Page 109 of Penalty Shot

She stands there quietly for what feels like two hours. It’s probably more like twenty seconds, but the pause makes me doubt everything.

Suddenly, the sleek built-in shelves and the large modern desk feel insufficient. The hanging posters on an accent wall, the plush armchair beside a glass side table, the rug that Beatrice assured me “grounds the aesthetics”…everything blurs.

Elise turns around and I see the last thing I expect. Tears stream down her face and her hand is over her mouth.

“We can change whatever you want,” I state in a panic. “I should have asked you—”

“You did this for me?”

“Um, yes?”

“Why?”

I open my hands and shrug in a helpless gesture likeI think maybe I need a redo.

She waits for a real answer, which I try to put together. My words are scattered paper on a windy day, coherence beyond reach. I reach for it anyway.

“Loving you is more than just the emotion, you know? Loving you changes everything for me. Everywhere I look, you’re there, even when I’m missing you so much my teeth hurt.”

“Your teeth hurt when you miss me?”

“Everything hurts when I miss you. OK, let me finish.”

“Sorry. Although if you keep talking like that, you’ll never be rid of me.”

Well, hell, that’s the plan. Her words bolster my courage.

“When you’re here, the air feels different, the food tastes better, the bed is, well, the bed is basically heaven. So, I wanted to show that somehow. To give you a room for your work and creativity and relaxation and brilliance. I hoped, maybe, seeing yourself in this room you’ll see yourself in this home like I do. Because the day you agree to move in with me, Elise, will be the happiest day of my life.”

I stop, thinking I’m doing OK because Elise’s smile gets wider and her eyes flutter.

“I love you so much, Randall. You didn’t have to do all this for me to move in with you.”

“Don’t you like it?”

“Like it? I love it. It’s the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen!”

Elise throws herself at me. We kiss tenderly. When we come up for air, she wipes her tears away and holds my gaze.

“Yes. The answer is yes, I’ll move in with you. Not because of this room, although it blows me away. I’ll move in because the last four mornings that I woke up without you felt wrong.”

I’ve never experienced this floating feeling before. We’ve confessed our love for each other, but this admission from Elise feels like a miracle, a rip in the normal physics of everyday. I’m literally on air.

“Then let’s go to bed and make things right,” I say, eager to whisk her away.

I engulf her in my arms maybe a little too tightly. It’s the only way to be grounded. I’m still on air, but it’s her body and our connection that reminds me this is real. The woman I love wants me. This better not be a dream.

“Or,” she mumbles.

“Or what?”

“Or we can try some of this new furniture you got for me.”

Her playful tone is matched with a mesmerizing finger drawing circles over my chest and casting a spell.

“Yeah? How do you figure that?”

“This desk. It looks so, I don’t know, official.” She scoots her gorgeous ass so she’s half sitting, half hanging over the edge.