Page 26 of Here's to Now

“This is weird,” she repeats my words from earlier.

“I told you,” I say, smiling.

I can feel her smile too, her mouth gently brushing across my chest.

“I’m sorry about last night,” she says into the quiet.

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“I cried.”

“You did.”

“You didn’t run.”

“I did not.”

She huffs. “Why didn’t you run?”

I contemplate lying to her, making up another reason for why I’m so acquainted with girl tears, but I don’t, because I don’t have to be the liar any longer. I can be better than that. “I used to make girls cry all the time. That kind of stuff doesn’t faze me.”

I don’t have to look at her to know her brows are drawn together, to know she’s wondering what the fuck I meant by that. I also don’t owe her an elaboration, and she doesn’t ask, so I don’t offer.

“I’m also preemptively apologizing for my inevitable craziness. It runs in my family.”

I don’t laugh, because that didn’t feel like a joke. She plays the no-elaboration card too. I don’t ask, and she doesn’t offer.

“You’re an interesting guy, Gaige,” she says when I don’t make a sound.

“You just met me; you can’t judge whether or not I’m interesting yet.”

“Fair enough.”

“I like that you do that,” I tell her honestly.

“Do what?”

“You admit things. When people call you on bullshit or go against what you’ve done or said, you admit to being wrong or not so right. It’s bold. I like it.”

“It could be a flaw,” she argues.

“Not in my book, Nikki. Not in mine.”

She smiles again. Good. I’d rather have her smiles than her frowns.

“Are you going to sneak out in the morning again?”

A laugh rumbles through me. “No. I won’t sneak away this time.”

“But you’ll still leave me a cute note, right?”

“Of course.”

Haley settles down into me more, making herself comfortable within my warmth. The room is quiet. I can’t hear anything outside these four walls, and I like it. Before last night, it’d been almost ten years since I’d slept somewhere quiet, which is probably why I was able to get actual sleep.

I can tell she’s nearly asleep as her breaths begin to even out. There’s something weighing on me though, and I need an answer.

“Haley?”

---