“That was yesterday,” I said, gulping so hard it might’ve been the sound of a small bomb going off. “I don’t need any special treatment today.”
He smirked, flashing his pearly white smile like it was shining just for me. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“Go on,” Keaton said. “Take him on the tour.”
As I started to unwrap my apron, I remembered the crop top I’d decided to put on today—and maybe, in that moment of confidence, I hadn’t been thinking of what would happen if he saw it. “Yeah, yeah, if you want to justgo on ahead up those stairs, and I’ll—I’ll be right behind you.”
Rick walked down the hallway where the stairs went up to the apartment, and I whipped the apron off in record time and threw it at Keaton’s face. I couldn’t distract Toby while he was in his flow state.
“It’s what you would’ve wanted,” he whispered, whipping me with the strings of the apron. “And I’m not going to apologize, in case you were thinking about getting one.”
I chased after Rick. There wasn’t enough time to even get into this now with him. And then another realization hit. My eye twitched and my heart dropped deep into the pit of my stomach. He was about to seeeverything—our playroom, my bedroom. Oh my god, my pink glittery toothpaste which probably wasn’t good for my teeth. He was going to see it all!
“Wait!” I shouted as he reached the top of the stairs.
“Everything okay?” He glanced at me with his head turned, just a hand away from opening the door into the apartment. He saw the crop top and smiled. “It’s important that I look at the alarms, maybe they’re set too sensitive. I should’ve done this after the...thirdtime.” He tried covering it up with clearing his throat, and I was falling—not on the stairs, but for him.
Jeez, was this flirting? Answer me! Was he flirting? Was I flirting back? I was frozen for a moment as a cool chill hadmy entire body covered in goose bumps.
“It’ll take me five minutes, I promise.” As if that was the issue here.
It was bad luck to cross on the stairs, so I let him open the door, and we stood in the hallway together. It was colorful, with onesies on hooks and our colorful matching Crocs with their Jibbitz on them.
Rick turned to me and smiled. “Can I redeem it?” he asked.
I stumbled over my words to the point I wanted the floorboards to give way. “Uh—oh—um—well—yes.”
He dropped the bag down to his elbow and pulled me into his arms. My back gave a tiny pop and he chuckled, still holding me, my head in his warm chest, inhaling his sweet musk. I wanted to inhale more, so I did, and the sound of it... he heard, I heard, the entire block heard.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked.
4. RICK
I’d asked him. I’d put it out there. My intent. My want. It was adult of me, it was—something I didn’t know if I was ever going to do, but here we were, in front of each other after embracing—mostly because of his T-shirt. I felt somewhat compelled to follow it up.
“You—” His soft voice came, looking up at me. “You—”
“You can say no,” I said. “I was just—”
“Did they set you up to this?” he asked.
“Your friends?” I asked and immediately shook my head. “I’m sorry, I misread—”
“Kiss me,” he said, his hand on the back of my head like he was taking control.
Our lips locked and I tasted the sweetness on his tongue, his lips, his everything. As our faces came away, I saw the flustered look appear again. “Is that—” I asked, rubbing a thumbacross his cheek.
“It’s just a little blush,” he whispered, gulping hard.
“Let’s get you some water,” I said, looking at the little pink-red blush my thumb had caught—I felt immediate pain for removing it without express permission. “I’m sorry about removing your makeup.”
“You’re not straight,” he said.
I laughed, right in his face. It wasn’t supposed to come out that way, but it did. “I—ugh—I’m not, obviously. I just—I have a pretty complicatedthing.”
He walked off, leading me into the apartment from the hallway. There were bright colored walls, shelves filled with plush toys and books, and large beanbags occupied space by the windows. A large dreamcatcher hung in the corner of the room. It was all quick cursory glances as Caspian took me into the kitchen. I continued to look around, no touching, just looking at the paper plates in playful themes, the plastic plates with sections that had small notations for dinner, fruit, and drink, like from a school cafeteria except in pink with unicorns on them.
“They shouldn’t have told you to come over,” he said after gulping down a small bottle of water. “It feels like a practical joke at this point.” He grabbed a second drink, this time a juice box. “I just—” He sucked hard on the straw, practically inhaling as he squeezed the box. “I saw you were married.”
