Back then, Romeo held me tenderly when you pushed me away, and he showed me the heart of the man you were beneath all your high walls and prickly armor.
You always thought you were a bad Romeo, but in my mind, you were perfect. I fell in love with you so many times during that show, and these days I fall in love with you more every day. So if that's your version of a bad Romeo, I'll take it. Even with everything we've been through, I'd do it all over again just to be where we are now.
I know a lot of people spend their whole lives looking for their 'happily ever after', but not me. Having a happy ending would imply our tale is over, and I know that's not true. Our epic love story will fill volumes before it's done. It will spill from bookshelves, take over rooms, and burst from more libraries than we can count. And every book, every page, and every word will tell of my boundless love for you.
Thank you for being my (bad) Romeo.
With all my love,
Your grateful (if slightly broken) Juliet
I swallow hard. She's never written anything like that for me before. Her words make my heart do that thing where it grows so full, it presses painfully against my ribs and beats double time. I look up to find her staring at me.
"Do you like it?"
I wrap my arm around her waist and kiss her. "It's perfect. You're perfect."
She strokes my cheek. "I'm really not, but I'm glad you think so."
"I love you, Cassie."
"Not as much as I love you."
Despite Josh and Elissa making gagging noises in the background, and my mother sniffling quietly as Dad pats her shoulder, I kiss Cassie again, softly and slowly, like she's a dream from which I never want to wake.
In reality, that's what it's like to be in love with Cassie Taylor. I'm living out all of my fantasies with the woman of my dreams.
I couldn't ask for anything more.
When we get home, I spend a couple of hours showing Cassie exactly what she means to me, and then we lie in bed, naked and weary as we flick through one of our new books.
Cassie looks up at me and sighs. "Do you think that if we hadn't been cast as Romeo and Juliet, we never would have gotten together?"
Her head is on my shoulder, her body pressed against the length of mine. As we speak, she absently traces the outline of the love heart on the book's cover.
I stroke her arm. "I don't know. I'd like to think fate would have forced us together some other way, but I guess we'll never know. One of the reasons I was so pissed about being Romeo was because I knew that as soon as I played a love scene with you, I'd be a goner. Up until that point, I'd fooled myself into thinking I could deny my feelings indefinitely. But after that first kiss backstage in the theater?" I shake my head. "Done. Ruined. Completely blind to every other woman on the planet, forever."
Cassie smiles. "Did it ever occur to you that Erika knew exactly what she was doing when she cast us together?"
I let out a short laugh. "All the time. That woman constantly manipulated us into being intimate, so we'd have to face our connection. Which reminds me, I'm due to send her my annual ‘thank you’ gift basket. It's the least I can do."
Cassie traces my lips with her forefinger. "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
As she recites Romeo’s lines, she gazes at me like I have the power to make the world turn. I'll never get tired of her looking at me like that. Ever.
I lean down and taste her lips. She kisses me back, warm and eager, and it's not long before I pull back, dizzy and intoxicated. As much as I'd like to make love to her again, it's almost sunrise, and we silently agree that a few hours of sleep are preferable to no sleep at all.
When she snuggles into my chest, I put my arm around her and stroke her side. After a few minutes, her breathing evens out and her body goes limp.
I look down at her sleeping like an angel in my arms and smile.
"My bounty," I whisper, "is as boundless as the sea. My love as deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite."
And with that, I kiss her forehead and drift off to sleep. As usual, I dream only of my sweet, astonishing Juliet.
Part Two: The Naughty List
ONE
You'd Better Watch Out
November 26th, Present Day
Kodak Theater
Los Angeles, California
If there were an award for dealing with gross incompetence without murdering someone, I should be winning it right now. I'm not usually a violent person, but the epic fuck-uppery with which I'm currently dealing isn't normal.
"Miss Holt!" I turn to see Ainsly, our harried production assistant, scurrying toward me. "There's a car blocking the loading dock, and the florist is trying to deliver a whole truckload of arrangements for the red carpet."
"Put a call over the loud speaker. If the car isn't gone in five minutes, have it towed."
"Got it."
"And why isn't this stage cleared? We have to start rehearsals in an hour."
"Oh, well ... I did tell the mechs they need to hurry."
"And?"