A cab met me around back, and I hopped in with a huge grin on my face. I almost couldn’t believe this was happening. I was going back home. Home. God, just the word made me feel better. I would finally see Kiera again, hold her in my arms, convince her that I loved her more than anything, that nothing was going on with me…and hope and pray that nothing was going on with her. We could reconnect, and hopefully when I left again, we’d be stronger. We’d be one again.

The plane ride was long, tiring. The two guys beside me slept the entire way, but I was too excited to sleep. I couldn’t even close my eyes. I just bounced my knee and waited, waited, waited. When the plane finally started descending, I started grinning. Almost there.

When the plane touched down, and we rolled to our gate, I debated calling Kiera and letting her know where I was. She had no idea how close I was to her. It was easy to picture her face, picture her surprise. I imagined her leaping into my arms, kissing every inch of me. Then I imagined the look on her face as I surprised her. I pictured her hearing me knocking, her brows bunched in confusion as she swung the door open, her jaw dropping as she saw me, the excited squeal, the tears in her eyes…

I wanted that vision, so I left my phone in my pocket and decided not to call her.

I was buzzing with excitement as I got into a taxi. I gave him Kiera’s address, then changed my mind and asked him to stop at a grocery store—any grocery store. I wanted to get Kiera some flowers. Even though I’d been bombarding her with roses ever since missing her on our anniversary, it just didn’t feel right to show up emptyhanded. In a way, this was our anniversary 2.0. And this one, I wasn’t going to screw up. Tonight was going to be perfect.

The taxi stopped in front of Kiera’s apartment, and I gave the driver a huge tip for the inconvenience of having to help me run an errand. “Thank you, I appreciate it,” I told him, lifting my bouquet of roses.

He nodded, smiling either at my gift for my girlfriend or the wad of cash I’d handed him. Probably the latter. As the cab drove away, I looked up at Kiera’s apartment building and inhaled a deep cleansing breath. Thank God…I’m finally close to her again. I could finally breathe again. I smiled up at a window on her level, then I remembered something, and my gaze swept the parking lot. I felt an actual pang in my chest when I spotted my car…my baby.