Cupids Peak

by Lee Jacquot

Maybe so she can see she’s already made me a selfish prick who’s decided I’m not letting her go so easily this time. Or perhaps it was a little less forward than telling her my biggest regret in life is not fighting for her sooner. Either way, it’s important she gets the message.

“I want you, Mia,” I explain. “And not just tonight.”

“My secret—my truth, Mia—is that you belong to me. Always have. Always will.”

“If I asked you to take a chance on us, would you?”

He wants to give us a try. For there not to be any men after him.

“I’m not a doll, Brooks. We’ve been waiting too long for you to hold back.”

“I wanted to show you right there. Bend you over that table and fucking brand myself on you so you’d finally get it. So you’d finally see me.”

“You made me wait ten years for this, Mia. Ten fucking years.”

“I’ve always needed you.”

“And every single part of you belongs to me now.”

“After that, Eli Brooks, I want you to keep me.”

He wanted the world to know that I’m his and he’s mine.

Still baffled, I follow her gaze to the rink, where my mouth literally falls open, and my heart threatens to jump out of my esophagus. Sitting on the hood of a Zamboni is Eli with a fucking boom box above his head.

“Mia de la Cruz, I have been in love with you since my freshman year of high school.”

“When life took us down different paths, there was a void left in your place, and it wasn’t until almost two years ago that it was filled. When I saw you again and knew without a shadow of a doubt that we were made for each other, in each big and minute facet. I’m insanely fucking in love with you, Mia, and I have one question.”