Page 150 of Raven

He is a good trickster. Though at some point, I have to have a conversation with him about being reckless.

“Maddy!” Sonny shouts on the speakerphone, and both Maddy and I snort with laughter.

“Someone got his energy back,” I murmur.

“Did you find Rave?” he asks.

“Yeah. I found Rave,” she says, smiling coyly at me as I clean the grill.

“At the cave?”

“Yes, at the cave.”

“Did you talk?”

“Yes, Little, we talked.”

“What did he say?”

“He said no more Thai food for you or chips or movies if you ever pull off anything like you did.”

He breaks out in laughter, but then his voice is serious and quieter. “Is he… is he really really angry with me?”

Maddy looks at me, waiting for an answer.

“I’m not,” I say louder. “I’m glad you are okay.”

“Rave!” he shouts. “You there!”

Both Maddy and I try to keep our smiles contained. He is, again, his obnoxious self.

“You at Maddy’s?”

“Maddy is at my house,” I say.

“No way! Did she see the flower?”

I look at Maddy.

“Yes, I saw it,” she says, meeting my eyes.

“S’ cool, innit?” Sonny says. “Rave calls it Maddy’s flower.”

The light in her eyes gets so much brighter at the words.

“He got it for you,” Sonny says. “When he missed you, you know.”

We don’t respond, gazing at each other, until there’s some noise in the background.

“Hey, Samantha brought chips, and we gonna watch a movie. So…”

“We will come see you soon.”

“No! No! Don’t! We are watching a movie. But… Can we have dinner tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” we both say at the same time.

Tonight’s dinner passes in small talk, and I make us another round of drinks and we cheer, but before we take a sip, we consummate this new “us” with a kiss. And I’ll tell you one thing about kissing Maddy—there is no world war that can break us apart right now. We don’t stop kissing as we set the drinks down and I carry her to my bedroom. She demands that I take my clothes off again. How can I refuse? Especially when she does it for me, and we are skin to skin again, and I’m inside her, and the rest of the world falls off until she comes around me with beautiful moans, and I come inside her proudly and feeling like I finally understand the concept of heaven. And yeah, I’m her fucking boyfriend.

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