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I quirked an eyebrow. “Of course. You’re… good now?”
“Absolutely. I’m going to call Hugh today and beg him if necessary. Wait till I tell Mila!”
She hurried out of my office, and I watched her go, feeling more jittery than I should have. All these weeks, I’d been congratulating myself for putting Hugh out of my reach, and his contact info had been right there on his website. I rolled my eyes at myself. And then, without making a conscious choice, I found myself opening a browser window on my laptop.
Hugh Linzee—Photographer came up immediately.
Hugh’s face was on the front page, watching me with those shining eyes and that amused tilt to his mouth that said the world was mostly delightful. I soaked it in like a thirsty man. I was suddenly aware of my heartbeat— loud, fast, insistent—for the first time in months.
Swallowing hard, I clicked the Portfolio tab, and a new window opened. Hugh’s photography TikTok. As I clicked through clip after clip of happy couples, I felt my shoulders sink away from my ears. His perspective on the world carried a special kind of magic. Maybe it was the editing technique or perhaps the composition of the images. Maybe it was my own damned emotional nonsense. In any case, it was incredibly soothing.
So soothing that, after spending at least a half hour absorbed by mindless, happy scrolling and semi-indecent memories, it seemed like the most logical thing in the world that I should contact Hugh—just a casual text, no big deal, right?—to let him know that I’d recommended him to a friend.
Oscar
This is Oscar Overton. Hope you’re doing well. I wanted to give you a heads-up that I recommended you to Mila Velky who’s planning a wedding early next year.
After hitting Send, I stared at the stupid, borderline arrogant message in horror.
Why had I done that? What purpose did it serve?
I clicked off my phone, tossed it on the desk, and went to close the TikTok tab on my browser when I belatedly read the caption on Hugh’s profile. Founder, Real Life HEAs.
Helplessly, I clicked through to his second profile, and I immediately understood the face Lesya had made earlier because the Real Life HEAs TikTok account was saccharine-sweet romance heaven.
Reel after reel, post after post, Hugh celebrated true love in all its many forms by asking random people on the street how they’d found their happily ever afters. The answers were as diverse as the men, women, and nonbinary folx Hugh interviewed. I clicked one at random and watched two women and a man explain how their polycule had fallen in love back in college and taken their first tentative steps into building a relationship. In the next, a pair of women explained how they’d met decades before they’d believed gay marriage would ever be legal and spent forty years making a family before one had finally “made an honest woman” of the other. In another, two men explained meeting on a dance floor a few months before and how one “wasn’t looking for anything serious, but Kyle was just so…” He’d broken off with a helpless gesture that had made his partner grin.
Shaken, I closed my browser.
Hugh had made no bones about being a romantic. He wanted passion and fireworks and forever, and I’d scoffed and said he was looking for a fairy tale. Seeing this though, I understood that Hugh wasn’t just hoping a nice guy would come along; he was actively dedicated to the fantasy. To the dangerous delusion.
Something inside me shriveled up at that knowledge, and my hindbrain blared a warning. Danger, danger.
My phone buzzed across my desk.
Hugh
Wow. Three months of silence followed by a business referral? Six out of ten. Zero suave points, but it warmed my cockles nevertheless.
I immediately pictured the teasing quirk of his lips and his eyes sparkling with challenge.
Fuck.
Oscar
Not a pickup line. (Though if it was, it would be a solid 10 and you know it.)
Hugh’s reply popped up before I could fully regret adding that last bit.
Hugh
Disagree. I know a 10 when I see one. Speaking of which, how is Frank?
I laughed out loud against my will.
Oscar
He’s living his best life. Just this morning, I found him enjoying an impromptu spa day in the guest room sink.
