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She makes a choked sound, her inner walls clenching around me, milking me, and I keep thrusting through it, riding the waves until my vision blurs and my knees threaten to give out.
I collapse over her, still buried inside her. Don’t move, I want to say, but the words won’t come. My brain is offline. All I can do is breathe, and feel her around me, trying to get my heartbeat under control.
After a long moment, Sophie chuckles. “Holy shit,” she whispers.
I press a kiss to her shoulder. “That was fucking incredible.”
“We should probably get back downstairs,” she says breathily.
“In a minute. Let me feel it a little longer.”
I stay inside her until my cock softens and we’ve caught our breath. Then we check the time and realize that the countdown is coming up quickly. We clean up and get dressed, rushing back to the elevator as fast as we rushed from it into our room.
We make it back to the ballroom with three minutes to spare. Sophie hastily pins her hair up, a few strands falling loose around her face, but there’s a flush on her cheeks that has nothing to do with champagne. I adjust my bow tie, and her hand finds mine as we step through the double doors.
The ballroom has become electric with anticipation in our absence. More waiters than ever are handing out champagne. Everyone is standing and smiling, laughing and leaning into each other. Sophie’s fingers tighten around mine, and when I glance down at her, she’s grinning.
We find a place by one of the tall windows just as the band’s drummer strikes a roll on the snare, and the room’s attention shifts toward the stage. A man in a tuxedo steps up to the microphone and raises a glass. “Ladies and gentlemen, as we prepare to welcome the new year, I’d like to invite you all to raise your glasses with me.”
A waiter passes by us and I take two flutes and hand one to Sophie, who grins with satisfaction.
“Last one,” I say, and she scowls.
Then the MC begins to count. Ten. Nine. Eight. The entire ballroom chants it together. Sophie turns in my arms to face me with enormous eyes, reflecting a hundred points of light, and in the seconds before midnight, I have the peculiar sense that I’m seeing her for the first time and the thousandth simultaneously.
Seven. Six. Five.
“I love you,” she says.
Four. Three. Two.
“I love you, too,” I tell her.
One.
The room erupts. Confetti rains from the ceiling, the band launches into “Auld Lang Syne,” horns blaring. All around us, people kiss, toast, and embrace. Sophie’s arms go around my neck, and I lift her up and kiss her as the new year begins.
When she breaks away, she’s breathless and laughing, a piece of gold confetti caught in her hair. “Happy New Year, Vince.”
“Happy New Year, Sophie.”
We clink glasses and take sips of our champagne, and I’m filled with a profound certainty. However we got here, whatever complications still lie ahead, this is where I’m meant to be. This woman, this moment, this life.
Sophie leans into me, her head on my shoulder. I tighten my arm around her waist and feel her sigh, content, against my chest.
However it started, this is how it ends: with her in my arms, with the world turning over into something new, and with the absolute, unshakable knowledge that whatever comes next, we’ll face it together.
Epilogue
DECEMBER 25: ONE YEAR LATER
Sophie
The second annual gingerbread mansion has mostly been a success, lol. I think we’re getting better at this. Vince was actually proud of it, although I don’t think he loves the price point of this new tradition. This year, because we bought the bigger one, the kit cost $115. But I almost think his exasperation about buying it is part of the tradition too. God, I love that man so much.
Even though we spend basically every weekend together, it’s so nice to be here for an extended stretch at Christmas. No packing up and going back to school on Sunday. I’ll be able to stay until January 5th, just because of how the holidays fall around the calendar, and then he’s coming down to see me on the 7th, so it’s not too bad. Although I look forward to graduating and seeing him every! single! morning! of! my! life!
I can literally see the impact that the divorce being finalized has had on him. He just looks lighter with the weight of Elena off his shoulders. I heard from my uncle that she left Julian and has moved to Bali, which is wild. Vince joked that we should invite Julian to Christmas, ha ha.
