Page 57 of Roommating

I kick off my sneakers before doing the same. “I keep thinking about what would have happened if we hadn’t come straight home from work.”

“Don’t go there, Brina. If we weren’t home, she would have called 911 herself and someone at the hospital would have let me know.”

“Me.”

“What?” Adam takes a pull from his can.

“They would have calledme. I’m her emergency contact.”

He wipes his mouth. “Gotcha.”

I worry he’s offended by this. “I’m sure she’ll change it to you if you want.”

“No. I’m glad it’s you,” he says with unwavering eye contact.

“You are?”

He nods decisively. “I’m glad you’re here. Period.”

“I’m glad you’re here… period… too.”

He circles my face with his eyes, lingering at my lips like a magnet on metal.

It occurs to me I’ll be alone with Adam in the apartment overnight for the first time ever. My body flushes with heat.

“Nice hole.”

I blink. “Do you use that mouth around your grandmother?”

Adam giggles—legitgiggles—and it’s so cute I nearly piss myself. “I meant your socks.”

He’s right. I have holes in both of my color-blocked crew socks. New socks are a luxury I can’t afford right now. I wiggle my toes. “It’s my brand.”

He laughs. “Come closer.”

I don’t need to be asked twice. I remove my feet from the coffee table, and though I’m not sure this is what he means by “closer,” I crawl into his lap and straddle him.

He tucks a lock of hair behind my ear and caresses my face. “Hi.” He looks at me with lovey-dovey eyes.

Suddenly I’m shy, which is inconvenient given our current seating arrangement, but I manage to croak out, “Hi, yourself.”

“I really want to kiss you again.”

“I love to hear it because I really want to kiss you too.”

“I’ve wanted to kiss you since you carried my bag into the apartment from the hallway.”

From this close, I can count the faint freckles on his nose. “You mean the one filled with a million bricks of gold?”

“If I had a million bricks of gold, I’d buy my grandma an apartment with three bedrooms so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the couch.” He traces his fingers across my lips.

I close my eyes. “Why wouldn’t you just buy your own apartment?”

His thumb glides across my chin and up my cheek. “I like living with Grams.”

“I’m sure you do but—”

He shuts me up with a kiss. I’d be offended if I hadn’t been dreaming about kissing him again since the first time. I press my mouth to his softly at first, but then we make a silent agreement to deepen the kiss, our noses and chins lining up perfectly against each other with each slide of our lips. I tangle my hands through his hair, and he softly brushes my back and tentatively strokes over my bra. All the while his mouth never leaves mine.

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