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The room gasped, and Colby sat on her hands to keep them from shaking. Nate looked at her but didn’t smile now.
“It brought back all those old feelings again. And I thought, maybe this is my second chance. The algorithm matched us, which meant something. But I screwed it up again because I wasn’t completely honest with her. I was afraid to tell her about why I didn’t show up for our date.”
Nate looked down at his feet now, his head heavy, and his free hand in a fist at his thigh. His voice, when he spoke again, was quieter.
“Who wants to date a broken guy who has to take a pill just to make it through a normal day? Why would someone sign on for that? How did I ever hope I could deserve her? How could I ever tell her…that I love her?”
The room was so incredibly still that when Colby stood, everyone turned toward her. Everyone except Nate. She walked quickly, purposefully, to the stage and stepped right up onto it.
Nate looked up then and his face registered shock that she was standing there. She could see the question in his eyes along with the regret. The room behind her stirred with whispers.
“Nate,” Colby said. “You won me over in the back of a stupid class I didn’t want to take. And you never lost me. Not when you disappeared and not when you came back. You are a jerk, though.”
People behind her gasped and his head swung back with shock.
“You’re a jerk for not knowing that I loved you. As you are. You are enough for me with your struggles and your strengths. I loved you then and I loved you in the years we didn’t talk and… I love you now. And I couldn’t be happier that your patented algorithm or whatever brought us together.”
Colby felt rather than heard the rush of the audience standing on their feet. The sound of clapping faded as she put her hand behind Nate’s neck and pulled him toward her. Just before their lips met, she smiled and whispered, again, just in case he needed to hear it twice: “I love you, Nate.”
His lips were soft and yet firm as he kissed her back. Someone must have grabbed the mic from him because he had two hands around her back now, pulling her body close to his chest. She was breathless and he was relentless, kissing her like he was afraid if he didn’t put it all out there now, he might not get the chance again. Though Colby dimly remembered they were in front of hundreds of people, this moment was too important to care.
The kiss carried with it promises and hopes and apologies. She could feel the future in the way his lips slid over hers and the way his hands now cupped her face. His beard tickled her cheek and she pulled back, giggling.
“Well,” Zane said from behind them, over the noise of the crowd settling down, “I don’t think we have anything left to say about First Sight. It’s totally different and it works. We’ll be around at our booth until the end of the conference today and would love to share more. Thank you so much!”
Nate took Colby’s hand and turned her. She realized they were all standing in a row together. She was on the end with Nate and his team were in the middle. They took a bow, Colby with them. As people clapped and as they bent down, the room still clapping and cheering, her eyes never left Nate’s.
“I love you,” he mouthed to her as they stood upright again. “I always loved you.”
