Naomi didn’t even seem to think about the money anymore.

She seemed to love her new home and the constant attention of the people around her. She was happy when I gave her some leadership decisions to make, even when they were ridiculously small decisions like what color to paint the bathroom walls. But when she came back with an answer like “lavender” and then saw that I actually had it done the way that she asked for, she and I started to build a bit of a mutual understanding. I was helping her, and in return she was helping me fulfill my mother’s dying wish. She had gone from wanting to steal the fortune, to becoming a supporting member of its success.

We had decided to do a soft grand opening of the facility, a party to introduce The Sanctuary to the community and open our doors that very night to welcome anyone that needed or wanted to come there. So far, there were only two bedrooms in the building being occupied; Naomi’s room, and the bedroom that all the guys and I stayed in together. There were still twelve other bedrooms that could be filled, all ready to go with soft, clean linens on the beds and bottles of water and a hot tea machine on the dressers. It was like a mashup between a hotel and a mental hospital. Except that description was way too rudimentary. This was something special. Here, in this place, people could quietly heal themselves at their own pace, and maybe even help those around them. I had hired a few staff members, although I wanted to be very hands on, so I kept the staff to a minimum. The party was going to be a fun and relaxed event, more like a hipper version of an open house.

When people started to arrive, there were lots of whispers and impressed looks, which seemed to indicate approval by the community at large. Guests wandered all around the building freely, with the exception of the two locked bedrooms. By the time the evening was winding down, I had already received a few inquiries about how to apply to live here, mostly for people that the guests knew and wanted to help. There was even one young woman, that was one of the guests, that came up to me at the end of the night and asked if she could be the first official resident (aside from Naomi of course). I wasn’t quite sure why she would want to come live here though.

She seemed like she had her act completely together, and from the looks of what she was wearing, she wasn’t down on her luck by any means.

“You want to live here yourself?” I asked her as the guys were busy cleaning up and she stayed behind to talk with me.

“Yes,” she said.

“When were you thinking about moving in?”

“Tonight, if I can.”

“Forgive me for asking,” I said. “But you don’t seem like you’re the kind of person that would need to stay at a place like this.”

“Isn’t the whole point of this place not to judge the level of help that someone needs? That’s kind of what your whole mission statement that you talked about tonight was, right? Not everyone wears their mental health diagnosis on their sleeve.”

“You’re right,” I said, feeling awful about being so insensitive and ignorant. “You are more than welcome to stay here. Want me to give you the paperwork to fill out?”

“Sure,” she said.

I left the woman in the common room and went to go fetch the application packet. I hadn’t really expected anyone to take us up on our offer quite so soon, but this was the reason we had the party to begin with. I wanted everyone to know that we were here and ready to welcome guests, and to help provide a sanctuary too. When I returned to the room with the application, I flagged one of the staff members to come help her complete the process. I had hired a couple of people to be on site for extended hours, although they didn’t live in the building.

At some point, it might be necessary for me to hire live-in staff so that I didn’t need to be around all the time.

Once she had finished her paperwork, the staff worker walked with her to help her choose a room and handed me the application as they walked by. I opened the folder and looked at her neatly printed handwriting which said “Sarah” on the top of the page.

“Hey,” Michael said as he walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I turned my face to the side to nuzzle his. “That went pretty well, didn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I think so. We’ve already got our first resident.”

“I don’t think Naomi counts,” he laughed. “She was kind of a package deal.”

I waved the folder over my shoulder for him to see. “This woman just applied to stay here. Her name is Sarah.”

“Wow, that was fast.”

“Are we ready for this?” I asked him.

“What do you mean? This was all your idea,” he laughed.

“Yeah, I know. I just hope that I can do a good job with it.”

Michael turned me around in his arms until I faced him. Then he took the folder out of my hand and set it down on a nearby table.

