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Maybe my fears about being alone aren’t the hardest part to admit. Maybe it’s what lurks beneath, the reason why I feel so alone outside of my relationship with Gram. “What if I disappoint you, too? What if I’m not enough for you?”
“That could never happen,” he whispers.
“You say that now, but—”
“Baby, trust me on this.” He cuts me off, his voice gently firm. “I really like you, Gwen. Exactly how you are. And as long as you’re you, that’s enough for me.”
It’s all he says, and it’s everything I’ve ever wanted to hear.
Day 10
Disembarkation
Gwendolyn
“Rise and shine, Sleepyheads.”
Sunlight streams through the open curtains, and outside there’s a bustle of activity that confirms we’re docked and the crew is working diligently to prepare for the next sailing in just a few hours.
I stretch, expecting to feel Sawyer behind me, but I see him shifting on the floor next to the sofa bed instead, squinting up beneath a messy mop of hair, reaching up to the seat of the chair on his other side for his sweatshirt as he swipes the back of his hand across his mouth.
Gram and Nancy stand just inside the doorway, each one holding a to-go coffee cup, a muffin in Gram’s spare hand and a banana and foil-wrapped breakfast sandwich in Nancy’s.
“Sleep well?” Nancy asks, setting Sawyer’s breakfast on the desk.
He sits up and zips his sweatshirt. “Sure,” he answers through a yawn.
Gram hands my breakfast to me. “Well, we disembark in forty-five minutes, so time to get up, eat up, and pack up.” Then she and Nancy disappear again, heading off to who knows where.
“You didn’t have to sleep down there,” I tell Sawyer, standing to fold the sofa bed back into couch form like it’s a soft Transformer. Actually, it’s about as hard as I’d expect Optimus Prime to be.
“It’s fine,” he says, replacing the cushions.
“You looked super comfy.”
He arches a brow and smirks. “It would have been more uncomfortable to stay in bed with you and have them hear or see something we didn’t want them to see or hear.”
“Touché.” I take a sip of coffee and plop onto the couch. “It’s date day today.”
“So I’ve been told.” He unwraps his breakfast sandwich and takes a bite. “Any big plans?”
I shrug. “A few plans. I don’t know that any are ‘big,’ necessarily. Just normal-sized plans.” In reality, I have big ideas, but very few actual plans, because it took half an hour on the ship’s WiFi to book the hotel rooms for tonight, and I didn’t want to press my luck with anything else. But now that we’re docked, I need to get to work on solidifying details.
“You know I don’t need anything, right? Just spending the day together is enough.” As long as you’re you, that’s enough for me.
“I know,” I answer. I know.
Sawyer
What a whirlwind. For not having any big plans, Gwen has definitely planned a lot. First we navigated to our hotel, a little boutique not too far from Times Square with views of the Hudson. We helped Maggie and Nan to their room, then wheeled the luggage cart to our room four doors down.
“You’re sure you don’t want to share with Maggie?”
She set her overnight bag on the ottoman. “I’m sure. Tonight I’m sharing with you.” It felt pointed and suggestive and very, very sexy.
Sexy like the familiar silver dress she slipped into after we’d spent the day with our grandmothers. First there were mimosas in the hotel lobby, then there was lunch at a place a friend of a friend of Gwen’s owns down on Leonard Street in Tribeca, after which we played another three rounds of cards.
Sexy like her kiss on the elevator ride down to the lobby, ready to begin our evening together.
