I nod. “Well, keep hitting me with more of your romance novel bucket list ideas. We might be able to work our way up to marriage after all.”

“Maybe so.” Celeste gives my hand a light squeeze. “If I do end up getting married, there’s no one else I’d rather do it with than you.”

I squeeze her hand back. “I feel the same way about you.”

We stay like that for a long time, looking into each other’s eyes.

“Like you said, one step at a time,” Celeste says. “Or I guess, one romance novel moment at a time?”

“I like that. One romance novel moment at a time.”

Later that evening, we’re walking back to our hotel when Celeste says, “So, I don’t know about you, but I could use some shaved ice. No worries if you’re too full from dinner, though.”

I lightly slap her arm. “Of course not! What kind of Korean would I be if I didn’t have room for bingsu?”

She chuckles. “All right then, we could go to the place we went to last time. Or, there’s another Asian dessert café on Sixteenth Street that I heard was good.”

“Let’s try the new place,” I say almost immediately. “I may be a long-term relationship girlie, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a ho when it comes to dessert.”

Celeste laughs and wraps her arm around my shoulders as we head back toward her car.

“I’m so excited for all the dessert places we’ll explore together, Gem,” she says, suddenly growing serious. “And for all the romance book memories we’ll make together.”

“Me, too.”

She pulls me into a kiss that’s not quite as sweet as ice cream but is pretty damn close.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, thank you, reader, for picking up this book. Getting published as a person of color is difficult in the US, but it’s even more so difficult when you’re also queer and want to tell queer love stories. It took me a while to be able to write this story, and I appreciate you for taking a chance on it.

Next, I would like to thank my literary agent, Penny Moore, who never once batted an eyelash when I told her I wanted to try my hand at writing romance books, my favorite genre as a reader myself. Thank you always for your astute insights and incredible business acumen and for that one fateful day when you said, “Hey, how about you try this?” This book wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you also to my editor, Junessa Viloria, and the rest of my incredibly passionate and wonderful team at Forever. Thank you, everyone, for the long hours and for the countless emails. We all deserve a break after this.