Page 120 of This Changes Everything

Rory grabbed me by the front of my jacket, pulling me toward him, and kissed me. It was right there, back in Vancouver, back in the November rain, where we began . . .

Again.

Epilogue

LAS VEGAS 30 years old

IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE MY THIRTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY, AND BEN had just turned thirty-four. We were celebrating together in Las Vegas with his girlfriend, Emma, Rory, Blair, Cameron, Orson, Jacob, Hannah, Kara, Zoë, Maddy, and Maddy’s husband, Reid. Even Lucas had made the trip from New York. We were all in a roped-off area at a club in the MGM Grand. Rory, Jacob, and Lucas had popped some champagne at our tables and were serving everyone drinks. We all lifted our flutes, and Ben winked at me when we finally clinked our glasses together.

Happy birthday, buddy, Ben mouthed.

Happy birthday, I mouthed back, smiling.

I’d moved into Rory’s apartment the day I landed in Vancouver, and we’d turned the breakfast nook in the solarium into my office. I only had to go to LA for work once a month, for a couple of days. Because of my job, Los Angeles was still very much a part of our lives. When I was in LA on my own, I stayed with Zoë. When Rory came with me, we got an Airbnb.

Ben and Emma moved to Los Angeles together for our show. They didn’t know many people there, but they knew us. After Craig Sinicki, a dam had been broken, and Rory welcomed them into our lives in a way that was unexpected. Ben and Rory hung out whenever Rory was in town. They even sent each other pictures of their drinks when they were having a noteworthy cocktail. It was strange to see Ben become “Ben Winters.” You could see people in his orbit who didn’t care about him but only about being seen with him. Rory had some similar experiences, but it wasn’t nearly the same. Even so, Ben and Rory had something between them that only they could understand. Ben was even planning on going to Augusta with Blair, Cameron, Hannah, Kara, Jacob, and me to watch Rory play.

It was our first time back in Vegas since Zoë’s thirtieth birthday, and we intended to make it just as memorable. Lucas had started putting the moves on Hannah within five minutes of landing, and though Blair kept his mouth shut, it was clear by his shifting eyes that their flirting bothered him. Maddy and Reid were experiencing their first trip away from their kid. Kara and Cameron had somehow gotten more contentious, and when a random guy approached Kara as we first entered the nightclub, Cameron pulled her away without exchanging a word.

“Stop it, Cameron!” Kara snapped. “You don’t own me. You’re not with me. And you’re barely nice to me. I’m going to meet someone tonight, or tomorrow night, or the night after that, or every night, and every morning when you show up at breakfast, you’re going to wonder if I was just having sex.” She flipped her brown bob and walked away, leaving everyone speechless, especially Cameron.

Ben leaned in to Cameron. “You’re telling me all about whatever just happened within the next ten minutes, or we’ll never be friends.”

Rory was the next to lean in. “Can I be a part of that conversation? Because if I find out in Augusta that I’m missing out on some juicy gossip, I won’t be able to concentrate.”

“I got you, dude. We’ll come up with some hand signals.” Ben lifted his fist to Rory for a bump, which Rory gladly tapped back.

“Rory, I swear to god.” I started laughing. “If you ‘forget’ any details of that conversation with Cameron, you’re sleeping somewhere else tonight.”

Rory threw his arm around my shoulders with a loud laugh and kissed the side of my head.

Meanwhile, Zoë had given up on Orson and started sleeping with Jacob. When Orson pressed himself against Zoë at the pool party earlier that day, it was clear he wasn’t aware of her new sleeping arrangement with his longtime friend. Rory and I both froze, margaritas in hand, when we saw Orson finally make his move. We were the only ones who knew Jacob and Zoë’s dirty little secret. Even Jacob and Zoë didn’t know we knew. But we definitely knew.

Overall, our second big trip to Vegas had been a success so far. Zoë, Orson, Jacob, Maddy, and Reid were now gossiping around one of the tables in our sectioned-off area. Orson had put his arm around Zoë on the couch, and Jacob was playing it off coolly, giving a master class in confidence.

Hannah, Lucas, and Kara hit the dance floor, and I watched Blair sneaking glances at Hannah, eyeing her proximity to Lucas, every other minute. I also noticed that, though Lucas was laying it on thick, clearly wanting to restart what they’d had long ago, Hannah wasn’t letting him get too close.

Rory, Blair, Cameron, Ben, and Emma were at another table, doing shots. When Rory saw me looking at him, he cranked his neck, calling me over. Cameron was filling Ben and Emma in on his complicated history with Kara and everything that had happened after my twenty-first birthday debacle.

Rory pulled me down onto his lap. His hands roamed my thighs, and he ended up inadvertently pulling up my short white lace dress so his fingers could graze my skin. “Sorry,” he said quietly into my ear when he realized he was accidentally exposing me. He pulled down my dress and switched sides so he could keep his hand in place, gently trailing his fingers along my leg beneath my dress, sending chills up and down my spine. Blair turned his back to us, unintentionally cutting Rory and me out of the conversation, but we weren’t fussed.

“Do you like my dress?” I asked Rory quietly, so no one else could hear.

“You know I do.” He turned his head and nibbled on my ear. “I almost cried when you came out of the bathroom in that dress.”

“It’s white.”

“I noticed.” He smiled, then pressed his forehead against mine, keeping our conversation for only each other. “Did you notice that Hannah’s also wearing white?” Rory’s eyes flicked over to the dance floor.

“Yes, I did. That bitch,” I joked, and Rory tipped his head back with a silent laugh. “Good thing it was just an accident, and she doesn’t know, or I would have had to kill her.”

“You don’t have the muscles,” Rory teased.

“It’s okay. You know a guy.”

“Do you like my suit?”

Rory was looking exceptionally dapper. He was dressed in my favorite dark-gray fitted suit, with a white shirt and no tie. His top three buttons were undone, and his hair was perfectly unruly, as always.