The Perfect Promise

Epilogue 1:

 1 month and something later, winter

It was Christmas. My favorite time of the year.

I was at my home sitting on a couch with an iced mocha in my hand and a book on the other. A romance novel, specifically one with the fake dating trope. This time though, it was different. Those books didn't make me feel the way they used to. I still enjoyed reading them, but they didn't cause my heart to flattered, or butterflies in my stomach.

This time there was a different cause for those reactions. And it was called Cameron Thomas Diaz.

I was on his lap, and he had his arms wrapped around my waist. 'Everything I Do, I Do It For You' was playing in the background.

He was drinking hot chocolate. My hot chocolate. He came around, to my recipe of perfection. He's been scrolling on his phone for about an hour, but for the last thirty minutes, his thumb hadn't moved an inch. He had been watching the same Tik Tok, over and over again.

I thought he might be reading it, but I needed to test my theory. I turned the page of the book and then turned another one way too fast.

"Hey, I didn't hurry, to read anything."

"I knew you were reading my book." I closed it and shifted to look at him, "So, what do you think?"

He made a sound that meant, 'it's fine, not anything special', and shook his shoulders.

"What are you talking about? Is a great story. Very romantic.", I protested.

He was insulting my books. How dare he?

"Hm...I don't know, Winnie. Our story is a lot more romantic.", he said, and I could almost hear the smile on his face.

He had the way of saying the cheesiest things and still making my heart melt.

I turned to face him, whispering, "That must be the cheesiest thing, you've ever said." and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I've said worse.", he answered, with a huge smile on his face.

"Maybe.", I considered it for a second. "It's definitely top ten, though."

"Sure.", he chuckled, brushing his hand on the beard I convinced him to grow. It suited him so much, maybe I'll convince him to grow a thicker one in the future.

"Okay, now, I have a confession to make.", he said, waiting for me to react.

"Shoot.". If this was two months ago I would be utterly terrified. Not now though.

"The time my mum found my phone with the wallpaper of us and figured out we were dating?", I nodded, "I changed the wallpaper into the pic from the dance while shopping for ice cream. I didn't think we would actually get caught. I thought you were just overreacting with all the safety measures."

"Okay.", I muttered waiting for the confession. I already knew that much.

"Well, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that at some weird subconscious level I wanted us to get caught. Because involving our families would make us real and I wanted the us to become real", he said in one breath.

"So, you put me through all that hell only to make us real instead of just telling me how you felt?", I squeaked.

"You actually think that would work? Come on, if I told you back then how I felt, you would probably slap me and then just run in the opposite direction. A hole in the shep of Winter on the wall, leaving nothing but air behind. Especially, if I had confessed my undying love for you. I needed a strategy, to manipulate you into. And what do you mean by hell? Look how it turned out. My plan actually worked."