He’s standing outside my apartment in a hoodie and jeans, hands stuffed in his pockets like he’s considering turning around and bolting. His jaw is tight. His shoulders are hunched. He keeps glancing down the hall like he’s afraid of being seen.
Well. That explains the “DL-friendly” part.
My first instinct is to laugh. My second is to not open the door. This could beverybad.
He has no idea it’s me. None. I could ghost him right now and save us both a world of awkwardness.
But I don’t.
I unlock the door and pull it open in one smooth motion, leaning against the frame like I’ve been expecting him—because Ihave.
Todd startles.
His eyes go wide, then narrow, his whole body going stiff as a fucking board. “Shit,” he breathes, glancing down the hall again.
I lift one brow. “Not exactly what you were expecting?”
He tries to recover—poorly. “Uh, yeah. Sorry. I was looking for—uh, a friend’s place. Must’ve gotten the address wrong.” He starts to back away, but I don’t move. I just keep looking at him.
He won’t meet my eyes.
“Friend’s place?” I echo, voice dry. “At exactly 10PM on a Friday night…looking like you’d rather crawl into the floor than be seen standing here?”
Todd stiffens, eyes flicking down the hall again.
“I gotta say,” I add, “your timing is impeccable. Right whenNoNamesNeededsaid he’d show up.”
His jaw ticks.
“Unless I’ve got another repressed jock on their way.”
Still nothing.
So I step in closer—just a breath away—and drop my voice. “You really didn’t know, did you?”
His throat bobs, the way it does when he’s nervous or trying not to say something he’ll regret. “This was a mistake,” he mutters, backing up a half step.
“Maybe.” I rest back against the doorframe. “But you’re still standing here.”
His eyes flash to mine, finally meeting mygaze—and it hits him. Really hits. The guy he’s been texting. The dirty fantasies. The late-night chats. All of it. Me.
“You’re…” he starts, then swallows it down.
I nod. “Yeah.I’mSlowBurn69.”
His ears go red.
I open the door a little wider. “So what’s it gonna be, Captain? You running scared or coming inside?”
NINE
TODD
I freezelike a damn deer in headlights.
Every instinct screams at me to turn around, laugh it off, say it was all a joke—wrong address, wrong guy, wrong everything.
But I don’t move.
