The next few weeks flew by in a sort of dreamy haze. Sora and Tai's relationship had reached an all-time high. She began to allow herself to feel convinced that what they were doing was right. Other people wouldn't understand, but to them it was right.

Work was going well, and even though Sora had sent some of her ideas and sketches to Matt, she actually hadn't heard from him in a bit, so she figured he was just busy with other things. That made things a lot easier for Sora as she didn't need any more distractions. However, one Friday, Yuri snapped her back to reality.

"Sora," he said poking his head into her office cubicle.

"Yuri-san," she responded and quickly stood up from her desk.

"Illouz is coming back tomorrow. I hate to ask you to work on a weekend again, but can you meet him at the airport? He specifically told me that he was looking forward to seeing you."

"M-me?" Sora stammered.

Yuri nodded. "He also said he had some news that he wanted to share with you right away, but that it had to be face to face," he said. "You must've made quite an impression on him last month."

Uh-oh, Sora thought. "Um, of course," she said with a bow. "I'll get his flight information and be there to meet him."

"Good," Yuri said with a thumbs up. "It's great to be on our CEO's son's good side! Hahaha!" He waved and left the doorway.

Sora slumped back down into her chair. With all the drama happening with Tai, she had almost forgotten that Matt was coming back. Whatever, this is just a work relationship, she thought shaking her head. There was never anything between us anyway. I'll just keep things professional.

Early the next morning, she was picked up by a company driver and driven to the airport to await Matt's landing. Sora couldn't help but fidget the entire car ride. Why am I so damn nervous? she thought angrily to herself. Nothing's happened and nothing is going to happen!

The driver dropped her off at the terminal entrance and she made her way inside. As she stood in the greeting area, she couldn't help but feel a mix of anxiousness and excitement. Whether there was something between them or not, he was a ridiculously handsome man, and they had gotten along so well before. What if it was suddenly awkward between them? What if he didn't like her work? What if…

She then spotted a tall blonde man emerge from behind the international terminal doors. He was looking as dapper and handsome as ever. She immediately felt her cheeks go red. Stop it, stop it, stop it! she tried in vain to calm herself. Gingerly, she put up her hand to wave at Matt.

Matt immediately spotted her and began walking briskly toward her. "Sora!" he exclaimed excitedly. He stood up his bag and it almost seemed like he wanted to give her a hug, but then caught himself at the last minute. He cleared his throat and took her hand instead and gave it one of his famous kisses.

Sora could feel that she was a little shaky from her excitement at seeing him again. "Il-I mean, Matt," she said clumsily. "Welcome back!"

Matt smiled at her, noticing her rosy cheeks. "It's wonderful to see you again, Sora," he said gracefully.

"You as well," Sora responded trying to regain her composure. "How was your flight?"

"It was fine," he said. "Ah, but I have some exciting news to share with you." He reached into his inner suit pocket and pulled out an envelope.

"What's this?" Sora asked with a nervous laugh.

"For you, mademoiselle," he said gracefully handing her the envelope.

Sora eyed Matt suspiciously. "You want me to open this right now?"

Matt chuckled. "Of course! Open it!"

Sora slowly opened the envelop and pulled out an official-looking letter. She read it over, but then her body froze and she almost dropped the paper. "Is…is this real?" she stammered.

Matt nodded. "I promise, I didn't influence this in any way. Your talent is incredible and speaks for itself."

"San Francisco?" Sora almost whispered. "They want to use my blueprint?" Her dream blueprint…

"There were numerous submissions for this project that my father went through, and I slipped this one in his folder just to see. I thought your design was brilliant. Unique, new, and innovative. It's one of the most impressive things I've seen in a while. I couldn't believe you just graduated not too long ago."

"Matt…I…" Sora was at a loss for words. The letter stated that Légère Internationale would like to fly Sora out to San Francisco where they were contracted by a company called Solesta to begin constructing the bay area's newest eco-friendly skyscraper.

"My father was just as impressed as I was, so he offered your blueprint to Solesta over in San Francisco along with a handful of others. They were the ones that picked yours out, Sora," Matt said with a huge smile on his face.

