CATALYST

EPILOGUE

DAVID

"Want to sit here for a few minutes?" I asked, glancing at two Adirondack chairs on the lawn at the Lotte Hotel Jeju, as if I hadn't already chosen it as the perfect spot. "Watch the sun set before we go to dinner?"

"Sure." Travis smiled, and my heart beat faster, the way it always did. But tonight was different.

We were celebrating six months together, the sale of the house I'd fixed up, and the completion of his first course in songwriting .

We were also about to get engaged, but he didn't know that.

We sat down side by side, and I took a drink from the glass of champagne in my hand before setting it on the table between us. Travis set his down too, and pulled out his phone to take a few pictures of the pink and orange sky as the sun sank beneath the hazy blue horizon. It was a "pleasantly cool fall evening, wind rustling the palm trees overhead, the temperature hovering around sixty, but my skin felt warm beneath my jeans and gray sports jacket. I was glad I hadn't worn a tie.

      "I almost forgot how beautiful it is here." He shook his head as he put his phone back into his jacket pocket. "A photo could never capture it."

      I reached over and took his hand. "No. It couldn't."

      He looked over at me, his blue eyes appearing even deeper in the fading light. "I'm remembering when we were here last time."

      I smiled. "We've come a long way since then."

      "We have." He looked out over the ocean again. "Every morning I wake up and wonder if it's all just a dream."

      "I do the same. But then I open my eyes and you're there next to me, and I know it's real." Waking up next to him every morning was a gift I'd never take for granted. He'd kept his own apartment for a couple months, but after that I'd begged him to move in with me. We spent almost every night together anyway, and the nights we didn't, I missed him too much. I'd wasted enough time, and I didn't want to squander any more of it.

      Not that the road here had been easy. My friends and siblings had accepted our relationship without question, but my parents were still struggling. At first they'd been mostly confused, then they'd ignored it, as if by refusing to acknowledge the truth it might simply go away. My father thought it was part of the "lunacy" that had caused me to cut back my hours at work so I'd have more time to devote to the house I'd bought, and told me I needed to go talk to a priest, like the devil had possessed me or something. But I stood my ground, stating that Travis was part of my life now, and if they wanted a relationship with me, they had to accept him, too.

      They were slowly coming around—we'd been invited to Thanksgiving dinner and it had gone well, if a little awkwardly—and it was Travis who always reminded me to have patience with them. Give them time, he'd say whenever I got frustrated with their reluctant support. Remember, it was hard for you too at first.

      He had the biggest heart of anyone I'd ever known.

      We finished our champagne as the sun disappeared, bathing the lawn in twilight. "Should we go?" he asked, squeezing my hand.

      "Yes." But once we stood, I turned to face him and slid my arms around his waist. "Just a second. There's something I want to say."

       "Of course."

      My legs trembled slightly as I took a deep breath. "Before you came into my life, I didn't know who I was. I had this idea about who I wanted to be, and I tried hard to fit that mold, but I never felt right in my skin. I think one of the reasons I was so concerned about neatness and order in my life on the outside was because I had no control over the inside. I didn't trust myself to feel the right things, so instead I focused on being perfect in other people's eyes, because I could never be perfect in my own. And I never let anyone see the real me."