I laugh as I step into her house and shut the door with my foot. "It’s for real," I assure her, laughing, and she unburies her head from my neck. Her green eyes light up when she puts her hand on my cheek and leans in to kiss my lips softly.
I take a couple of steps into the house. "Why is it you’re always carrying me?" She laughs and my heart skips a beat.
"I’ll carry you every single day," I say and she tilts her head to the side. "I missed you." My arms squeeze around her waist even more, pulling her to me and it’s my turn to bury my face in her neck.
"How long can you stay?" she asks softly as her hands go into the back of my hair.
"All weekend," I say, figuring I am going to start off slow.
She gasps, and I remove my face from her neck. "Like, all weekend. Like, sleeping and waking up?"
"Yup." I smile and look around, seeing the boxes scattered all over the place. "What is all this?" I look at her and see that her eyes avoid me. "Are you moving?"
She slips her legs off my waist and slides down off me. "I think we should talk," she says and all the nerves I had before have come back. She slips her hand in mine as she pulls me to the couch with her. I’m trying not to panic at this moment, but everything is screaming at me that I should have spoken to her about my plans.
She slides onto the couch and tucks her legs under her and I sit next to her. "I think we definitely need to talk," my mouth says before my brain can catch up. I had this whole speech planned, the benefit from driving six hours is you have a lot of time to think. I look and see that there are more boxes. My heart feels like it’s hammering in the middle of my chest. "Umm," is all I can say when I close my eyes and try to find the words that are clustered all around my head.
"Travis," she says and starts to say something else but I hold up my hand.
"I really need to get this out," I start, turning to look at her. I push the hair away from her face, needing to touch her. "The last week I’ve been going through all these things in my head." She smiles at me.
"I have also." She reaches out with her hand to hold mine. Her fingers link with mine and all I can think is that I want to hold her hand in mine forever.
"Actually, it’s been longer than just last week." I swallow. "But when you called last week and another weekend of plans were shot, I knew that something had to give." I pick up her hand that is linked with mine and bring it to my lips, kissing her fingers. "So I made the decision that I’m moving here," I say, finally letting it out and she looks at me shocked. "I know that it may come as a shock to you, but after I looked at everything." A tear escapes her eye. "The bottom line is that I can’t live without being near you so…" I smile as another tear spills out. "I spoke to my partners and they are going to buy me out."
"You can’t do that," she says, getting up and my whole body goes solid like a rock. The happiness that I had two seconds ago turns to ice-cold feelings.
I turn to face her as she stands in front of me. "What do you mean I can’t do that?" My stomach sinks thinking that maybe she doesn’t want me to do this. Maybe she is over this and just thinking about that I’m going to be sick.
"I mean that you can’t do that," she repeats and rubs the tear off her own cheek. "You can’t do that because I’m moving."
"Well, I see that." I try to swallow but the lump in my throat grows bigger and bigger.
"No, you don’t." She laughs and puts her hands to her mouth. "You can’t move here because I’m moving to you."
"What?" I ask her and it’s my turn to be shocked.
"That’s what all the boxes are for." She holds her hands to the sides of her. "I’m selling my practice."
I shake my head, not sure I’m actually hearing the words that she is saying. "I’m sorry," I say, laughing at us and this whole situation.
"Well, let me see if I can explain it better." Her whole face lights up with a smile and if I didn’t love her before with everything I had, this moment right here would be where it would happen. "Actually, this decision was made four years ago," she says and if I wasn’t sitting down to begin with, this news would knock me on my ass. I hold up my hand and she holds up her own. "Let me talk, please." She waits and makes sure that I’m not going to say anything else. "Four years ago, I was going to tell you that I was going to take a job at the emergency clinic with you." My brain feels like it’s going to explode in my head, and my mouth hangs open. "Yeah," she says. "I had decided that I was going to stay with you."