Page 58 of The Boyfriend List
"I would never lie or joke about something as serious as my feelings for you." I reach out and gently brush my fingers over her cheek. She leans into my touch, eyelids fluttering shut. "Gloria Romero, I think I fell in love with you somewhere between our first biology lab together and when I got you that tank of tropical fish."
Her eyes fly open. "But that wasyearsago."
I shrug. "I've been patient. Probably too patient."
She frowns. "Patient, or afraid?"
The accusation strikes me with more force than I like. Because it's partially true. "I was scared that you would reject me, and that… that being with you would force me to give up everything I've held dear for so long."
"Your family," she says softly.
"My family," I echo. "But I think I've realized something."
"What's that?"
"Youare my family, and my best friend, and my everything. You are so much of what makes my life worth living, and losing you to someone else is more terrifying than the prospect of losing anything else."
Tears shine in her brown eyes. "London…"
She buries her face in the crook of my neck and shoulder, wrapping herself around me as I clutch her to me.
"I don't think you've told me how you feel about me," I say. "You just got really mad at me for reading your list, which is completely understandable."
"It wasn't enough that I kissed you back?" she teases, pulling away to look up at me. "I also had to put words to how I feel?"
"We're lawyers. You know we have to put everything into unnecessarily convoluted legal arguments."
She sighs. "You should have confessed your feelings in legalese, then."
"Gloria Romero, I must express my intentions in good faith towards you—"
Her laughter breaks out before I can finish my sentence, and I watch her dissolve into a fit of giggles, the sound warming a cold place in my chest. "Never mind."
"Oh, come on. Could you do any better?"
She takes a deep breath, composing herself and saying, "I hold you in deepest romantic affection, Mr. Young, and I would consider a relationship between us to be highly beneficial."
It would be that, and so much more.
Chapter Twenty-One: Gloria
The next few weeks are a blur, like a montage from a nineties romcom. London and I aretogether.
He loves me. That thought stops me dead in my tracks at least twice a day. I’ll wash dishes and accidentally drop a cup, or type a document and have to backtrack because I’ve been typing London’s name for the past two minutes. It’s actually debilitating, beingthisin love.
But then again, he’s quite possibly the best boyfriend and date I’ve ever had. Not that I’ve had many, oranyboyfriends to compare him to, but still. Even simple things, like walks or getting bubble tea, are more fun when he’s around. I never have to put on a front or try to impress him.
After work, we carpool and do the same things we usually do, only with more handholding and kissing. On the weekends, we’ve been keeping up with his ‘dance lessons’ for his sister’s wedding. Which usually turns into us swaying together in his living room or mine, whispering things that would make a romance novelist blush.
One Monday morning, on my way back to my desk from grabbing a stack of papers from the printer, I run into my boss.
“Wendy!” I jolt to a stop next to her. “It’s good to see you. I needed to speak with you.”
“Let’s speak in my office. I have a few minutes between meetings,” Wendy says.
We walk toward her office. It’s messier than usual, fountain pens and papers scattered across the table. Probably due to the larger caseload than usual these past few weeks.
“I wanted to request time off to visit my family in the Philippines at the end of October and beginning of November,” I say.
