He wraps his arms around me again. “I have always been in love with you, from the very beginning. Come on. You knew that.”

I shake my head and bite my lip. “Nope. Didn’t know that.”

“Well, now you know,” he says, his voice low as he rests his forehead against mine. “Before I met you, I thought I was fine with my life the way it was. When you started working at the shop, I didn’t understand anything about you. Your outfits, your music, the way you always tried to get me to smile.”

I frown. “Please tell me where this is going.”

He squeezes my shoulders. “But then I realized I was looking forward to seeing you. I was counting on the way you made all the gray days into something colorful, and I didn’t want gray anymore. I fell in love with you, Chloe. And the offer still stands. The café, I mean. And us. All of it.”

I inhale and let the air out shakily. “Yes. Yes. Yes. That’s all I want, me and you, doing everything together.”

Nick smiles, and he’s so close to my face that he blurs into an abstract Nick Velez painting. “Good.”

“Also, that is, like, by far the most you’ve ever said at one time. I didn’t even know you were capable of that. Are you winded?”

“Don’t get used to it,” he mutters, looking embarrassed.

“Oh!” I step back and look at him with renewed intensity. “But you should know. I don’t want to get married and I do not want children. I’m not harboring any secret maternal urges, and I’m about to turn thirty but my biological clock is remarkably silent, so I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Are you okay with that?”

Nick laughs. “Chloe. Yes.”

“And I don’t know if I want to stay here forever. I love Columbus, but I can’t say I’m gonna stay anywhere for the rest of my life.”

“Hey.” Nick pulls me to him again. “Shut up, okay?”

“Wow. Your crude language is ruining my grand gesture.”

Nick tries and fails to suppress a smile. “Stop it. Stop coming up with bullshit reasons for me to push you away.”

I nod, my breath shaky.

“I want you anywhere, Chloe. I’ll go where you go. You can be yourself, you can do what you want, and I’m always going to be with you. You can stop trying to manage my expectations or figure out my life for me, okay? Because the only thing I need to be happy is you.”

I close my eyes and exhale, feeling like the biggest burden has suddenly been lifted off my shoulders. I’ve never felt this light before, not in my whole life. I’ve never felt like I can be, just as I am, and still be loved.

I nod, then grab his hand and start pulling him down the sidewalk.

“Where are you going?” he asks. “Don’t you want to go back inside? We’re missing the wedding.”