Page 123 of More Than Just Friends

‘Anything as in spending our lives together!’ I clarified. ‘Getting married, if that’s what we want. Deciding whether we want to have a family or spend the rest of our lives child-free and travelling the world. I’m up for every adventure, as long as it’s with you.’

Noah’s face broke into a giant grin, then our eyes met and my stomach fluttered. Just like it always did when I saw his face light up.

And as Noah took me in his arms and kissed me again, I knew we were for keeps.

This was it.

Somehow Noah had always known we were meant to be together. It took me a while to catch up, but now I was certain without a shadow of a doubt that Noah was my soulmate.

I travelled to Santorini to find my perfect match when he was right in front of me all along.

Noah wasn’t just my best friend. He was my everything.

I couldn’t do anything about the time we’d missed, but I’d make sure we enjoyed every second of the rest of our long and happy future, together as best friends, lovers, soulmates and everything in between, forever.

EPILOGUE

ALICIA

One year later

‘Happy anniversary!’ I clinked my champagne glass with Noah’s.

We were standing on the rooftop of the Love Hotel London – the latest addition to their collection of luxury resorts, taking in the stunning views of the Thames, Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral.

As well as toasting our first year as a couple, we were also here to celebrate Stella and Max’s first wedding anniversary. And their baby shower.

Yep. In just a few months they’d be welcoming a Love Hotel baby. So exciting!

I’d thought it was the first baby to be born thanks to the hotel’s matchmaking efforts, but Sammie informed me it was actually the fourth as three other couples they knew of had conceived children soon after being matched. Rumour had it that conception for one of them, a boy, actually happened during that couple’s two-week stay at the first resort in Spain.

Just proved that the hotel’s team of matchmakers and Love Alchemists really knew how to bring people together. In more ways than one…

‘Happy anniversary, Ali.’ Noah planted a soft kiss on my lips. ‘Can you believe it’s been a year since we first got together in Santorini?’

‘Nope!’ I replied. ‘It feels like it’s only been five minutes! I guess that saying is true.’

‘What saying’s that?’

‘Time flies when you’re having fun. Oh, and when you know, you know works too.’ I smiled.

I wrapped my arms around him as I took in the sight of all of the couples in our Love Hotel circle around us. A mixture of laughter, music and clinking glasses filled the air. It was great to see everyone so happy.

Sammie and Romeo, Laila and Gabriel, and Halle and Jake were all engaged, which meant we had more fancy weddings to look forward to.

Jasmine and Alejandro had just bought a new house together and as for me and Noah, we were also thriving.

When Noah came to see the flat that I’d found overlooking Clapham Common, he instantly fell in love with it, just like I’d hoped. So we put down the deposit straightaway and moved in six weeks later.

Living together was even better than I imagined. Apart from the obvious benefits of having incredible sex on tap (yep, we still couldn’t keep our hands off each other), spending every day with my best friend and favourite person in the universe was just so blissful.

As corny as it sounded, every morning when I woke up and he wrapped his arms around me, I felt like the luckiest woman in the world.

There wasn’t a day that went by that we didn’t laugh together.

Whether it was playing table tennis at home after work, him chasing me around the flat so that he could tickle me until I begged for mercy, or just curling up on a Sunday afternoon to watch a romcom, we had so much fun together. I never even knew that it was possible to be so happy until we became a couple.

Taking a chance on love and stepping outside of the friend zone was a risk, but it paid off. I knew with absolute certainty that everything between us was going to be great. Noah and I were for keeps.