Page 98 of Maybe You

Sutton tilts his head to the side in question before he goes and sits down on the edge of my bed.

“My sister, Kira, and Jordan basically grew up together.” I sit down next to Sutton. “They met in first grade and were attached at the hip pretty much from the start. Childhood sweethearts.”

“But your sister doesn’t live here?”

I shake my head. “Kira’s always been a high achiever. She was really smart when she was still in school, and she’s really smart now. She was always ambitious, and still is. She and Jordan had Theo when they were both fifteen.”

Sutton lets out a low whistle.

“Not ideal,” he concludes.

I laugh. “Not really, no. Jordan dropped out of school so Kira could go, but then… Well, one of them was a high school student, and the other one was, by then, practically a single dad, and Kira slowly started living this whole different life. And then she got accepted to Stanford. Free ride to her dream school. She was dead set on going. Jordan was dead set on staying. I don’t know all the details of what went down or what was said, but in the end, Kira went to San Francisco and Jordan and Theo stayed here.”

Sutton mulls that over for a bit before he asks, “And how did you end up here?”

“We were all living in our old apartment,” I say. “Me and Kira and Jordan and Theo. And once Kira said she was leaving, Jordan and Theo moved in with Remy again, and I was going to stay in our old apartment because I figured it’d be cool to be independent and all… And then the place burned down.”

Sutton doesn’t say anything. Just lies down and tugs me down next to him.

At first, we’re just lying side by side. Not even touching. But then he pushes his arm underneath me and pulls me flush against him, and my heart jumps and goes haywire because this feels… more. This doesn’t feel like I’m-just-here-because-I-want-to-fuck-you.

“Remy took me in after I got out of the hospital. My mom was living in LA by then, and she couldn’t come back because of her job, but my whole life was here, and I like New York. Plus, LA is hot and dry and sunny, which wasn’t ideal even if I had wanted to move. Anyway, Jordan suggested that I stay with them, and Remy was more than happy with that too, so here I am.”

“They’re good people,” Sutton says.

“The best. Kind and selfless and…” I shrug. “I don’t know where I’d be without them. They’re family. More than my mother and Kira at this point.”

Sutton is silent again for a long while.

“Your sister is still in San Francisco?” he finally asks.

I nod, my head moving up and down against his shoulder. “Climbing the career ladder with inhuman speed. She’s happy. And she and Jordan and Theo are fine too, by now. She visits a few times a year, and Theo stays with her for school breaks and in the summer. She just got engaged a few months ago.”

He hums in reply and turns on his side. I follow the move, and then we’re almost nose-to-nose, lying on my bed.

Sutton lifts his hand, and his fingertips trace my cheek up to the side of my nose, then slide over my right eyebrow and temple.

I lean forward until our foreheads are touching, and I kiss him. It’s soft and slow. It grows a bit more intense, but never moves past the stage of just kissing.

We’re making out on my bed, and it’s somehow more intimate than all the times we’ve had sex.

We kiss until our lips turn red and sensitive, and I feel so languid I could melt into the bed. He pulls me closer, bodies flush together, my head nestled underneath his, nose pressed into his neck. My hand is on his chest, the steady rhythm of his heart pounding against my palm. His breathing gets deeper and slower, and when I carefully lift my head, I see he’s asleep. He doesn’t even move when I roll myself away from him to go and brush my teeth and take a shower.

He’s still asleep when I pad back into the room.

I pull on a clean T-shirt and underwear and climb back into bed. He mumbles something incomprehensible and blinks his eyes open blearily.

“Fell asleep,” he mutters, rubbing at his eyes with the tips of his fingers.

“Stay,” I say softly.

He’s very still for a bit. Then he gets up.

I try to swallow down the bitter feeling of disappointment.

But then he flicks open the button on his jeans and pulls them off. Soon, he’s just in his underwear, and then he’s climbing into bed next to me.

Closer.

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