“Lucy?”
Turns around, back into the living room, and there Lucy is, on the couch. Her face—faces—split into a laugh, and she stands up. He has her hand, he is leading her to the balcony, where he opens the glass door and pulls her outside.
“Look up there,” he says, and he feels like he’s yelling, but he sounds so quiet.
Only rooftops and darkness.
“Where’d all the stars go?” He chuckles. “That’s what they say, right? No stars.”
“Not in the city.” Lucy smirks. “The light covers them up.”
James frowns.Sad.The cold air grants him a moment of clarity. Lucy, in this moment, reallyisbeautiful. Soft brown hair flowing over her slender shoulders. A gold dress that reveals long, toned legs. Sapphire eyes. Full lips.
“Hey,” she says, her voice a husky wish.
He closes the gap between them and plants a warm, sloppy kiss. Her hair flows through his hand, and suddenly his lips are on her neck, and her skin is fire.
Somehow, they make it to his room, and Lucy’s on his bed. He unzips her gold dress and trails his fingers down the tan curve of her back. Twisted in the sheets, he touches the wetness between her thighs. He strokes her until she’s moaning. Then he’s inside her, her hair twisted in his hand like a rein, breathing hard, slamming in and in and in—
Until he can’t even remember Nelle’s face.
Until his release shoots across the bedsheets and he collapses. Lucy settles in at his side. For the first time in months, James thinks about nothing.
He wakes to a girl’s face in his mind, not the girl sleeping beside him. He curses himself for that. The curtains are pulled shut, but daylight leaks through a slim crack.
Lucy’s lashes flutter in her sleep, mouth parted. A wet spot of drool dots her pillow.
James shoves his legs into pajama pants and pads out of his room. From the kitchen, he smells breakfast, and his stomach drops. It is too damn early to face an interrogation from his cousin, but he can’t avoid it. Jessie flips bacon strips as a pot of coffee drips on the counter.
“Bless you.” He pours a cup. The bitterness pounds away the pain in his skull. He decides to bring it up first, so he can take control of the conversation. “Guess who’s in my bed?”
Jessie cuts him a look. “I noticed you two disappeared before midnight and never returned.”
“Yeah.” James scans the room. The aftermath of the party is depressing. Glitter on the floor, lit up by the daylight through the balcony window. Cups and streamers scattered. Sticky stains on the hardwood. “Need help cleaning up?”
Jessie waves a dismissive hand. “Tomorrow. I’m going to Lena’s tonight.”
James glances back toward his room. “I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t want to. I mean I did, obviously, it wasn’t nonconsensual. But—”
“You’re still not over Nelle,” Jessie says. “It’s okay. Sometimes you have to rebound.”
“No, it’s not like that,” James says. “Lucy’s beautiful. We have so much in common, and she’s really smart, and if I were to ever be with her, well ...” He sighs. “I didn’t want it to be like that. I wanted it to be when I’m ready, and she’s ready. When I’m not strung up on someone else.”
“Go talk to her.” Jessie hands him a full cup of coffee. “Bring her this.”
James finds Lucy sitting up in bed, staring at him beneath groggy eyelids.
“Hey.” He passes over the coffee. “How’d you sleep?”
“Oh, thank you.” She wraps her hands around the mug. “Fine. You?”
“Yeah, good.”
Lucy taps on the coffee cup, brushes back a strand of sleep-tangled hair. “Look, if last night wasn’t what you wanted, that’s okay. I remember what you told me on Christmas. If you want to stay friends, we can.”
He wasn’t expecting her to be so open to exactly what he needs.
“I never told you this, but I broke up with someone not that long ago, too,” Lucy says. “His name was Noah. There was nothing really wrong, but it wasn’t right. He wasn’t the one.”
