Page 46 of Scoreless Nights

I smiled, loving that he was still calling me that, even though he said it as a joke. Peeking my eyes open, I saw that the sun was shining brightly into my room, and that meant I had been asleep longer than the predicted fifteen minutes.

Flipping back over to face Cruz, I smiled up at him. “What time is it?”

“Two.”

“What?” I yelled, sitting up and checking the clock.

“You’ve been asleep all day. Late night?” He held up my sketchbook that had moved from under my pillow as I slept.

Grabbing the book, I bent over the side of the bed to stuff it into my bag. There wasn’t anything too embarrassing, but my drawings were private. Someone looking at them without asking would feel like a violation of some sort.

“I just picked it up off the bed, Lil. I didn’t look.”

“I’m not worried if you looked,” I lied. “Sketching is just kinda private. Like having a diary.”

“It doesn’t look like the same one you used to draw in.”

“I go through a new book every few years,” I shrugged. “I’m sure the one you remember is tucked away in a box back at Mom and Ivan’s house.”

His smile was soft as he stared into space, reflecting on whatever memory I jogged for him. Then the look was gone just as quickly as it appeared.

“A car is picking us up in four hours. Just didn’t know how much time you needed, or if you wanted to eat or anything.”

Sliding past him, I got out of bed and stood. He stayed sitting on the edge and lifted his hands toward me before stopping himself and tucking them under his legs. Letting him know I saw him, I tilted my head, and in a very brazen act for me, bit my lip and smiled. I wouldn’t have minded if he grabbed my hips and held me in front of him.

Was it wrong? Probably.But was it really?

“I made food,” he mumbled, then looked toward the door. Before I could ask what he made or respond, he stood up and left my room.

I did a little twirl, hoping that my small attempt to flirt affected him the way he walked around affecting me. Even though nothing would ever come of flirting with him, it boosted my self-esteem knowing I could. One day, I would be a single woman in Miami, and learning how to flirt was going to be a necessity.

When I went out to eat whatever Cruz made, he was gone. There was a note on the bar that said he had gone out for a run, and beside it was a bowl of boxed mac n’ cheese. I took the wrapper off the bowl and dove in since it was still pretty warm.

I hadn’t seen a box of mac n’ cheese in the cabinets, and I didn’t take Cruz for being a big mac n’ cheese eater. But it was a favorite of mine growing up, and I wondered if he remembered the same way he remembered theLa Primada BaracoaBars. Was he being intentional?

“Of course he is,” I whispered to myself. “You’re doing him a favor today.”

Finishing up my lunch, I went straight into a hot shower and started getting ready for our night out. It wasn’t going to take me all day to get ready, but I was going to pretend it did to avoid having to leave my room. Cruz didn’t scare me, but the mac n’ cheese made me mushy, and it was better to keep my distance until it was time topretend.

When he came in from his run, he didn’t knock on my door, he sent me a text.

Gonna lay down for a bit then get ready. We need to walk downstairs right at six.

I sent him a thumbs up, and went back to a new sketch I was doing. It was a bowl of pasta, and around the edges were random pieces that had been flung out of the bowl. It didn’t mean much to me in the beginning, but as I looked at it more, I felt like my emotions were the pieces scattered all over the place. The more time I spent around Cruz, the harder it was to keep those emotions in my little bowl.

ChapterTwenty-Four

Cruz

Avoiding Lil until it was time to leave was my only option, because I was a weak little shit. I had almost grabbed her by the waist and pulled her to me. Almost made her straddle my lap and kiss the cute look she gave me off her face.

I was fucked.

Hoping to get more control of myself, I went for a long run, and then came home and beat off in the shower. I fell face first into my bed and slept for an hour, and by the time we had to leave for the Archer Athletics event, I felt a little better.

I dressed like the advisor told me to dress–slacks with a dress shirt, no jacket, no tie. The event was dressy, but not formal. Adjusting the watch on my wrist and tapping my shiny dress shoes on the tile proved how anxious I was as I waited for Lil to come out of her room. There were sounds of movement but I hadn’t messaged her, or knocked on the door since I had already told her what time we had to leave.

At 5:55, her door cracked open, and I looked up to see her walking casually towards the kitchen where I was leaning on the bar. My eyes went straight to her feet because her heels were clicking. Fuck, I was almost afraid to look higher because just looking at her feet was making my dick twitch.

---