Through His Eyes

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

—Three Years Later—

Rhea turned around the corner into the dairy aisle, browsing the shelves as she did so. Almost immediately, she bumped her shopping cart right into the rear end of someone, coming to a startled halt herself. The person she'd unwillingly assaulted turned around with a bottle of milk in hand and looked at her.

"Oh, hi there," he said, giving her a slow grin.

"Hi," she said chirpily. She took a step back from him and gave him an inspecting once-over. "Wait, I know you, don't I?"

His reply was almost instantaneous. "I think I'd remember you, gorgeous."

Unfazed, she cocked her head to the side, tapping a finger at her chin and scrutinizing the guy before her. "No, I'm pretty sure we went to high school together. I also think you're in one of my classes now. You're...Caleb?"

"The one and only." He squinted at her for a moment before saying, "Your name is escaping me though."

She snorted at his reply and elbowed him in the side. "Quit being a jerk. Did you get the milk?"

"Yeah. Low-fat, right?" he asked, holding the bottle in his hand up for her inspection.

She gasped. "Babe, no. you know I hate low-fat milk." She shook her head before saying, "You're horrible at this."

"I guess you should have known better than to move in with me," he said, exchanging the low-fat for whole milk. "I was kidding by the way; I know you don't like low-fat. Besides, when have I ever brought back the wrong thing from the grocery store? Give me some credit here."

She shrugged. "Well, we've been living together for a week, so I guess we'll see."

After they finished up their shopping and loaded the groceries in the truck of Rhea's car—she got her license the summer before she left for college and her father was so elated he bought her a brand new Toyota—she handed her keys to Caleb and got into the passenger seat. Her thoughts on driving hadn't changed that much and she preferred riding shotgun by miles.

She leaned back, closed her eyes and started thinking about all the moments that had led her to this one—grocery shopping with her boyfriend of three years for the first time.

After that night on Valentine's Day, it immediately became obvious Caleb took Rhea's request of being wooed by him very seriously when she showed up at school the next day and found her locker filled to the brim with Hershey's. The next day, there was a bouquet of daisies in their place. After that, it was a Pride and Prejudice DVD. This went on for an entire week until Rhea told him to stop throwing his money around.

He did, but the presents kept on coming in the form of handwritten notes and the occasional homemade baked goods, courtesy of his mother—he tried his hand at them for the first time around but they swore to never speak of that incident again almost immediately.

He kept his word in other aspects too, kissing her at any chance he got, for instance. Rhea could have sworn she didn't remember kisses ever feeling that good. They kissed until both their lips were bruised, until it felt to Rhea like every single one of her limbs were made of Jell-O and that she wouldn't make it a day without his kisses. Every time they kissed, it was a completely different experience that managed to throw Rhea off even after months of it. One day, it'd be urgent and passionate; they'd be tugging each other impossibly closer, trying to see how far they could take it without crossing the lines they weren't ready to cross. But then the next, it'd be sensual and almost lazy and they'd sit together in the backseat of Caleb's car kissing—nothing more, nothing less—until he had to take her home for her curfew.