"Jon, wait!" Renee said. "Just stop what you're doing and let me talk to you!"

"Leave me be!" Jon said. "I need to get out of here. Just…let me go." He opened his wallet to see if he had his driver's license then shoved it into his back pocket.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said! I know I was wrong so let's just talk about it!"

"There's nothing to talk about right now."

"Look, here's your journal. I won't read anything else from it."

"You shouldn't have read it in the first place. You know…I don't think it was a good idea to move you in here with me. I keep telling you I'm not the man you think I am…I have a checkered past…it's all bad, Renee. But for some reason you're in love with me. I'm not putting on an act about loving you back because I really do love you but…I'm not a good person."

"You keep saying you're not a good person but dammit if you weren't a good person I wouldn't be with you right now, Jonathan! Just…stop being so damn hard on yourself. What, you think you're not a lovable person? Okay, so you robbed liquor stores…whatever! Did you kill somebody or something? Did you do something that you regret to this day? It's eating away at you, I can see that, so…if you think because you've made a mistake like everyone else has that you're a bad person, you can forget it because you're not. And I love you because I feel safe with you. I just need you to remember that."

Jon sat down on the bed then picked up his journal and stared at it. Renee sat down next to him and rubbed his back as she kissed his cheek.

"There's something I want to tell you so bad. It involves…you."

"You know what? Even though I'm all for listening to what you have to say, I don't want to know about it right now. You may want to tell me right now but I have a feeling you're not ready to do so. So, I'm not going to rush you to do anything you don't want to do and I will not read your journal again."

"Are you sure you don't want to hear what I have to say?"

"Not right now. Only when you're ready. And when I'm ready as well because I'd need to prepare myself."

"Well, okay."

"Are we cool now?"

"Yeah. We're cool."

Renee lit up a cigarette and blew out the smoke through her nostrils. It was her lunch break and she was standing outside in the back of the restaurant all by herself. She only had one cigarette some years ago one time but this time she was smoking her second one. Deep down she was worried about Jon and if he even trusted her after she read his journal without asking him first. She still felt bad about it but knew she couldn't keep dwelling in the past. Her phone began to vibrate in her pocket as someone was calling her and she took it out to see it was Jon.

"Hello?" she said when she picked up.

"Hey, how're you?"

"Okay and you?"

"I'm fine. I'm just calling to let you know that I'm going to be working late today. Boss needs some of us to close up shop. I'll catch a ride with a friend so you can go ahead and go home."

"I'll wait for you after work."

"Renee, I'm going to be working an extra two hours."

"And I can wait for you in those extra two hours, too."

"Whatever you say." Jon chuckled and shook his head. "I won't stop you, boss lady. You know where to find me."

"I sure do."

Renee had woken up when she heard someone knocking on her window to her car. She had quickly unlocked the doors for Jon then lifted her seat up.

"Hi, sleepy head." Jon got in the car then gave Renee a kiss.

"Hi, love." She started the engine then drove onto the street towards home. "How was work?"

"It was okay. How was work for you?"

"Okay."

"I guess we had some pretty okay days today then, hehe." Jon's eyes fell onto a carton of cigarettes that was in a cup holder. He picked it up and looked at it. "When did you start smoking?"

"I was a bit stressed today so I decided to smoke some cigarettes. Friend gave them to me. I had smoked one cigarette years ago and today was the first time in forever I smoked one."

"I would've done the same today if I could." Jon placed the cigarettes back in the cup holder and closed his eyes to rest them.

Once they got home, they both sat on their balcony and lit up one cigarette that they shared.

"You ever wonder what life would be like if everything was different?" Jon asked Renee. He took a puff of the cigarette and handed it to Renee.

"Sometimes. But, hey…we have to play with the cards we're dealt."

"True. But I know you haven't wished for things to be different, though."

"No doubt. But everything that's going for me right now is fine."

"Same here. I just hope that we can make it. That's my one wish."

"It's been almost a year now. We've made it far enough so…let's continue making it, shall we?"

Renee smoked the last bit of cigarette before putting the butt out in the ashtray and grabbing Jon's hand. Jon closed the sliding door screen door behind him and let Renee lead him to the bedroom. As soon as the both of them laid down on the bed, all they did was snuggle with each other. No more words needed to be spoken between the two as they laid together in silence, each of them thinking about how grateful they are to be in each other's arms. Jon finally came to terms with the fact that Renee was indeed in love with him and even though he still hadn't told her what he needed to tell her, she was still comfortable being with him. He knew that he had to come clean about the other stuff he did and he knew Renee wanted to know but when the time was right, then it would happen.

And that would be soon enough.

"Where would you like to go this weekend?" Jon asked Renee.

"I don't know, really. Where would you like to go?" she asked.

"Anywhere you want to. Just say the place and we'll go."

"Hmm…how about the arcade? Just something simple."

"You got it." Jon started the engine then backed out of the parking lot and drove onto the main street. "Anywhere else?"

"Nah. Just the arcade."

"Your wish is my command."

"Actually…I want to go to the hill you took me to."

"Coolio. Can we get some snacks first then?"

"Sure."

"The city looks so beautiful from up here," Renee said, popping a gummy bear in her mouth.

"Yes, it does." Jon chugged down the rest of his soda and put the bottle in the bag.

"Jon?"

"Yeah?"

Renee nodded her head towards the backseat as she put the pack of gummy bears on the dashboard and Jon knew exactly what that meant. Jon looked around him as he climbed into the backseat behind Renee and sat down. Renee straddled him as she planted kisses on his neck.

"I'm glad I thought about this spot…" she said.

"I'm glad you did, too. Every time I make love to you, I swear you look damn gorgeous."

"You look quite handsome yourself."

"Ah, I'm alright. Not fancy looking."

"Trust me…you're fancy looking."

"Okay, whatever you say!"

"Just shut up and kiss me…"

Renee and Jon slobbered each other with kisses as they removed every particle of clothing on their body and were finally naked right in broad daylight. They didn't care as they both fucked each other's brains out and gave each other bruises and hickeys along the way.

They were definitely having a good time alright.