“Thanks, Em.”
The call ended, and an address came through a few seconds later.
The drive over was pretty short, and Emmy opened the apartment door before I could knock.
“Shh,” she whispered. “Zoe and Maya are?—”
I dragged her into my arms, hugging her fiercely to my chest. She reeked of two other women, but I didn’t care.
She made a surprised noise, but hugged me back. “What’s that for?”
“I was worried about you.” My voice came out gruffer than I intended.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t think you’d come back for a few days.”
“Why would you think that?”
“You seemed frustrated during our last conversation.”
“I’m just trying to figure out how to do this.”
“This, meaning, us?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how to balance my possessiveness, anxiety, and fucked up past,” I admitted. “When you throw in how much I like being around you, everything gets messy.”
“Aww, you like being around me?”
“Don’t tease me, woman.” I nuzzled her neck with my nose, making her laugh softly as she slid her hand over the back of my neck.
“You need someone to tease you.”
“Maybe I do.”
She let out a slow, happy breath against my chest. “I don’t know how to balance this either. I don’t really ever take things slow, and I’m not good at trying not to care. I always care too much. I started catching feelings, like, day one. Which means I should probably put some space between us, for your sake. I just don’t want to.”
“I don’t want you to either,” I admitted. “I might be feeling things too.”
“Well, what are we supposed to do about that?”
“Hell if I know.” I breathed in her scent. The way it relaxed every fiber of my being was a mind-fuck. Jo’s smell had definitely never done that, so maybe it wasn’t a mating thing. Maybe it was just… Emmy. “What did you decide about the contract?”
“I signed it. It’s for the summer session, so it’s only eight weeks. A little more than half of a normal semester. I figured we can see how things go over the next month and a half before I have to decide what to do about the fall semester.”
That was probably for the best, even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.
I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted, other than to have her with me.
“It would be good to keep going the way we have been,” I said.
The amount of driving was shitty, but everything else about it was nice.
Emmy nodded.
The apartment door opened behind her, and a scowling, dark-haired woman appeared in the doorway.
My grip on Emmy tightened, but she just looked over her shoulder with a small smile. “Hey, Maya.”
“You good?” she asked Emmy.
