Blake: Caroline, you’re wonderful, and I hope you’ll be able to find it in your heart to forgive me.
“I should go to him, right?” I asked, jumping up off the couch.
They all cheered, “Yes!” in unison.
“Should I change?” I looked down at my Snoopy tank top and matching sleep shorts.
Annabelle grabbed my hand. “I think you need to get out the fucking door before you change your mind again. The clothes aren’t going to matter.”
They all ushered me out of the apartment.
“Don’t worry—we’ll lock up.” Harper shooed me down the stairs. “Sawyer needs to pee before we leave.”
“Thank you!” I hollered as I trotted toward the front steps.
I couldn’t believe I was in my car looking through the school’s database of employee records on my phone for his address.
This is either going to be overly creepy or completely romantic.
After plugging the address into my phone’s GPS, I stopped questioning myself. Things were in motion and there was no turning back.
Before I knew what was happening, I was ringing the doorbell to Blake’s modest ranch house tucked in the back of a suburban neighborhood.
He answered the door right away, in lounge pants and nothing else. “Caroline? What are you doing here?”
I held up my hand. “Don’t cut me off, because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get through this.”
“All right.” He leaned on the doorway and waited for me to begin.
I took in a few long breaths, trying to lower my heart rate as it pounded in my ears.
“I think you are insane for liking me. I think I am insane for liking you. I think this is completely out-of-this-world nuts on toast, but here I am. Maybe we will only last minutes or hours, or maybe it will be years, but I don’t know if I would be able to live with myself if we didn’t even try. You get under my skin and challenge me, and apparently that is what I need—what I crave. I have never found someone who can make my heart melt one moment and make me want to punch them three seconds later. I hate that you wear expensive everything. I hate the way you say whatever is on your mind without considering how it is going to make someone else feel, and I really hate the way I cannot stop thinking about you. Even when I can’t stand you, I am thinking about you.”
I stood there for a few seconds as Blake just stared at me.
“Are you going to say anything?” I asked.
“You told me not to interrupt, and I was trying to finally listen to you, really listen to your wishes,” he teased before pulling me into him by the hips. “Are you saying we’re going to give this a shot?”
I nodded. “I am saying that even though everything in my brain is telling me this is so wrong, for the first time in my life, I am going to listen to my heart.”
“Does this mean I have to stop wearing my suits every day?” Blake baited.
“There are going to be a lot of things that are going to have to change.” I laughed.
“I think I can handle that.” Blake exhaled as he started to lean down toward me.
As our lips crashed together, all my doubts and worries melted away. Standing there in the moonlight, wearing our pajamas while finally being honest with one another, our lives finally started.
Nothing is perfect until you find perfect in the imperfections of others, until you see how those imperfections can make you a better person, for them and because of them. We all need a balance in this world, and to find it in your partner is the purest form of true love. I had never known that before I finally kissed my jerk-face of a boss in the middle of the night and realized he was flawed and perfect all at the same time.