Page 12 of The Other Side of Apart

“Good news is…we don’t have curfews. No parents, no interruptions.” He kisses me until my legs tingle. “We could make out all night.”

“Clothes on?”

“Necessary,” he says, his lips making detours under my jaw, up to my ear. “And I’m just glad neither of us had a doorstep before now. We would’ve been in so much trouble.”

One Week Later

Sunlight peeks through the crack in the curtains, like it’s afraid to disturb us but has to get the day going. A golden pool spreads across the wood floor and onto my face, brushing me with warmth, but not nearly as warm as Marcus’s bare chest against my back or my legs tangled in his.

Everything around me feels light and perfectly placed. Abundant and full, no matter how sparse our cottage is, like Marcus fills all the space around me, even when we’re apart. Like he’s filled all the craggy places where Nick used to lurk and dissolved all the dark memories.

I smile as Marcus’s arm tightens around me, pulling me closer in a tug-of-war with the morning—the same as every morning this week when I’ve had to get up for work earlier than he has. After our hour-long make out session a week ago, we’d stayed tangled together on the couch in the dark, listening to the trees rustling against our roof. When I’d kissed his ear and gotten up to get ready for bed, since I had an early shift the next day, Marcus watched me, his eyes glossy from where he lay onthe couch in the dark. After I’d slipped into my bed, he’d gotten up and walked into the bathroom, then come out and crawled over me in bed, whispering good night as he’d kissed my neck and pulled me back against his chest.

I’m so grateful we talked that night. I’m so, so thankful we were honest with each other. I wish he knew how his fears make me feel even safer with him. I know he would never do anything to make me uncomfortable, and I want to do the same for him.

I stretch and attempt to slip out of the covers without waking him, even though I want to stay like this all day. He groans in protest, and I smile, bending down to kiss him.

“My chest’s so cold now,” he mumbles.

“Maybe you should put on a shirt,” I suggest with a smirk.

“Maybe you should take yours off…” He smiles a slow, lazy smile.

“You taking back your stupid rule?”

He squeezes his eyes shut, shakes his head, and looks at me again, grinning. “No matter how much I want to.”

“Your loss,” I laugh before walking into the bathroom.

“Oh good! Just in time,” Jill says when I push through the door to the kitchen, the restaurant’s cordless phone in her hand. I just finished with my last table of the night, and after being here for ten hours, I’m so ready to get home to Marcus, lock the door, and pretend nothing outside it exists.

Home. Marcus. Our place. Our life. The new us, the do-over. Not only was I the only Marcus winner in the universe the first time, but somehow, I’m also the winner for a second time.

“In time for what?” I ask Jill, jerking back to reality. I untie my apron and hang it on its hook.

She holds the phone out. “For you.” She shrugs. “Not Marcus. I would’ve kept talking to him if it was.”

I stare at the phone while a familiar unease stirs in my stomach from where it’s been dormant for almost a month. If it’s not Marcus, then who? Jerry and Wen are the only other people I talk to, and they’re up in the office. Guo Mama gets updates from Jerry. No one else knows where we are.

Unease hardens into fear as a very unwelcome thought stomps through my head: What if it’s Nick? What if Nick found us? Or did he find Marcus and is calling to threaten and hurt me in the one way he knows he can?

But Marcus has been at work all day—hidden in a warehouse on the outskirts of Seattle. How would Nick find him there? Also…Nick’s in jail. But what about Xander? Chaz?

My stomach coils around every name, and Jill must see the discomfort on my face because she tilts her head and frowns. “Want me to take a message?”

I nod. “Ask who it is,” I whisper, and Jill studies me before holding the phone to her ear again.

“Can I ask who’s calling?” She keeps her eyes on my face. Pauses. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. Hold on.” Jill pushes mute and holds the phone out to me again. “Guo Mama?”

I leap toward Jill and snatch the phone out of her hands. I’ve only talked to Guo Mama once since arriving in Seattle, and that was a quick call from Jerry’s phone to tell her we arrived safely.

“Hello?” I blurt into the phone, before waving a shaky hand and mouthing “thank you” to Jill as she leaves. If it were Marcus on the other end, she would have lingered and eavesdropped. “Hold on.” I walk into the break room and shut the door behind me, pressing my back against it. “Hello!”

“Xiao Mei.” The calm in her voice warms the distance between us and relief ripples through me. I will call you another time to catch up, but right now, someone needs to talk to you.”

The phone rustles, and I frown, flipping through possibilities. But before my thoughts go too far, a familiar voice says my name on the other end, and my brain grinds to a stop.

“Mama?”

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