Fifteen minutes. I shoved the rest of my groceries into the fridge, pushed ramen packets and jars of pasta sauce into the pantry cupboard and ran into the bathroom to check my appearance in the mirror above the sink. Yesterday, Rome said I looked like shit, and I hadn’t improved much since. I wore a sweatshirt; my hair was messy and my skin looked pasty. ShouldI brush my teeth again? But why? It’s not like I expected kissing —
The intercom rang, and I froze. It’d been only five minutes since he called.
I pressed the button to let him up. I had enough time to comb my hair with my fingers and apply some deodorant when there was a knock on my door. I opened it, and Leo stood there, his hair wind-touselled and his cheeks pink.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” Leo said, holding out a bundle of fabric. It took me a moment to realise they were the clothes he’d borrowed to use as pyjamas last time. “I washed them,” he said.
I took them and stepped back. “Come in.”
Once Leo was in my apartment, the door closed behind him. I busied myself by putting the clothes in my closet and then turning on the kettle. “Do you want something to drink? I still don’t have any coffee, sorry.”
“That’s okay. I’m happy with tea.”
Was he really? The last time I offered, he left without a goodbye.
After filling up the kettle, I turned around to see Leo hovering by the couch, and I shoved my backpack, a spare sock, and a pen out of the way so he could sit down.
“How’d you get here so fast?” I asked as I fished out two clean mugs.
“I was in the area,” he said.
I raised a brow at him.
“Okay, that makes me sound like a total stalker. But I was going for a walk, thinking about things, and I knew I should talk to you and…yeah.”
The kettle boiled, and I made us two cups of tea. I gave Leo the oolong tea, which I thought tasted like grass and wanted to use quickly. For myself, I brewed strawberry and cranberry tea— the nicer tea, in my opinion. If Mum saw me right now, she’d admonish me, but I had an excuse to be petty.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d hear from you again,” I said as I passed him his tea.
He took a sip, probably to delay replying, and promptly burned his tongue. “Ow!”
“It’s hot,” I said unhelpfully. “Do you want an ice cube?”
He nodded, and I grabbed my ice tray from the freezer. He popped out a cube and sucked on it, and I tried not to notice the way it melted in his mouth, water dripping down his lips and making them glisten.
I returned the tray to the freezer, sat back down, and then blew on my tea, creating small ripples in the pink-red liquid.
“I saw you at uni today,” he said abruptly. The ice cube had disappeared, and his lips were raspberry red.
“Where?”
“Professors Lane.”
I couldn’t be surprised. Exactly a week ago, Leo had been there during my first date with Atticus.
“Why didn’t you say hi?” I asked.
“You were with Atticus. I didn’t want to interrupt your date again.” He paused. “You were holding hands.”
“We were squeezing hands,” I said.
“There’s a difference?”
“We’ve decided to be friends.”
That hung in the air.
