Sip of Assistance

Preface

Prologue

With each steady inhale and exhale, the rise and fall of his chest became the measure of which my own breaths paced themselves. With his arm curved around me, I imagined my body becoming rooted in this place, as though in my life up until that point I'd been a seed tossed about by the elements and only just now had it settled in a soft soil bed and begun to grow. I felt at home and that had to be due to the fact that I was completely in love with him. I didn't know when it happened or how but I, Holly Preston, girl who did everything by the book, fell in love with my boss... my friend.

His chest was firmly against my bare back, our legs intertwined underneath smooth sheets and a thick down comforter. A soft yellow glow stretched towards our bodies, its origin an old fireplace across the room with a slow smolder of embers providing protection from the chill of winter in London. It was in that quiet moment of existence that I felt at one with not only myself and this perfectly imperfect man next to me, but also with every decision I had made that led me there.

I wanted to turn around and look at his face so I could memorize every inch of it that I had taken for granted and dismissed for so long. I tried to roll over but he held me tighter, nuzzling in my neck.

With a feeling of pure bliss, I replayed the misguided and ill-placed steps I had taken that led to this moment.