“I had fun with you tonight, Charlie.” It was the understatement of my life. I’d had the best night with him. The best first date with him. It wasn’t that he was a totally new person than the guy I’d had such a big crush on five years ago. It was that he was more of that person. More settled into who he was and what he believed and the small feelings I’d had for the man he was back then had burst into bright, overwhelming feelings for the man he was today.
“I had fun with you too, Ada.” He stepped closer. “I think we should do it more often, actually. Maybe make a regular habit of it.”
I leaned back against the brick of the building, the uneven surface scratching at the exposed skin on my back. I needed some support, though. The butterflies in my belly threatened to take flight—and take me with them. I needed something to hold on to. Something to keep me grounded. “Charlie English, are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”
Half his mouth kicked up into a sweet smile. “Yeah, let’s label it. Good idea. It will be harder for you to wiggle out of it.”
“If I said yes to being your girlfriend, I wouldn’t want to wiggle out of it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not so sure. You’re already trying to wiggle out of it, and you haven’t even said yes yet.”
My cheeks flushed at his accusation. “That’s, uh, not true. I just want clear boundaries, you know? What does being a girlfriend even mean these days? Are there girlfriend expectations I should know about? Duties to perform? Is this because you want someone to do your laundry? Because you should know, I hardly ever do mine, so I’m probably not—”
He shushed me with his lips, kissing my questions away. And with them, all my sanity and reason too.
I responded without a single objection. My arms wrapped around his neck, and I kissed him back in a way that continued to shove away whatever I was talking about before. Far, far away.
His hands found the skin where the dress was cut out, and he dipped his fingers beneath the ties so he could be fully flush, skin to skin. “I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he breathed against my lips. “You’re too fucking sexy, Ada.”
I kissed him harder, bruising my lips against his. My fingers curled into his crisp shirt, wrinkling it, disheveling it. Charlie wasn’t the kind of guy who was all clean lines and smooth edges. I liked him unkempt. Messy. Rough and rugged, like uncharted terrain. Or the Wild West.
“Come up,” I invited, tugging him closer.
He smiled against my mouth. His fingers inched higher, pulling the ties of my dress loose. “I want to build something with you, Ade. Commitment. We’re not messing around this time. We’re going to know where we stand.”
I pulled back, utterly surprised. “You need to know where we stand?”
He nipped my bottom lip with his teeth and pressed me impossibly closer to his body. “Yeah. I do. And you do too. We don’t have to take the next step. If you want time. If you want to date for a while. Whatever you want, you can have it. But, Ada, if I go upstairs with you, this is a relationship. Officially. It’s you and me, and we’re working toward a future.”
Unfortunately, I forgot how to breathe. “Charlie, you want to think about a future?Now?”
He smiled, undeterred by my obvious freak-out. “Ada, I’vebeenthinking about it. For longer than I’m willing to admit right now. So what I want you to do is catch up.” He dropped his head, kissing the corner of my mouth. Then he trailed kisses along my jaw to my ear. He nibbled my lobe and dragged his tongue over the shell. I shivered against him, my fingers tightening their hold.
Keep him, my brain whispered.
Say yes, my body begged.
You promised yourself,my heart warned.
“There are other girls out there,” I reminded him. “Girls who make better girlfriends.”
“I already told you. I don’t want easy. I want happy.” He pulled back to meet my gaze. His eyes were glittering emeralds. “Ada, I want you.”
Then he kissed me again. But this time, it wasn’t desperate. It was slow and gentle and too deep. It was too much. He wasn’t kissing my mouth; he was worshiping it. God, he was savoring it.
I felt the difference. I felt the way it wasn’t desperate and needy like all the times before. It was... intentional. He wanted me to say yes to him. To his crazy demands. To a future I had never once considered.
But maybe, if I was really honest with myself, I’d wanted it too. Perhaps in the distant recesses of my mind, the locked boxes and secret places I preferred to avoid, maybe there I’d hoped... I’d daydreamed... I’d longed for something like this too.
We should definitely keep him,I told my brain.
Forever, I told my body.
We can trust him, I whispered to my heart. But oh, how I meant it.
“Okay,” I whispered, hardly believing myself. “Okay, Charlie. Yes.”
He smirked, but his eyes still searched my face. “All of it, Ada? The relationship. The sleepovers. The future?”
