He pulls my little silver coin from his pocket and holds out to me.
“My coin.” I’m not sure what he means by showing it to me.
“Yes, your coin.”
“Are you giving it back to me?” I ask, swallowing hard against the lump that’s formed in my throat.
“No, I’m not. It’s permission.”
“What for?”
“A chance.”
“What kind of chance?” I ask.
“I have this fantasy…it’s fifty years from now,” he declares.
“Fifty years?” I smile. “That’s a long time.”
“Yeah. It’s you and me fifty years from now. We might not be sitting on this bench but we do this.” He says lifting my hand. “people see us together and we’re that couple who are always holding hands. Our kids can’t stand it, but our grandkids are a little different. They think we’re the cute old couple. We always sit like this and watch, even if we don’t talk the silence is fine because it’s all part of the fantasy. You and me, we’re it.”
I bite the inside of my lip to keep from crying, but damn it a tear slides down my cheek. I’m listening to what he’s saying and taking in the beautiful vision of something I want too.
“That’s us fifty years from now?” I ask, unable to hide the quiver in my voice.
“It is, baby, I can’t see it any other way. I look ahead as far as I can in my mind and all there is, is you. It started when I first met you. I looked at you and I wanted you, decided I had to have you and I can’t think past that part. Everything else revolves around that.” He stops and pulls in a deep breath. “Riley wasn’t wrong about me, I won’t pretend that I’m a saint, or like any of what he said about me being a playboy isn’t true. It was, and that’s just the thing. It was. You deserve to be with a guy who can love you and love everything there is about you. I do. I love you. I love you, but I won’t claim to deserve you. What I want is a chance to. If you can give it to me, I promise not to break you. I promise that all my fantasies will be only shared with you. That’s my answer to why I picked you, but also my plea for a chance. I want you and me. I want the chance for that. Can you give it to me?”
I don’t have to think. I don’t have to think about the answer to that question at all. He just told me he loves me. That was everything.
“Yes. I can. It’s not just me who is deserving of love, Josh. You do too. I love you, and I want to be the woman in that fantasy, fifty years from now.”
“You already are. Come here,” he says, beckoning me for a kiss we both fall into. It’s beautiful and filled with all the wild passion we’ve shared.
It’s the kind that keeps coming. It grows, and it goes higher and higher. It fills my soul, cascading through my being.
It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
Just like him.
Epilogue
Giselle
Four months later…
It seems fitting that we’d celebrate our engagement in our favorite room at the dark Odyssey.
The playroom.
I’m chained to the bed with the blindfold over my eyes and Josh is feeding me fruit.
I love how he changes each fantasy up and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for me tonight.
He places a strawberry in my mouth and I eat it at the same time he sucks the cream that covers my nipples.
Tonight he’s not only chained me to the bed but he’s covered me in cream and fruit. I’m dessert.
This is tonight’s fantasy and I’m loving it.