My Favorite Souvenir(93)

Matteo and I had moved out of his studio apartment and found a two-bedroom not too far from his original place. With both of our incomes, it was still affordable to live in the city. I didn’t miss Connecticut at all. I hadn’t really found myself until I’d met my true love. With Matteo, I didn’t long for anything but being with him—I didn’t need stability or wild adventures. I just needed him. He’d helped me realize that true happiness is simply following your heart. He was my heart.

Matteo walked in as I was daydreaming and petting Nola in the living room.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Just how much better this Christmas is than the last one. It feels fitting that we’re going back to Vail soon, too. Like we’ve come full circle.”

He sat next to me on the couch and kissed my forehead. “I can’t wait to take you skiing again.”

“Yeah, maybe I can graduate from the bunny slopes with more than a day of training this time.”

He winked. “I’ll make it happen.”

I massaged his knee. “My sexy ski instructor.”

“I was thinking maybe we should book a night at the hotel where we met,” he said. “You know… we might get sick of being at my parents’ house for two weeks anyway.”

“I would love that. It’ll be like old times.”

He kissed my neck. “Except now instead of dreaming about sleeping with you while I’m in the next room, I’ll get to have you as much as I want.”

I gripped his shirt. “And instead of sneaking looks at your shirtless physique, I can have that body however I like.”

He moved closer and spoke over my lips, “What do you think would’ve happened if we hadn’t both chosen that hotel? Where would we be right now?”

I sighed. “I hate to say it, but I think I’d be married to Brady. I would’ve never known he’d cheated on me. I’d be bored and feeling unfulfilled back in Connecticut. And I would’ve never realized how amazing life could be.”

Matteo nodded. “I feel like I’d still be in the funk I was in before we met. I probably would’ve eventually met you back in New York and wondered how Brady got so damn lucky, though. The thought of you with him now makes me want to throw up.”

We didn’t speak of Brady much. But when we did, I could tell it made Matteo a little sad.

“Do you ever...miss him?” I asked.

Nola crept up on us and purred.

Matteo pondered that for a minute. “I miss what he and I had before I knew he was a cheater. I don’t think he’s a bad person, but he damn well didn’t deserve you. I had to lose his friendship in order to have you in my life, so I don’t have any regrets.”

“I don’t, either. Knowing what I know now, I don’t even feel sorry for him anymore.” I stared off as I rubbed Nola’s belly. “I do miss his mother, though. She and I were close. I wrote her a long letter before I moved to Seattle. I never heard back. That makes me sad. But he’s her son. Her allegiance will always be with him.”

Matteo laid his head on my shoulder. “Have I thanked you lately for giving your old life up for me?”

“Are you kidding? I wasn’t really living back then.”

The kitchen timer went off, prompting us both off the couch. I’d baked a lasagna for our early Christmas dinner.

A while later, we sat together in our little kitchen, enjoying each other’s company while the cats lurked under the table, holding out for our scraps. Thankfully, after a rough start, Bach and Nola got along, for the most part. They had a nightly routine where they’d fight playfully. Of course we had to find someone besides Carina to watch our pets while we were away, because you know I nipped that shit in the bud real fast. No more attractive exes watching Matteo’s cats. We now had a nice neighbor, Elias, who’d agreed to check in on Bach and Nola daily while we were away.

After dinner, Matteo stood up from the table and reached for my hand. “Are you ready to exchange gifts?”

I was nervous, but excited to give Matteo his present. It wasn’t anything like what he was expecting.

I followed him to the room where he’d been storing my gift. “So, I finally get to see what you’ve been hiding in the spare bedroom?”

Matteo had told me my present was too big to hide in a closet. So he’d ordered me not to go into the spare room for the past couple weeks. I’d been tempted to peek, but had managed not to give in. I suspected it might have been the treadmill I’d hinted at.

Instead, what met my eyes when he opened the door was the best, most heartfelt present he could have given.

“When?” I shook my head in disbelief. “How did you manage to put this together?”

“It hasn’t been easy. I’ve been sneaking in here to assemble it whenever you had an assignment and I happened to not be working at the same time. The other day when you ran to the store to get your tea, I snuck in fifteen minutes.”

It was a Victorian dollhouse, like the one I’d always wanted as a kid. I’d told Matteo when we first met that Brady once bought me a kit, but hadn’t built it for me. I never would have imagined he remembered.

My jaw dropped. “I can’t believe this. It’s amazing.”

The dollhouse had three floors, and it was blue on the outside with pink shutters. It was basically a mansion, as far as dollhouses went. As I looked closer, I realized that this was more than your average dollhouse, and not just because of its size. This was personalized.