Demi slides past me, and I don’t miss the way her arm brushes against mine as she does. Once she’s out the door, I quickly splash some water on my face and grab a few puzzles from the top of my bedroom closet.
A few more moments pass as I’m clearing off the coffee table in the living room and opening the blinds on the sliding glass door. The sunlight has all but faded as the day has turned cloudier than I expected, but it somehow feels fitting for a day off.
There’s a knock on the door, and I make quick strides to open it, taking both coffees out of her hands when I do.
“Thank you,” she says.
“Thank you. I’ve been dreaming of this coffee since the last time I had it.”
“Oh yeah?” She chuckles, pulling her cardigan off and placing it on the back of the barstool like she’s more than comfortable here and it sends a warm feeling to my bones.
“I took out a few options.” I gesture to the living room, where I have a few puzzles laid out on the couch.
“Oh, definitely this one,” she says, pointing at the box with cats on the front. “Definitely the cats in hoodies puzzle. I can’t believe you have this.” She laughs, picking up the box. “We have to do this one.”
“Yeah, that showed up in my mailbox the day after I brought Birdie home. Courtesy of Summer.” I scoff, half-smiling.
Demi smiles as she takes her coffee from my outstretched hand and sits on the floor by the coffee table. I follow her lead, sitting opposite her as Birdie pounces onto my lap. Her residence there is short-lived, though, once she spots a toy under the couch and she’s off.
“Kind of surprised you took me up on the offer to hang out,” I casually say as we’re both sorting pieces and working on the outer edges in silence.
“To be honest, me too.”
We both look up at the same time, eyes meeting.
“What’s an off day look like for you?” I ask.
She shrugs, gathering pieces that look the same in a corner of the table.
“I’ve been trying to get into cooking more. Especially any dishes my mom or abuela make. But otherwise, I’m content reading for twelve hours straight.”
“I’ll gladly be a taste-tester if you ever need someone. I like everything.”
“Everything?” She eyes me, brow raised with a questioning smirk.
“Yep.”
“Hmm,” she ponders, her lips turning down slightly as she nods.
“Here you go.” I hand her a piece of the section she’s putting together.
We’ve got the four corners figured out, it’s always where I start and she seemed to just follow my lead. But she’s making good progress on the orange cat in a green hoodie now.
“Are you close with your family?” I ask and she smiles with a nod.
“I am. I miss them a lot. My abuela is the most amazing woman. I get to talk with her in Spanish—something I don’t really do with many other people—since her English isn’t the best. And it just makes me feel so close to her.”
“So, what you’re saying is I need to learn Spanish,” I say, shifting my eyes toward her with a lazy smirk.
She’s looking at me like I’m not serious. And I love it.
“Well, sheismy favorite person. Brandon never bothered to learn much past ‘hola.’” She shrugs, and I let out a low sigh at just one more thing this guy fucked up.
But she glances over at me, offering a sweet smile before switching gears.
“How’d you get into puzzles?”
“My grandfather, actually. We’d do puzzles together all the time when I was a kid. It kind of took a backseat when football became so demanding and he went into one of those assisted living places. I’d go visit when I could during high school and we’d get a few small puzzles done in a couple hours. After he passed, I didn’t touch one for a while, but a few years ago I needed something stimulating to do. I was…” I pause, not knowing how much she really cares to know about my personal life, but the warm look in her eyes makes me feel comfortable enough to continue.
