Crush, No, Crushed

Epilogue

            “Give me the baby.” Nate demanded stepping forward with his arms outstretched.

            As Gary went to hand him to Nate I stopped him.

            “No what are you doing? You can’t trust Nate with Benji, he eats children!” I exclaimed with mock horror.

            Gary stopped what he was about to do and gave me a weird look but took a step away from Nate anyway.

            “What?” He queried with a perplexed expression.

            “Really, Ruthy? Really? I said that what, six years ago? Are you ever going to let that go?” Nate begged with a hint of annoyance but his lip started to curve up.

            “Never. How do I know that you weren’t kidding?” I joked standing up and walking over to him.

            “I think you should know by now that my diet consists of mostly pizza.” He reasoned stepping closer to me.

            “Hmmm.” I pretended to think, “You’re right…I suppose I would know if you were an insane psycho.”

            “Maybe when Benji’s a little older I can give him the Hansel and Gretel book.” Nate suggested smiling over at the baby in Gary’s arms.

            Shocked I asked, “You still have that?”

            “Of course, you gave it to me as a birthday present. I keep all of them that you give to me.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.

            “Yeah, but I figured you would have gotten rid of it or something. It’s not like you read it do you?” I wondered still slightly astonished.

            “Well, no. But you still have that bracelet I gave you and you still practically wear it every day.” He pointed out nodding to my wrist where the bracelet hung.

            “Yeah but that’s different because I do use it every day. It’s not just some gag present.” I argued.

            “It’s not different,” He disagreed, “Gag present or not they both came from the heart and are reminders of how much we care for each other. I’m not just going to get rid of the memory of our almost-first kiss because it’s not something I use daily.”

            Smiling, my heart filled up happiness at his words. I leaned up to him and gave him a long kiss that sent butterflies throughout my stomach.

            “You know, you can be really sweet sometimes.” I grinned wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him closer to me.

            “I know.” He stated smiling back at me.