Page 100

We run at each other like we’ve been separated for years, not a couple weeks. She drops the suitcase and gives me a one-armed hug, doing her best to save the flowers from getting crushed.

“Why do you have flowers?” I ask. “Aren’t I supposed to do that? Oh shit, should I have done that?”

She laughs. “You’re more than enough. They just had this little stand of them in the duty free area, and I had to get them because the pink ones reminded me of...um...you know.”

I squint. She raises her eyebrows up and down, and I burst out laughing.

“Hope Hastings, did you seriously buy a bouquet of flowers solely because they remind you of my vagina?”

Two old, very Nova Scotian-looking ladies give us appalled looks as they walk by, but I don’t care.

Hope shrugs and pretends to be coy. “Maaaaybe.”

I shake my head, still laughing and holding onto her. We should probably move to a less inconvenient location for everyone, but I don’t want to let go even for a second.

“They’re for you, but they’re also celebration flowers for me,” she adds.

“Oh yeah? What are we celebrating?”

I expect another vagina-related comment, but instead she beams and whips out her phone.

“Look at this!”

I scan the email on the screen. Her hand is moving around a lot, but I manage to catch the words ‘pleased to inform you,’ ‘accepted,’ and ‘internship.’

“Oh my god! Hope, you got it! Holy shit!”

We’re really making a spectacle of ourselves, but that doesn’t stop me from swearing more as I pull her into an extra tight hug. I knew there was no chance she wouldn’t get that internship, but she was getting more and more worried as the weeks went on.

“That is amazing! You’re going to be so good at it!”

“Thank you, my wonderful girlfriend.” She tucks her phone away and holds the flowers out for me to take them. “May these blooms symbolize the start of our reign as UNS’s leading power couple.”

“Oh, so we’re a power couple now?”

She rolls her eyes. “Duh.”

I hold the flowers to my chest and shake my head. “I fucking love you.”

We both freeze. My breath gets lodged in my throat as she stares at me.

We’ve never said that before. Not for real. I don’t even know if I meant it for real, but as soon as it leaves my mouth, I know it’s true, and there’s no taking it back.

“You do?” she asks, her eyes wide.

“Yeah.” I force myself to swallow. “I...I love you, Hope. I love you so much.”

She jumps into my arms, and this time we do squish the flowers, but that doesn’t stop her from crushing her lips against mine, over and over again in a dozen tiny kisses.

“I love you,” she says between each one. “I love you so much.”

I want to say it to her every night and every morning. I promise myself I will. I promise her. I pour that promise into every kiss, and I know she hears me. I know she trusts me, and I trust her right back.

She breaks away and grabs her suitcase before holding out her hand.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here, huh?”

I wrap my fingers around hers, and we start walking together.

* * *