Page 88 of Better Late Than Never

He grinned. “Good.” Then he lifted his head off the pillow and kissed me lightly. Glancing down, he chuckled. “We, uh… We might need another shower.”

“Mmhmm. We do. But hey, at least the hotel doesn’t charge us for water.”

My God, I loved how he laughed.

I shouldn’t have loved it this much, but I did.

I eased myself up and sat back on my heels. “Shower?”

Connor grinned as he sat up. “Shower.”

* * *

We hunkered down in our room long past the end of siesta. The heat was intense today—when I touched the siesta shades blocking out the brutal sun, they were hot against my fingers.

So, we just chilled in the room, lounging naked in bed and watching random crap on YouTube. Since we always knew there was a possibility of getting hungry during that window of time when the restaurants were mostly closed—around 1630-2030—we made sure to bring a few munchies with us. That kept the hangry at bay until we could venture out and find dinner.

Now it was getting toward dinnertime, though, so we put on some clothes and ventured back out into polite society.

That was… jarring in a way I didn’t expect.

Everything around us felt alien and bizarre, and not because we were in a foreign country. This wasn’t culture shock because we were in Spain; it was like we’d just come here from another planet. From someplace where nothing existed except the two of us.

I could still feel everything we’d done and needing to stay a platonic distance apart just felt… wrong. My fingers itched with the desire to be on his skin again, or even resting on his clothed back. After a few hours of cuddling in front of his laptop, I felt strangely untethered now. Keeping this platonic distance between us was perfectly normal when we were out in public, but it felt alien today. Like something was missing in that way that had me checking my pockets to make sure I had, in fact, remembered my wallet and phone.

What the hell is wrong with me?

As if I didn’t know.

But I wasn’t going to think about that. I was going to enjoy my evening out with Connor, and then we’d go back to the hotel and sleep together one more time before we went back to our normal lives. I wasn’t going to dwell on the things we couldn’t do and couldn’t be, no matter how much I?—

My breath hitched.

No matter how much I wanted to.

“Alex?” Connor eyed me. “You okay?”

“Hmm? Oh. Yeah.” I shook myself and laughed. “Just thought I forgot my wallet.” I tapped my back pocket. “Which I didn’t.”

He smiled. “Eh. If you had, then I’d buy dinner.”

“Oh. Well. In that case.” I showed my palms. “I forgot my wallet.”

Rolling his eyes, he elbowed me. “Nice try.”

I chuckled. “Hey, it was worth a shot.”

We continued walking, and before long, we found the Turkish restaurant I’d been to before. In no time, we were seated on the patio, each with a glass of wine as we perused the menus. Connor ordered Iskender, which was shaved lamb with yogurt and tomato sauce. I went with the saksuka, a savory vegetarian dish with a lot of cumin mixed in with tomatoes and peppers, topped with a poached egg. Easily one of my favorite meals—one I’d even learned to make at home—and this place always made it perfectly.

As we ate, we fell into conversation like we always did.

Partway through dinner, as we considered ideas for where and when we should have our next weekend getaway, he said, “My sons will be here next week for ten days.” He absently swirled his wine. “So, it’ll have to be after that.”

“Of course. Are you going to take them around Spain, or just stay around Rota?”

“Oh, we’re going to travel, definitely. They’ve been loving hearing about all the places I’ve been. Morocco is high on their list, too.”

“I don’t blame them—Morocco is amazing. In fact, if you’re going to Tangier, I can send you the contact info for the tour guide I’ve used before. He’s awesome.”

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