Page 52 of It's Complicated

“No, but thanks for talking me down before I could spiral.” He sighed tiredly. “I’m just in a mood. I’ll stop being so ‘the end is nigh’ in a bit. Today just really sucked.”

Seeing Jamie in pain twisted something inside me. I wanted to help ease some of his burden, but this wasn’t the kind of thing that could be solved with an orgasm.

“How about you go take a shower, get into some comfy clothes, and I’ll make us dinner?” I offered. It wasn’t much, but it was the least I could do.

He needed someone to take care of him, to let him be upset or bitter or whatever else he was feeling.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said dejectedly. “It’s my night to cook. I can take a shower when we’re done.”

Not thinking too hard about what I was doing, I pressed a kiss against his hair. “Let me do this for you, Jamie. I can’t make your problems go away but let me try to make things easier for you here.”

“Thanks, Z.” He nuzzled his cheek against my neck again. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Same.” I pressed another kiss into his hair. “You’re my favorite person.”

“You’re mine too.” He let out a happy-sounding sigh. “This is nice. Why haven’t we cuddled like this before?”

“No idea,” I said, smiling at the knowledge that he was enjoying this as much as me. “Guess we’re going to have to fix that now that we know how awesome it is.”

“Guess so.” He sighed wearily. “I should get my ass up and take a shower before I lose all will to move.”

“I’ll get dinner started. I can’t promise it’ll be good, but it’ll be edible.”

“What more could a guy ask for?”

“How about we watch a movie?” I suggested. “Just have a chill night in.”

“Throw in some more of those cuddles, and you’ve got a deal.” He grinned and stood. “That’s a weird word.”

I tried to ignore the flicker of disappointment at the loss of his body against mine and stood too. “What is?”

“Cuddle.”

“Yeah, it is,” I agreed. “But I feel like most words sound weird if you think too hard about them.”

“True.” He looked down at his work clothes. “I can’t wait to get out of these. I’m jealous you get to wear coveralls to work while I have to wear this crap.”

“Yeah, but that crap looks damn good on you.”

He shot me a sly grin. “You think so?”

“Um, yeah. Can you say suit porn?” I waggled my eyebrows at him.

He laughed, the last of his mood disappearing. “Good to know. And just an FYI, but coveralls are hot.”

“No, they’re not.” I chuckled. “But I appreciate that.”

“They’re hot when you wear them.”

Warmth filled my chest. It was probably the world’s tamest compliment, but it wasn’t so much what he said, as how he said it, that made it mean so much more.

He wasn’t flirting or teasing. He was simply stating a fact.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked, not wanting to derail our progress by getting sappy or moving things into flirty. That wasn’t what right now was about.

“Yeah, a lot less ‘the world is ending’ and more ‘it is what it is.’” He smiled, a genuine one that reached his eyes.

“Good. Now go get comfy and clean, and I’ll get us food.”

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