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I unlock the door and follow her inside my place.

The dread, loneliness and misery I felt in her absence are all gone.

She’s back and the connection, the aura, my heart is whole again.

She lowers her purse to the kitchen counter and walks up to me with her hands in the air so I can pick her up.

I acquiesce. She closes her legs around me.

Her arms circle around my neck. She kisses me softly on the lips.

She leaves her softness all over my face.

I walk to my bedroom and lower her there, anxious to have her back in my arms. I settle on top of her and indulge in her lips – in the taste I love.

I pull back, my eyes lingering upon her as if I’m seeing her for the first time, and say, “I love you.”

“I love you.”

She doesn’t know how much her words mean to me. How much she means to me. I thought for sure she wouldn’t want me after she found out about my inadequacies, but she loves me in spite of them. I should’ve known she would.

I lie next to her and pull her close so we’re face to face, then I tell her, “I was miserable without you. I never want to know that feeling again.”

She strokes my beard and says, “I was in a bad way without you. The only reason I went on that date is because Riley suggested I go out with him to get over you, but the whole time we were chatting, I was thinking about you.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“I was. He asked me what I look for in a man. Your face appeared in my mind, and when I answered him, everything I said was everything that you are.”

“She leans forward, presses her lips to mine, and says, “You are everything I want in a man. Everything.”

I’m all smiles as I listen to her kind words. I ask, “How did this happen?”

“How did what happen?”

“Us.”

“It’s your fault, Judah.”

“How?”

“Ice cream, that’s how.”

“You’ve changed my entire life.”

She climbs on top of me and says, “You’ve changed mine, too, and I’m never letting you go again, even if I have to fight you.”

“You won’t have to. I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours forever.”