Page 143 of Promise Me Sunshine

“So…” he says, glancing at me. “Was your reaction to my room because my room is weird?”

I laugh. “No! There’s nothing wrong with your room. It’s really lovely. My reaction was because I’m me. And anything new is weird.”

He sighs, hugging in next to me under the spray to rinse. “Len, I don’t think I’m gonna keep this apartment.”

“Wait, what? Your bedroom is not weird! Seriously! I’m sorry I panicked. Don’t take it to heart!”

He turns the shower off and distributes towels. “It’s not that…Actually, it’s part of what Reese and I were talking about earlier.”

I scramble to catch up. “Sheaskedyou toleave?”

Miles mentioned a long time ago that he keeps the studio apartment because even though he owns this place, if Reese asked him to leave, he’d go. But I always thought that was overprecautionary.

“No! No, but we talked about how our relationship might…thrive…if I weren’t looming ominously over them. Her words, not mine.” He laughs. “She mentioned that it might feel good to call me up when she wanted me around, rather than just assume I’m always there whether she wants me or not.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“Well, I think…I think she’s really gonna try. To include me in her life, I mean. Things have changed a lot. Mostly thanks to you. So, that feels good. And forcing my way in…hasn’t worked, so if she’s telling me this will work for her, then I’ll listen.”

I’m momentarily distracted by his toweling style. Dripping feet on the bath mat, first his face, then he scrubs his head, arms, back, then ties the towel around his waist. He doesn’t even notice how rough he is with himself. Meanwhile I’m wrapped like a newborn.

“But you live here, Miles. Your dad left you this apartment.”

He heads to the bedroom and I drift after him. “It’s never really felt like mine. It was Reese’s first and I think, given our situation, that doesn’t feel right.” He pulls clothes out of his drawers. “There’s a reason this room feels so different than the rest of the house. It’s the only room I had anything to do with. The rest is all Reese. Besides, I’ve got this place and some of my stuff here, the studio and some of my stuff there, and my house upstate with stuff there too.”

“Yeah, wow. Three places. Now that you mention it, I’m kind of dating, like, a mogul.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “It’s more like you’re dating someone who’s been incapable of setting up a real life. But I wanna really settle in somewhere.”

“So…what would your plan be?”

“Well.” He glances at me, stepping into underwear. “I’m not going to kick you out of the studio. But we can’t both fit there. So I’ll have to find someplace. Hopefully close to you and Reese and Ains. And I was thinking…that I’d sell this place.”

“That makes sense. So you could buy a new place?”

“Or.” He sits down on the bed next to me. “Or I’d have some capital to get a business off the ground.”

“Oh, Miles,really?” I toss my arms around his neck and get him wet with my hair. He laughs and squeezes me tight, rearranging the towel over me so I don’t get chilly. “It’ssucha good idea. All of it.”

“It’s time. Both feet in.”

“Cannonball, right?”

He nods. “I’ll wanna keep my place upstate, of course, but yeah. It’s time to…work on Anders’s room. Anyways. Lots to think about.” He looks grumpy and pleased at the same time.

“Don’t worry,” I tell him with a pat. “I’ll help you get your life on track. I’m very organized and put together.”

For that, he tugs me back onto the bed.

—

All the leavesdrop,we get a few flurries, and I take to carrying a hot cup of tea with me around Miles’s apartment. Miles drives upstate for a day to meet with his old bricklayer mentor and returns home with a plan of action for his business. And with Anders’s framed football jersey.

I wear Miles’s old black hoodie every single second that I can, but Miles’s only rule is that I have to be naked underneath it. I think this is because he knows if he lets me wear it out of the house, it’ll be mine forever. He puts his head underneath that hoodie while we watch TV. Puts his hands underneath it while I attempt to pour a bowl of cereal. Strips it off me and pushes me down on his bed. We easily cross all three sex positions off the list. I beg him to get a fireman costume so we can finally live out number one on the list but he claims that theor somethinghas already fulfilled it.

We spend three weeks only peeling ourselves off one another so that I can shower and go take care of Ainsley.

He’s stopped tagging along with me and Ainsley for the most part. When he wants to hang out with Ains, he texts Reese and sets a time. Reese excitedly informs him that an apartment opened up in Harper’s walk-up a few blocks away.

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