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“Here you go.” The concierge hands me a small box, which was delivered while I was at work.
“Thank you.”
I know exactly what this is.
It’s the U-shaped vibrator I ordered for Valerie.
I haven’t seen her since last week. I’ve been giving her the space she requested and hoping, every day when I come home from work, that she’ll be in my apartment—either in the bathtub with a glass of wine or...
Hell, I don’t care, as long as she’s there.
I take the elevator up to my floor, snickering as I look at the box.
God, I miss her.
I put my key in the lock and turn it, and when I step inside, something seems different. Smells different.
I glance toward the kitchen, and my mouth falls open. There’s food on every inch of the table and covering half the counter. That must mean...
“Hey.” Valerie steps out from my bedroom. “You’re home early.”
I take off my boots and walk toward her. “You’re here.”
“I’m here.”
We’re quiet for a moment.
Valerie is wearing a light blue blouse and gray pants. She’s a little more dressed up than usual, and she’s utterly lovely of course.
“I got a job,” she says. “I start in two weeks.”
“That’s amazing!”
“It’s with Josh’s company. I had an interview this morning, and he was impressed with what I’d done before. It’ll be a little work to get back into it, but...” She grins. “I’m thrilled.”
I lift her off the ground and spin her around.
When I set her down, my heart is beating rapidly. Not from the exertion of lifting her up, but because she hasn’t said anything about us yet.
But she’s here, in my apartment.
She brushes her fingers over my forehead. “You had some dirt there.”
“I was saving it for you. Sexy, isn’t it?”
She laughs, and then her expression sobers. “I’m sorry I put you through that break. After my interview, I realized something.” She swallows. “I thought I had to be perfect to be with you.”
I frown. “I don’t have a fancy job, or make a lot of money, or—”
“I don’t care about those things, and I always liked how you’re secure in who you are. Don’t start lacking in confidence now.”
“I’m not.” I mean, the greatest woman in the world has come back me. I’m feeling pretty good about myself.
“What I’m trying to say, Peter.” She twists her hands together. “Is that you’re just right for me. From the very beginning, you’ve been so good to me. I don’t really believe in things like fate, but I’d just made up a boyfriend named Peter to please my mother, and then you showed up and agreed to my ridiculous fake-boyfriend proposal.”
“I already liked you. I asked you out first.”
“And I shot you down.”
“Yeah, and I jumped at the chance to get to know you better. It was only sensible.”
She puts her hands on my shoulders. “You’ve helped me feel like myself again. You’ve helped me feel again, because when I’m with you, I’m safe; I can handle anything. Every moment we’ve spent together, whether I was chasing you around with a durian bun or dancing with you in a bar...I loved all of it.
“Although I was scared because of what my other relationship was like, I was also overwhelmed, since this is so different from what I experienced before. A part of me thought I had to be some perfect version of myself before I could tell you how I feel, because you’re so perfect for me. But I already am that person when I’m with you, regardless of whether or not I have my perfect life. From now on, I want us to be together.”
I clear my throat. “That’s lucky,” I say, my voice a bit rough, “because that’s what I want, too. I want to be with you when it’s good, and when it’s bad. I don’t want you to feel like you have to take a break from me so you can figure things out on your own. I’m with you, every step of the way. I know you’re going to do amazing things in life, but I also know that not everything will go exactly the way you want it—there are always stumbling blocks. Whatever happens, I admire you so much.”
“I didn’t think I could do this again,” she whispers. “A boyfriend—I didn’t even want to think about it, and I couldn’t imagine trying to go back to software development. But you made it possible. The way you make me feel...” She shakes her head. “I love you, Peter. I realized it the last time I saw you, and it made me want to run, but I can say it now. I love you. It still scares me a little, but I’m getting used to it, and like I said, you make me feel safe. Although that might sound like no big deal, for me, it’s everything. I think I needed the fake relationship to ease myself into the idea, but it’s very real now, and I’m happy.”
I touch her tear-stained cheeks and her lips, curved up in a tentative smile.
“I’m glad,” I say. “I love you, too. And I have something for you.”
I hurry to my bedroom and return with my recent purchase in my fist. I open my hand slowly, revealing the ring. It’s not too fancy—it’s white gold, with a few tiny diamonds.
“Peter!”
“It’s a promise ring, something I’ve never given to a woman before. But you and your inexplicable love for durian make me feel something I’ve never felt in a past relationship. It’s like all my previous relationships were practice for this one. I know I want it to last.”
