She desperately wanted him to hold her, toreallyhold her, to capture her mouth the way he had on Saturday, to taste him and feel him like she had then. It should have been so simple, so easy. Her lips and mouth ached for the want of him. All he had to do was lower his mask and kiss her, and she would have let him, a thousand times over.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Theo pulled away and tucked her hair behind her ear before twisting his hand and smoothing his thumb softly along her jawline. What little of his expression she could see bordered on despair, hurt lurking just around the edges of his single, extraordinary eye, and when he made to drop his hand, she covered it with one of her own and pressed it against her heart.
“Later?” she murmured, and she knew he understood the question in her eyes. “When we’re alone?”
He nodded, some of his concern smoothing away. “Yes, sweetheart. I promise.” She let her hand fall and he stepped back. “Have a good day at school?”
Audrey snorted and turned down the stairs, waving over her shoulder as she disappeared underground. “You too, Theo!” she called back up at him. “Social school! You get an A plus on your skills today!”
He held up a hand and waved back at her from the top of the stairs. Every time she looked back over her shoulder, she saw himstill standing up there, silhouetted against the sunshine—until she turned toward the turnstiles and lost sight of him.
The ache she’dfelt on the subway yesterday only grew when she didn’t see Theo on Wednesday. It was quickly becoming a problem, how much she missed him when he wasn’t around.
But perhaps even more than that, it was an enormous distraction. Concentrating on her work was getting more and more difficult when all her thoughts kept turning toward him—and the void she felt without him.
She didn’t feel like a part of herself was missing, exactly, only that…well, his warmth was gone. She liked having him near her. He was intelligent, and interesting, and every day she saw him was an improvement on the day before.
He wasnice.
Being with him was nice.
And she wanted more of that.
It just wasn’t the same without him around now.
Audrey sat at her workbench in her capstone class lab, staring down at the circuit she was constructing to test her battery project with a grimace. She’d been having trouble with the voltage, and something about the design was off. But before she could pick up her pen to try to sketch out some ideas of how to solve it, her phone buzzed.
Theo| You’re in the lab today, right? Any lightbulb moments?
Terrible dad joke. She snorted.
Audrey| Not so much—it’s been more like a blackout.
Audrey| The power load is giving me issues.
A dot bubble, and then an immediate message. Thank god he hadn’t continued to maintain radio silence after their Sunday conversation, and he’d begun texting her more regularly throughout the day since then. It didn’t do enough to fill the void, but it was something, at least. And she could always tell when he was thinking about her now.
It was frequent.
Maybe as much as she thought about him.
Theo| Oh yeah? I know some things about circuitry and wiring.
Theo| Want any help?
She raised an eyebrow. He knew about circuits? Well, hehadgrown up in a mechanic’s shop. Maybe his dad taught him something. Cars did include the sort of battery she was working on.
Audrey| I should probably struggle through this one myself, but I’ll keep you in my back pocket.
Another quick message slid through from him.
Theo| Oh, so that’s where you’ll keep me?
Theo| What a spectacular location.
Theo| I could happily live there.
