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I took my seat across from her, pouring a matching massive glass of wine that I most likely wasn’t going to drink all of, and held it out for her to clink hers against.

“To us,” I said.

“To us.”

I took a deep pull of the dark wine and sat down the glass.

“You know, I might actually get into wine one day,” I said.

“It’s fine,” she said. “I like you being a beer and whiskey guy.”

“Good, because I was lying, and I still think this tastes like dry sour grapes.”

She giggled and took a sip of her own.

“It takes a refined palate,” she said.

“Well, that explains a lot. If dinner was up to me to make with my palate, we’d be having cheeseburgers and beer.”

She shrugged. “That wouldn’t be so bad,” she said. “I could get down with that. What’s on the menu for tonight, anyway?”

I took a breath and closed my eyes, reciting the menu as I had memorized. She laughed at my performance, but when I opened my eyes, she had that glittery smile on again. I felt my heart return it tenfold.

“Well, that sounds amazing,” she said. “I’ll have to thank Randy.”

“Hey, I was the one to choose which of the menus to do tonight,” I said playfully.

“Well, then maybe your palate is better than I thought.”

“Damn right,” I joked.

“So what is all this about?” she asked. “What are you up to? Are you buttering me up for something? Some worldwide tour where you’re going to be gone for a few months?”

“No,” I laughed. “Nothing like that. I’m surprised you don’t know, though.”

“Know what?”

“Today,” I said. “It marks two years exactly since we met at the hotel.”

“Really?” she asked. “I didn’t know what day it was, exactly.”

“I remembered,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It was the best night of my life up to that point.”

“It was a pretty darn good night.”

“Anyway, the way I look at it, that was the night all of this started.”

“Not ten years ago?” she asked. “I thought that would have been the beginning, no?”

I shook my head. “No, that was a trial run. We were still young. We didn’t know what life was going to do to us, and we needed life to do it. I know how much I missed you, how much I wanted to find you again, but I am kind of glad I had that chance to realize what I was missing in you.”

“You really missed me that much?”

“Every day,” I said. “You see, every night, I had trouble getting to sleep. I’ve had trouble sleeping since I was little, but ever since you left that first time, it was way worse. It was like I was missing something, and my brain knew it. I couldn’t fully relax. So at night, I would lie in my bed and try to think ofsomething to relax me, something to calm my brain down and let me sleep. You know what I ended up thinking about?”

“What?”

“You,” I said. “I would let my mind conjure an image of you beside me. Nothing dirty or anything like that. Just you, under the covers, curled up with me. Your head on my chest, my arm around your shoulders. If I really concentrated, I could remember the smell of your shampoo. I could focus on that and how at home it made me feel. How calm it made me. And I would sleep. And I would dream.”