Page 138 of Flipping the Script

I just needed to get a good night's sleep, and hopefully I’d be able to look at everything with a clear head in the morning.

21

JESSE

I leanedback in the Adirondack chair I was sprawled on, enjoying the soft sounds of the waves breaking against the dock.

The storm had ended sometime during the night, and the early morning sun was just starting to warm the air. Thankfully the power had come back on around dawn, and I’d been able to make coffee before coming outside to get some air.

The last twelve hours felt like a blur, but also like a natural progression of events. Like Bas and I were always supposed to end up like this.

I’d woken up about an hour ago with Bas as my big spoon, his warm body against mine and a possessive arm over my waist.

Instead of panicking or feeling trapped, I lay there until he rolled over, enjoying his presence and trying not to think about everything that had gone down between us.

When it was obvious I wasn’t falling back asleep, I snuck out of bed. I got dressed and went downstairs to make coffee. When it was done, I’d made myself a cup, written Bas a note so he’d know where to find me, and came out to the dock to wait for him to wake up.

“Hey,” a gruff voice said behind me.

“Hey,” I greeted Bas as he sank into the chair next to me, a cup of coffee in his hand.

He looked good. The messy bedhead, rumpled sweater, and the little crease still on his cheek from his pillow softened his features and made him look sweet and a little shy.

My stomach flip-flopped as he took a sip of his coffee.

“Got your note. Obviously.” He shot me a quick look. “Have you been up long?”

“Not too long. About an hour.”

“I thought you left,” he said softly, peering into his coffee like it held the secrets to the meaning of life. “When I woke up and you weren’t there. I figured you left. But then I saw your note, the coffee…” He chuckled humorlessly. “I have no idea how to act right now.”

I pulled in a deep breath. “Are you awake enough to have a conversation?”

He nodded and took a big gulp of his coffee. “Yeah. I just have no idea what to say.”

“That was real, right? Last night?” I blurted.

He sort of slow blinked at me.

Great. So much for not showing all my cards.

I’d spent the last twenty or so minutes going over every single detail of last night, trying to analyze what it meant, if anything, to Bas.

I’d meant to feel him out a bit, see if maybe he felt something too, but apparently, I had zero chill today and instead just went right for the jugular.

“Never mind,” I said quickly. “I’m just?—”

“Yes.”

Bas’s simple answer stopped my backpedaling before it could start.

“If you’re asking if what happened between us last night was real and not just because of everything else that went down, then yes. It was real for me.”

“Me too.” I put my nearly empty mug down on the dock and stuck my hands in my hoodie pocket to stop myself from fidgeting. “I don’t understand when it happened, but it feels like things have been changing between us for a while.”

He nodded. “They have. Last night just kind of… I’m not sure how to say it, but it felt like a culmination, if that makes sense. Like it was always going to happen.”

“Yeah.” I sighed, some of the tension leaving me in a rush. “I don’t think I can go back to the way things were between us. And I don’t want to.” I snuck a look at him.

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