Page 129 of Perfectly Accidental

She snorted. “I’d expect nothing less.”

“Then, of course I will.”

“Thanks.”

She was quiet for so long, I thought she was finally asleep, but she spoke again.

“Lombardi?”

“Barlow?”

“Thanks for being you.”

“Likewise. Now, go to sleep.”

She chuckled sleepily. “Okay, Mister Bossy.”

“Night, Piper.”

She practically nestled into me as she got comfortable, and it felt particularly apt. Not just physically. She’d nestled into the very depths of my soul and there was no removing her. Not that I wanted to remove her.

“Night, Roman,” she whispered, and her breathing evened out not long after.

I sat there with her for too long. My head back against the headboard as I breathed deep and evenly myself. I knew I dozed off for a bit and, when I came to, I knew I had to leave or Matt was going to find me there in the morning.

I was about to slide out from under Piper’s head when I saw her phone lying next to her on the bed.

A touch of mischief came over me. I picked up her phone and found her alarm. I set it for an appropriate time of the morning and renamed it to something incredibly witty and amusing.

My last act was to take a picture of us. With my phone. For posterity. I looked at it fondly before shoving my phone in my pocket.

As I snuck across the ground between our houses, I wrote her a text for when she woke up.

The first rays of sun were peeking over the trees, and I knew I’d been in her bed for too long, and yet not long enough.

Mum was shuffling back from the bathroom when we passed on my way to my room. She smiled at me and murmured, “Had a good night?”

I nodded. “Fell asleep at Piper’s. Do not tell her mum.”

Mum’s sleepy smile suggested she probably wouldn’t even remember when she got up for the day. “Of course not, love.” She patted my shoulder, leant up to kiss my cheek and wandered back to her room.

I shook my head with a smile and tumbled into my own bed. It was cold. I didn’t like it. Piper’s bed had always been warm. But then everything about her was warm.

I was cold, she was warm.

I was dark, she was light.

Nothing about us should have worked, but it did. Almost too well.

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