“James I knew about, but you—”
“I’m not what you expected?” he asked, caressing my hair as his eyes followed every movement of my mouth.
“You’re unpredictable, Will.”
And, yeah, part of me felt turned on by that, but not my intuition. That kept sending me weird messages in the form of clenching in the pit of my stomach.
“June, do you remember when I asked you to take things slow? For us not to get tangled in anything too complicated?”
“Yes,” I murmured.
“I didn’t say that because I don’t want to be with you. Everyone knows it’s exhausting to keep up with me.”
Clearly Will didn’t want me to pity him. He really seemed to believe what he was saying.
“What do you mean, Will?”
“It is for James, for my parents . . .”
I pulled the bottom of my T-shirt down then sat up to tackle the matter more seriously.
“That’s not true. Your friends love you, and I’m sure that your parents do too.”
He shook his head.
“They already pushed back the date they were coming home twice.”
“They must have work obligations, it doesn’t mean they don’t want to be with you.”
“Maybe, but that doubt would cross anyone’s mind. And you, June, I can’t ask you to do something like that.”
William bowed his head and laced his fingers with mine.
“It wouldn’t be an effort to be together,” I said all in one breath without thinking about it. “But you’re right, rushing won’t get us anywhere. I agree that we should take things slow. I don’t want to put you under more pressure,” I concluded.
“You’re perfect, you know that, right?”
“No. That’s not true.”
“Yes you are, June. And you better know that I won’t fault you if you want to walk away from me in a few weeks.”
A bitter smile crawled onto my lips.
“Why should I?”
“Because I could go days without talking to you or disappear for no reason,” he admitted, avoiding my gaze.
Then maybe we should just be friends and quit making out.
It was the right thing to say and the right decision to make, but we both acted on impulse and started making out again instead.
My feelings for him still weren’t clear, but I enjoyed the time we spent together.
If we were committed to always being honest with each other, how could we hurt each other?
But I wasn’t being completely honest with him.
A little voice wormed its way into my head and told me to shut up and keep letting Will have access to my mouth, while he sought the best rhythm to adjust to mine. He sank a hand into the pillow next to my face as he repositioned himself on top of me. I avoided opening my legs. I moved them over to make room for him and let our chests fit perfectly into each other. Will got up a little bit to let me breathe.
