of suns rays trickling in through the curtains pulled me from my dream state. Truth be told though, the entire trip had been pretty dreamy. The week vacation turned into ten days, much to Bo’s surprise, and I’d only called work three times, besting the once a day number she had her money on, though I’d never tell her about the couple of texts Bob and I exchanged. I could stay right here forever, but deep inside I was longing to get back to work. She was right that being idle would get boring for me, but time with her never did. I wanted more time with Bo. If this vacation did anything, it proved that we were good together in so many ways and we were both willing to grow into this relationship to make it stronger. Today I would pop the question. A huge step for me to ask someone to live with me, but I knew without a doubt that it was what I wanted. I was ready for us to take the next step.