Page 57 of The Arrangement
“I’m thinking I should get a season pass so I can use it as a walking trail. That hill we took from the elephants up to the kangaroos was a killer.”
“It gets easier after you’ve walked it a few times. Ready to go?”
I nodded, eager to get to his car and its heated seats.
It was a short drive to my house, but still enough time for my body to warm up after walking for so long in the cold. Christmas was still three weeks off, but several houses glowed with colorful lights and inflatable decorations.
“Checking on you wasn’t my only reason for inviting you out tonight,” Rome admitted, breaking the comfortable silence thathad filled the car. “There was something else that I wanted to talk to you about.”
My stomach sank, and the urge to hide became overwhelming. Why did that have to sound so ominous? “Is this the part where you tell me you’re not pansexual but straight and kissing me was some big joke?”
Rome’s head snapped around, and he stared at me, his brow furrowed and his mouth hanging open. “You have a very twisted mind. What the hell?”
“Sorry. You sound bleak.”
“I don’t mean to be bleak, just serious.”
“Oh.”
A car behind us honked, and we looked up at the same time to find that the light had turned green. Rome sped us along, winding through the neighborhood to my town house.
“I wanted to tell you I think…I think I have feelings for you. Not friendship feelings, but more.”
My heart went from frozen to flying in a flash. The knot in my stomach untwisted so fast I thought I was going to be sick. This was great. Maybe. Probably. Yes, it was great. It meant that our feelings were at least moving in the same direction.
“I mean, it’s not like I’m about to drop to one knee and propose to you,” Rome continued. “But if I’d met you at a bar or a coffee shop or something like that and you were gay, I would be asking you out on a date. We’d be doing things to get to know each other.”
“We already know each other.”
Rome frowned and glanced at me before returning his gaze to the road. “Do we? We knew each other inside and out when we were kids, but there’s twenty years of experiences we don’t know about. But I want to know. I want to know everything about you—good and bad. I want to ask about your ex and not feel like I’m invading your privacy. I want to ask about all thethings from your past—dating, college, family, favorite movies. The works.” He stopped at another red light and made a noise. “But I’m getting away from the reason I brought this up. I don’t know whether you’re interested in continuing the physical side of things with me. If it was me, I’d want to explore in a safe environment. However, it’s only right that I tell you it won’t be just casual sex for me. My heart is involved with you. And unless you say otherwise, there would be the understanding that I’m the only guy you’re fooling around with, unless you say that has changed. Actually, scratch that. I’d want to know if you were fucking a man or a woman.”
That was a lot to unpack, but none of it was bad. These were all things I wanted as well. Considering how often we were seeing each other and talking, I didn’t think he was seeing anyone else. Not that I’d given it much thought.
“So…you’re not currently dating anyone?”
“Nope.”
“You had a date at the museum symphony performance back in October, right?”
A smirk lifted the right corner of Rome’s mouth, and he drove into my rental complex. “Yeah. We went on one date. I think we figured out pretty quick that it wasn’t what either of us was looking for. Since then, there’s been no one else but you. How about you? Dating?”
I snorted. “Fuck, Rome. You know how awkward I am. I’ve never been good at dating. I wouldn’t be surprised if my wife married me out of pity.”
“That’s not true or funny,” Rome said sharply.
His protective tone and words warmed me on the inside better than the seat warmed my ass. “No, I’m not seeing anyone. I haven’t even tried since I moved to Cincinnati.”
Rome smoothly pulled his car into an open spot near my town house and shifted it into park. He turned in his seat, flashing me a tentative smile. “So, you’re okay with all that?”
A grin spread on my face as I leaned toward him. “I am.” Ignoring the butterflies in my stomach that were evolving into condors, I licked my lips. “I was thinking that you haven’t shown me your place yet.”
It was crazy. We were sitting outside of my town house. We could so easily go in and resume the fooling around that we’d started on Saturday. But fooling around at his home felt bigger. I would be “trapped” there. Escape would be a tiny bit more difficult. I couldn’t run at the first moment I became nervous.
And he was right. We didn’t know the adult versions of ourselves. I wanted to know everything about him I could.
Well, and maybe by being at Rome’s, I could step out of my life for a little while and exist in his, where being gay and sexy with a man was a normal, everyday thing.
Rome’s eyes widened, and his breath caught in the more adorable way. “You sure?”
