It almost an hour later before Cleo came down the hallway, dressed in one of my t-shirts that she’d pulled out of my drawer. It reached her knees, was baggy around her torso, but her long and toned legs made up for the oversize fit.
She’d washed off her makeup and put it on fresh, even though she didn’t usually apply her makeup first thing in the morning. Her hands moved to my shoulders, and she stood behind me, her hands massaging the muscle. “Morning.”
I leaned my head back so I could look up at her. “Morning, baby.”
She leaned down and gave me a kiss on the lips before she walked into the kitchen.
My eyes watched her walk away, loving the sight of her in my condo in the morning. The natural light came through the windows and illuminated her beautiful skin like she was a goddamn angel.
“I’m going to make breakfast. Is that okay?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m gonna make waffles and tots.”
That was our new tradition on the weekends—to eat like shit. I didn’t even usually eat breakfast, but I’d started to bend the rules the more often she stayed. I didn’t think it would hurt to break my diet two times out of the week. “Alright.”
“With a bunch of syrup…”
“Put mine on the side.”
I heard her start to move the pans around as she worked.
I turned back to my laptop.
She came out minutes later, putting the plate in front of me before setting down her mug. Then she retrieved her own plates, one of which was overflowing with syrup, so she had to put her tots on a separate plate. Unapologetic, she ate her breakfast, shoving big bites in her mouth.
I smiled slightly before I kept working.
She drank her coffee afterward, taking audible bites of the crunchy tater tots. “It was nice to see you socialize with people and actually enjoy it. I’ve never seen you do that before.”
“Well, I see those people all the time, and they are like me.”
“Yeah. It’s great. I like seeing you relaxed like that.”
Just not with Kathleen.
“And you raised a lot of money.”
“I didn’t really do anything. The company did.”
“Which you own and operate…”
“But the vendors offered the prizes for free, and other people paid for them.”
“Why is it so hard for you to take praise?” she asked with a quiet chuckle.
I shrugged. “I just don’t feel like I’m the only one who deserves it.”
She smiled then looked into her coffee. “I like that about you. You aren’t self-absorbed…like most people.”
“I thought you liked other things about me?” I teased. “Like my cock…if I remember correctly.”
Her cheeks filled with color. “No, I love that about you. That’s different.”
I chuckled then turned back to my laptop. Our relationship felt back to normal after our emotional blowout the night before. When I told Kathleen I loved Cleo, I hadn’t really thought about it before I did it. I wanted Cleo to know how I felt about her since it wasn’t obvious enough…apparently. I bought a beach house so we could have a hideaway together. I was relocating so she could keep her job. I was making every sacrifice possible so we could be together.
But she’d already done so much for me that my sacrifices were nothing compared to hers.
“You know what would be nice?”
I turned back to her.
“When we’re old and tired of working, we could retire at the cabin.” She stared at her coffee for a while before she lifted her chin and met my look.
If her fantasy included us being married for decades, I wasn’t sure why she would be working at all. She would never have to serve anyone else ever again. “You’d like that?”
“I think so.”
“We could go anywhere. We could have a villa in Tuscany if we wanted.”
“And I’m sure we’ll travel there someday. But that cabin is nice.”
It was the place where we fell in love. “We’ve got a lot of time to decide.”
“We do.”
I thought it was a bit ridiculous that we talked about the future when no one even knew we were together. We were already in love, but most people had no idea that this level of commitment existed between us. “But I’ll always be working. That’ll never change.”
“I don’t know. As you get older, you might slow down.”
“My brain will never slow down.”
She shrugged. “You take weekends off now. You spend the entire weekend with me while barely looking at your phone. You skip the office to take Derek to his parent-teacher meeting without thinking twice about it. You’re not the same workaholic you used to be, and I think that’s a good thing.”
She was right…and I was a lot happier because of it.
She continued to drink her coffee while she looked out the window.
I stared at her for a while, watching the natural light hit her face, highlight her beautiful complexion, those stunning blue eyes. “Baby?”