“This isn’t a medical facility,” he reminded me. “It’s just a nice, safe place for people to come when they’re down on their luck or feel alone. Just having a place like this where people can go with no questions asked, that already means you’re doing a good job with it. Besides, look at what you managed to do with the halfway house. That place is a huge success and has helped tons of teenage kids. Now you have this place where you can help adults that need it, just like your aunt. Which, by the way, she seems to be doing pretty well here.”

“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “I never thought that Naomi would be reformable, especially not after all that she has done. But she genuinely seems to want to be better and do better now.”

I looked over and saw Naomi helping Sarah get acquainted with where things were in the house.

“She still hates men though,” I joked.

“Yeah well, no worries there. I plan to stay completely clear of her until we leave,” Michael said. “And speaking of leaving, come on. I want to take you somewhere.”

I thought he was referring to somewhere inside the building, but when he handed me my coat, I realized that he meant we were going out.

“What about Naomi?” I asked.

He thumbed over his shoulder. “Adam and Rob are still here. I’ll tell them that they’re on guard dog duty for a few hours.”

“A few hours?” I asked. “Where are we going?”

He grinned. “It’s a surprise.”

On the ride to our surprise destination, I couldn’t help but stare at Michael as he drove. I kept my hand in his lap and my fingers rubbed against the soft fabric of his jeans. He looked happy, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of whatever surprise he had in store for me, or because things were going okay at the moment. There hadn’t been any intimacy since the storage room incident with Adam. Mostly because we had been so busy and so tired with getting The Sanctuary opened up. But also, because the four of us had been working tightly together, and I didn’t want to do anything to rock the boat.

Adam still hadn’t talked to me much about my choice and about the fact that I hadn’t told him and Rob. We mostly just worked together during the day and talked about other things instead, as if we were avoiding the emotional issue altogether. But at night, Adam would curl up around me just like the four of us always slept. And no matter how much division or coldness there was within awkward or uncomfortable moments of the day; all of that melted away while we slept touching each other at night. It was like we couldn’t even stay upset with each other if we tried.

Of course, at some point in the near future, Adam and I would still need to finish that conversation.

My decision to choose Michael and my decision not to tell the others, was something that still needed to be discussed. Rob hadn’t mentioned anything about it at all, and I wondered if Adam had even told him. I felt sure that he would have. It would have been hypocritical of him to be upset at me about “omissions” and then fail to tell Rob about what he knew. So I was pretty certain that he had told Rob already. Although I didn’t know why Rob hadn’t said anything to me about it yet.

“Okay, so no thinking about anything else right now,” Michael said as he pulled out a silk scarf to tie around my head so that he could cover my eyes. “And also, no peeking.”

“How could I peek? You have a scarf wrapped around my eyes,” I giggled.

“True,” he said as he gently helped me out of the car. “I just don’t want to ruin the moment.”

“What moment?” I asked as I held onto his arm while we slowly walked into a building.

I could tell we were inside someplace now because the noise of the city streets was dampened, and the chilly breeze was gone. It was silent wherever we were though. It didn’t sound like there was anyone else there, which made me instantly tingle, thinking that this was a romantic surprise. We climbed a lot of stairs, and I mean a lot of stairs. Then I heard a creaking door open and the sounds of the city again.

There was an even gustier and chillier breeze now as I wrapped my coat around me, and Michael grabbed me nearer to him.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yes!” I said excitedly.

When he pulled the end of the scarf loose and it fell down from my eyes, I couldn’t believe where I was standing. I looked over at Michael, who was standing next to me with a wide smile and a look of absolute adoration in his eyes. Then I looked out across the rooftop of the aquarium. I saw the spot where Michael first grabbed me, in that heated moment where I didn’t know whether to be afraid for my life, or afraid for my soul. I saw the greenhouse where Michael and I had first made love to each other. And perhaps more than anything else, I saw the night play through my head again when I first knew that I loved him.

I didn’t know it then; at the time, I just thought that my emotions were running wild and that at most it was probably lust from the thrill of the moment. But looking back on that night; I knew it. I knew it right down into the core of my being. I knew that Michael would be the one.

Michael took my hand and we walked over to the edge of the roof.