“I need to see this dance of yours.”
“Saturday night. I’m so happy right now.”
Ru laughed. “’Cause I said I’d be your boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know how I’ve made it this long without knowing you.”
“Ru—”
“Seriously. Sometimes I’m just so lonely and everything is so overwhelming. Now I have something to look forward to. Your texts are like a lifeline.”
“I’ll send more, then.”
“But they’re not as good as being with you in person. We need to go out again.”
“We could do pizza at Dimitri’s again. Dimitri seemed really nice.”
Ru let out a sweet sigh. “We can go there every night if you want. I want to learn everything about you, Adam Corbin.”
And just like that, Adam wished he was there, could almost imagine Ru leaning in to kiss him again. “It’s only Wednesday. And I have a French midterm Friday.”
“Meilleurs voeux, mon ange,” Ru said with a perfect accent.
“I didn’t know you spoke French.”
“Been to France a time or two.”
“You know you are so out of my league we aren’t even on the same planet, right?”
“Why would you say that?”
Because he obviously had money coming out of his ears. He spoke French like he was born there and looked like he could be the baby of some of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful Celebrity winners. “You’re perfect and beautiful.”
“Not perfect. The other stuff is subjective. You, however, are amazing. I wish it were Saturday. I’m sorry about your track team.”
“It’s okay. I don’t need other people with me to run. It’s sort of a solitary sport. But it was nice to have company for a while.”
“Yeah, I thought that way about myself for a while. But I don’t want to be a solitary sport, Adam. I want to be with you.”
Adam couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “So when you’re here where do you stay? Like with a parent?”
“My folks aren’t really involved in my life. I think my mom is on a cruise somewhere in Europe with boyfriend number who-knows, and I haven’t seen my dad since I was eleven. There’s this really nice condo in downtown that I’m borrowing from a friend.”
“And you stay there all by yourself?” Adam didn’t care much for downtown, though he had been told it had a lot of great clubs and restaurants. It was almost an hour drive to get there, and the parking was more than a week’s allowance. Unless he was going to a game, it was unlikely he would venture that far from home. “So you have to cook for yourself? My mom and dad wanted me to cook once a week, but after three consecutive weeks of trying and serving up burned, barely recognizable food, they put an end to that. Which was good. I like the idea of cooking, but the directions are always so long, and I’d rather be running.”
Ru laughed. “I can cook. Sometimes I hire a cook if I know I’m going to be busy. But I do okay. I’ll cook for you sometime.”
“Okay. I’d like that. But it makes me sad that you go to this condo and are all alone.”
“Itislonely sometimes.”
“I can imagine.”
Ru sighed deeply. “It’s getting really late. I better go. I’ll try to call you again. But if things get too crazy, don’t think it’s ’cause I’m ignoring you. I’m not. I promise.”
“Okay. I’ll miss you.”
“And you have no idea how happy that makes me.” They ended the call with that.
