Jess woke up to the smell of coffee brewing, eggs scrambling and bacon frying. She got out of bed, threw on her pink robe and walked into the kitchen to greet the chef.
"Something smells good, oh and that food smells pretty good too."
"No, I was going to surprise you in bed," Nick said, turning around, a look of disappointment on his face.
"I'm sorry for ruining the surprise, I can just go get back in bed and pretend I know nothing," Jess said, trying to cheer up her boyfriend.
"No, that's alright." Nick smiled and kissed Jess on the forehead.
"Well is there anything I can do to help?" Jess asked as she grabbed the spatula to cook the eggs.
"No" Nick said laughing and grabbing the spatula out of Jess's hand and replacing it with a cup of coffee. "You've already ruined the surprise of breakfast, at least let me cook it by myself."
Jess smiled at her boyfriend. They hadn't been dating long but so far, her relationship with Nick had been like something out of a fairytale. They took long walks on the beach, stayed in bed all morning laughing, and, of course, had amazing sex. Jess's relationship with Nick was better than any other relationship she had been in. Nick understood her, supported her, encouraged her and made her happier than she could ever remember being before she met him.
"Hey Nick! I have something I need to confess to you."
"Let me guess. I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you and you just don't know how you'd ever live without me," Nick said as he dished out the eggs and bacon onto a plate and placed it in front of Jess.
"Well yes, that's true, but it's something else," Jess said.
Jess looked at Nick as he took the seat next to her at the island, digging into his breakfast.
"Ok, what is it?" Nick asked with a mouthful of food.
"Remember a couple of years ago when you thought you had cancer and we all stayed on the beach all night?" Jess asked, noticing her boyfriend's signature turtle face spreading across his face.
"Do I remember that we stayed on the beach all night? Yes. Do I actually remember what happened? No. Why are you bringing this up though? It was two years ago. Nothing happened, right?"
"Well, actually… You asked me the next day what happened the night before and I said nothing. But, well, something did happen."
At this point Nick had stopped eating. Jess looked up at him and could see that he was confused yet intrigued by what she was about to say.
"You confessed that you truthfully liked having me around. One of us, I'm not sure which one of us it was, suggested that we get going yet neither of us moved to get up. We just continued to sit there, talking and laughing. We were both getting tired and we laid down on the sand. You put your arm around me and I snuggled into your shoulder for warmth and comfort," Jess paused to take in Nick's reaction.
"That's it? I wish I remembered it, it sounds nice," Nick said smiling at Jess.
"No, that's not it," Jess said returning the smile.
"Oh really? What else is there then?" Nick asked.
"That's the moment I knew."
"Knew what?"
"Knew that I loved you." Jess's heart began to race and she could tell that she was blushing. She hadn't admitted to Nick that she loved him yet. She was sure that he knew it, but she had yet to say it. And although she was pretty sure he loved her too, for a split second she became scared that he didn't feel the same way and that he wouldn't return the statement.
All her worries were erased though when he took her face in his hands and kissed her. The kiss was soft and tender at first and became more and more passionate. Nick lifted her by the waist and she threw her legs around his waist.
"I love you too," Nick confessed.
He carried her into his bedroom, abandoning the breakfast they had barely touched.
…
"Do you want to know when I knew?" Nick asked her.
"Knew what?" Jess asked, smiling as she turned onto her side to look at the man that she loved.
"Knew that I loved you."
"Of course."
"It was right after you moved in. You had gotten all dressed up to go on your first date and as you walked into the room, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. When I knew that you had been stood up I felt really bad and just knew that I needed to rescue you and make you feel better. It wasn't until I was embarrassing myself, singing 'Time of Your Life' to you in the middle of the restaurant that I realized it was because I loved you."
Jess kissed Nick, running her fingers through his hair as he rolled on top of her, holding her face in his hands.
After several minutes of this heaven, Jess pulled away from Nick giggling.
"What's so funny?" asked Nick.
"It's just… how stupid have we been? I knew that I loved you and you knew even longer that you loved me, but we waited so long, to not only get together, but to even say 'I love you' to each other. All that time we could have been together and we wasted it dating other people."
"Yeah, we might have wasted some time but we still have the rest of our lives to be in love together," Nick said, continuing to kiss Jess.
After several more minutes of kissing, Jess's stomach began to grumble.
"I guess we should get some breakfast in you," Nick said laughing.
"No, let's just stay here for a little bit longer," Jess begged, not ready to break away from her boyfriend.
"Let's make a compromise," Nick suggested. "You wait here while I go scrounge up a new breakfast since I doubt the one I already made is still any good. Then after a nice relaxing breakfast in bed, we can spend the whole rest of the day here, enjoying each other's company."
"Sounds good."
Jess kissed her boyfriend one last time before releasing him to go cook breakfast. She might have been stupid, waiting so long to let Nick know how she really felt. But he was right, they had the rest of their lives to be in love.