Page 113 of Fake

“So did you when we first met.” Angela gives him a look that says, ‘so there.’

“Well, he’s seeing someone. She’s seeing someone. And at the rate he’s going through girlfriends, I think it’s time everyone stops being surprised they’re not seeing each other and be happy Charlie dodged a Nick-shaped bullet. I love the guy. I do. But he needs to get his shit together before he’s good enough for my little sister.”

We talk. We eat. We sing happy birthday and laugh until we cry when they bring out a cake with so many candles the smoke alarm goes off. Once that hubbub dies down, Nathan stands and clears his throat.

“So many of you asked what I wanted for my birthday this year,” he begins. “And I replied the way I always do. I have everything I could ever want,” he says, and half the crowd recites the words with him.

“I have a wonderful family and a job that gives me purpose, a beautiful girlfriend.” Nathan looks at me with those soulful eyes. A dreamy sigh floats through those listening with a quiet “Awww…” coming from my mother.

“This year, though?” Nathan continues. “I find myself in the strange position of wanting something I don’t have.” He smiles softly at me with so much love and respect on his face, tears unexpectedly well in my eyes. “A wife. A family of my own. A future with the love of my life bringing out the best in me day after day. At Micah’s wedding, I was sure love was a trap and I’d never be stupid enough to get married. But now, after you, that’s the only thing I want in the world.”

Gasps sound around the room and somewhere, Micah whispers, “I knew it!”

I place a hand to my heart as Nathan kneels beside me.

“Mina,” he says in a quiet voice, just for me. “Will you marry me?”

In his hand is a black box, opened to show an exquisite ring, simple yet dazzling, shimmering spectacularly in the light.

Tears well in my eyes and I glance up to see my mother grinning through tears of her own. Nathan’s dad wraps an arm around his wife’s shoulders and pulls her close, both smiling proudly.

I slide out of my chair and kneel beside Nathan, nodding as I throw my arms around him and nuzzle into his neck. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” I whisper, “but I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn it.”

“Is that a yes?”

I nod into his shoulder and then he’s sliding the ring onto my finger and kissing me while his family claps and cheers.

The first time Nathan kissed me, it was like my favorite time of day, gentle and unassuming, but filled with expectation and the promise of something wonderful. I didn’t want to like it as much as I did.

The second time he kissed me, it was inevitable. We were drawn to each other like magnets, incapable of ignoring the pull. It broke the definition of what we were and as much as I loved it, it left me confused.

Today, his kiss is sunshine after a hurricane. The first cool breeze on a humid August evening. It’s sweet and welcome and something I never knew I needed but don’t want to live without.

Just like him.

After all that’s happened between us, there’s one thing I know for sure:

I’ll never stop loving Nathan West.