Page 77 of Intersect

Trevor’s margarita looks like the most delicious thing I’ve ever seen in my life—the dollop of foam on the top, the frosted glass, the neon green that couldn’t possibly come from nature. Pregnancy is a miracle of life, blah blah blah. I’m still allowed to miss margaritas.

“It tastes like piss, I swear,” says Trevor, catching my glance.

I laugh. “Right. That’s why you ordered a second one.”

Just as I expected, they made me change clothes for this, Trevor insisting the jeans I wore were unacceptable because “we are not dock workers,” whatever that means. The outfit is of Caroline’s choosing, a white, Tom Ford wrap dress, cut low and flaring out at the waist. It seems like a lot of effort for what is definitely going to be a short evening, but I’m not complaining. Senator Reilly is going to enjoy this look a great deal when I get home.

“Look at your boobs,” Caroline says, shaking her head. “They’re stupendous. You’ve gone up at least one cup size, if not two. You know I really don’t want kids but wow you’re making me think twice.”

“There are easier ways to get boobs,” says Trevor, rolling his eyes before he turns toward me. “But speaking of kids, when’s Nick going to make an honest woman of you?”

I shrug, feeling the tiniest prickle of worry that I instantly push aside. “We’re not in any rush. There’s enough going on.” The truth is I do want him to ask but he seems to have just forgotten about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have shot him down those first few times he brought it up.

“Watch out,” says Caroline. “Remember Daniel? He was—”

“Oh, here we go,” says Trevor. “Now she’s going to tell you a warning story about the time she was a mother of twins too.”

“Shut up, Trevor. Anyway, he was always saying he wanted to marry me and then it turned out he was already married.”

I laugh. Their stories appalled me before, but now that I’m with Nick, the stories seem too terrible to even be real. “I’m pretty sure I’d know if Nick was already married, given that we live together and haven’t spent a night apart in weeks.”

Trevor gets a text and his face lights up. “It’s showtime. The senator is down at the waterfront.” He and Caroline exchange a quick glance and then they both wave frantically for the bill.

“What are you not telling me about this guy?” I ask, looking between the two of them.

“Nothing,” they reply in unison, which makes it that much fishier.

“Neither of you can lie for shit. What’s the deal? Is the senator someone I know?” I ask, and then I gasp. “Oh my God. It’s Jeff, isn’t it?”

Trevor rolls his eyes. “As if. I don’t have a straight bone in my body, but if anyone could bore me out of homosexuality, it would be him.”

We head down Wisconsin Avenue toward the river. I remember the days when I’d look at all the bars we are passing longingly, a desire for the years of being a wild, single college student I missed out on. Now they do nothing for me. Going to any of them would feel like a punishment if I could be home with Nick instead.

We cross the street to the waterfront just as the sun begins its slow slide over the horizon.

“Hey, isn’t this where you went dancing with Nick?” Trevor asks.

I glance at the couples shuffling over the waterfront’s travertine tiles. “Yeah, right before—” my words falter at the sight of a tall, broad-shouldered hunk in a suit cutting through the dancing couples. Nick. My heart is doing pirouettes in my chest. “Hey!” I shout, moving as fast as I can in the four-inch heels Caroline forced me to wear. “I thought you said you didn’t want to—”

He drops to one knee. His face is every bit as sweet, as earnest, as it was when he was a teenager. He looks at me as if I hold his entire world in the palm of my hand, as if I’m his to crush or to keep. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black velvet box.

The couples around him have mostly stopped dancing. Caroline, standing on one side, and Trevor, standing on the other, push me forward until we are in front of him. “Since I couldn’t ask your father, I asked them instead,” Nick says with a shy smile. The dimple blinks into existence.

“You have our blessing,” says Trevor.

Caroline kisses me on the cheek. “I’d totally let him get me pregnant,” she says as Trevor pulls her away.

I’m so astonished all I can do is stare: at Nick, at the box, at the dancers and setting sun. It feels as if my brain is moving a little more slowly than normal.

“Marry me,” Nick says. People around us are listening, so his voice drops to add, “in this lifetime and any others we find ourselves in.”

He pops the box open and I gasp. It’s my ring, the oval diamond I remember from London. I reach for it and he pulls the box back. “You have to actually agree before you get the ring, greedy girl.”

“But how…where did you find it?” I ask.

He grins. “My grandfather gave it to me when I went to see him. I’ll tell you about it later. After you answer.”

Goose bumps crawl over my arms, but they’re the good kind. The kind you get when you’re so thrilled and astonished at once that you have no idea where to begin. “Yes,” I whisper. “In this lifetime and all the other ones, I will only want you.”