As he relaxed, he started recalling an article about the rise in pre-mixed spritzers, but all I could focus on was how distracting his lips were.
Those fingers.
Those eyes.
I licked my lips.
“Tiffany.”Hmm.The way he said my name ...“Are you listening?”That damn lopsided smile.I wanted to lean over and taste it.
“Mmm.”
He chuckled, and my stomach flipped.
When the food was ready, I jumped down and picked up the maple syrup, gathered our coffees, and joined him on the couch, where we ate off our laps, side by side.
We groaned in unison at our first bite.I must have made this meal a hundred times, but it had never tasted this good before.Nudging his knee with my own, I asked, “If this is your favorite, how have you never learned how to cook it?”
“I’ve tried.I couldn’t get it to taste right.”
“What about this?”
“Incredible.Thank you.”
“Don’t know why you’re thanking me.You did all the work.I just sat around looking pretty.”And when I was rewarded (as I had hoped) with that stunning, crooked smile, I couldn’t help but lean in to taste it.
An indiscriminate amount of time later (or perhaps five minutes, who knows?), there was a knock on the door, and Audrey’s voice called out a hello.
“Shit.”I’d forgotten what day it was.
“Everything ok?”Sam asked, and I laughed into his shoulder, feeling irrationally caught as if this was my parents discovering me with someone in my room past curfew.
“Yes.It’s Audrey.We always hang out on Saturdays.Give me a second.”I couldn’t be more thankful that our clothes from last night were close by as we hastily redressed so that we were (at the very least) decent, even though we both looked like we’d wrung through.It was ridiculous, and I loved it.
I rushed to open the door, the same silly grin on my face that had been plastered there all morning.It was likely going to get stuck this way.“Hey, Auds.”
My bright tone was as unusual to my ears as it clearly was to hers, and her eyebrows raised, almost becoming one with her hairline.“Wow, did you sleep at all yesterday?Why are you dressed in your work clothes?Did you only just get home?”she asked, her eyes darting past me into the apartment, and I caught the exact moment she saw Sam’s face, her pupils dilating so wide her eyes looked black.“Oh—um,” she stammered, and goddammit, I felt myself flushing.
Fuck.
This was ridiculous.I was a fucking adult, for God’s sake.I opened the door wider, stepping back so she could enter.“Alright, you’re lucky I’ve already had breakfast and coffee this morning and that we even bothered to put clothes on before I opened this door.Also,” and here was where I was a bit remorseful, “I may have forgotten what day it was.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured, Tiff,” Audrey said, all too pleased.
She was silent as she stepped inside, biting the inside of her cheek the way she always did when she was holding back a laugh.Following her line of sight, I saw Sam’s rigid posture, his tight smile.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, these two.I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
“Auds, you remember Sam.Sam, Audrey.”I waved nonchalantly in the air between them before retrieving a fresh cup of coffee for myself.
Audrey coughed out an embarrassed laugh.“Hi, Sam.It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too, Audrey.How is your fiancé?”
“He’s good.How are the renovations going?”
“We hit a road bump recently, but I’m confident we’ll make the deadline.”
“Oh, that’s great news.I’m looking forward to it.”
I resisted the urge to shake my head at them.How Sam managed to seem like the most pulled together person in the room while wearing rumpled clothes and a full head of bedhead, I didn’t know.Another of his skills.
