Page 46 of Unreasonably Yours
Cillian
The river shimmers with lights from the skyline and the bridge alike. It’s beautiful in a crystalline way that I’m sure Toni would love to capture on canvas.
Except she’s leaving.
It’s a knife to the gut. Twisting and twisting every time I think about it, made even worse by the fact that, from the look of it, she was leaving with that jackass.
I may not know the guy, but I knew people, and he didn’t deserve to be in the same area code as her, much less?—
And I did?
My breath forms a cloud as I force myself to unclench my jaw.
What he deserved and what I deserved didn’t matter. Toni made her choice, and all I could do was honor it.
I lost fair and square. Now I get to pay the price.
Pushing myself away from the wall, I stretch, my body stiff from being slumped over in the cold. I’d been out here for far too long.
I step onto the main sidewalk just in time to see a familiar car decide to stop in the fucking middle of Mass Ave. Horns blare and Lucy curses at them as, to my absolute horror, Toni bolts from the passenger side and across the bike lane, heading toward me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” It’s the most prominent thought in my head as I rush to meet her.
“You won,” she pants.
I take her by the shoulders, moving us beside one of the shakers. My mind is unable to register what she’s saying, too stuck on the risky move she and Lucy had just pulled.
“The bet,” she laughs. The sound instantly warms me. “You won. I tried to tell you earlier but...” She throws her hands up, moving further around the side of the shaker and away from the street.
I follow, half in a trance, because she can’t be saying what I think she is.
“But David showed up today and begged me to talk and everything was just so fucked.” Words begin flooding out of her a mile a minute, hands moving like she’s conducting an orchestra.
“And then you were there, and I realized I missed you so much more than I thought was even possible, and he was rude to the delivery person, and I didn’t tell you that I resigned my lease on Thanksgiving because we hadn’t talked, and I didn’t want?—”
I cup her flushed cheeks in my hands. “Breathe, Toni.”
She does. Those beautiful brown eyes are wide and locked onto me. For a moment, everything is still and perfect.
“I love you,” she says, with no preamble.
My body goes still. Some part of me is scared that if I move, I’ll wake up from what must be a dream.
Toni covers my hands with hers, pulling them from her face but not letting them go. “That’s not why I chose to stay. I...” She trails off, looking at the city. “I fell in love with this place, too. I want a life here. A home. One that’s mine.”
She takes a wobbly breath, letting go of my hands, to take a step back.
“And I want you to be a part of that. I want a life here, with you, so badly it hurts.” She shakes her head, looking anywhere but at me.
“But I know I am a fucking hurricane. I’m loud, and messy, and stubborn, and I can be unreasonable, and-”
“And I love all of it,” I say, unable to hold back any longer.
Her attention whips back to me so fast a few curls tumble free from her clip.
I reach for her hand, blissfully happy she doesn’t pull away.
“I love all of you, Antoinette. Every loud, messy, stubborn, unreasonable part of you,” A tear rolls down her cheek, and I gently brush it away.
“You’re a goddamn force of nature, and my life has been better since you blew into my bar and threatened to punch a frat boy. ”
Another beautiful laugh tumbles into the night air. “You’re fucking wonderful.”
I roll my eyes, pulling her closer. “I don’t know about that.”
She reaches her arms around my neck. “That’s ok. I do.”
When our lips meet. It feels like coming up for air, as though I’d been drowning in our weeks apart. I hold her to me, greedy for her, welcoming the world to see that this woman, this glorious woman, is mine.
The End