"I…I can't believe it," Sora almost whispered. "You did this for me?" She looked up at him and felt her heart start beating so fast it could burst out of her chest.

"Of course," Matt said. "But what I did was minimal. Your talent stood out on its own."

Before Sora could stop herself, she found herself flinging her arms around Matt's neck, hugging him closely.

Matt was surprised at her action, but he happily returned her embrace and the two held each other. For a brief moment, the world seemed to stand still.

"Thank you," Sora said with a shaky voice. "No, I can't thank you enough!" She held him closer completely forgetting her original goal of just being professional. Suddenly she realized what she was doing and snapped her arms away from him, taking a step back.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she said bowing to him.

"No, no, don't be sorry!" Matt said putting a hand on her shoulder to try and get her to stand back up.

"That was completely uncalled for! I sincerely apologize!" Sora said refusing to straighten up.

"Sora," Matt said with a laugh. He leaned down so he could look at her face. "Please don't apologize."

Sora finally stood back up and tried to regain her composure. "I'm just…I can't believe it."

"If you're willing to accept this contract, you'll be leaving for San Francisco next week. Is that ok with you?"

Sora immediately nodded. "Of course! I am so honored to have been chosen for this project!"

"That's wonderful to hear!" Matt said. "I've been assigned to accompany you and deal with the administrative side of the project. I'm looking forward to working with you on your building."

Sora couldn't help but beam with happiness. Her building. Her dream from high school. This was what she had wanted for so long, and it was all happening so quickly! Ulterior motives or not, Matt had paved the way for her to reach her goal of becoming a real building architect. And it wasn't just Matt that loved her work, apparently their CEO and Solesta loved it as well. It was so affirming to hear that all of her hard work was paying off. "I'm looking forward to working on this with you as well. I really can't thank you enough for this opportunity!"

"Come on, let's celebrate somewhere! Then we'll break the news to poor Yuri," Matt said with a laugh.

Sora couldn't help but laugh along with him. "Oh no, what will he say?"

"Don't you worry about that," Matt said. "We already have some new recruits ready to help his team with Shindo, so he won't be shorthanded."

Sora nodded and the two of them made their way out of the airport to where the company car awaited them.

The pair picked up right where they had left off when Matt had had to go back to France a month ago. They traipsed around Tokyo going to open food markets and hole-in-the-wall hidden gems. They talked all about Sora's design. Matt kept bringing up detail after detail saying how impressed he was.

Sora was thrilled that Matt took the time to really get to know her design. They talked shop for a couple hours until Sora suddenly noticed that it was already noon, and she had told Tai that she would be back home by now.

"Oh wow, it's already the afternoon," Sora exclaimed after looking at her phone.

"Time flies," Matt said with a wink.

The all too familiar blush crossed Sora's face. Why is he so damn attractive? "I actually need to get back home," she said standing up from their table. They had just finished a quick coffee and snack. "Apologies this is so sudden!"

"Don't be sorry, Sora," Matt said getting up as well. "I should probably head to my hotel. But by the way, I'm assuming you'll be at your brother's game tomorrow."

"Oh," Sora said with surprise. Hearing Matt talk about Tai sent a chill down her spine. "Y-yes, of course I'll be there," she stammered.

"I actually bought tickets to go myself. I know you'll be in the family section of the stands, but I'd love to see you there."

"Oh, yes, where are you sitting?" she asked feigning excitement.

"I think it's somewhere on the box level," he said as he tried to remember where it was. "You're welcome to come join me there if you'd like."

"Oh, that's very generous of you," Sora said, "but I think I'll need to stay where I usually sit because Tai can be a little superstitious…" She forced a chuckle. It was more like, if she wasn't where he expected to see her at a game as important as this, he'd probably flip out.

"Of course, of course," Matt laughed.

Sora then remembered that Matt had wanted to meet Tai. Again, she absolutely did not want that to happen, but it would be rude and awkward of her not to offer to introduce them. She searched for a way to give herself an out if needed. "If the game goes well, maybe I can introduce you," she said with a hint of nervousness in her voice. "But only if it goes well," she joked.

"Ah, gotcha," Matt said with a grin. "Well, I'd love to meet him, but definitely feel free to let me know if he's not in the mood. I'll be cheering him on either way."

