“I wasn’t judging,” Ravi says. “The leaning tower of cardboard boxes gives us a lot of privacy.”
She rolls her eyes, but she also laughs a little. “Okay, hand it over.”
“Why does it feel like we’re doing a weed deal?” Ravi asks.
Yael scoffs. “I’d never buy from you.”
“I don’t look like a trustworthy dealer? I’m offended. I think I’d be good at it,” Ravi says.
“I wouldn’t know. It’s been legal here for, like, a decade.”
He hands her the bag, and Yael peers inside it. “I washed them. The bag, too. Thank you for lending them to me.”
“Thank you for getting there first,” she says. “Otherwise, it would’ve been on my dress, and that was a lot thinner than your jeans.”
Ravi swallows thickly, remembering that dress and how she looked in it. What he could just barely make out under those diner lights. Yael seems to realize what she’s said; her teeth rake over her bottom lip, and she looks away. Ravi clears his throat. “What was the deal with the books tonight?”
“Hmm?” She makes eye contact again.
“You said you were thin on funds. Is there a way I could donate?”
Her expression sobers. “We’re not, actually. Principal Harrison technically manages the grant I got, and she denied the request because Chuck Tingle also writes erotica. She is concerned about ‘how it might look,’” Yael air quotes.
“I’ll buy a few more copies,” Ravi says.
Yael looks surprised but quickly masks it. “Thank you,” she says.
Ravi nods, opening his mouth to say goodbye before realizing there’s something else he wanted to ask. He rubs at the back of his head, hesitating. “Do you, em, know where Leo was tonight?”
“Oh.” Yael’s face falls. “Super grounded. No extracurriculars until next week, no social stuff for another two after that.”
“Ouch,” Ravi says, frowning. “You seem sad about it.”
Yael raises a brow. “I thought I was ruthless?”
Ravi narrows his eyes at her. “Do you memorize everything I say just so you can throw it back at me?”
She blinks. “Youdo that.”
“Oh?”
“The first time we met, you quoted ‘decipher subtext’ back to me.” Ravi laughs, and in response, Yael holds up her hand, bisecting the few inches of space between them, so she can start ticking off fingers. “You quoted what I said about you the second time we met—”
“You called me an asshole. That doesn’t take a lot of thought,” he says.
She huffs, continuing, “Just this Friday, you said ‘I thought I was barely taller than you’ when I so kindly offered you my Emergency Car Pants.”
Ravi closes his fist around her wrist and gently lowers her hand. She sucks in a breath the moment they touch. He knows, because he’s staring at her lips. “And you said, ‘I thought you were tall enough to make the difference.’”
They both breathe heavily, not saying anything, while the air turns liquid around them.
Yael makes a quiet, frustrated groan, and then his mouth is on hers.
She opens to him instantly, their lips locking and tongues sliding not a moment later. He releases her wrist slowly, bringing his hand instead to her jaw so he can ease her head back. Get more of her.
That sound escapes her again, and all of her presses into him—her mouth, her breasts, her hips. Her arms are draped around his neck, and he’s hardening against her and there’s no way she doesn’t feel it. He skims his hand over her hip, up the bare skin of her stomach, bunching her sweater. She kisses like she’s trying to devour him, and he’d happily be consumed.
Ravi pauses for air, and when he leans back in, Yael turns her face to the side, leaning away from his kiss.
