Page 86 of Drunk on Love

“Oh no, I just remembered—I have a dinner tonight over in Sonoma. I’ll be home pretty late, I’m sorry.”

He kissed her softly on the lips.

“That’s okay.” He slid his hand down the curve of her back. “I mean, that’s okay in the abstract, like, you don’t need me to approve of where and when you have dinner, but also I very much wish you were having dinner with me tonight instead.”

“Maybe you could come over, after?” she said. Then she regretted it immediately. She shouldn’t sound quite that eager. This thing was brand-new, she should—

“Yes, please,” he said. “Text me when you get home?”

She pulled him closer and kissed him hard.

“Will do.”

He got up and got in her shower. She pulled on one of her much more practical robes than the one she’d worn last night and went to make coffee.

He came into the kitchen a little while later, fully dressed and rubbing his head with her towel.

“I realized that I don’t know how you take your coffee,” she said. “I’ve known you for a while now, but there are still so many gaps in my knowledge.”

He picked up the mug she’d poured and took the milk she handed him.

“A lot of milk, a little sugar,” he said. “I learned how to drinkcoffee from Avery in high school, and while she’s become more grown-up in her coffee tastes, I have not, unfortunately.”

Margot laughed.

“I’m surprised Taylor didn’t make fun of you for that. She’s a coffee purist, you know.”

He made a face.

“She did indeed make fun of me for this. You just never overheard it, thank goodness. I would have been mortified.”

She laughed as he put sugar in his coffee.

They drank coffee together for a few minutes, while she checked her emails and texts that had come in overnight. She’d gotten a few texts from Sydney. She hadn’t told her, yet, about what had happened with Luke the other night. She’d almost told her the day before, but she’d held off. She’d wanted to wait, until she knew what this was, until she knew if it was just a second one-night stand or something else.

Luke set his mug down on the counter.

“I hate that I have to go now.”

He stood up and bent down to kiss her. She twined her arms around his neck and held on.

“I wondered, you know,” he said, his mouth just inches from hers, “if that first night, that night at my apartment, was as good as it could get. If maybe I’d built up this thing between us so big in my mind that I’d invariably be disappointed if it ever happened again.” He kissed her, so hard it made her breathless. “But the opposite is true. It only keeps getting better.”

It felt almost absurd to her that she felt the same way. That the hunger she’d had for him hadn’t dissipated, but had increased. And that not only did he feel the same way, but he was saying this to her.

“I know,” she said. “It does.”

He kissed her again and then took a step back.

“Okay. Talk to you soon, then.”

She followed him to the door.

“Yeah. Talk to you soon.”

He flashed one more smile at her before he walked out her front door.

She poured more coffee into her mug and prepped a fresh pot. And then she picked up her phone.

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