“Do you care what my friends think of you?”
Enoch shrugged, but it was clear on his face that it bothered him. “They’re important to you, so I want them to like me. Maybe…I don’t know, maybe we can all hang out together, and they can see I’m not a weirdo they need to be worried about.”
“Sure. If that’s what you want, I can mention the idea to them.”
Enoch nodded and I bit into my lip, my eyes dancing around the room as the silence filled the gap in our conversation.
“And they don’t know anything about your past, right?”
I shook my head.
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s a valid question. Um, they think I’m from Oklahoma. The backstory to them is that my family was abusive, and I moved away to escape them. They know to keep me off social media because I told them I didn’t want my family to know where I live. It doesn’t come up really at all in conversation anymore after I told them that. Keeps most people from askingdetailed questions and gives a good explanation for why I’m reserved and don’t want to talk about my past.”
“And I guess it’s not too far from the truth either,” he muttered.
“Yeah…right.”
“Was it difficult to change your name? I feel like I would accidentally say my birth name on instinct.”
I tilted my head as I gave it some thought.
“I think the fear of messing up had me too alert to ever make the mistake. But it did take some time to remember that was my name when someone would call my attention.”
“Do you, like, in your own head call yourself Emory, or do you still refer to yourself as Shiloh?”
“Hm.” I paused. “I honestly never really thought about it, but, yeah, in my head I still call myself Shiloh.”
“I do, too. No lie, it’s beenreally hardto remember to call you Emory. I don’t know if that will ever change. I, um, kinda have your name tattooed on my skin.”
My jaw dropped. Enoch chuckled. “Hey, you’re covered in tattoos. It’s not crazy to believe that I have a few of my own.”
“Yeah, but, my name? Really?” My nose scrunched as I swept my gaze over his clothed body. His arms showed no hints of a tattoo. “Where?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not in an obscene location or anything. And I love your name. It’s beautiful. And I’m pretty fond of the person it’s attached to, so of course I wanted to have it etched permanently in my skin.”
I laughed with more than a little bit of incredulity. After a moment of us just staring at each other, Enoch spoke.
“I, um, I wanted to ask you something.”
I turned back to face him. His brown eyes dance across my face, watching my reaction. I nodded for him to continue, my stomach already tensing in anticipation.
“You’re not dating anyone else, right?”
I nearly laughed with relief.An easy answer for once.
“No,” I said with a smile. “I’m not dating anyone.”
Enoch blew out a breath, like he had actually been nervous for my response. “Okay.”
I licked my lips, head tilting to the side as I watched him rub his palms down his jeans.Dating. Enoch and me. Enoch andmedating. Maybe this was all an elaborate daydream.
“Is that what we’re doing? Dating?”
Enoch blinked, staring at me for a moment. “Yeah. I mean, aren’t we?”
I thought about it for a moment. Thought back to our heated kiss in the driveway. Thought back to spending the night last weekend. Thought back to how much we’ve been texting all hours of the day since he left my place on Saturday.
