Page 40 of Imperfection is Beauty

She glanced up at me, and then presumed looking for something, “Looking for blood splatter.”

I snorted, “Shortcake, you were very careful earlier. It’s totally okay.”

That was when she looked at me skeptically, her nose still swollen, dried blood under each nostril, her eyes black and blue, her hair in a messy knot atop her head, and with all that, I’ve never seen a prettier sight, then softly, she asked, “Are you sure?”

I coughed to clear my throat of all the emotions I was feeling, and then I nodded, “Yeah, do you know how many times I’ve opened my trunk and wanted to hurl after I’ve gotten home from practice? Sweat leaves its mark.”

She was snorting while chuckling. Honestly, I didn’t think that was possible.

With that, she settled in her seat, and the moment a song came through the speakers at a stop light, she shot me a blinding smile and asked, “Can I turn this up?”

I nodded.

And then she did just that and sang to the song.

Luckily, she had some killer vocals even though she was a little hoarse, so I didn’t mind. Not at fucking all.

And then… All too soon we were at her apartment building, where I asked her, “Please tell me you don’t live on the first floor?”

She shook her head, “Nope. They tried to give me one on the first floor, then my dad and his friends threw a fucking fit over it. See, I toured a fourth-floor apartment. That was the one I wanted. When I came here to get the keys, they tried to shove me into one on the first floor. Thankfully, they saw the error of their ways and gave me the apartment I toured.”

“Assholes.” I muttered as I climbed out of the SUV.

I missed her throwing her head back and laughing, but I didn’t miss her rubbing the back of her head when she slammed it into the headrest.

I was chuckling while opening her door.

“Hush it.” She whispered.

Still chuckling, I nodded, “Yes ma’am.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, and pointed at my face, “You’re still chuckling.”

“I’m trying to stop.” I told her, then I closed my eyes, counted to three in my head, opened my eyes again, and then offered her my hand to help her out of the SUV.

She didn’t move until she saw that I wasn’t chuckling anymore.

Once I had the SUV locked up, I had my arm around her waist, her body tight to mine as we walked inside her apartment building.

The moment we reached her door she pulled her keys from her pocketbook, unlocked it, and then started to turn.

I knew she was planning on telling me to leave and to have a good night.

Thankfully, I’d thought about this all the way here, therefore, I opened my mouth before she could and said, “Go, Shortcake, take a shower, get clean. I’ll start your clothes for you.”

She sighed, “Marcus, you so didn’t sign up for any of this. Go ahead and head home.”

I shook my head, “Shortcake, I’m right where I want to be, okay? Go get a shower.”

She looked at me, then nodded, turned, and said, “Make yourself at home.”

I nodded even though she didn’t see me, “Put your clothes outside your bathroom door, I’ll grab them and then throw them in the washer, wait, you do have one, right?”

Cause if not, that foiled my whole plan.

She giggled, then looked at me over her shoulder, “Right, if I didn’t that would defeat the purpose of you being here.” then she giggled again for some reason, and yeah, I still found that adorable, “It’s a stackable. It’s through the kitchen.”

And with that, she headed away from me, but I could have sworn I heard her let out a heavy breath and then she muttered, “I’m right where I want to be too.”

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