I turn to Erika, my eyes widen when I take in the person behind her.
“Mitch?” I question, feeling for the second time that day like I'm dreaming.
Mitch, who looks like he's in pain, doesn't step closer. But Erika does, telling me in a low voice, “He came over to the apartment and refused to leave until I brought him to you. Why didn't you tell me he's stubborn as a mule?”
“Because I didn't think you'd both meet,” I say, my eyes still riveted on Mitch's.
“Go talk to your future while I get rid of your past,” Erika mutters, pushing past me to a confused-looking Smith, taking him by the elbow and practically dragging him away from Mitch and me.
When I turn back to Mitch, I can read the raw pain and hurt in his eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you,” he says, moving toward me. I greedily take him in. He's wearing a gray button-up and casual jeans. And as I continue to drink in the sight of him, I realize that he would have passed for a college student if he didn't look so self-assured, so confident, and sexy.
“There's so much we have to talk about,” Mitch says, breaking me out of my reverie.
He takes an unconscious step closer, and I fight the urge to move closer as well.
“I made some pretty bad mistakes. Blaming you for sabotage caused by someone else was something I should never have done. I was in a state of panic,” he admits. “Seeing all that I had worked for crumble before my very eyes...” His voice trails away and I blink back tears at the hurt in his eyes.
“…shocked that someone would try to do that for months upon months of hard work.”
“It wasn't a technical mistake?”
“It was a deliberate attempt at sabotage,” he reveals. “Sponsored involuntarily by my father. You were innocent, competent as always. I will never forgive myself for allowing myself to think that you were anything other than that.”
His words wash over me and I find myself holding back tears.
“What happened? How is your dad involved?” I can’t focus on why he is here yet.
“Dad hired Sam to spy on me. He was supposed to give my dad weekly reports on me and the app development process. Dad was counting on me failing so he was biding his time and looking for an in. When everything happened, I confronted my father about sabotaging me.” My mouth is hanging open. Sam? His dad? How is this possible? Tenderly, with his finger, he forces my chin up, to close my mouth as he smiles at me.
“As I confronted him, Dad confessed to paying Sam but not to sabotage me, so he offered to find out why he had gone rogue. Turns out there were some people he was involved with who promised him a cut in the profits if he stole the code and they sold it to investors first. But he was never able to steal the code, so he crashed the app to gain time.” He is slightly shaking his head, but his eyes never leave mine. “Since he was caught right away, he is now broke and facing the possibility of jail time for messing with me. Dad says he won’t rest until Sam pays for all the distress he caused me.” His smile is bright and contagious. But there is something else I need to know.
“What if you had never found the culprit, would you be here right now? Would my innocence have mattered if you had not found out the truth?”
“Beth,” Mitch says, taking another step closer so that I have to tilt my head back to look into those gleaming eyes. “That's only part of the reason I am here. I would still be here if Sam had not been found out because I love you too much to let you go. Don't you see that? I am tired of fighting these feelings, of lying to myself about not wanting to make you mine.”
My mouth falls open at his words and I find my heart thudding so hard I momentarily wonder if it would beat right off my chest.
“Mitch.”
“Yes,” he says, snaking one arm around me and carefully relieving me of the weight of the books in the other. “Please, forgive me. Let me make it up to you.”
“I love you,” I whisper, fighting the urge to go on tiptoe and mesh his lips with mine.
“Wasn't that your ex, though?” he asks, breaking our stare to glare at someone behind us.
I chuckle. “What do you think?”
“That I'd probably be arrested for assault.”
‘Smith and I are not together,” I clarify.
“Promise?” he mutters, looking more vulnerable than I have ever seen him.
“I do,” I tell him, throwing my hands around his neck at the same moment he lowers his head so that our lips meet in a slow delicate kiss. For a few seconds, the world around us fades.