Page 97 of Not Fooling Anyone

She must see the offense on my face because she reaches out herself, grabbing my hands.

“I know you wouldn’t mean to,” she says. “It’s that you could. That you mean enough to me that it would matter.”

There’s a sound from outside the front door, keys jangling, and then a man enters, about our age, looking at the two of us confusedly.

What the fuck?

Lexie retreats from me and toward the door. “Travis…” she says apologetically, like she was caught doing something wrong.

There’s a sucker punch to my stomach. She has another guy in her life?

His gaze darts between us and he steps back out of the doorway. “How about I spend the night at Isaac’s?” he asks, not waiting for a response. Before he shuts the door, his gaze lands on me, raking me up and down. That’s right. I only have boxers on. “Nice to meet you, Ethan.”

He sounds genuinely friendly, confusing me even more. He knows me? What the hell is going on?

I stare at Lexie expectantly after he leaves, waiting for her to give an explanation, but she just rubs at her forehead.

“You going to tell me who that was?” I finally ask, unable to wait any longer.

She blinks at me, startled. I guess my voice is a little harder than usual. “That’s Travis.”

Yeah, I got that. “And he is…”

“My friend. Like, my only friend. And my roommate. This is his place. I moved in a while ago.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask her how I was supposed to magically know that. Why she hadn’t mentioned him before. I vaguely recall her dad mentioning something about a roommate, but I’d assumed it had been a girl. If I’ve learned anything about Lexie by now, though, it’s that I can’t make any assumptions.

And that talking about herself doesn’t come naturally to her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before,” she says. “I wasn’t purposely hiding it. I—I’ve been trying to share more with you.”

“I know you have.” I cross the room, wrapping my arms around her. I don’t want to be at odds. “And I appreciate it. But I want to know everything about you.”

She blows out a breath, returning my hug, her arms circling my waist, forehead pressed to my chest. “Can you be patient with me?” She chuckles to herself. “Even more than you’ve already been? I’m in completely unfamiliar territory here.”

I cup the back of her neck, massaging out the tension there. “I’ll work with you however you need me to. I’m not asking you to be anyone other than who you are.”

She nods, looking up at me, her hazel eyes more brown than green in the dim living room lighting. “No one has ever seen me as… girlfriend material. The way I grew up with my mom, the way people treated me in school, I can’t just turn it off and act like it didn’t affect me.” She sighs as I release a knot from her upper back, her shoulders dropping. “But I want to get past that stuff. I want more with you. And I’ll probably mess up again somewhere along the way, but I’ll do my best to get back on track. I never expected someone like you.”

“I wasn’t expecting you either. But I’ve been gone for you since that first day at the gym.”

She smiles, a full-fledged one I can’t get enough of. “When I told you I wasn’t interested?”

“Yeah, since then.” I bend down, kissing her softly. “Can I spend the night? Just to sleep. To be next to you. I meant it when I said we could take things slow.”

She bites at her lip, nodding. “I’d like that.”

She leads me back to her room, the two of us lying on her bed facing each other as she tells me about Travis and his boyfriend, Isaac. About her classes and her plans to become a CPA after graduation. About how she can’t wait to quit the bar she’s working at. About anything and everything, the most I’ve ever heard her speak.

I soak it all in, enjoying how she absentmindedly runs her hands over my arms as she talks, allowing myself to finally touch her the way I want to, running my fingers through her hair, intertwining our legs. I can’t get enough of this closeness, wanting to consume her any way I can.

Her voice is hoarse by the time she drifts off, her face relaxed in sleep. I smooth her hair back, lingering over the softness of her cheek, memorizing her features. Now we’re on the same page, right? She’s willingly sharing with me, said she wants more, that I should be patient with her.

I can do that. I’ve been doing it this whole time. And now that I know she’s interested in pursuing this, that’s all I care about. Everything will work out.

My eyes grow heavy, nearly joining her in sleep when a faint ringing wakes me.

Oh, shit. My nighttime insulin reminder.

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