When the food arrives, we spread it out on the coffee table in the living room. Cole pours us each a glass of the prosecco he found in my fridge; Evie left a bottle when she and the girls came over last week.
He hands me a full glass and raises the other in my direction. “To you, Sylvie, on your thirty-fifth birthday. I’m so honored I get to spend it with you, and even more honored the universe saw fit to bring us together once again. I hope the year ahead is full of love and magic and serendipity.”
My eyes sting at his heartfelt words. We clink our glasses together and share a quick kiss before sipping the wine. The bubbles help loosen the thickness in my throat. “Please assure me this is real,” I say. “And that you’re going to be part of the love and magic in the year ahead.”
“I am. I absolutely am.” He sets his glass down and hands me one of the takeout containers, motioning for me to start filling my plate. “The short version and the most important part is that I have a job and an apartment in Bellevue.”
My eyes bug. “Wow, okay. Long version, please.”
He chuckles. “I was enjoying my job, but something about it felt…hollow. I knew I should be loving all the traveling and meeting new people since it was what I’d always wanted, but I was lonely. Every once in a while, I’d look at job listings online, mostly in Toronto, but occasionally in Bellevue too. Last month, there was a listing for a job at the Village. They were looking for someone with writing and photography experience to run their blog and social media accounts. My initial reaction was that I was overqualified, but when I checked out the site and their socials, I was blown away. Whoever had the job before was clearly a professional. I used my connections to contact Hugh MacKinnon personally.”
“Impressive,” I say. Hugh MacKinnon is the owner of Bellevue Village, and he’s also a wealthy philanthropist. He’s the one who hand selected me last year for the job working in the Village’s new family support center.
“Hugh himself is an impressive man,” Cole says. “I was actually scared shitless when I got him on the phone, but he treated me like a long-lost friend. He invited me up to Bellevue to interview me personally. We spent an hour talking about travel and family, and then he told me I had the job and offered to help me find an apartment.”
Laughter spills out of me. I’m not quite sure why—shock, delight, disbelief. One corner of Cole’s mouth twitches and he nods his head as if he completely understands.
“I officially start work the first week of January,” he says. “I moved into my apartment last week, and get this: Stella and Evie live down the hall.”
I nearly choke on the bite of food I’ve just taken. “You’re kidding!”
“The day I moved in, I dropped something and it rolled down the hall. Stella was coming out of her apartment and she grabbed it. As she was handing it to me, she froze and called me by my name. She said she recognized me from photos you showed her of our time together last year.”
My cheeks burn, even though a voice in my head points out I shouldn’t be embarrassed because otherwise Stella never would have recognized Cole. “So were you hoping you’d run into me eventually or…?”
“I wanted to get settled before I tracked you down. Everything happened so fast, and I didn’t want to freak you out or make you feel pressured, especially if you happened to be dating someone. When I ran into Stella, she asked me a million questions and then I asked some of my own. She said you were still single and she knew you still cared about me, then she invited me to your birthday lunch and said it would be, and I quote, ‘the best surprise ever’.”
Tears sting my eyes, and I let out a shaky laugh. “It was the best surprise ever. Won’t you miss traveling, though? And your family?”
“My brother and niece moved to Kingston earlier this year, so I’m actually a lot closer to them now than I was in Toronto. Them leaving added to my loneliness, especially not having my niece around. As for traveling, I can still do that, but now it’ll be for fun instead of for work. There were some assignments where I got to see an entire area without really enjoying it because I was taking pictures and jotting notes the whole time. Now I can travel when and where I want to, and hopefully I won’t have to do it alone.”
“You’ve got it all figured out.” My voice is quiet, but even I can hear the note of awe in it.
“Almost,” he says. “I just need one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Tell me you’ll be part of my fresh start,” he says. “Tell me we can figure out a life together without a countdown clock and impending goodbyes hanging over our heads. One where we never have to say goodbye to each other again.”
The tears that were stinging my eyes before slip down my cheeks now. Cole’s forehead creases as he reaches out to swipe them away with his thumb. I grab his hand and use it to pull myself closer to him, swinging one leg over his lap so I’m straddling him.
“I never told you this, but I ran into Santa Elvis that night in the bar when I went to the bathroom. He told me to make a wish and then I made another wish later when you presented me with that cupcake. Do you want to know what I wished for?”
He nods slowly.
“One wish was to have an amazing year, which I did. The other wish was for this.” I squeeze his shoulders. “I mean, not this exactly, but…this. I wished for a happily ever after, whatever it may look like, and I know in my heart this is it. You’re it.”
For a second I worry it’s too much pressure to put on him. We haven’t even exchanged I love yous yet, and here I am telling him with complete assurance I think he’s my happily ever after. But his face breaks into a slow smile that warms me from the inside out.
“Well…serendipity did work really hard to bring us together,” he says, his words slow and thoughtful. “Seems rude not to strive for a happily ever after now.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.” I was aiming for a breezy tone, but my voice comes out high and shaky before giddy laughter spills from my lips.
Cole covers my mouth with his, swallowing my giggles along with the moan that escapes when his hands slide up my thighs to cup my bare ass under my robe. “Should we start making up for lost time?”
“Probably a good idea,” I murmur, brushing my nose against his and slipping my hands inside his robe where it gapes open at the chest. “We both have the rest of the year off from work, right? I bet we could make a lot of great new memories together in that time.”
“I like the way you think, Sylvie Bell.”