Page 23 of Again with Feeling

“Really? When?”

He opened his mouth.

“Last night, after you signed the lease?” I asked.

He shut his mouth.

“Or the week before that, when you were looking at apartments?”

He put his hands on his hips. It wasn’t quite a slouch, since Bobby never slouched, but there was something insolent about the pose—a kind of juvenilescrew-offso at odds with the Bobby I knew that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.

“Or the week before that,” I asked, “when you had your first date with Kiefer?”

Color rose under Bobby’s smooth, golden-olive complexion. “I didn’t meet him two weeks ago.”

“Oh, right.” I laughed. “Sorry. I must have gotten him confused with the guy before him. Or the one before that. It’s hard to keep them all straight. Tell me, how long have you and Kiefer been dating?”

“You’re being immature about this.”

“I’m being immature? How long ago did you start dating him, Bobby? It’s a simple question.”

His jaw tightened. His slouch didn’t look quite so relaxed anymore. The refrigerator hummed.

“Four and a half weeks—”

“A month,” I said. “You’ve been dating him a month, and you’re moving in with him.”

“Yes.”

I waited, but nothing more came. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“We’re in a relationship. It’s serious. This is the next logical step.”

“It’sserious?” I couldn’t keep control of my tone—or my volume. “Bobby, he’s basically a teenager. How old is he? What’s he doing with his life? How could you possibly know, after a month, that this relationship is serious?”

“He’s twenty-two years old,” Bobby said, and this time there was an edge in his voice I wasn’t sure I’d heard before. “He’s smart. He’s passionate about—about a lot of things.”

“Oh yeah? What’s his middle name?”

Bobby cut his eyes away.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked.

More of that color rushed into Bobby’s cheeks, but he still didn’t look at me. “I guess you knew everything about Hugo before you moved in with him.”

“No, I didn’t know everything about him. But we’d been together for more than two years when we got our first apartment.”

Now, his gaze slid back to me. “And that’s fine, Dash. That worked for you. But every relationship is different. People move at different speeds in their relationships.”

“What speed is this? Warp speed? Light speed?” I don’t know whySpace Ballswas the first reference that came to mind, but it popped out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Ludicrous speed?”

“Not everyone is like you. Not everyone has to spend years evaluating every possible outcome before they’ll even consider taking the first step in a relationship.”

Something about the lights in the kitchen seemed off, like my pupils had dilated and couldn’t quite correct. A second passed, and then another. “Wow.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Yes, it is.”

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