Page 91 of Fruit
I’m panting and slumped against him as I open my eyes. He’s brushing his hands against my back, and I can feel the slight tremor there.
He’s mine, I realise. He’s mine. I don’t have to let him go.
We stay there for a while. I close my eyes and feel safe in his arms, knowing this moment will end, but its contents will not.
I shift when I feel my knees start to cramp, and he tilts me against the bed. He gets rid of the condom before lying down beside me again. We wriggle under the blankets and press against each other.
We let the silence just be for a while. It’s comfortable in our presence.
“I want you to meet Thiago and Elena,” Sebastián says, his face only far enough away on the pillow that I don’t have to cross my eyes.
“Elena?”
“Thiago’s mom.”
“Oh. Yeah. I’d love to.” I smile at him. “And I want you to meet my friends. I mean, my family too, eventually, when I go visit. But, for now, friends.”
“Okay.”
“Iván and Isadoro are having a housewarming party next week, actually. They got this amazing little place by the woods. It’s still got a long way to go, but it’s fixed up enough to have us stand in it without fearing it’ll collapse,” I say, exaggerating slightly.
“Are you sure they’ll be okay with me going?”
“Yeah. They’re all dying to meet you.”
Sebastián makes a slightly worried face. “They’re probably not too happy with me after the whole…”
“Being an idiot thing?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude, they seriously can’t judge. Seriously. Iván and Isadoro literally grew up together and Ezra and Joaquin had secret crushes on each other since high school and slept togetherfor a yearbefore doing anything about it. Like. Come on. We were only stupid for a few months.”
Sebastián laughs. “All right. If you say so.”
“I do say so.” We smile at each other. Not because anything is particularly funny, but because we can’t seem to help ourselves. “What about you? What have you told Thiago and Elena about me?”
“I didn’t have to tell them much. They just knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I love you.”
The words still send a jolt through me. I grin at him.
“Thiago said I was moping,” he adds, and I laugh.
“Aww. Did you miss me?” I tease. He pulls me a little closer.
“Yeah. I missed you. I kept having these dreams. We’d be in my apartment, just…being. Hanging out. And I’d wake up and you weren’t here, and it would just hit me…”
I kiss him, trying to soothe the worries away.
“Well, you can sleep without fear now. I’ll be here when you wake up,” I tell him.
He lets out a slow breath, as if he’s finally putting down something he’s been carrying for a long time.
I kiss him again, a kiss that goes nowhere, that is just allowed to be itself. I sink into my body fully. I feel all our points of contact, the warm skin at my front, the bones of his legs tangled with mine. This close, I can feel him breathe, can run my hand down his back and press against his shifting muscle. His body, his eyes, his smile, the simple kindness and strength of him. It’s not going anywhere. It’s here, with me.