"Thanks, Matt," Sora said returning the grin.

"Until tomorrow, then?" Matt said taking her hand and putting it to his lips.

Again with the blush… "Tomorrow!" she said with a forced smile.

When Sora arrived back home, Tai had already gone to practice. She breathed a sigh of relief. Should she tell him that Matt was back in town AND that he was going to be at his game tomorrow? She shook her head. No, that would only distract him, and this was the AFC finals. Plus, if they won, that would put Tai in a good enough mood that maybe meeting Matt wouldn't be such a bad thing. And if they lost, she would never even mention that he was there. It seemed to be an ok plan for the moment.

Sora got her phone out and sent an apology text to Tai saying that her morning work thing stretched into the afternoon, but that she'd see him tonight. When she put her phone down, she realized that she also needed to tell him that she was going to leave for the US again soon.

Ok, just one thing at a time, Sora thought with a sigh. Let him concentrate on his game, then tell him the news later.

The thought of working on her dream building began to excite her. While she had the rest of the day off, she couldn't help but get her laptop out and immediately start planning out a timeline. She would of course have a whole team to help her with details, but she wanted to get a basic plan in place so it wouldn't seem like she was unprepared.

Tai would understand. This was her dream! He knew about this particular design since they were teenagers. She had shown him her rough sketches, and they had spoken for hours and hours about the details of the building over the years. He knew that this was too big of an opportunity to pass up. He would understand.

Before she knew it, hours had passed and Sora was still hard at work on her laptop. She probably should've used some of the time to go outside and enjoy a little time off, but the excitement was too much to put her ideas on hold.

Soon, she heard the door open. Tai was home.

She quickly shut her laptop and got up from her spot on the couch. "Hey, Tai!" she said with a smile.

"Hey!" he said in an upbeat voice.

"You sound happy," she laughed. "Good practice?"

"Oh yeah," he said with a gleam in his eye. "We're going to kill it tomorrow! Those Aussies won't know what hit them." He laughed and then walked over to Sora and placed a kiss on her cheek.

"You always do," Sora said. She had gotten used to his little signs of affection. "I'm so excited to see you in the finals!"

"Aw, thanks, Sor," Tai said grinning from ear to ear. "What'd you do all day?"

"Uh, well the morning work thing took way longer than I thought. Sorry I wasn't home before you left for practice."

"No worries," Tai said waving his hand. "I figured you had stuff to do."

"But the rest of my day was relaxing," Sora said. "I really needed it, too."

"Yeah, you work way too hard," Tai said. "Maybe we should go on a vacation sometime soon now that the season's almost over."

"That sounds nice." She suddenly felt extremely guilty not telling Tai that she would actually be gone for the next few months, at least, working on her project. But again, she decided it was best to tell him after his game tomorrow. "But first thing's first, you have to do your pre-game day routine."

"Right," Tai said with a laugh.

"I'll get your dinner warmed up. Why don't you change and chill for a bit?"

"Aw, you don't have to, Sora."

"I've literally been chilling all day, it's the least I could do." She pushed him toward the stairs. "Just get into your PJs and we'll eat soon."

"You're the best," Tai said and gave her another peck on the cheek. He bounded up the stairs with seemingly endless energy.

Tai's routine was to eat his very particular dinner of pre-portioned brown rice, salmon, asparagus, carrots, and tomatoes with a protein drink and a granola cookie for dessert along with some chrysanthemum tea. He had this exact meal every night before a game. So far, it's had a good track record. They'd only lost one game all season up to this point.

Sora just ate whatever happened to be in the fridge which tonight was some leftovers from an earlier dinner out they had had that week. She didn't feel like cooking anything, so this was perfect for her.

After dinner, Tai took his routine bath and then went to bed early. These nights, Sora knew Tai wanted to sleep alone so he could get the most rest possible. Sora spent the remainder of the evening back on her laptop after Tai went to bed. After a couple more hours of planning her trip to San Francisco, she went to bed feeling a mixture of utter excitement, nervousness, and dread.

One thing at a time, Sora, she thought to herself as she turned off her bedside lamp.