I hold up the ring, and when she nods, I slide it onto her ring finger.
“Thank you.” She wipes more tears from her cheeks. “My God, this isn’t like me.”
“I’m here for every version of you.”
And then, because I can’t wait any longer, I kiss her.
We were already standing so close, but now I wrap my arms around her, and she squeaks as I lift her up and kiss her lips. A kiss that I hope says “I love you,” and so many other things I can’t articulate.
“Alright,” she says, breathless as I set her down, “we should eat some of this food.”
“I did notice there was an awful lot of food.”
“I tried to buy everything we’ve eaten together.” She frowns. “Maybe it’s excessive—I don’t know how to do romantic gestures—but we can eat the leftovers for the next week. I’ll stay here with you, if that’s okay. I brought my suitcase.” She gestures to the corner.
I clasp her hand in mine as we walk to the kitchen. There’s Japanese cheesecake, potato pancake with kimchi jjigae, pupusas, flourless chocolate cake, lamb skewers, noodles ...
So many memories run through my mind as I look at all the food.
And then there’s a durian bun.
“I’ll let you eat that one by yourself,” I say.
Valerie and I are very different, and not just in our feelings about durian. I’m easygoing; she’s more intense. She’s an introvert; I’m an extrovert. She has a career that means a lot to her; I just want a job with a decent salary that allows me to live my life.
But we fit together wonderfully. We complement each other.
“There’s also ice cream in the fridge,” she says. “Just stuff from Ginger Scoops. No Thai rolled ice cream.”
“I went to that place the other day,” I admit. “Because I missed you so much.”
“Oh, Peter. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. You told me you’d come back to me, and you did.”
I fill my plate with noodles and pupusas, and as we eat, we talk about the future.
“I’m going to move out,” Valerie says. “I’ll start looking for apartments right away and hopefully find something in the next month or two.”
“You could live with me.”
“I figured you might say that.” She stuffs some potato pancake in her mouth. “But I’ve never lived alone, and I want to do that for at least a year. Then maybe we can think about getting a place together, something a little bigger than this.”
“Sure.” I smile at her. “We should probably also think about telling your family that I’m not a doctor.”
“Oh, my mom already knows. She came home from mahjong at two in the morning, yelling about how you’d been lying to me. You know how her friend’s niece was in your supposed year in med school? Well, she asked around, and nobody knew a Peter So, and she found your profile on Facebook.” She pauses. “For a while, I was convinced there had to be something wrong with you. After everything that happened to me last year, this seemed too amazing to be real. That’s why I wanted to talk to Deepti alone, but she said you were a good guy. When my mom said you were lying...I figured, that was it. But it was just the lie about you being a pediatrician, which I told you to do.”
“How did she react?”
“Well, she was glad you hadn’t been lying to me. She’d probably like you a tiny bit more if you were actually a pediatrician, but she’s happy for me.” Valerie squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry I doubted you. It had nothing to do with how you’ve acted with me. I just...”
“I understand. I admit I was a bit annoyed after you talked to Deepti, but I knew why you were doing it.”
She squeezes my hand again. “This isn’t too amazing to be real, and I can accept that now, I promise. I trust you. It’s difficult for me, but I do. When I spilled my durian ice cream on you, I never would have imagined this happening.”
Yes, it turns out that durian—specifically, durian ice cream—can lead to something great. Perhaps it’s not my nemesis after all.
I agreed to her fake-boyfriend plan partly for the novelty of it, and I got way more than that, though I did get a great story, too. One day I’ll tell it at our wedding, but there’s still some time before we get to that point.
I look at Valerie, with her glorious smile and her long dark hair framing her face, and I’m blown away by how lucky I am.
I think it might be time to show her...in bed.
She squeezes my hand. “By the way, what was in the box you were carrying when you came in?”
“Ah. Perfect timing, actually.” I grab the box from the hall and open it up. There’s another box inside.
“The vibrator!” She puts her hands to her mouth. “I’d totally forgotten.”
“Want to try it out now?”
She glances at all the food on the table. “Well...”
“We can have dessert afterward.”
“Good idea.
“We can alternate between sex and dessert all night. One orgasm, then a slice of Japanese cheesecake. Two more orgasms, then a durian bun for you—and flourless chocolate cake for me. Another orgasm...”
She kisses me on the lips and leads me to the bedroom, where I make quick work of her clothes and give her all the pleasure I can.
She’s mine, and I’m hers, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.