Page 104 of Rich Girl
When I stop, she drops her forehead against mine while her fingers dig into my shoulders.
“Are we really doing this?”
“There’s nothing I’d rather do,” I confess. “You are my future, Hayden Benedict.”
“Like the pope,” she giggles, reminding us both of our first date. It seems like forever ago.
There is so much more we need to talk about. The logistics of this move will be a nightmare, I’m sure of it. But it will all be worth it in the end.
All the good things are worth the wait and the fight to get there.
Hayden Benedict is worth everything.
The end
But there’s more…
EPILOGUE
A year later
“Whoa,”Evie gasps in surprise. “That is the most beautiful arrangement yet, Hayden! We need to post it on the website!”
She rushes to pull her phone out and take a picture. While she messes around with that, I get out of her way. I sit down in the chair I have back here and smile with pride.
It’s been twelve months since Ray, Evie and Cal crashed Adeline’s wedding. The move didn’t happen overnight, although, I could’ve made it happen. But one thing we couldn’t compromise on was the living arrangements.
Ray thought the small apartment above the garage at his shop would work for a little longer. I tried explaining to him that it was literally smaller than the closet at my house in Boston, but he didn’t believe me until I showed it to him.
At this point, we both figured that maybe we were jumping into everything too fast. The solution turned out to be a simple one, and also unexpected.
Two months into our new relationship, I moved into Evie’s grandmother’s house since she still couldn’t part with it. It wasmuch smaller than I was accustomed to, but much larger than Ray’s apartment.
Ray would spend most of the nights with me, unless he worked the night shift. In that case, he would stay at the apartment, and I’d get to enjoy some alone time.
I had a million and one doubts when I moved here. I never imagined that I’d love it here as much as I do. The more activities I find around here, the less I think about what I left behind.
In addition to working at Evie’s flower shop, I volunteer at an animal shelter once a week, and at a food bank for another. The charities I was supporting in Boston have offices in New York City, so it wasn’t hard to switch over and attend their events here.
Every time that happens, I make sure to book a suite at the hotel where I took Ray after our first date. And by the way he makes me scream every time we’re in it, I’d say he loves going to the city when we do.
“What time is Ray picking you up tonight?”
Evie is done with taking pictures of my newest creation. It is also the end of the day, so I start cleaning up my station. I’ve become quite good at everything around here, to the point where Evie is not scared to leave me alone at the shop anymore when she needs to run an errand.
“At six,” I tell her and check the time. “I need to leave so I have enough time to get ready.”
“Where’s he taking you?”
I shrug at that. “No idea.”
He promised that we’d do something nice for our one-year anniversary. I tried my hardest not to ask too many questions, worried that I’d ruin it for him.
Our relationship has grown so much in the last year. We’ve had our ups and downs, sprinkled with some fierce fighting and a lot of loving. I’ve never been happier in my life. I really thoughtI’d want to visit Boston more often, but the busier I got here, the less time I had to think about it.
“He did say to dress a nice though,” I tell Evie, feeling a bit giddy with excitement. It stems more from my desire to see Ray in a suit. The man cleans up nice, and I can’t get enough of him when he’s dressed to the nines.
“You can go if you want,” my boss tells me.
