Page 33 of Luca & Luna

Does that count as alone?

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but the phone ringing wasn’t it.

“Hey,” I said softly, making sure that even if Mom was pressed up against the door, she wouldn’t be able to overhear.

“I’m heading to bed right away, but figured we could strike while the iron is hot.”

“Um, about what?”

“About you moving out, silly. That’s not an overnight thing if you want to do it properly. Want to talk through it? I’ve got plenty of insight on moving.”

“Yeah! That would be great. Let me grab my laptop so I can make some notes. Did your parents move a lot when you were young?” I asked as I pulled the computer from under the bed and waited for it to turn on.

“Not really. Mostly they made a bunch of shit choices and I felt like I had to move out before I was ready. A couple of times, but that’s not important. We’re talking about you.”

While Luna and I chatted, I poked through my accounts and schedules. I didn’t mind sharing the numbers with her. She worked in finance so it was no surprise that she was a whiz with this sort of thing and would be good at budgeting.

I was surprised how many little things I hadn’t even considered when it came to a budget, but Luna was impressively thorough and gave me some comparison numbers based on her own expenses, so it was easy to see what my basic costs would be outside of rent.

I couldn’t afford a swanky top-floor loft like Luna, but I’d been putting the equivalent of rent away every month since I’d turned eighteen. I could buy a modest place outright at this point and still have a buffer for things like furniture to actually outfit a new home. I wouldn’t turn into a stereotype of the man with a TV on the floor, patio furniture in the living room, and a mattress with no bedframe. Luna definitely deserved someone who had a bedframe.

“If Stella’s place doesn’t end up being an option, you have to take me with you to check out apartments. I’m not above browbeating landlords if they try to pull a fast one.”

The more she talked, the more impressed I became. She was wicked smart with a gritty edge to her. Her “take no shit” attitude made me like her even more. Someone like Luna didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She needed an equal. Whether she did—or ever would—want a partnership with me was something we’d have to tackle down the road.

I had to content myself with what she did want. It wasn’t like I was in a hurry, anyway. I’d been on dates, but connection was a whole different ball game, and I usually struggled to feel what I knew I was supposed to feel with a romantic partner. Even from the outside, I knew I’d never experienced even a fraction of what my brother had found with his wife.

His omega.

Maybe that was part of why I craved Luna. I’d never read anything about betas having a stronger reaction so it could just be Luna herself. She was complicated and beautiful and I would cherish every minute she let me have.

“Don’t you dare drop me.”

Auggie snorted as he held me suspended, both of us deep into our pole practice for our headliner show this weekend. “When have I ever dropped you?”

“You drop me all the time.”

“In practice,” he protested. “Not in shows.”

“And where are we right now?”

Auggie rolled his eyes and adjusted his grip on me. “You’re being awfully snippy with me today.”

“Sometimes a girl has to snip.”

“Hmm, nope.” Auggie lowered me to the ground and hopped off the pole. “Our relationship is that we snip about other people, not each other. Spill your tea or I’m not getting back on that pole.”

I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “You’d sabotage our performance for the sake of gossip?”

“Not just any gossip.” Auggie’s eyes gleamed. “Your gossip. And, please, we’re going to crush it regardless of today’s practice.”

“It’s boy…well, not exactly trouble, or at least, it wouldn’t be if I wasn’t me.”

Auggie latched onto that with his little gossipy claws and weaseled out the entire story, without names, of course. He burst out laughing as everything seemed to click into place for him. “So you’re struggling because you got involved with a walking green flag and now you’re the red flag.”

“What am I supposed to do with a green flag?”

“I’m obviously no expert, but I’m pretty sure you marry those ones.”

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