I first met Theo Valentine in the women’s bathroom.
He was coming out, still tucking himself back into his jeans, a woman at his heel. He held the door open for me to pass and smirked. I rolled my eyes. Hard. Who cares if he smelled like excitement and trouble? Or that the proximity made my eye twitch like I was deficient in Vitamin D? Bad boys and their egos were something I’d spent my college years avoiding. I was this close to having all my ducks in a row. A career in risk management? Check. The perfect fiancé whom my family adored? Check. I couldn’t be happier. No, really! I couldn’t. Except the week I met Theo was also the week everything changed. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I didn’t have a future. If I wanted to truly live in whatever time I had left, I needed to learn to do so in the moment. And Theo… He didn’t just understand living life for the now. He’d made not caring about the future into an art form. But when the future isn’t an option, that’s when you want one. HEA included.
