Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Whatever emotional dam was holding me together broke in an instant. Greece — the place we met, the place we fell in love, the place he called me Firefly for the first time.
“This is too much,” I whispered, breath catching on a laugh as my thumb brushed his knuckles. “Are you sure about the name?”
“I’ve never felt surer of anything in me life,” he said, voice thick now. “About who I am. About what I’m doing. And I know it’s because I have you by my side. I want you to keep chasing what lights you up, Ember. So I’m making me home in Fort Lauderdale, because that’s where you shine. This way, you don’t have to give up anything. And I don’t have to do this without you.”
I couldn’t see him through the tears bubbling in my eyes now. My heart was a mess. I was smiling so big my cheeks hurt.
“Well,” I said, voice shaky but sure, “speaking of chasing dreams…”
It was Finn’s turn to cock a brow.
“I’ve accepted a new position,” I said. “Chief stew on a private yacht for a family.”
His mouth parted. “You’re kidding.”
“I was going to tell you right after this,” I said on a laugh. “It’s an interior twice the size of the Sinking Sun. Full creative control. A path to purser, if I want it.”
Gasps and applause rippled through the room, but I barely heard it. All I could see was the way Finn looked at me.
Like he’d known I could do it all along.
“So,” I said, teasing, “we’re both out here living our dreams, huh?”
He reached for me, cupping my cheek, and pulled me in for a kiss. “Life is a dream with you.”
The crowd lost it.
Even Graham laughed. “Okay, okay, you two — get a room.”
Everyone chuckled as the cameras panned out, Graham delivering his final address and telling everyone to tune in for bonus content on the website. Crew members were already beginning their wrap-up shuffle, the show winding down.
But I stayed there with Finn, heart pounding, his arm around my shoulder, the weight of everything we’d survived finally lifting.
And though I was bursting with excitement for my new job, I found that pesky thought swirling in my head again…
What would it be like to run a restaurant with Finn?
Not just as the girlfriend of the chef, but as a partner. To design the service, the experience. To run dinner every night beside him. To create something together, something that felt like us.
My stomach fluttered, those same butterflies I’d felt when we first locked eyes on that hot, impossible day in Greece tickling my belly with their wings.
And just like that, I knew the answer.
The second the hotel room door clicked shut, I kicked off my heels and groaned. My earrings hit the nightstand next, then my necklace, my rings. I was ready to scrub off the mound of makeup on my face, too, but decided I’d wait until after Finn fucked my brains out.
Because that was definitely happening tonight.
Finn let out a heavy exhale as he tossed his suit jacket over the back of a chair. He loosened his tie, popped the top button of his shirt, and collapsed onto the bed with a dramatic flop.
“Well,” he said, rubbing his face. “That went about as well as it possibly could.”
I smiled, padding over to him. “I mean, we didn’t get booed off the stage, so I’d call it a win.”
His phone buzzed once. Then again. Then three more times.
Finn groaned and pulled it from his pocket. His brows lifted almost immediately. “Whoa.”
I raised a brow. “What?”
“Apparently, whatever we said… or whatever the producers decided to show… changed some minds. Look.”
He handed me the phone. I scrolled, stunned as post after post flashed across the screen:
@closeqbaby: Okay… I get it now. That firefly line?? Someone write the damn movie.
@crewteaqueen: Still not over the Gisella drama, but gotta admit Ember and Finn feel like the real deal.
@saltyandsweet: Gisella talking about betrayal like she didn’t bed-hop her way across the Med lmaoooo be so for real girl.
@teamfirefly: Listen, they weren’t perfect, but they owned it. And that’s love. Real, messy, worth-it love.
“That’s… new,” I said.
The hate was still there though, fewer and farther between, but there.
@yachtwatchdog: They’re still shady AF for how they went about it. No amount of Greek poetry changes that.
I scrolled a few more times, eyes bulging when I saw the most recent post from the show. “Um… apparently they’re releasing all this bonus footage.” I pressed play, and Finn leaned up to watch with me as the screen revealed the two of us outside on that second crew night out when Finn confessed everything about the restaurant and his gran.
The views ticked higher as we watched, the comments pouring in.
But this time, they were positive, demanding to see more of us, to know more of our story.